Of Candy, Chinglish, & Durian

Yesterday afternoon, I took care of two very cute children while my friends continued to open and unpack boxes in their new apartment. After lunch we stopped by a neighborhood "Mom & Pop" (actually, sister & sister) convenience store, and I let the kids pick out some candy. (Don't tell.) Anyway, I'm not sure if they had ever tried this kind before, because it's not a common brand (even though it some what resembles Starbursts or Sugus).

Well, the candy had an inner layer of rice paper (which is edible and not that unusual for China) and was as hard as a rock (think Now & Laters) until you sucked on it a bit. The flavors were okay and upon tasting various ones (who was this candy for, again?), my oldest son and I got tickled. He vowed and declared that the yellow ones were Durian* flavor; and to support his claim, showed me the picture of Durian on the package. At this point, I offered the rebuttal that the package also flaunted images of ginger and corn. (Yum, yum.... All 3 of these tastes actually are used in candy in China btw.).

Then the English text caught his eye....

I should point out that Chinese and English are nothing alike and therefore do not translate word for word very well at all. Also since Chinese does not use an alphabet in the way we do, the whole concept of letter order and spacing can seem somewhat irrelevant. (This is not so much the case below, but will come up in future posts.) And some times advertisers just must think that flinging random English on the product, makes it more appealing.

This is what he read to me,

and

I think I'd rather "the wave" stay down, especially if the flavor is Durian.

Hope you have a sweet day and find some time for laughter.

*Durian is a Southeast Asian fruit with a pungent, rotting smell and unusual taste that people either love (addictively) or hate.

Thank you to irwandy and "Soggydan" Dan Bennett for the great Durian photos.
Flickr Creative Commons.