Evaluating English Translations of Chinese Cuisine Names: A Case Study of Bilingual Menus of Hotels in Chengdu City

In the post-pandemic era, China is further opening and fully prepared for resuming international communication. One effective measure is hosting various international sports events, which attract a large number of foreign visitors to China. However, foreigners often encounter challenges when ordering Chinese cuisine in restaurants due to language barriers. The current English translations of Chinese cuisine names are not always accurate or effective, leading to misunderstandings. While extant research on the English translations of Chinese cuisine names has focused on texts from websites, books, documentaries, and novels, a notable lacuna remains on bilingual menus of hotels or restaurants in China. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by comprehensively evaluating the English translations in these bilingual menus. This study adopts a qualitative analysis using textual analysis approach under the guidance of ISO 17100:2015 standards. The corpus for this study comprises 297 English translations of Sichuan cuisine names extracted from the bilingual menus of 9 reception hotels for the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games (Postponed to 2023). This study identifies 7 major violations of the ISO 17100:2015 standards in the English translations of Chinese cuisine names in these bilingual menus and concludes that the quality of these English translations has substantial room for improvement. Further research is recommended to improve the quality of the English translations in bilingual menus so that stakeholders in the Chinese catering industry can more successfully attract international customers and foster business opportunities.