Alex Greenberg, as the name would suggest, is not Chinese. But he lives in Shangai, China, and one of his favorite things, is capturing the weird stuff he encounters. China, with 14 billion inhabitants, is the most populated country in the world. It is undoubtable that Chinese culture, history and tradition, are very deep indeed. But there is a big gap, between the Chinese language, and the English language. A gap that, when crossed unsuccessfully, can lead to a hilarious situation.

Via his Instagram Shanghai Observed aforementioned Alex Greenberg, presents to the rest of the English speaking world, some of these funny translational misunderstandings. At least at most of them, one can be assured that the people wearing their articles of clothing, are oblivious to their actual meaning. “Dead Inside” after all, doesn’t seem something that a parent would put knowingly, at the back of their kid’s hoodie.

“Shanghai has a great skate scene which is what drove me to move here in the first place,” Alex said in an interview.“When the account started to grow and I gained a following I started to get submissions from other people at that point I began to post only the best of the best. The types of situations I like to share are ones that make you double take or say ‘wtf.”

 

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