Every now and then collections of funny Chinglish spotted on signs or menus in China make their way around the web. This BBC article from August 2009 once again highlights the phenomenon of amusing English translations, and claims that Shanghai is trying to clean up its English in preparation for the 2010 World Expo (much as Beijing tried to do before the Olympics).
The article comes complete with a slide show of some of the best examples of Chinglish. My favorite: a sign at the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai that warns visitors that “The ragamuffin,drunken people and psychotics are forbidden to enter the Tower,” goes on to list forbidden articles such as “kitchen knife,scissors,fruit knife,sword and so on,” and finally reminds visitors not to bring “articles which disturb common sanitation (including the peculiar smell of effluvium)”.
Maybe a sign-proofreading company would be a good business idea…