A staff member makes the famous Goubuli pork buns in a restaurant in the food street in northern Tianjin City.

 

What's in a name? For one of China's most famous food companies, the answer to that question is: Not much, really.

 

If a pork-filled bun called Goubuli, which translates to "dog won't eat it," sells like hotcakes, you could probably convince Saudi Arabians to buy sand.

 

Now the Tianjin Goubuli Catering Group, a 149-year-old snack producer in northern China, is hoping to win the trademark for its new English name, which is - wait for it - Go Believe.

 

However, the company is not sure authorities will approve its application for the new English-language trademark as it fears the name may have already been taken, the Tianjin Daily said on Friday.

 

Probably not but - go figure - stranger things have happened.

 

The logic behind Go Believe is that it apparently sounds very much like its Mandarin name.

 

The group handed in an official application to the trademark office under the State Administration for Industry & Commerce on Thursday, right after it found some Websites registered with domain names using the words "go" and "believe" in various combinations.

 

"It's still not known whether any other individual or group has applied to the office for the English name," Mi A'qian, an attorney with the Goubuli Group, told the newspaper.

 

"It usually takes four to five months to receive a final decision."

 

The food firm is no stranger to problems with its name.

 

A Japanese company headed off the Tianjin group registering the Chinese-language trademark Goubuli in Japan 10 years ago.

 

The group finally bought the trademark in June for a "very small transaction fee," according to Mi.

 

That deal is expected to be approved by the Japan Patent Office within two months.

 

Zhang Yansen, board chairperson with the Goubuli Group, told the newspaper that the meaning of the English name "fits very well with tenet of the group."

 

"Honesty is the thing we insist on," Zhang said.

 

The northern city of Tianjin is famous for its traditional dim sums, among which the Goubuli bun is the most popular.

 

The company's bizarre Chinese name came, in part, from the nickname Gouzai (Puppy) that was given to the firm's founder.

 

In 1858, Hebei Province native Gouzai opened his own bun booth in Tianjin after working for years as a trainee at a local dim sum booth.

 

Gouzai's buns drew villagers from far and wide.

 

He became so busy at the shop and had no time to speak with customers, who complained "Gouzai sells buns but does not speak to people." The saying was then shorten to Goubuli, which means "Gouzai does not speak to people."

 

Nothing much has changed since, except for the sheer scale of sales.

 

(Shanghai Daily October 14, 2007)