The New York Times featured this picture in a slide show about Chinglish - weird English translations found across China. I have two questions:What is Jew's Ear Juice? Is our Ear Juice different that that of other people?
If you happen to read Chinese, what does it really mean?
This kind of reminds me of Ground Farfic.
Shockingly, this is not a bizarre mistranslation. The Chinese translation reads "Blackwood (elder tree) Ear Juice" ("Black" is a reference to the Elder tree's latin name Sambucus nigra). But the english translation is derived from the latin & english genus & species name for the botanical source: (from the Wikipedia entry for the plant) Auricularia auricula-judae, known as the Jew's ear, jelly ear or by a number of other common names, is a species of edible Auriculariales fungus found worldwide. The fruiting body is distinguished by its noticeably ear-like shape and brown colouration; it grows upon wood, especially elder. Its specific epithet is derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree; the common name "Judas's ear" eventually became "Jew's ear", while today "jelly ear" or other names are sometimes used. The mushroom can be found throughout the year in temperate regions worldwide, where it grows upon both dead and living wood. Although it is not regarded as a choice edible mushroom in the west, it has long been popular in China, to the extent that Australia exported large volumes of the mushroom to China in the early twentieth century.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auricularia_auricula-judae
Surprise! These cans actually literally contain juice of "the Jew's Ear."