Hasty renaming of Japanese restaurants in China
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From David Moser:
This is common with Japanese restaurants in Beijing right now. Note how they have crudely removed the two characters 日 and 本 from the restaurant sign, and how they've put Chinese flags up. I've seen this in several locations in Beijing. I guess this cosmetic surgery makes it politically correct for customers to eat their sushi at the (probably Chinese owned) restaurant. Profits and politics co-exist.
The white letters of the sign on the store front should say Rìběn liàolǐ 日本料理 ("Japanese cuisine"; Jap. Nihon ryōri). Now the sign just says "cuisine", which is rather absurd.
Bruce Rusk said,
September 21, 2012 @ 9:03 pm
And liàolǐ is so markedly Japanese that this is the equivalent of removing "Italian" from the name of "Luigi's Italian Ristorante"–a restaurant by that name could only serve one sort of cuisine.
James C. said,
September 21, 2012 @ 9:17 pm
Eh, they're probably just hoping that by showing effort the mobs will pass them by. Or, y'know, go in and spend money. (What does the red part of the name mean? I'm dying to know what there are three of . . . )
Chad Nilep said,
September 21, 2012 @ 9:25 pm
三石
sānshí
Three Stones (or possibly a personal name; perhaps Miseki or Mitsuishi, which would be Japanese readings)
Mark Mandel said,
September 21, 2012 @ 9:30 pm
More like denaming, if you ask me.
HP said,
September 21, 2012 @ 9:51 pm
"Freedom Fish"?
Jonathan Saffron Foyer said,
September 22, 2012 @ 8:28 am
"Jap"? Really?
Rodger C said,
September 22, 2012 @ 10:57 am
Hadn't thought about it till you said it, but "Jp." might have been a less jarring abbreviation.
My father, who was 100% Caucasian afaik, was affectionately called "Jap" all his life because of the shape of his eyes when he was a baby. To be sure, he was born in 1920.
Bruce said,
September 22, 2012 @ 11:05 am
A few Oakland and Berkeley shops have signs saying something like "We are the 99% – local owned, local operated, local employees". Even corporate Burger King has a laser-printed sign to deflect rioters.
L said,
September 22, 2012 @ 3:06 pm
"Jap." as an abbreviation for the language, is no better or worse than "Heb." or even "Hun."
Spoken as "word" it's a clear slur.
At least this is how it is to my ear.
Victor Mair said,
September 22, 2012 @ 3:16 pm
50 years ago, my father could exclaim with great admiration, "Those Japs sure make good machine tools." I don't know anyone respectable who would dare to say "Jap" to refer to a Japanese person now. It has the same register as "Chink" or "Nigger". In fact, the last time I heard anyone say "Jap" was probably when my father said it.
Jonathan Gress-Wright said,
September 22, 2012 @ 3:35 pm
Taking offense at an abbreviation? Really?
leoboiko said,
September 22, 2012 @ 6:34 pm
Funny relationship, that. Are there any other cases were an abbreviation of a neutral word coincides with an offensive word for the same thing?
Robert Furber said,
September 24, 2012 @ 3:11 am
In the UK, there's the term "Paki". It is also in the same register as "nigger". It is of course an abbreviation for Pakistani.
M (was L) said,
September 24, 2012 @ 5:59 pm
Heeb.
Noel Hunt said,
September 25, 2012 @ 2:45 am
三石 could be read as `mitsuishi' or `sangoku'. The reading `koku' of the character 石 is a so-called `kanyō' (`idiomatic') reading. which has existed historically; the normal reading is `seki'. `Koku' is a unit of volume mainly used to measure grains, according to Kōjien roughly 180 litres. Both readings (`mitsuishi', `sangoku') seem to be used in place names in Japan so it is difficult to know which is intended here. The voicing of the first stop in `koku' is a phenomenon common in compounds (`rendaku').
Shanth said,
September 27, 2012 @ 1:13 am
I was wonder if anyone on here has heard of this: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=28e_1348655955
This story is sourced only from Alex Jones's consipracy site infowars.com, but claims that there are(were?) reports of this on Weibo. Could someone translate the Chinese characters in the image to give a better idea of what it says?
Thanks!
Chandra said,
September 27, 2012 @ 2:23 pm
The Boston Pizza restaurants in Vancouver changed their name to "Vancouver Pizza" during the 2011 NHL playoff season. Probably a smart move, given the riots that took place afterwards.
lisa said,
October 9, 2012 @ 8:19 am
Jonathan – It is offensive even when used as an abbreviation. There has been plenty written about this. If you look at the course catalogues for many, many universities, you will JPN or JP used as a workaround.
It's interesting to see that not only has the post not been corrected, the original poster has even taken the the liberty of using several more racial slurs just to show that he can. Note how he took special care to refer to the slurs in the abstract so that no one can call him out on it. Very smooth.