The NYT says that for the past two years the Shanghai Commission for the Management of Language Use has been trying to eradicate the scourge of humorous signs from its city.

The campaign is partly modeled on Beijing’s herculean effort to clean up English signage for the 2008 Summer Olympics, which led to the replacement of 400,000 street signs, 1,300 restaurant menus and such exemplars of impropriety as the Dongda Anus Hospital — now known as the Dongda Proctology Hospital. Gone, too, is Racist Park, a cultural attraction that has since been rechristened Minorities Park.

“The purpose of signage is to be useful, not to be amusing,” said Zhao Huimin, the former Chinese ambassador to the United States who, as director general of the capital’s Foreign Affairs Office, has been leading the fight for linguistic standardization and sobriety.

As if to rub their failure in their faces, the paper of record put together a gallery of hilarious signs and products for your clicking pleasure.

Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish [NYT]

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