Sorry, but what are you trying to say?

Temperature: 24 c

Weather: Partly Cloudy



I have mentioned earlier in my articles, legal documents here are prepared both in Chinese and English. Strictly speaking, there is no legal duty to prepare the English version. More often than not, when these documents are filed with the relevant authorities, only the Chinese versions are submitted to the authorities. The English version is prepared solely for foreign clients.

Today I was asked to read, review, edit and comment on a Service Contract (it’s funny, I have only started work like less than 2 weeks and I am already expected to “comment” on contracts based on China law? Well, just do it!).

As always, I was given 2 versions of the same Service Contract i.e. the Chinese and the English version. Having studied and practiced law in English language, it only makes sense for me to read the English version to understand the contract.

Well, from the language of the contract you can easily tell whether the contract is prepared in Chinese first then translated into English or the other way round. Normally if the contract is prepared by local Chinese firms or local government authorities, the original version will be Chinese and then they will ask someone with reasonable knowledge of English to translate the documents to English.

The one I was reading, reviewing, editing and commenting on this morning was definitely prepared in Chinese first then translated to English. But it is still easier to read the English version than the Chinese.

While I was half way reading the Service Contract, I came across this sentence which I shall reproduce here below in verbatim:-

“Party B’s services shall be examined and approved by Party A based on ‘superior wins inferior sucks’ principle.”

I nearly choked and went into coma. What the H is he trying to say??!! Superior wins Inferior sucks?? That sounds more like the lyric of Eminem or Linkin Park songs. How could it appear in a legal document? Further, what does it mean?!

That’s the good thing about being bi-lingual, when you hit a dead end with the English version, you can always refer to the Chinese version.

Ok, this is what the original Chinese version has to say:-

“乙方所提供的服务将经甲方以‘优胜劣汰’的原则审批。”

I will not try to embarrass myself here, in my own blog, by attempting to translate the above. If you understand the above Chinese sentence, you get it; if you don’t, you don’t get it. It’s just that simple. Sometimes, it is just difficult if not impossible to translate the Chinese (even if it only has 22 characters).

I don’t blame the English translator of the Service Contract. He/She’d probably tried his/her best to tell the Chinese story in English. It’s just that, the best he/she could come up with is “Superior Wins and Inferior SUCKS”.

Let’s just say I don’t read Chinese. How am I going to “advise” my client on this “Superior Wins Inferior Sucks” concept?

This might be my legal opinion to my client:-

“Judging from the principle of ‘Superior Wins Inferior Sucks’, it is our view that the potential services to be provided by you to the Chinese party shall be of superior quality in order to win the hearts of the Chinese, otherwise, your services might not be approved and thus be labeled as ‘SUCKS’.”