We moved to Shanghai in November 2009, when the city was frantically getting itself ready for the 2010 World Expo. Whole neighbourhoods were flattened to make room for infrastructure; roads turned into boulevards with full-grown trees in the median; carefully manicured parks appeared overnight in empty lots; facades of buildings got a fresh coat of paint (many, as is now in fashion after the XinTianDi success, with fake exposed bricks drawn on them), and the city got a new slogan for the event: "City is civilised, and life will be better". I was in a moving car when I first saw this slogan, and thought to myself that I had to come back and take a picture of it, for it really summed up the philosophy that's driving the city's dizzying metamorphosis. Aside from the meaning, I loved the poor English that showed the depth with which much of the changes are being made... "Need and English translation, quick! There you go, done!" Checking for accuracy is hardly part of the equation.
Unfortunately, I did not manage to take that picture before I went home for the Christmas break. Considering the importance of a slogan that would represent the city and the country in front of the world for at least six months, its translation somehow got edited while I was gone. By the time I got back to Shanghai, it had been revised to "Better city, better life". The same, but not really the same... I still prefer the rawness and honesty of the original.
Since that episode, I try to snap every funny "Chinglish" I find, even if it's just with my mobile phone, so you'll have to excuse the poor quality of the images here.
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| At the door of a live blues bar |
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| At City Shop, the international supermarket |
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| At an ice cream parlor |
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