Smeared Type

By Jian Ping

Shi Jing

I recently helped my friend Martha of Living Earth Television to translate a documentary film from Chinese into English. I used to do film subtitle translation when I was working in Beijing in the mid 1980s. At that time, I also translated some short stories from English into Chinese. It was a pleasure to go back to my old profession and chew on each word, both in Chinese and English, again.

The film we worked on is about children, therefore, the language was quite straightforward. However, there were times we had to utilize our interpretation and select language that made better sense in English—we were faced with the challenge that every translator has to deal with. That is to stay true to the original text via a process of recreation.

Incidentally, at the Asian Classics classes I am taking at the University of Chicago, we have been reading translations of some best known Chinese classics: the Grand History by Si Ma Qian, Analects by Confucius, and Tao De Jing by Lao Zi, to name a few. I have to admit that for me, reading the English translation in today’s

 language is much easier than reading the original in classic Chinese! Only occasionally, I check the Chinese original.

Two weeks ago, we started reading Shi Jing (诗经), translated as the Book of Songs, or the Classic of Poetry or the Odes. Unfortunately, none of the title translation transcends the “essence” of the word Jing. Since Shi Jing is a collection of classic folk songs and poems, I decide to read the Chinese and English side by side, sometimes check more than one translation. I am shocked by the drastic differences in each version.

For instance, in Airs of Chen, there is a poem titled 泽坡. Its first stanza in Chinese is as follows:

James Legge translated it as: 

Ze Po:    By the shores of that marsh,                                                                                                                       
                There are rushes and lotus plants.
                There is the beautiful lady;
                I am tortured for her, but what avails it?
                Waking or sleeping, I do nothing;
                From my eyes and nose the water streams. 

Arthur Waley’s translation:               

Swamp’s Shore:          

By that swamp’s shore, grow reeds and lotus.  

There is a man so fair—Oh, how can I cure my wound?                                                       

Day and night I can do nothing;   

As a flood my tears flow.

It is acceptable that translators select different words to convey the meaning in the original and try to have a poetic ring in English. But to take the gender of “ 美人”differently? That is hard to take. The word “beauty” in Chinese usually refers to women. I wonder if it is because later in the poem, the description of the “beauty” includes words like “majestic,” and “big” that Waley decided it must be a man.

This is just one example. Numerous different interpretations in the translation sometimes make it even hard to trace the elements and meaning embedded in the original. Of course, part of the beauty of reading poetry is that a reader can decipher it whatever way he/she find resonating. But when it comes to translation, the responsibility and liberty a translator takes would not only stand for one person, but would impact all the readers, especially those who cannot read the original in a foreign language. I, as a translator, support the approach of staying true to the original text versus free interpretation. I wonder what other translators or readers prefer and appreciate.  

 Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. www.mulberrychild.com, www.moraquest.com

Image by Brooklyn Museum via Flickr

My daughter who, with her family has been living in Paris for the past 3 ½, years recently sent me the attached, a compilation of observations from friends and ex-pats.  She assures me it is a pretty accurate assessment, which I think is quite an amusing commentary on the French way of life – pluses and minuses.

You know you are living in France…………..

When you give your children ’snails’ for dinner and they adore them!!

When you kiss “hello” to everyone you meet!!

When you open your windows in the morning to ‘air’ everything!!

When you take off your shoes when you go to someone’s house!!

When you 9 year-old son asks if he can have a snack and comes out of the fridge with cheese and olives

When you see a car parked, facing the wrong way, on a one-way street

When your 4 year old son brings home a recreation of a Matisse

When you make a quick dinner for your daughter and she asks if it’s the ‘premier plat’

When you smile at someone in the street & they don’t smile back

When the boulanger takes an extra 5 minutes to wrap up your pastry selection in a box with a bow and their logo sticker DESPITE there being a long line of customers waiting to be served.

When you can place items in your bag while shopping to be paid for at the register WITHOUT being accused of shoplifting.

