As long as we are going with the toilet humor (see the previous post).

Chinglish is to be stamped out. Really. We mean it this time. Via Peking Duck, here is Mei Fong's article in from the Wall Street Journal (quoting my buddies Jeremy Goldkorn and Josh Kurtzig):

Already, fans of [Chinglish] are mourning the end of an era, and some Web sites dedicated to it have seen traffic spike. The bewildering signs were "one of the great things we want to show people visiting us," says financial-services consultant Josh Kurtzig, a Washington native who lives in Beijing. Correcting them is "really taking away one of the joys of China."

Not many locals share this sense of loss. "We cannot leave (these signs) up just for the amusement of foreigners," says Olive Wang, marketing manager for a major sportswear company.

Oh, but you can. Really.

Imagethief's personal favorite is the sign from the bathroom on the island in Beihai Park where the White Stupa is. It reads in beautifully engraved steel:

This toilet is free of flushing. Please leave off after pissing or shitting.

It's a thing of beauty. The actual Chinese says: These toilets flush automatically. You may leave after (I paraphrase) urinating or defecating. But the Chinglish is so much more expressive.

Mei Fong's article also remarks upon the demise of the ever classic "Dongda Hospital for Anus and Intestine", or as it was more elegantly known to resident foreigners, Anus Hospital. It is now the anodyne "Dongda Hospital for Proctology and Intestine". The word "proctology" is in conspicuously newer letters that will suggest some kind of bizarre proctological emphasis to Olympic visitors who don't know the history.

It's a sad day, but there is a bright side. As a friend whom I shall leave gracefully anonymous said to me the other day, "You know what this means? Beijing is now a town of perfect assholes."

Of course, these sorts of things work in both directions.


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