China makes "kung pao chicken" official for Olympics

Mon Jun 23, 2008 3:28pm BST

BEIJING (Reuters) - It's official. Hungry foreign hordes craving a fix of diced chicken fried with chili and peanuts during the Beijing Olympics will be able to shout "kung pao chicken!" and have some hope of getting just that.

As it readies for an influx of visitors for the August Games, the Chinese capital has offered restaurants an official English translation of local dishes whose exotic names and alarming translations can leave foreign visitors frustrated and famished.

If officials have their way, local newspapers reported on Wednesday, English-speaking visitors will be able to order "beef and ox tripe in chili sauce," an appetizer, rather than "husband and wife's lung slice."

Other favorites have also received a linguistic makeover.

"Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman," as the Beijing Youth Daily rendered the spicy Sichuanese dish, is now "Mapo tofu." And "chicken without sexual life" becomes mere "steamed pullet."

According to one widely repeated story, the Chinese name of "kung pao chicken" comes from the name of an imperial official who was fed the dish during an inspection tour.

With the Beijing Olympics 51 days away, a notice on the city tourism bureau website told restaurants to come and pick up a book with the suggested translations.

In China, where meetings are almost as popular as banquets, agreeing on the English-language menu has taken many rounds of discussions over previous drafts since last year.

Just as predictably in this country where nationalism and the Internet make a potent brew, controversy has already broken out over the blander new translations.

""I don't like this new naming method, it's abandoning Chinese tradition," one Internet comment declared. "There are many stories in the names of these dishes."

北京奧運將至 英文菜單「正名」

2008/06/23 【記者馬鈺龍／綜合報導】

為了迎接北京奧運全球各地的運動迷能夠品嚐中國美食，很多中國菜的英譯名稱也要先搞「統一」，「麻婆豆腐」、「夫妻肺片」、「童子雞」等都有了正確的英文名稱。

「統一」前的「麻婆豆腐」被譯為「Bean curd made by a pock-marked womam」，中文叫做「由滿臉雀斑的女人製造的豆腐」，老外一看這菜名，根本不知如何下手？如果女人沒有雀斑，就燒不出豆腐嗎？

「夫妻肺片」是道好菜，但老外看到菜單，肯定不敢點這道菜，「Husband and wife's lung slice」把夫妻的肺切片拿來做菜，是出命案了嗎？還是被拿來嚐一嚐醫學生理化驗的樣本？

更好笑的是「童子雞」，日前被譯為「Chicken without sexual life」，沒有性生活的雞？還被海峽兩岸網友引為笑談，這隻雞是公雞還是母雞？要不要加註「Virgin」？

北京市政府為了避免在奧運期間鬧笑話，讓老外看不懂菜單不打緊，還會誤會中國其實不是禮儀之邦，日前公布最新版的中文菜單英文譯名，讓三星級以上的飯店餐館統一使用。

麻婆豆腐從此就叫「Mapo tofu」、夫妻肺片成了「Pork lungs in chili sauce」、童子雞就不管有沒有性行為，直接稱為「Spring chicken」，這本冊子收錄了3000多種菜名的英文翻譯，其他像「Jiaozi」就是水餃、「Four-joy meatballs」就叫四喜丸，不會再出現啼笑皆非的翻譯了。

【2008-06-22/聯合報】