Go China
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Jason Cox sent in the following very brief video from the USA-China basketball game at the Rio Olympics, showing a man holding a sign that says "Go USA".
When he flips the sign, the other side reads:
qù Zhōngguó 去中国 ("go to China")
If you want to know how to say "Go China" in Chinese, read these posts:
- "Ganbatte!" (6/14/14)
- "Non-translation" (7/24/16)
Ben Zimmer said,
August 15, 2016 @ 12:41 am
When I searched for news on this game, the very first article I checked (this one) had a photo featuring the guy with the sign.
Jenny Chu said,
August 15, 2016 @ 12:45 am
I don't suppose it's possible that he actually meant, "Go to China" (in the sense of "Yanqui go home"?
Bathrobe said,
August 15, 2016 @ 1:47 am
Perhaps he meant 中国，去你的！
WSM said,
August 15, 2016 @ 5:26 am
"Sinici Eunt Domus"!!!
leoboiko said,
August 15, 2016 @ 8:55 am
@Jenny Chu: I don't think so, because each side of the sign is annotated with emoji icons, and the icons in the Chinese side ( ♥ ) are exactly the same as the U.S. side ( ♥ ). It's likely just an average Brazilian trying to make all foreigners feel welcome. We honestly love y'all, yo.
leoboiko said,
August 15, 2016 @ 8:59 am
Augh, I totally forgot that the WordPress installation here would eat non-BMP Unicode characters. I meant:
🇧🇷 ♥ 🇺🇸= 🇧🇷 ♥ 🇨🇳
(Depending on your system's support of emoji, you might see country codes instead of little flags. In this case just look at the video :p )
Wang Yujiang said,
August 15, 2016 @ 9:09 am
The bottom line is a Brazilian flag, a heart, and an American (Chinese in another side) flag. Therefore I guess this gentleman is a Brazilian and he is neutral.
去中国should be a machine translation masterpiece.
David Marjanović said,
August 15, 2016 @ 4:51 pm
Can "go" even be used like that in Portuguese? It can't in German…
leoboiko said,
August 15, 2016 @ 4:54 pm
It can, yes (Vai, China! Vai, Brasil!).
mollymooly said,
August 16, 2016 @ 3:40 pm
In British English, one urges ones team to "come on" rather than to "go". Feel free to explain this in terms of cultural stereotypes.
ggustafs said,
August 17, 2016 @ 11:24 am
@mollymooly "Come On" is an accepted alternative to "Go" in American English also.