Some of the most intriguing Chinglish on the planet comes from clothing. I really want to go down to one of the local markets and stock up on shirts and jackets with phrases and sentences you'd never find in America (maybe some of you will get them as presents).
Often clothing has sayings, phrases or words that we Westerners simply wouldn't think of putting on a piece of clothing. Like who in America (outside of Wisconsin) would have the guts to sell a red hooded sweatshirt with the giant white letters "MILK" emblazoned across the front? Punk bands would have a great time collecting jackets over here. Last week as we were walking to a friend's house, another of my British friends noticed someone's shirt saying, "Well, aren't you a dollybird!"
In today's class one girl was wearing a pink shirt that had puffy, cloud-looking letters saying, "Good 'n Hysteric." Another girl's tye-dyed shirt said, "things should be made as simple as possible but not simpler." This was word-wrapped around a large "On eday" in a slanty, somewhat elegant font, with "On" set tastefully above the "e" of "eday."
But probably the most unusual of all for over here was a girl I saw last week. The lower front corner of her shirt said, "Jesus saves."
Posted by at May 19, 2004 4:00 PM