Alicorn’s note about Chinese probably explains the basis for the eventual “Do not want!” meme, which came from a reverse translation of a crude Chinese translation of Darth Vader saying “Noooooooooooooo!” Link
The Chinese translator probably looked up what “No” means. Translation dictionaries, in turn, recognize that “No” doesn’t have a direct translation, so they list several options, given the context. In the case that “no” is a refusal of something, the translation in Chinese should take the form “[I] do not want [that]”. (If they have to list only one option, they pick the most likely meaning, and that may have been it.)
Then, clumsily using this option, the Chinese translator picked something that translates back as “do not want”.
Alicorn’s note about Chinese probably explains the basis for the eventual “Do not want!” meme, which came from a reverse translation of a crude Chinese translation of Darth Vader saying “Noooooooooooooo!” Link
The Chinese translator probably looked up what “No” means. Translation dictionaries, in turn, recognize that “No” doesn’t have a direct translation, so they list several options, given the context. In the case that “no” is a refusal of something, the translation in Chinese should take the form “[I] do not want [that]”. (If they have to list only one option, they pick the most likely meaning, and that may have been it.)
Then, clumsily using this option, the Chinese translator picked something that translates back as “do not want”.