Today, I have a silly travel story from Richelle who runs Adventures Around Asia, which sort of follows on about her running experience, and is an outstanding example of how a Happy Birthday song can somehow morph into something else completely – another outstanding example of Chinglish – where things in Chinese don’t translate in quite the desired effect in English!
Anyway, her blurb is the following – ‘A recent grad in her early 20’s hailing from Seattle, USA. Richelle spent last year teaching English to 1,000 high school students in “the middle of nowhere”, China’. Check out her blog Adventures Around Asia for more of her crazy misadventures. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Here it is!
Happy Birthday Songs – A Funny Chinglish Version To Sing To Your Friends!
While visiting Hainan, China my friends and I signed up for a trek in the jungles of Hainan. This “trek” turned out to be an 8k run through jungle villages and farms with a local running club! My two friends and I were not prepared and certainly not dressed appropriately, but we had paid for the trip so we decided to make the best of it.
The three of us completed the 8k run through the jungle, while villagers laughed at us and cheered us on. After everyone had returned, the running club decided it was time to initiate the newcomers. They had my friends and I sit on bags of ice, as they told us a story. It took a few tries for us to understand, but here’s how we think the story went:
“In France, when a pregnant woman enters the subway, people stand up to let her sit down. In China, the subway is so crowded that the baby is squeezed right out!”
After our confusing and awkward story time, we were told to chug a cup of beer and get on the bus. On the way to dinner, our new friends started singing bus songs in Chinese. About ten minutes into our ride, they turned to my friends and I and asked us to sing them Christmas carols. Even though it was April, we obliged and started singing “Jingle Bells”. Surprisingly enough, the people on the bus started singing along with us! None of the people on the bus actually knew any of the words to the song, so they sang along in gibberish.
After the song, one of the leaders proclaimed, “We know a song in English!” Shocked, my friends and I begged the bus to sing it to us. Immediately, they all burst out in song:
“Happy Birthday F*** YOU”
“Happy Birthday F*** YOU”
“Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday F*** YOU!!!!”
Ha ha, too funny. I’d love to have someone sing that to me on my birthday…!
I have no idea why this birthday song morphed into something offensive, but hey, that’s Chinglish!
I am Chinese, I never heard that kind of Song, and I believe most Chinese don’t know the adapted version of the song. Sometimes, what you see, what you hear is not typical, hope this won’t mislead people