Translation of Chinese Dishes

It becomes urgent for the Beijing government to draft a standard for the translation of the Chinese dishes, which becomes a great problem for the coming Olympic Games.
Some of my friends from America told me that it was a great problem for them to order in the restaurant, as they didn’t know the content of the dishes simply by reading menu, not to mention that they didn’t know all the characters on menu. Some adventurous would like to take the risk and have a try. Some less humorous tend to find a western food restaurant or going to a Chinese restaurant with their Chinese friends.

The debate is heated in Beijing now. Someone suggested put the content of the dishes directly. I don’t think it’s a good idea. If we translated 宫爆鸡丁 into something like “spicy chicken dices with peanuts”, that would be ridiculous. However, if translated the Chinese character directly into English, that would be also funny. A famous snack in Beijing is 驴打滚, which is actually a kind of cake made of rice with red bean paste as the stuffing. Directly translated, the name would become “donkey roll”. The people from other countries would mistake it as the meat of donkey. 东坡肘子 is also a problem. It is actually chunks of pork cooked with sauce, and the recipe is said to have been invented by 苏东坡, a great poet in Song Dynasty. If directly translated, it would become something like “Elbow of 东坡”? That would turn all Chinese into barbarians.

I don’t agree to make a fuss over that the westerners don’t know the real content of the food from menu. I don’t know the content of the dishes in pizzahut from their English names,either. I think no one knows what is 宫爆鸡丁when it first appears in America, but now it is widely accepted as KongPao Chicken. People could learn when they are in a different culture. Just be patient.

Use pictures and let people from other cultures learn what name goes with which dish. This will add flavor to the food, I believe.