BEIJING—Eating at a Beijing restaurant is usually an
adventure for foreigners, and particularly when they get the chance to order
“chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion head”.
Sometimes excited but mostly confused, embarrassed or
even terrified, many foreigners have long complained about mistranslations of
Chinese dishes. And their complaints are often valid(有效), but such an experience at Beijing’s restaurants
will apparently soon be history.
Foreign visitors will no longer, hopefully, be
confused by oddly worded restaurant menus in the capital if the government’s
plan to correctly translate 3,000 Chinese dishes is a success and the
translations are generally adopted.
The municipal(市政) office of
foreign affairs has published a book to recommend English translations of
Chinese dishes, which aims to help restaurants avoid bizarre translations. “It
provides the names of main dishes of famous Chinese cuisines in plain English,”
an official with the city’s Foreign Affairs office said. “Restaurants are
encouraged to use the proposed translations, but it will not be compulsory.”
It’s the city’s latest effort to bridge the culture gap for foreign travelers
in China.
Coming up with precise translations is a daunting
task, as some Chinese culinary(烹飪) techniques are
untranslatable and many Chinese dishes have no English-language equivalent. The
translators, after conducting a study of Chinese restaurants in
English-speaking countries, divided the dish names into four categories:
ingredients, cooking method, taste and name of a person or a place. For some
traditional dishes, pinyin, the Chinese phonetic system, is used, such as mapo
tofu(previously often literally translated as “beancurd made by woman with
freckles”), baozi(steamed stuffed bun) and jiaozi(dumplings) to “reflect the
Chinese cuisine culture,” according to the book.
“The book is a blessing to tourist guides like me.
Having it, I don’t have to rack my brains trying to explain Chinese dishes to
foreign travellers,” said Zheng Xiaodong, a 31-year-old employee with a
Beijing-based travel agency.
“I will buy the book as I major in English literature
and I’d like to introduce Chinese cuisine culture to more foreign friends,”
said Han Yang, a postgraduate student at the University of International
Business and Economics.
It is not clear if the book will be introduced to
other parts of China. But on Tuesday, this was the most discussed topic on weibo.com,
China’s most popular microblogging site.
1.What’s the best title of the passage?
A．An adventure
for foreigners who eat in Beijing.
B．Confusing
mistranslations of Chinese dishes.
C．Chinese
dishes to have “official” English
names.
D．The effort to
bridge the culture gap.
2. “chicken without sex life” or “red burned lion
head” are mentioned in the beginning of the passage to show .
A．some Chinese
dishes are not well received
B．some Chinese
dishes are hard to translate
C．some Chinese
dishes are mistranslated
D．some Chinese
dishes are not acceptable
3.What measure has the municipal office taken?
A．Recommending
a book on Chinese dishes.
B．Advocating(提倡) using precise translation for Chinese dishes.
C．Publishing a
book on China’s dietary habits.
D．Providing the
names of main Chinese dishes.
4.What’s the meaning of daunting in paragraph
5?
A．confusing B．disappointing C．discouraging D．Worthwhile
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