Famed bun-maker cleans up "doggy" name

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese maker of famed stuffed buns whose Chinese name means "A dog would ignore it" has cleaned up its English-language to avoid confusion, but may be risking more puzzled looks.

The steamed "Goubuli" buns filled with a mince of meat and vegetables are the pride of Tianjin, a gritty port city near Beijing. Their Chinese name literally means "Dog would ignore it" and is said to come from the nickname of the man who began selling them some 150 years ago.

Now the buns are sold nationwide and have attracted makers of fake "Dog-would-ignore-it" buns.

But hungry for more success and apparently worried that foreign tourists may fear their name reflects the buns' quality or contents, the Tianjin Goubuli Group Corporation has opted for a tamer English name that may bring its own confusion -- "Go Believe."

"The English name highlights the honesty of the company," said the chairman of the corporation, Zhang Yansen, according to the Xinhua news agency Sunday. "We hope it can be better understood and trusted by foreign guests."

The company has started hanging out the English-language "Go Believe" sign on its restaurants, Xinhua said.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley)