Correct English SignsHe came to Beijing on August 28， 2001， and， soon after that，he encountered an embarrassment that left a deep impression on hismind. Lao Du， a rapt fan of Qinqiang Opera， now became a devotee ofPeking Opera. One day in October， he was attending a Peking Operaperformance in the Chang’an Theater. Many foreigners in the audienceburst into laughter at one point， which made him feel uneasy and theChinese audience feel puzzled. The theater， in order to help foreignaudience understand the plot better， offered a running translation inEnglish. To his dismay， it was full of errors that turned the opera intoa laughingstock. When the Monkey King supposedly rode clouds onto the stage， an accompanying line that should have said “auspiciousclouds” read “auspicious clods” instead， which made the foreignerslaugh their heads off. Standing on the Chinese side， he was overcomewith shame by the bad English translations while， standing on the sideof the foreigners， he was offended by the ridicule of the foreign audience.
Lao Du said： “I felt that caption incident brought shame to boththe Chinese and the foreigners. And that made me， a lover of Chineseculture， feel doubly ashamed. They made these oversights in translationbecause they didn’t have a sincere attitude toward their culture.
We have to bear in mind that even a single wrong word could result inforeign visitors misunderstanding this 5，000-year old civilization.
It’s not hard to imagine that， when describing their trips to China，these foreign visitors would tell their friends and families about theloopy translations， along with what they have seen and heard in thecountry. Actually some websites exist that specialize in collecting Beijing’sbad English signs. It’s said that the click rates on these websitesis pretty high. Lao Du heard a friend once speak admiringly of China’
s profound and rich culture， while simultaneously pouring ridicule onmangled English translations. On the very same night the opera performanceended， Lao Du wrote a letter to China’s Ministry of Cultureearnestly appealing that they allow him， as a volunteer， to clean up thebad English signage in Beijing. “The English signage is aimed to helpforeigners to better understand China，” he said in the letter. “But someof these English signs are too Chinese and will have effects counter totheir true purpose.” His opinions and efforts has been highly valued bythe city government.
16 8 In 2002， the Organizing committee of Beijing Speaks ForeignLanguages Program was established. The committee’s purpose is tohelp realize the concept of “New Beijing， Great Olympics”， to promoteBeijing’s image as a capital， a cultural and livable city and aninternational metropolis， and to raise its level of modernization andinternationalization. South Korea did the same years ago. Before the1988 Olympic Games in Seoul， the Korean Government took the Olympicsas a turning point to improve its citizens’ English， standardizeEnglish signs， and train volunteers for the games. After 14 years ofeffort， from 1988 until 2002 when South Korea hosted the FIFA WorldCup， the country finally cleaned up and standardized its public Englishsigns.
Upon its establishment， the Organizing committee invited DuDawei to be its advisor， and Lao Du gladly accepted the offer. His firstjob was to remove bad English translations from traffic signs. For example，the English sign warning of slippery roads after snowfall was“Black Spot’， and Lao Du changed it to “Icy Road”。 The traffic signwarning against driving while drowsy read “Don’t Drive Tiredly”。
Du said it should be “Don’t Drive When Tired”。 For a passage crossingbeneath a road， he changed “Tunnel” to “Underpass”。 He replaced“Protect circumstance begins with me” with “Protecting the environmentbegins with me”。
His second assignment was to polish the English versions ofcommentaries on scenic and cultural spots. He revised the Englishcaptions at the Forbidden City， Beihai， the Temple of Heaven andmany other locations including the Anti-Japanese War museums， theEnglish guide at the Simatai Section of the Great Wall， and the Englishdescriptions on the display boards at many other places. In early 2004，Dawei and the committee finished the translation and proofreading of“A Corpus of Descriptive Captions for Traffic， Parks and Scenic Spotsin Beijing”。 Then， the Organizing committee assigned him to revisethe commentaries for 40 museums and culture sites and then 40 othersmaller exhibition halls.
Every Friday from 2003 to 2005， Du Dawei shuttled between Beijing’smuseums， carrying his computer printouts of English museum signage. He would input the English descriptive captions on his laptopand correct them at home. Then he would send the polished versionsto the committee office or directly to the museums. Du Dawei foundgreat pleasure in it， though it was hard work. The museums werevery cooperative and， in order to ensure accuracy， would even permitLao Du to touch the treasures of various dynasties， allowing not onlyvisual admiration but also tactile enjoyment. He couldn’t hold back hisexcitement when recalling his feelings as he touched those pricelessrelics. “It was great！” “It was gorgeous！” “It was inconceivable for aLao Wai to have this chance！ By helping the museums， he fulfilled his long-cherished wish.