When you are asked by the doctor to disrobe and he/she doesn’t give you some sort of cover-up to put on during the examination!

When a man asks you out without being in the slightest bit concerned that you have a husband!

When you visit the butcher, the cheese shop, the wine shop, the bakery, and the fruit & veg market all in a one block radius of your house

When you wouldn’t dare leaving the house in tennis shoes or a sweatshirt

When you see the scarves come out as soon as the temps plummet to 15C/60F

When the waiters leave you alone and don’t refill your glass or ask “how is everything” every 5 minutes

When only close friends call you by your first name

When you walk into a pharmacy that sells lotions, pills and tinctures for” Jambes Lourd” (what the heck is that?)

When you might just see the whole animal in the butcher’s window

When there is a charity to send poor people on vacation

When someone pushes you on the bus/metro a couple of minutes before the stop in order to be the first off, and the offender is at least 90 years old

When there is no shame (or fear) in unemployment

When if you don’t like one doctor you can just pick another and see them without having to go through your insurance provider first

When you can invite people over for just an aperitif

When you can give your dinner guests the stinkiest cheese in the world and they will still congratulate you on the meal!!!

When you walk out of your GYN’s office with your pap smear in your purse to take to the post office to mail to the lab

When you finally get the kids to the park to find it’s been closed

When you jump the queue because you’re pregnant

When you are walking your dog and stop to pick up his poo and one of your kids steps in someone else’s dog’s poo

When your daughter says “oh la la” when she drops something

When you can ride a bike in a skirt and heels

When every time you see the Eiffel Tower sparkling it gives you shivers

When you go to the fruit seller and you are asked whether it’s to be eaten today or tomorrow

When you have to ask 3 or 4 times for the check at a restaurant

When the elevator only fits 2 people

When you go into a shop to buy something, but they refuse to ring you up because it’s 5 min. to closing

When you go to the butchers & you’re told exactly how to cook the meat you’ve bought

When you suddenly become popular and have houseguests all the time

When a man calls to your house to tell you for a fee he will sharpen all your kitchen knives

When the shop assistants offer to gift wrap your purchases, even when it’s not Christmas

When buying a bottle of wine, the wine merchant asks you what you plan to eat with it

When even if you’re first in the queue at the bus stop, that doesn’t mean you’ll be first onto the bus

When you walk into the ladies’ room at work while the cleaning man is there and you both say hello and go on with your business

When you consider slipping quietly out of a party so you don’t have to kiss 25 people goodbye (whom you already kissed hello).

When the best ice cream shop in the city is closed during the entire month of August

When the same shop is open all through winter

When your 6yo corrects your pronunciation coz she can do that ‘r’

When dogs are allowed in restaurants but not in the parks

When you find yourself doing that shoulder shrug combined with the “pfff” sound

When the only employee at the doctor’s office is the doctor! He/she answers the phones, schedules the appointments, weighs/measures/takes blood pressure, gives shots, and spends a minimum of 30 minutes with you and it costs you next-to-nothing

When doctors still make housecalls

When you’re served champagne at a 3-yr-old’s birthday party

When the perfectly coiffed chic woman ahead of you in line wearing high heeled shoes, a tight little skirt and equally tight top on her trim little body, turns around and is older than your grandmother.

When anything above size 36 is considered a Plus size

When coffee at breakfast time is served in a cereal bowl

When there are 8 days in a week, and 15 in a fortnight

When children go to the “canteen” at school and are served a full four course meal, with starter, main course, cheese course and dessert

When you look both ways when crossing a one-way street

When you call your paediatrician with a sick child at 8am, he answers the phone himself, and gives you an appointment for 11am that same morning

When the dustbin-men come 5 times a week

When neither adults nor teenagers get drunk at parties or sports events because it’s “unattractive”

When you see groups of police men/women (usually groups of 3) in uniform kissing each other hello/good-bye on the street

When you can use the shrugging of shoulders to explain numerous things!! And “ça va” for everything else

When men’s swim trunks are forbidden at swimming pools

When bare breasts greet you perkily in a 10ft tall soap ad plastered across the metro station walls.

