Take a look at the Chinglish archive at www.chinglish.de.

 

Chinglish, for me, is a wonderful example of the creativity of the Chinese language. Chinglish is not solely incorrect English; it is English with Chinese characteristics. 

 

Linguistic variations exist in any language including my mother tongue – there are wonderful German websites making fun of the language – and they possess a creative potential that we should cherish more. At the same time, the re-interpretation of a language allows for a tremendous amount of humour, and humour is, and has always been, a form of communication across cultures. It is my sincerest hope that Chinglish.de will continue to be understood as a bridge, rather than a border.

 

Chinglish is also funny because of the sometimes scarily direct nature of the new meaning produced by the translation. A “deformed man toilet” in Shanghai or an “Anus Hospital” in Beijing are funny because they instantly destroy linguistic euphemisms we Westerners have carefully built up when talking about sensitive topics. Chinglish annihilates these conventions straight away. Chinglish is right in your face.

 

When we as native or good English speakers laugh at Chinglish, the object of our entertainment is not the sheer countless number of Chinese struggling with a difficult foreign language, but in fact ourselves.

 

Take a look at the Chinglish archive at www.chinglish.de.

 

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© Oliver Lutz Radtke