A I was reading through the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today I noticed that they had a color AP photo of a billboard in China promoting Beijing possibly getting the Olympic Games in 2008. What really got me was that in the corner of the billboard are Chinese characters that (presumably) say “Bird’s Eye View of the Olympic Games”. Directly below the Chinese characters is the English text “Bird’s Eye View of the Olympic Games”. So what gives? Why does a billboard in Beijing have English text on it? Is this pretty common for billboards in other countries (even ones that aren’t that friendly to the U.S.)?
Not to be overly snide, you probably never thought that English is taught in most schools in China (well, at least in the bigger cities). It is very common to see advertismements in all different media in China toss in English words or phrases.
The one you saw is probably government driven and part of the strategy to win the Olympics. That way they get free press outside of China when said billboard gets reprinted. Obviously the foreign editor would be more likely to print a picture of a billboard if it has English on it so that you can read it directly. Wonder how long it will take before you start seeing advertisements in America with some Chinese characters thrown in to add a little cachet?