How do you say OREO in Chinese?
May 8, 2008
Did you know that Oreos in China are rectangular wafers rather than round chocolate cookies?
WEIRD.
Apparently Chinese people aren’t big cookie people (unless they contain small paper fortunes), so Kraft had to redesign the whole product to fit in with the culture. Even more interesting, according to the Wall Street Journal, they also began to promote the American tradition of “milk and cookies.”
In China, Kraft began a grassroots marketing campaign to educate Chinese consumers about the American tradition of pairing milk with cookies. The company created an Oreo apprentice program at 30 Chinese universities that drew 6,000 student applications.
Three hundred of the applicants were trained to become Oreo brand ambassadors. Some of the students rode around Beijing on bicycles outfitted with wheel covers resembling Oreos and handed out cookies to more than 300,000 consumers. Others held Oreo-themed basketball games to reinforce the idea of dunking cookies in milk. Television commercials showed kids twisting apart Oreo cookies, licking the cream center and dipping the chocolate cookie halves into glasses of milk.
I think this is hilarious, especially since there are a lot of lactose intolerant people in China. Right? Or am I stereotyping, like I did before with the fortune cookies?
In the end, Kraft created the Chinese Oreo, which “consisted of four layers of crispy wafer filled with vanilla and chocolate cream, coated in chocolate.”
I don’t know why I’m finding this crazy. Maybe it’s the Japanese in me, but everything in Japan (and even Korea, aside from the kimchi) is super sweet–including the spaghetti. I mean, look at Choco Pies: they’re an Asianified version of moon pies and OH SO DELICIOUS NOM NOM NOM. One traditional drink in Japan is the bright green Melon Soda Float (MMMMMM YUMMMMMY) and for me personally, nothing is really ever sweet enough. SUGGARRRR.
In conclusion, Chinese people are weird. The end.
PS. Speaking of sugar, I just discovered the BEST BLOG.
chinese people dont know how to do anything sweet. nearly all chinese confections and baked goods are revolting.
im guessing the wording on the package is actually pronounced oreo. when chinese people need to phonetically put together a foreign word they just throw together characters that dont mean anything together but sound close. i remember my mom talking about it once when she was reading a chinese newspaper.
except it would be more like “o-lee-o.”
1) Fortune cookies are an American invention
2) When the Japanese need to spell an American word phonetically, they do the same thing, in fact, they have a whole alphabet for it, it’s called katakana
3) Having lived in both Japan and China, I find Japanese people far more weird…what’s with all the fake blonde hair and orange tans? Or the obsession with little cartoon characters. And seriously, what’s with eating sushi off of naked American women?
1) yes, i know that.
2) again, thank you for informing me about something i already knew.
3) being japanese, i find that americans always think our people are weirder, even though they’re the ones with the weird fetishes and once thought our vaginas were sideways.
1) Not clear from your post that you know that
2) Not addressing you
3) I do not believe that Americans always think that Japan is weirder, I just happen to personally think that there are more weird things in Japanese culture than in the Chinese culture from what I’ve seen. There is actually a lot about the Japanese culture I find admirable and fascinating, but I just think its funny when one culture (that has many strange aspects) likes to point out the “weirdness” of another culture…just hypocrytical.
^ I find the comments above just silly. *scoffs* How dare he?
Unfortunately I don’t know how to read chinese too well, but I’d love to know how Oreo is pronounced in chinese (mandarin). I want to say the second character looks like ‘wai’ but that just sounds funny.
i know, right???
aaron, i guess you didn’t get the joke of me calling chinese people weird because of one cookie.
re: katakana
the express purpose of katakana is for foreign word pronunciation. its nothing like the random clusterfuck of using chinese characters (that already have meanings of their own) to make a hilarious meaningless jumble to spell out ‘new york’ or something.
moye im too lazy to comment twice, i like your 16 yo drawing but the streak looks like a hairband.
I don’t really see a difference…both serve the same purpose, and your answer seems more motivated by personal bigotry than by intelligent thought.
so aaron, do you just like coming back to the same old post about oreo cookies to see who else responds to you?
derek brings up a good point about katakana, so i don’t know where the personal bigotry comes from.
what? youre ignorant so that makes me a bigot? yeesh. im chinese, and i speak fleunt japanese. using chinese characters for phonetic comedy is common in both chinese and japanese, lighten up.
if you cant see the difference and you think katakana is the same thing, read an basic japanese language book or just do yourself a favor and never start a conversation about it again. only 3 people know youre a moron so far.
it’s true. derek is a giant FOB.
i use this electronic ID tag device thing at work and theyre called FOBs. i dont know what the acronym stands for but i found it funny and apparently im the only one that does.
hahahahahaha
derek, thanks for counting me in. i just know that i like reading moye’s stuff. i <3 u, moye!!
(not a stalker)
kthxbye!
Everyone should get to use a FOB in their office.
i’m the FOB in my office.
The characters mean Austria Leo. Go figure. You were right, Derek…
er. Austria in chinese is 奥地利 (ào dì lì)，
not 奥利奥 (ào lì ào).
its hard to tel because of the wacky font, but i’m pretty sure it is 奥利奥. bye 4 now
OK. No, i’m not chinese, i’m aussie. but it looks like
奥利奥. ào lì ào.
奥 as in 澳大利亚, ào dà lì yà, Australia
利 as in 利润， lì rùn， profit.
and then 奥 again.
i’m pretty late, but whatever.
DISCLAIMER: i might be wrong. XD