This is a very minor pet peeve but one that comes up often: Chinese is overtranslated! People will pick up what xiaolongbao and hargow are just like they picked up ravioli and tortellini without them being called dumplings. https://twitter.com/qianjinghua/status/1301028242661339136

I wonder if it's because Pinyin is no one's native language, so people figure if they have to transliterate anyway, they may as well translate? But that doesn't explain why, say, Korean cuisine keeps more Korean terms (and even when a Japanese equivalent is more well known).

It's funny that we'll even choose ANY other language over a Chinese one to describe Chinese food in English: congee (Tamil), umami (Japanese), crêpe (French) instead of zhou, xian, jianbing. I get why and sometimes it works but sometimes it's just confusing for everyone.

It also seems like earlier generations of Chinese and SEA Chinese immigrants introduced more Chinese terms to English than the last 30 years of migration has. Yum cha, wonton, char kuey teow, hor fun, dim sim, dim sum, chop suey, chow mien etc. So maybe it is a Pinyin problem.

Receipts: here's an article about a Chinese restaurant in Grote St Adelaide in 1913. If South Australians* over 100 years ago could handle "hoo hoong" you can put some Pinyin on a menu today.

*No shade to SA. Maybe a little bit. I'm just jealous you can get yum cha and I can't.

Because all roads lead to Trove, here's a 1903 article on a white guy's impressions of Chinese food.

"One wonders what the Chinese find of interest in the diminutive morsel within," this sinologist says of watermelon seeds. He also calls century eggs "ghastly"! @TroveAustralia

Here's an example from a Sydney paper in 1937 that maybe goes too far in the other direction with "tzu roe" and "shamee" which aren't the names of specific dishes, just pork 猪肉 and shrimp 虾米 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/230342017

Also pretty sure Madame Pao's story about chopsticks is untrue but the white wives of Chinese men in early 20th C Australian newspapers really say the darndest things. I should pull together a collection of quotes coz it's a goldmine.

Oh wow just did more digging and maybe she's right. I thought forks were for cooking, not eating. Sorry, Madame Pao.