Shanghai claims it is winning the war on quirky Chinglish signs

China’s most cosmopolitan city has claimed it is winning its war against ‘Chinglish’, the ungrammatical and misspelt English that is scattered across its streets. Officials from Shanghai’s ‘quality watchdog’ revealed the accuracy of English language signs in public spaces had improved 85 per cent since it took action three years ago, according to Daily Mail.

The news will dismay many English-speaking residents, who have developed a fondness for the city’s quirky signs.

In 2009, the city decided it did not want to lose face over the mistranslations and mistakes when thousands of visitors were due to arrive for the World Expo the following year.

Teams of student volunteers were assembled to scour the city for Chinglish and a website was launched to collect complaints, run by the city’s Language Work Committee.

Among the signs to go was one forbidding ‘ragamuffin, drunken people and psychotic’ from entering the Pearl Tower, one of Shanghai’s most famous attractions.

Further instructions that went included: ‘Prohibit carrying animals and the articles which disturb common sanitation (including the peculiar smell of effluvium)’ and a ban on ‘dangerous germs, pests and other baleful biology’.

Meanwhile, on the city’s subway system, signs such as: ‘If you take the phone on your waistband, as if to send money to the thief’ or ‘If you are stolen, call the police at once’ have vanished.

Although public signs can be easily altered, there was some doubt over whether officials could contain the spread of Chinglish among private businesses.