When the bus driver stops the bus, gets out and lights up a cigarette while all the passengers wait patiently inside

When you can’t recognize English words when French people use them

When the toilet in your local cafe resembles a shower stall with two little stands on it for your feet

When you still find a way to get your undies from M&S/Target, no matter what

When your husband’s company doesn’t make the monthly deposit because the accountant was on vacation

When people talk about how British humour is so wonderful…and then you realise that they mean either Benny Hill or Mr. Bean

When perfume is also for men

When you’re told you can have something “right away: 10 days, two weeks at most”

When you are fatter than everyone else, but back in the UK/US you are the skinniest

When meat and fish are being sold outdoors

When you treat your plumber like a king for fear he will drop you as a client

When the driver of the car ahead of you whom you have just given way to out of courtesy, looks at you as though you’re crazy

So, if you are moving to France, be prepared!

 Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

Image by Paul Chenoweth via Flickr

Today in Illinois, there are a number of primary elections taking place.  There will undoubtedly be a tough battle in November for the Senate seat occupied in 2008 by Barack Obama, and then the controversial Roland Burris, who is not going to seek re-election.  Mark Kirk is a republican congressman for the northern suburbs of Chicago, and appears to be a strong favorite to get this seat.  His Congressional seat may go to the democratic candidate, Dan Seals, who has failed on two previous occasions to dislodge Kirk.

The campaigning has been very active from all participants over the past few months and, regrettably as we have got nearer to polling day, we have had a continuous blast of radio and television negative advertising.  These ads tell us that the opposing candidates are dishonest, incompetent, too young, or inexperienced.  Both sides use the same tactics and, as we all know from past experience in the U.S. democracy, negative advertising works.

But how democratic is our system today? We are told that we must protect free speech so anybody can say anything about anyone, without fear of retribution.  We have sophisticated pollsters, focus groups, political ad-men, lobbyists, and politically funded and motivated organizations, representing every special interest you can think of – all of whom know how to reach a particular section of the public with just the sort of ads that will turn them into a supporter of a particular candidate or against an opposing candidate.  Is this sort of manipulated propaganda through the airways truly free speech or democratic?  I don’t think so.  It has led us to the position where it takes one and a half-billion dollars to elect a President of the United States, and billions of dollars to elect our representatives in Congress and the Senate.  In order to be successful, candidates recognize they have to lead the charge to raise money for their campaign.  This inevitably leads to donations from special interest groups who obviously expect something in return.  As the amounts increase, and the lobbyist and special interests play an ever-increasing role, so the candidates are more and more beholden to those that donate.  I don’t call this democracy – I call it corruption.

Our elected representatives have to start campaigning the day after they take their seats.  An endless stream of fundraisers, dinners, speaking engagements, and private meetings with major donors, lobbyists, or special interests becomes the norm.  No wonder they have little time to read or understand proposed legislation or indeed even attend the meetings in Congress or the Senate. Our representatives now have a three-and-a-half-day working week doing “the work of the people.”  So perhaps it isn’t too surprising that nothing is getting done in Congress.  Everything becomes a fight, and our elected officials are more interested in keeping special interests and campaign donors happy, so as they can get adequate funding to run and succeed in the next campaign, than agreeing on legislation to help America overcome some of the largest problems it has faced for nearly a century.

Without a dramatic change in campaign finance regulation, this situation can only get worse until we arrive in the position of electing a puppet president whose “strings” are manipulated and pulled by faceless powerful leaders of global corporations or political interests. The recent decision by the Supreme Court to open the floodgates for corporate, special interests or other political donors on both sides of the aisle to spend freely is to my mind, disastrous. I believe that President Obama was right to highlight this during his State of the Union speech.  We can only hope that Congress will introduce a bill that will negate this decision, but if recent performance is anything to go by, I have my doubts.   

