Here’s wishing good luck to the group of pandas being released back into the wild this week. The six friends - Xingrong, Xingya, Gongzai, Yingying, Zhizhi and Qiqi - will be residing in “Panda Valley” and not “Central Perk” where they will not receive human intervention but will still be monitored under watchful care.
Western television is very popular in China, and it is a way by which many Chinese become proficient in English. However, more often than not Western culture is translated into Mandarin and then dubbed or subtitled. As is the case with adapting culture from foreign sources, content often gets changed in the process.
This is the case with the popular 90’s sitcom “Friends”. While the correct and literal translation would be 朋友 (Péngyǒu), the Chinese translation has taken some liberties and instead translated it into “六人行” (Liù rén xíng), which translates back into English as “Six People Walking” as we see from the individual components:
- 六 (liù) meaning “six”
- 人 (rén) meaning “people”
- 行 (xíng) meaning “to walk”
While this may appear to be a strange way to describe a show about people who spend most of their time sitting on a couch at “Central Perk”, “Six People Walking” may be seen as a way to describe a group of people that band together and must make their way through life as one; these aren’t “six people walking” aimlessly as individuals, but rather “six people walking” together in a group and all headed forward on the road of life. The title “Friends” may be too generic to use as this word could be used to describe just about any show, movie or story.
Unforfunately, Joey Tribbiani’s “How you doin?” translates to the normal “你好” (Nǐ hǎo); for the rest of the proper translation, Joey impersonators are required to rely upon their eyebrows.
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