China launches drive against atrocious ‘Chinglish’ signs ahead of 2022 Winter Olympics

Beijing, Dec 7: China has done great advancements in every other field of life but one area in which the Asian giant is yet to make significant strides is the English language and its hilarious English (mis)translations have often made the country a butt of a joke before the outside world.

According to a report in Shanghaiist, Beijing authorities have launched a massive crackdown against the English mistranslations in China called 'Chinglish' to redeem the country's image ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing and some of its neighbouring towns.

The report further said that since December 1 last year, a new English translation standard came into effect in China and since then, the Chinese capital's foreign affairs office has claimed to have scrutinised more than two million Chinese characters on bilingual signs to ensure that the correct translation into English has been made. In April, the authorities even started a website where residents could report about Chinglish signs they found around the town.

This is, however, not the first time that China has launched such a crackdown against dubious translations. Ahead of the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, too, a similar step was taken to clean up the capital's signage image to make it more foreigner-friendly.

See some of the hilarious Chinglish signage from China here.