Strictly Slapstick Chase

Chinglish on the way

This column aims to identify Chinglish in public areas. If you see any Chinglish signs, please send a picture of it to wangyu2008@ynet.com together with your name and address.

By Terry Boyd-Zhang

“Is this an advertisement for a comedian search?” I asked myself when I first saw this sign. “Slapstick” is a type of humor that uses violence and over-the-top illogical situations to win laughter. Slapstick can be seen in the acts of comedians such as Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carrey and Mike Meyers, and in cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes. The girl on the sign in the foreground is happy and pensive and the boy beside the small fence in the background, who has lost his pretty hat, is waiting eagerly for his pink balloon to come down so he can hit it again with his nose; they do not seem “slapstick” in the least. What is going on here? Yajin, the first two characters, mean “forbidden.” Zhui, the third character, is “chase” and danao, the last two, mean “to cause trouble.” So let’s plug the thing into nciku, an online Chinese-English dictionary: “strictly forbidden (to) chase or seek a violent, noisy row.” Google translate makes it “non-slapstick chase,” exactly the opposite of where we started. Huh? Over to the native speaker: “Chasing and beating each other is not allowed.” Nciku wins over Google on this one! So, if you are in the park and you feel like chasing and beating your children, but you see this sign, you will have to refrain. Although I believe that chasing your toddler to prevent him or her from playing in traffic would be a valid exception. Another exception might be if you were participating in some type of slapstick routine with your friends. ‘Course, you’d have to be strict about it.