Experience shows that many Western brands do not cross the cultural divides. The language barrier is the first obstacle to overcome. Western languages codify words in written script whereas each Chinese character represents a word. So any brand moving into China has to decide how it will be rendered in Chinese - both phonetically and visually.

Taken from an article on Branding in China, by Edwin Colyer (brandchannel.com).

Xin nian hao (Happy New Year) to everybody! Chinese New Year (CNY) started yesterday (Pic shows gangdu2’s CNY dinner).