In a guest post at Language Log, Sinologist Victor Mair uncovers the source of many of the humorous Chinglish signs that can be found across the country.
Tracking down a forum post from 2003, Mair blames blind application of machine translators—in particular, outdated editions of Kingsoft’s QuickTrans software—for rendering 干 (“dry” or “to do”) as “fuck”. The latest editions of the software eliminate the profanity.
Your correspondent happens to have a CD of QuickTrans 2002. Here’s a screenshot of some dubious translations:
The translations ought to be “What do you want to do?” “dry goods,” “dried shrimp fried with cabbage,” “ginger ale,” and “true understanding and effort.”
The last line in the above image is from the title of an academic paper that was published in 2003 in the Economic Administrative Cadre Academy Bulletin of Gansu Province (see ESWN for more).