Just picking up at the end of a long October Break 2025 in China — lots of travelling, and a fair bit of Chinglish, too. My wife, always on the hunt for a good deal, spotted a new supermarket offering special deals.
And, might I say, quite a lot of Chinglish as well. Here are three of my favourites…
“Literary Style” (青年文体)
Probably one of the most amazing mistranslations, as you’ve seen as the “main pic” above. In fact, this is supposed to be where “trendy” gear for the younger generation are sold, as well as “cultural” and “sports” items. Normally, “Youth / Culture / Sports” is what would be expected as a more proper translation.
“Block Market” (街区集市)
This one is a bit more complex. Apparently, this is supposed to be trendy apparel you see sold in street markets, or somewhere similar. Wouldn’t, say, “trendy streetwear”, “trendy fashion”, or something similar, work as well?
“Fruit Crusher” (美味果坚)
Probably my favourite — fav of them all, this sounds pretty brutal, in fact — funny, but also brutal. Cashew, nuts, and the like — it sounds less dramatic “fruit crusher” brings out — maybe — sounds of cashew nuts being crushed — a pretty brutal noise! — but it’s also much easier to understand.
In fact, these are just a minority of signs I’ve seen at this newly-opened supermarket in Chengde, Hebei, northern China. Incredibly, the vast majority of signs are without any serious traces of Chinglish — although typos (pretty much unintended) were found (“Gsrlic paste” when it was obvious they wanted to write Garlic paste).
Chinese supermarkets have for sure come quite a long away from in-your-face Chinglish (“Fuck the certain price of goods” remains an epic classic, as well as previously-ubiquitous “Fuck goods” for Dry goods), and it’s good to see — even if we haven’t reached Swiss levels of perfection yet — that they’re taking this seriously.
By the way, Switzerland is not Chinglish-free, or rather Swinglish-free, either!
Yes, so English-language speakers may continue, but all using local languages must stop? Goes to prove that no matter how perfect we associate somewhere or someplace, there’s always this or that bit of imperfection left…!
Chinglish signs from Chengde, Hebei (Northern China), 03 October 2025; Swiss sign from Zürich, Switzerland, July 2025
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