# Are Chinese chopstick manufacturers mocking me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 29, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769 "2004-06-29T21:23:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/21 "2004-06-30T13:48:01Z")
For more fractured English, see [http://www.engrish.com](http://www.engrish.com) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/22 "2004-06-30T14:08:08Z")
My favorite chopsticks package had visual directions: three little diagrams on how to separate the two sticks, hold them, and pick things up, with the only writing the captions “Opening” ,“Bridging” and “Working”. A guy I knew in college thought that was the perfect motto for a cult (of course led by one of the menu choices at the local place, the glorious “General Chicken”). ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/23 "2004-06-30T15:34:40Z")
> [@KidCharlemagne](#): > > I’ve long made fun of that blurb, but I think you’ve got it wrong, unless they’ve corrected it. Isn’t “glorious” actually printed as"glonious" and isn’t “cultural” spelled as “cultual?” The shit I remember. :smack: Cool observation on your part, **KC**. Actually, on the packaging sitting here in front of me, “glorious” and “and cultural” are in a slightly different font. Guess they corrected the spelling at some point. I am going for Chinese tonight;). ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/24 "2004-06-30T16:24:19Z")
This inspired me to get Chinese for lunch. My chopstick sleeve (which, really, is what it is) reads: > [@](#): > > Welcome to Chinese Restaurant > Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks. > The traditional and typical of Chinese glorious history and cultual. > > PRODUCT OF CHINA Glorious is spelled correctly; cultural is missing the r. Other than the ‘Product of China’ at the end, it’s all the same font. The reverse has the instructions verbatim as posted here earlier. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/25 "2004-06-30T16:46:11Z")
Here is my chopstick package!!! It is number four: [http://www.kmoser.com/chopsticks/](http://www.kmoser.com/chopsticks/) I wonder if the existance of this thread has impacted on Chinese Restaurant sales figures for the second quarter? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/26 "2004-06-30T20:45:42Z")
Here ya go: [http://www.fallingstar.net/awakened/entries/2001-10-21.shtml](http://www.fallingstar.net/awakened/entries/2001-10-21.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/27 "2004-06-30T22:44:43Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > So…is there an attempt by the Chinese manufacturer to be cute, or do they think what they have written on the packaging is grammatically cool? Certainly the latter. As others pointed out, the typical small manufacturer neither has time nor money to get a good English translation, so it cobbles one together from a dictionary. Alas, Chinese and English are very dissimilar in structure. You see the result. IMHO, the Chinese aren’t being goofy or cute. They have one focus: make money. China had a focus on a market/monetary economy when Western Europeans were beating each other over the head with wooden clubs! I also figure that having these funny translations come over here doesn’t hurt business, either. We don’t fear the Chinese taking over our economy the way we did with Japan, though I bet you that our trade deficit with China far outstrips anything Japan _ever_ did. Also, don’t be too hard on the Chinese. The French and Germans are just as guilty of this stuff. We just don’t notice it as much. And over there, the English translations I’ve seen are sometimes horrifying. I spotted one once on a sign at the Louvre! You’d figure that the Louvre would have its act together… ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/28 "2004-06-30T23:20:52Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > If we’ve got the same package of chopsticks, the other side of the wrapper has instructions on how to use chopsticks which are written about as perfectly as you could expect, though lacking any kind of punctuation: > Learn how to use your chopsticks > > Tuck under thumb and hold firmly > > Add second chopstick hold it as you would a pencil > > Hold first chopstick in original position move the second up and down Now you can pick up anything > > So if this can be translated well, why can’t someone rewrite the front to say something like "Welcome to **this** Chinese restaurant. Please try your **delicious** Chinese food with chopsticks, **which are** traditional and typical of **China’s** glorious history and culture. > > (Bolding are my edits. Hey, I was only trying to make the sentence read, not make a lot of sense.) See **Hemlock’s** post, #15, below. If you truly cannot make sense of the sentence in it’s original form, well, I just solly you. (goddam #10 binjo honcho) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769/29 "2004-07-01T23:16:32Z")
Wow. Found a page that attempts to look at the evolution of the sleeve by looking at the various spelling/grammar mistakes. From: [http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc\_files/cDc-0383/cDc-0383.html](http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0383/cDc-0383.html) > [@](#): > > Much of the lineage ordering of these wrappers can be determined > by examining the text on the wrappers and analyzing which mistakes were > fixed in which order. Also, the company producing the chopsticks generally > places its symbol or name at the top of the wrapper, on the front side near > the opening. This allows us to determine who inherited the design from whom. > Although, the most common symbol is not a company name, it is the symbol for > ‘happiness’ printed twice. Literally, ‘double happiness’. Appropriate for a > pair of chopsticks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-chinese-chopstick-manufacturers-mocking-me/252769.md?page=1)