Taiwanese publisher Rye Field Publishing Co this month caused a stir in the book publishing industry. <i>The History of Spicy Food</i>, a book about the history of chili peppers in China, was recalled because the editors had used the Chinese word for “China” (<i>zhongguo</i>, 中國) in place of “continent” (<i>dalu</i>, 大陸).
This error led to absurd sentences such as “chili peppers were introduced to China thanks to Christopher Columbus’ discovery of the new China,” even though the author had written “new continent” in the original text. Other examples included the “Indian subcontinent” being replaced with “Indian sub-China.” The source of