Here's the second in my series of Chinglish photos. This photo graces the front of a small store on the campus of nearby Chengyi College at Jimei University in the city of Xiamen. Being the only foreigner around, I surreptitiously took this photo, wondering whether the Chinese college students inside were scheming to somehow help resurrect Mitt Romney's presidential election campaign after he alienated at least 47% of the American (non-taxpaying) public.
Here in China, many translations of Chinese into English make absolutely no sense. Its a fact of life that English speakers living in China must simply accept. In addition to signs, I often see Chinese people wearing shirts with English slogans or expressions on them which make no sense at all. On a few occasions I've asked people what the expression means and the invariable answer is "我不知道" or "I don't know"). They also usually looked puzzled that I ask because in China, people wear shirts with English simply because it looks cool or fashionable. It doesn't matter what it says, what it means, or whether it means anything at all (maybe no different from Americans wearing shirts displaying Chinese characters without any idea of their meaning). I've even thought of starting a business making T-Shirts with random and/or made-up English words printed on them - come to think of it, "the fubo burns the fairy grass" could be a good example of this.
Anyway, in an effort to discover the truth behind this mysterious and potentially anti-American slogan, I asked a Chinese friend who was with me when I took this controversial FUBO photo what the sign means. She couldn't really explain it, but did explain that it is a literal translation of the Chinese which simply doesn't make sense in English. As I've found out from my admittedly limited knowledge of Chinese, its a very different language from English and some things just don't translate literally.
After some research, I think I have a rough idea of what this sign means. The first character 福 (fu) can be used as an abbreviation for Fujian (福建) Province and can also mean luck or happiness. The second character in fubo, 伯 (bo), can mean father's elder brother or be used as a respectful form of address. According to my Chinese friend, in this instance, it seems to be used as a brand name (Fujian/lucky uncle).
But whoever this Fubo is, what is he doing burning grass jelly? And what exactly is grass jelly? Grass jelly is actually another misleading name since its apparently not made of grass. Instead, its a kind of dessert (in America, I think we'd call it jello) which I think is sometimes also mixed into tea or milk-based drinks.
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| Here's a grass jelly drink (not sure whether its FUBO or not) |
Disclaimer: This post is intended solely for informational (and potentially humorous) purposes and is not intended as a political message or as an endorsement of FUBO jelly drinks.
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