Subversive panda?

A subway ad, at the Dongsishitiao station on Beijing's Line 2, that involves a very interesting language issue. I've passed by this ad a number of times in the last month but didn't have a camera handy until now.

English speakers could, I think, read these English words in two ways:
    1) More freedom, and also more happiness (no causal relationship, "bigger and better"); or
    2) The greater the freedom, the greater the happiness (cause-effect, "the more, the merrier").

I've gotten different views from my native Chinese-speaking friends about the connotations of the Chinese version, 更多自由, 更多欢乐. Some say that it could be read both ways, like English; others, that it mainly means #1. So there are various possibilities here, all interesting: that this is a slyly subversive message in both languages; that it is an unintentional transmission of a subversive message though inexact translation; or that it is a fully intentional and brilliantly conceived transmission in English only, letting foreign-language readers conclude that an increase-freedom campaign is underway.

I can't say, but I'm tantalized by the possibilities.

What is has to do in either language with panda-themed tourism is a different question.

James Fallows is a staff writer at The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Jimmy Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the 2018 book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which was a national best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.

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