Thursday, May 7, 2015

Coat’s Chinese Characters Read “Condensed Milk”



Denys Parsons, Funny Amusing and Funny Amazing (London: Pan Books, 1969), p. 47.

CHINESE PUZZLE

The American woman tourist insisted on buying the material for a coat, and brushed aside the protests of the Chinese salesman. She just loved that authentic Chinese lettering on the material.

But when the woman collected her new coat and put it on, Chinese children kept following her in the street, says Gene Gleason in his book ‘Tales of Hongkong’ (Robert Hale, 25s). And in a restaurant everyone stared at her in amazement. They seemed intrigued by the Chinese lettering, which was across her chest. At last, the woman’s husband asked a waiter to explain the characters. The translation was ‘condensed milk’. -- Weekend