Wai-kan-mu tu Hangzhou: City’s sincere if cryptic messages of welcome to G20 foreign guests
Authorities use the sound of Chinese characters to approximate English pronunciation to teach residents a list of 100 handy phrases
Hangzhou, the picturesque eastern Chinese city that will host the upcoming Group of 20 leaders’ summit, is arming its residents with handy English phrases to warmly welcome their foreign guests.
But just how do you teach someone who has never spoken English words more complicated than “hello” or “bye” – let alone memorise entire phrases?
The city government’s solution is simple – by stringing together clusters of Chinese characters whose meaning is gibberish but whose pinyin pronunciation approximate the sounds of English syllables.
And the result?
“Wai-kan-mu tu Hangzhou.” (Welcome to Hangzhou – close!)
“Hangzhou, a pai-ai-na-da-si an e-si.” (Hangzhou, a paradise on earth – hmmm)
These are among phrases listed in a government-issued pamphlet entitled “Happily welcome G20, be a good host – to quickly memorise 100 English sentences” being distributed to residents ahead of the summit in September.
“Hangzhou, a pai-ai-na-da-si an e-si.” (Hangzhou, a paradise on earth)
Some more challenging phrases include the famous “10 scenes of West Lake” that were built during the Southern Song Dynasty about 800 years ago, whose traditional names are four Chinese characters long.
The famous “Su ti chun xiao (dawn on the Su causeway in spring)”, for example, is rendered a string of characters transliterated crudely into English as “dao-en ang-en su-kao-si-wei yin si-bu-rui-yin”.
“San tan ying yue (three ponds mirroring the moon)” became “shi-rui pang-ci mi-rui-e-run-ying mu-en”.
When the pamphlet was posted online, many internet users challenged the effectiveness of the method – with some even calling it a disgrace.
“Stupid method, it makes our countrymen lose face,” said one commentator.
Some residents complained that the government had already disturbed their daily lives far too much ahead of the G20 summit.
