Good Characters, Inc. Blog

When does a business’s clever name become offensive? That may depend on where the business is located.

Take the restaurant Wu E Bu Zuo, for example. The name literally means “not-hungry-don’t-sit.” In other words, come and sit in this establishment when you are really hungry. The name is also a play on a Chinese idiom that sounds identical but is written with different characters. That Wu E Bu Zuo means, literally, “no-evil-don’t-do,” or “to stop at nothing in doing evil, to be as wicked as possible.” Many people in Taiwan, where a couple restaurants with this name are located, find the double meaning clever.

But in the city of Nanjing, formerly Nanking, a number of residents are complaining about the Wu E Bu Zuo restaurant close to Nanjing University. In that city a terrible incident took place during World War II. Japanese soldiers killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in an atrocity known as “The Rape of Nanking.” In their city, people “stopped at nothing in doing evil,” acting “as wickedly as possible,” and the residents do not want that memory enshrined in the name of a restaurant. The local authorities are threatening to impose a penalty on the restaurant’s owners for using an inappropriate name. 

When choosing a name, remember the realtor’s formula for success: “Location, location, location!”

Links:

• A restaurant named “Wu E Bu Zuo” (Chinese)
  街谈: 小吃店起名“无饿不坐”
• Chinese officials say using inappropriate and unapproved names can be punished (Chinese)
  烧烤店起名“无饿不坐” 不规范用字重者可处罚
• Local residents complain “Wu E Bu Zuo” could mislead or be seen as encouraging students to commit crimes (Chinese) 
  小吃店起名“无饿不坐”被指有误导学生之嫌
• Wu E Bu Zuo Restaurant in Orchid Island, Taiwan (Chinese)
  “无饿不坐”兰屿风味餐专卖图
• Wu E Bu Zuo Restaurant in Lukang, Taiwan (Chinese)
  鹿港美食‧無餓不坐麵線糊