US President Barack Obama and his daughters attend at the pardon of the National Thanksgiving Turkey event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington November 25, 2015. (Reuters)
Beijing:
When President Obama pardoned two turkeys named "Honest" and "Abe" this Thanksgiving, most Americans understood the reference to Abraham Lincoln.
But in China, a translation mix-up saw the second turkey's name rendered not as the one-syllable "Abe" but with two characters pronounced "ah-bay," the same as those used in the name of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
That lead to some merriment here, with Netizens wondering if President Obama had in fact compared his Japanese counterpart and ally to a bird.
"Abe should feel happy, because its American daddy is thinking about it," one social media user wrote, while others were more direct. "Abe is just a chicken," wrote one.
Many Chinese people resent Japan for failing to make amends for war crimes committed during its occupation their country during World War II, while Abe is reviled by many for visiting a war shrine in Tokyo seen as a symbol of Japanese nationalism.
According to the Associated Press, the faulty translation of Abe was published by state-run China Radio International and picked up by several other outlets.
A man who answered the CRI news hotline told the AP that editorial staff there had used the Web to translate the name "Abe."
The tradition of the president granting a "pardon" to a turkey at Thanksgiving has happened every year for the last quarter century, although President Lincoln may have been the first U.S. leader to spare one of the birds from the dinner table, reportedly because his son Jack had taken a liking to it.
In China, though, one social media user suggested a more suitable use of a presidential pardon this year.
"The main man pardoning a turkey this year should be Emperor Putin," he wrote.
That appears unlikely: Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkey's shooting down of one of his country's warplanes this week a "stab in the back," while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on Thursday for tough sanctions against the country.
© 2015 The Washington Post
But in China, a translation mix-up saw the second turkey's name rendered not as the one-syllable "Abe" but with two characters pronounced "ah-bay," the same as those used in the name of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
That lead to some merriment here, with Netizens wondering if President Obama had in fact compared his Japanese counterpart and ally to a bird.
"Abe should feel happy, because its American daddy is thinking about it," one social media user wrote, while others were more direct. "Abe is just a chicken," wrote one.
Many Chinese people resent Japan for failing to make amends for war crimes committed during its occupation their country during World War II, while Abe is reviled by many for visiting a war shrine in Tokyo seen as a symbol of Japanese nationalism.
According to the Associated Press, the faulty translation of Abe was published by state-run China Radio International and picked up by several other outlets.
A man who answered the CRI news hotline told the AP that editorial staff there had used the Web to translate the name "Abe."
The tradition of the president granting a "pardon" to a turkey at Thanksgiving has happened every year for the last quarter century, although President Lincoln may have been the first U.S. leader to spare one of the birds from the dinner table, reportedly because his son Jack had taken a liking to it.
In China, though, one social media user suggested a more suitable use of a presidential pardon this year.
"The main man pardoning a turkey this year should be Emperor Putin," he wrote.
That appears unlikely: Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkey's shooting down of one of his country's warplanes this week a "stab in the back," while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on Thursday for tough sanctions against the country.
© 2015 The Washington Post
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