A corollary to this phenomenon are the Westerners with embarrassingly stupid Chinese characters tattooed on their body. Since most Westerners don’t read Chinese, it doesn’t matter what the characters mean, just what image they characters represent. A Chinese tattoo indicates depth, internationalism, mysticism, and sensitivity even if the tattoo reads “my mother eats maggots”.”

Sorry for the huge great quote but I just wanted to say that you basically summed it up right there. As much as I find Chinglish amusing, I don’t doubt that many a Chinese person has howled with laughter at our sorry attempts at their language. But as you say, the person wearing a T-shirt with a Chinese character on it likely isn’t trying to communicate. She just thinks it looks cool. There’s absolutely no reason why the Chinese shouldn’t do the same with English.

I’m guessing that for the average small business that actually might be trying to communicate, a professional translation company might not be practical. In those circumstances, whenever I look at Chinglish, I remember that someone is trying. And, to be perfectly blunt, their English is already far better than my Mandarin, because I don’t speak a word of Mandarin.