Make food great again
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Spotted by Anthony Clayden in Taitung, Taiwan:
Taitung is the same city where Anthony found the subject of this post the day before:
"Trump beef noodles" (12/27/18)
In the latter case, there was some ambiguity over whether "Chuānpǔ 川普" referred to "Trump" or "Sichuanese pidgin", or both.
In the present case, there's no doubt whatsoever that the US President is being invoked. Not only is the longer slogan to the left an overt reference to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, the small sign to the right is about a type of food that is linked to America, not Sichuan.
The Chinese slogan to the left proclaims:
Ràng shíwù zàicì wěidà! 讓食物再次偉大! ("Let Food Be Great Again!)
This is an obvious parody of:
Ràng Měiguó zàicì wěidà! 讓美國再次偉大! ("Let America Be Great Again!", i.e., "Make America Great Again!")
Furthermore, the shorter sign to the right says:
Chuānpǔ niúpái 川普牛排 ("Trump steak") — the English translation provided by the proprietors is explicitly "Trump Steak House".
This shows how deeply American lingo has permeated into daily speech in Taiwan.
David Marjanović said,
December 28, 2018 @ 10:45 am
As in Europe or Japan.
Rodger C said,
December 29, 2018 @ 9:31 am
Is it my own stereotype, or is there something very Taiwanese about these expressions of an apparent assumption that all Americans are going to have positive associations to their Leader?
Philip Anderson said,
December 29, 2018 @ 4:40 pm
Although the slogan must be copying Trump’s, he was not of course the first to say “make X great again”.
amy said,
December 29, 2018 @ 10:59 pm
When Obama was elected, there was a similar trend of products and businesses themed after him. Some have featured here too:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=14740
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1520
http://shanghaiist.com/2011/09/30/spotted_in_beijing_obama_fried_chic/
AntC said,
December 30, 2018 @ 8:32 am
I'm afraid I couldn't position the photo to show just how enormous is this hoarding: it's two storeys high and the whole side of he building. It also looks fairly new. (But then so it did in March 2017, according to the interwebs.)
Was it erected around the time of Trump's inauguration and his phone call with Tsai Ing-wen?
@Rodger, I don't see any positive associations to Trump in Taiwan. (Or in any part of the world other than possibly some of the U.S.) Not only did the call with Tsai Ing-wen fail to deliver anything, her star has very much waned over the past two years. In Taiwan the only attitude I see to Trump is derision.
(The place seems to be still in business. Is that because of or despite its advertising?)