I bought a lock recently, and I'll freely admit I purchased it only because the name on the box made me feel happy.Frying dragon. I had visions of a cute little children's story about a lonely dragon who succeeds in becoming Mr Popularity by frying up foods for the local villagers who haven't invented fire yet.
Or a dragon who doesn't like raw food and invents a method of heating up a giant pan so he can fry up a giant hamburger.
Or...
The possibilities are endless.
A search of the internet actually finds sites called Frying Dragon, but I hesitate to put links here as they seem to be unusual sites.
A Chinese colleague translated the paper insert in the box, and told me the fifth and sixth characters in the last line (飞龙) say flying dragon in English.
What a pity the company didn't check the work of their translator. On the other hand, their amusing mistranslation has resulted in one more sale. I don't need this lock. But I bought it.
The question of translating brand names between two such different languages and cultures presents its own problems - I read with great interest an article on this topic.
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