BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese lawyer has sued McDonald's in China for using mostly English, not Chinese, on its receipts, violating his right to information, media reported on Friday.

The lawyer, identified only as Shan, decided to take legal action against the world's largest restaurant chain after he ate at two McDonald's restaurants in Beijing in May and June.

"McDonald's offers food service in China, but it does not use Chinese, which violates the consumers' right to know," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shan as saying.

Shan has asked McDonald's to apologise in newspapers and give him symbolic compensation of 1 yuan (6 pence), the newspaper said. The case began on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted McDonald's as saying it was not fair to accuse the company of not using Chinese as its advertisements and menus were all in Chinese and its staff all spoke Chinese.

The receipts had changed into Chinese since July, it said. The company was not immediately available for comment.

Cases of east-meets-west culture clashes have been widely reported in China since the country embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s.

Earlier this month, a controversial Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing, closed its doors after facing years of opposition.

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[...] violating his right to information [..]

Haha! This Chinese lawer is so funny... and nothing but a coward who makes noise for easy fame.
He says he is fighting for the "right to information" wich sounds like "press censorship" in China by suiting McDonald's on its receipts! 岂有此理 ! He could also suit KFC for "aggravated pollution" because they use plastic bags for ketchup.

Losing face by saying stupidities is not a taboo anymore in China.

Ahyia! This lawyer is so stupid! nuf sed...

"losing face"

I Don't think the lawyer is stupid he being fair to his cournty why not have chinese working McDonald. USA in our county I don't see any thing wrong it. Mr or Ms Lawyer keep up good work

Good for him! It is like in New York a Chinese Restaurant having everything in Chinese!

Lol, chinese restaurants do have there menus in chinese here, well obviously not chinese, but one of the languages spoken within the country of the peoples republic of china.

I wonder how an english restaurant would do in china. lol.

At least he is not asking for money...
Anyway might be better not to unterstand. I don't think anybody who is going to McDonald is too keen on reading what's inside the food, it's the best way to lose appetite.

Our UK Chinese restaurants (as do most other overseas types) have both languages. Fairly simple to do if the menus don't change often.

When i first read this I thought "Wow.... that guys an idiot". But really, he's not asking for money, just for Chinese receipts which does make sense. Though now they have changed it so I don't see why he's still suing..

We must someone to do this things.

Yeah, at first glance I thought he was stupid too. But news, as always, can be entirely circumstantial and biased on their points of view. It doesn't look like he had much of a motive since he didn't ask for money, just an apology.

And maybe he had a legitimate reason to actually take... pseudo-legal action against them? He probably wouldn't have asked for an apology unless they had done something wrong. He might have needed a receipt for whatever reason in Chinese, and they might have refused to give him one, and he found fault with it.

All in all, it seems crazy he would sue over something like a receipt not in Chinese, but it also seems crazy he would spend that much effort over something he didn't feel strongly about. Who knows?

Shouldn't be a problem for McDonald's, they are just being stupid with this - what's wrong with adding another language!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2009 11:13AM by Olive.

Here in Québec, a store was sued and closed down because it didn`t respect law 101 saying that all signs must be in French. There in Ontario now.... that sucks cause they made a good slushies(cold drink mixed in ice, not achololic just different flavours)!

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All in all, it seems crazy he would sue over something like a receipt not in Chinese, but it also seems crazy he would spend that much effort over something he didn't feel strongly about. Who knows?

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We also spent a lot of effort in this forum. Like us, the lawyer is just doing what he thinks worthful. And same to us, this is the life. When we talk about others, we are also talked by others. Does it have meaning? It's life!

Just wait until China becomes like the US/Canada. Where a theif breaks into someone's home trips on something and break some bones. And the theif sues the person living there for not making his home safe enough! Ahahahah!

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Just wait until China becomes like the US/Canada. Where a theif breaks into someone's home trips on something and break some bones. And the theif sues the person living there for not making his home safe enough! Ahahahah!

LOL funny moroes that is true, that does happen here alot! One time in Montréal this guy was stealing something and he went into the building, where there was no WATCH OUT! WET FLOOR sign and he slipped on wet floor right on to his butt! It was caught by secruity cameras and posted on youtube and given to police. And to think that the theif planned this robbery for 4 months ahead of time XD LOL! So then the theif sues the store owner for not having a wet floor sign for $1,000. The guy (theif) never even goes to prison that parts weird.

All sorts of dumb shit has been happening like that in the US. I think the first one was when that old lady spilled the hot coffee on herself and sued MacDonalds for it. After that it seemed like EVERYONE started suing someone for something stupid...I wish I could have shot that old lady after she spilled the coffee on herself. It was her own damn fault just like all these other idiots...again...it's why I believe in destroying the entire human race...

Another fine suit in the States:

This week the Supreme Court upheld a $ 79.5 million award against Philip Morris for the 1997 lung cancer death of a trusting soul who had never, never, never learned that smoking could be bad for you. Yeah, right! With interest, the award now has ballooned to $ 145 million. See, it pays to be totally stupid and to never take any responsibility for your actions!

"The lawsuit at the center of the case was filed by Mayola Williams, whose husband died of lung cancer in 1997 after smoking Philip Morris’ Marlboro cigarettes for more than 40 years. The husband, a public school janitor from Portland, smoked up to three packs a day and believed assurances by tobacco industry that smoking posed no health risk."

[www.attorneyatlaw.com]

Well, she'll get plenty of money from that, but she won't get most of that money. See the courts are going to take most of that money, then her lawyer is going to take the majority of the rest, after that the government will take 30% of that money, and then with whatever she has left she's going to blow it on dumb shit, and in 5 years she'll be back to where she was and wonder what had happened lol.

yes, once i saw "做鸡" ("do chicken" or being prostitute in Chinese) from a KFC in Nanjing. Maybe a little more English wouldn't hurt.

why couldn't the lawer try to learn english rather than making fusses for nothing?

Wei Minghua Wrote:
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> why couldn't the lawer try to learn english rather
> than making fusses for nothing?

Because it's in China... Some people don't have the time/patience to learn English and why should they? They live in China where people speak Chinese. If you are going to open a business in another country, you really should learn the language.

Brumegepard Wrote:
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> yes, once i saw "做鸡" ("do chicken" or being
> prostitute in Chinese) from a KFC in Nanjing.
> Maybe a little more English wouldn't hurt.

That would actually be an example of why KFC should learn better Chinese...

Uberche Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wei Minghua Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > why couldn't the lawer try to learn english
> rather
> > than making fusses for nothing?
>
> Because it's in China... Some people don't have
> the time/patience to learn English and why should
> they? They live in China where people speak
> Chinese. If you are going to open a business in
> another country, you really should learn the
> language.
>
> Brumegepard Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > yes, once i saw "做鸡" ("do chicken" or being
> > prostitute in Chinese) from a KFC in Nanjing.
> > Maybe a little more English wouldn't hurt.
>
> That would actually be an example of why KFC
> should learn better Chinese...

Some people should just give up translating English expressions into Chinese.
"We do chicken right" how DO you translate that? I'll try:
我们的鸡炸的好！（not very good approximation to the original)
我们炸鸡好！ （better)
我们的口味最纯正（best)