美国国家公共电台 NPR Chinese, Taiwanese Restaurants Drop 'Golden' And 'Dragon' To Take On Mandarin Names

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Restaurants serving Chinese or Taiwanese food in the U.S. often use the same few words in their names. Think golden and dragon. But NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has been noticing a different trend in New York City.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE¹: Down underground in a Manhattan subway station, a wok² full of napa cabbage and carrots are stir-frying in Edward Huang's first restaurant. Slow-braised beef noodle soup and rice bowls topped with minced³ five-spice pork are all served from this galley⁴ kitchen crammed⁵ inside a bustling⁶ food court. Huang says the dishes were inspired by visits to his family in Taiwan, and so was the restaurant's name - Zai Lai.

EDWARD HUANG: My family's parting words are always zai lai - come back soon, literally⁷. But it's, like, a see you soon, come back soon sort of idea.

H. WANG: At first, though, spelling out that Mandarin⁸ phrase in English letters - Z-A-I L-A-I - was not what Huang had in mind for branding his Taiwanese restaurant.

HUANG: People come, and they say, oh, is it Zay Lay (ph)? We had - you know, some of our employees in the beginning had trouble pronouncing it. And I wanted to avoid that headache.

HONGYUAN DONG: Well, I guess the only difficult sound here is the Z.

H. WANG: Hongyuan Dong teaches Chinese at the George Washington University in D.C. Here's how he coaches his students on pronouncing that Z sound in Mandarin.

DONG: So it's similar to Ds in English. So it's not zai (ph) - it's dsai (ph).

H. WANG: Dong says he's seen other new restaurants with Mandarin names written in pinyin. It's a system of transliterating Chinese characters using the Roman alphabet. Pinyin was first adopted by the Chinese Communist Party, and now it's an international standard that's popping up even on restaurant signs in Washington, D.C.

DONG: Actually, I noticed a new restaurant called Lao Ban. There's no English because lao ban (ph) means the boss in Chinese.

H. WANG: That's another sign, Dong says, of how much more common Mandarin is in U.S. culture today.

HEATHER LEE: I think it means that we're ready to engage mainland China. We're speaking in the language of mainland China.

H. WANG: Heather Lee is a historian⁹ at New York University Shanghai. She's researched the history of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., including when names in Cantonese rather than Mandarin were often spelled out using English letters. Over the years, many other restaurants have adopted some common keywords in their English names like panda and Great Wall. Lee says the transition¹⁰ towards Mandarin names marks a shift in who's running the restaurants and the kinds of customers they're trying to attract.

LEE: They're linking up with a wealthier professional population from mainland China. A lot of them seem to have connections to Taiwan as well.

H. WANG: For Jason Wang, it was a connection to the city of Xi'an in northwest China that he wanted to preserve right in the name of his family's restaurant chain in New York - Xi'an Famous Foods. The first part of the name is spelled with an X-I. It's one of the hardest sounds to pronounce for many non-Mandarin speakers. And Wang says putting that X on his restaurant storefronts has helped the business grow.

JASON WANG: Let's just keep things authentic¹¹. You know, let's keep the X. Let's keep the spice in the food. Let's not make it too easy for people. People like discovering stuff, you know. They don't really like everything handed to them on a platter.

H. WANG: Wang adds it's also a matter of taking pride in his Chinese heritage¹².

J. WANG: Why are we ashamed of the stuff that we call our food or what we call our restaurants? I think that is also why we've become more confident in presenting the actual names versus¹³ trying to hide it behind some sort of euphemism¹⁴ of a name.

H. WANG: Back underground in the subway station at Zai Lai, Patrick Dixon (ph) is waiting for his order - a steamed pork bun.

PATRICK DIXON: You know, if I wanted, like, authentic Chinese cuisine¹⁵, I'd consider the place that actually has, like, Chinese words in it before a place that has, like, just panda, you know?

H. WANG: Dixon's a frequent customer at this restaurant. He says part of the draw is its name - Zai Lai.

You know what it means?

DIXON: No. I have no clue. What does it mean?

H. WANG: It means come again in Mandarin.

DIXON: Oh, that makes sense.

H. WANG: Especially since he's planning to Zai Lai again and again.

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, New York.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 wok   

n.锅，炒菜锅

参考例句：

• I'm not teaching my students how to use a wok.我不是教我的学生们如何用炒菜的。
• He threw the meat into his biggest wok to cook.他把肉扔到最大的一口锅里煮。

3 minced   

v.切碎( mince的过去式和过去分词 )；剁碎；绞碎；用绞肉机绞（食物，尤指肉）

参考例句：

• He minced over to serve us. 他迈着碎步过来招待我们。
• A young fop minced up to George and introduced himself. 一个花花公子扭扭捏捏地走到乔治面前并作了自我介绍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 galley   

n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇；

参考例句：

• The stewardess will get you some water from the galley.空姐会从厨房给你拿些水来。
• Visitors can also go through the large galley where crew members got their meals.游客还可以穿过船员们用餐的厨房。

5 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

6 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

9 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

10 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。

11 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

12 heritage   

n.传统，遗产，继承物

参考例句：

• The ancient buildings are part of the national heritage.这些古建筑是民族遗产的一部分。
• We Chinese have a great cultural heritage.我们中国人有伟大的文化遗产。

13 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

14 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

15 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。