Beijing Scholar Criticizes Red Chinese-Character Banners Throughout City

A Beijing-based scholar has criticized the big Chinese-character slogans and banners seen at intersections and subway stations as “creating confusion about the city’s international image,” ecns reports.

Xu Lin, who is not only a scholar but also a member of the CPPCC National Committee and director-general of the Confucius Institute headquarters, emphasizes that foreigners may not see Beijing for the international heaven that it really is because of the banners. On top of that, many of them are translated into English incorrectly, or awkwardly, and may create confusion. Wait, Chinglish signs around Beijing?! Never ...

A lot of the slogans stem from political campaigns started a long time ago, and are ideology driven. Xu said that “Beijing’s slogans don’t contribute to a good environment because they don’t paint an international image true to the change in the Chinese people’s everyday lives.”

On top of that, foreigners may not have the necessary context in order to understand the banners properly.

He points out one of our favorites and names it as confusing: “Chinese Dream, Subway Dream.” That's not confusing to me, my Chinese Dream involves riding the subway all day long, preferably Line 1 at rush hour.

We don't really mind them though, as the changing banners overseeing the big ring road junctions are a good indication as to the pending government crackdown.

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Photo: cfr blog, rocketnews24