We have known, for years, that often, even in menus, in the Chinatowns of New York and Montreal, where I have lived, there is a difference in what is written, in English and in Chinese.  Here, in China, we see it even more, and we also hear it when, for example, a store owner tells me one thing and, then, believes that he is secretly talking, in Chinese, to my protégé or to my girlfriend who he has mistakenly taken as my translator and with whom he believes he has a complicity to screw me.  I also see it on websites that have English and Chinese versions: often, the English version has nothing to do with what is said, in Chinese.

I remember getting excited about seeing shark fin soup on a menu, recently, and the price was extremely reasonable.  Then, my girlfriend pointed out that, in Chinese, it was not shark fin soup, at all.   We have downloaded a number of Chinese business laws to make available through our website, and my protégé has ended up having to re-translate part of the English translations.  We went on to the website for Shamian Island, in Guangzhou, yesterday to do some research about the many bronze sculptures that are displayed outside around the island.  Shamian was the place that foreign traders were restricted to, around 100 years ago, when they can to this capital of Guangdong, in their trading ships.  Most of the island is Western architecture, and there are many foreign embassies, there, even today.  What was surprising was that in the Chinese version of the website, the history of the island was explained as foreigners forced the Chinese to give them the island as a base for trading, while on the English version, it says that the Chinese forced the foreign traders to be restricted to the island.

The lesson that you should take away from these few examples of a bigger phenomenon is that, if you read something in Chinese, which also has an English translation, be sure to find a friend who understands Chinese to check if both versions are the same.