Chaos – it's what's for dinner

I found this piece of Chinglish on a restaurant menu in Chengdu to be not only humorous but also reflective of some of the challenges of transliteration between the Chinese and English languages. When we think of Americanized Chinese food, the popular dumplings that are often swimming in a light broth are known to us as “wontons” – a romanized pronunciation of the Chinese equivalent 馄饨 （“hun dun” in Mandarin). This is pronounced very closely to the word 混沌 (or “chaos”), so it’s no wonder that the word “chaos” would appear on the menu instead of the Americanized “wonton” we call the food in America.