Bus Rides in Shenyang, China and Chiglish Signs

Bicycles are disappearing alarmingly fast in China, replaced by increasingly popular cars ans SUVs, to my great upset. Due to the dangerous road conditions, I would not even try to ride bicycles in China - as a matter of fact, none of my extended family members has bicycles now. Cars, taxis, and buses are commuting tools.

I took a few bus rides in the last few days and they were experiences of great revelations.

The buses are usually very crowded; however, the atypical pictures below helped me to show the interior of a relatively more upscale No. 225 bus:


































It was also a great fun to read signage in English or Chiglish. The No. 238 bus, a less posh one had signs read like these:

















Watch Out for Pickpockets Vigilantly and Careful Not to Let Your Feet Get Caught by the Door

















Please Do Not Lean Against the Door


However, the posher bus (No. 225) got them right:

"Too Big to Fail" - Another Case of Language Abuse

Our government officials love to abuse English in order to confuse people's minds. The top offenders in the Bush years were "War on Terror" and "misunderestimate." The offender of these days is "Too big to fail," which was broadly used by members of the Obama administration, and shamelessly taken up by the media, to describe business entities that need taxpayers to bail them out. In fact, entities that are "too big to fail" need no bailouts, because they will never fail: that is the meaning of this peculiar phrase. An accurate description of businesses to which government and media are referring would be that they are "too big to let fail." This is not only grammatically correct, it will also clarify the current economic situation, which our officials and media seem keen to keep murky.