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

Associate Head of School Laura Danforth and Brittany Reed '10 of Miss Porter's and Me

by Jian Ping

Over the last two weeks, I made two trips to Connecticut: One to Miss Porter’s in Farmington, to talk about my book Mulberry Child and China’s Cultural Revolution (CR); and the other to Fairfield, to give talks at the Fairfield Ludlowe High School (FLHS) and the St. Thomas Catholic School. I talked about today’s China—its current development, religion, and the transformation from that of the ‘60s and ‘70s that I’ve covered in my book.

I was quite impressed by the questions the students asked, from the 6^th to 8^th graders at St. Thomas, to the students from three social studies classes at FLHS and the girls from 9^th to 12^th at Miss Porter’s.  I shared with them my knowledge about and first-hand experiences in China and felt I learned just as much from them.

I attended three classes at Miss Porter’s: Cold War, African History, and International Relations. The small class of 6 to 16 students sitting around a large round table in each room, and the teachers enthusiastically engaging the students in active discussions were all very much impressive. I was also very touched when the entire assembly of over 300 students and their faculties gave me a standing ovation when I finished my talk and the interest they showed in my book.

The AP class taught by Ms. Sousa at FLHS asked such in-depth questions about Mao, the CR, and today’s development in China that I saw their teacher smile with approval and pride. The elementary school children at St. Thomas were the most active in raising their hands. I had such fond memories of them—the year before I talked to them about my book and the CR. Soon after my return to Chicago, I received a thick envelop that contained each of the students’ thank you note—written or printed on red, green, and blue paper and nicely decorated with mulberry trees, vivid drawings or sparkling stars.

China—a far away country with a long history and many ups and downs in its development—catches the interest of the students. I’m so glad to play a role in helping them relate to a foreign system and people with a personal touch. I’m also very appreciative of the support and referrals from families and friends such as the Reeds and the Pollicks in Chicago and the Congellos in Fairfield.    

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. www.mulberrrychild.com, www.moraquest.com

Of the many movies that I saw at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, two docu/dramas stand out.  These are listed under the True Stories section of the Film Festival.  Both of them were Holocaust stories, but with completely different angles.

“Inside Hana’s Suitcase” tells the poignant story of two young children who grew up in pre- WWII Czechoslovakia and the terrible events that led to Hana’s death in Auschwitz.  In addition to tracing the lives of Hana Brady and her brother George who is the main narrator of the movie, (a beautiful performance from an 80-year-old man who now lives in Toronto Canada), the film covers the lives of their family during the 1930’s and 1940’s.  George is the only survivor. 

However the film also tells the present-day story of the “The Small Wings” a group of Japanese youngsters, and how their passionate and tenacious teacher, Fumiko Ishioka, helped them solve the mystery of Hana Brady, whose name was painted on an old battered suitcase that they received from Auschwitz – the notorious Nazi death camp.  The voices of children from Japan, Canada, and the Czech Republic contributed to the telling of Hana’s story. 

I thought the film was beautifully directed, narrated and dramatized and will undoubtedly garner numerous awards around the world.

A similar true story but one that has been made into a narrative film is “Broken Promise” which covers the young life of Martin Friedmann, a Jewish Slavic boy, who in 1939 is more concerned with refining his considerable soccer abilities than the fact that Czechoslovakia has become an ally of Nazi Germany.  His father, a poultry merchant, senses the problems to come and asks his nine children to swear that they will meet every year at Passover – whatever happens.  It is not a promise that the family members were able to keep.  Martin’s soccer skills and a considerable amount of luck, allow him to survive the concentration camp at Terizin and the transportation to Auschwitz that befell so many prisoners (including George and Hana Brady).  Amazingly, he gets transferred to a TB clinic, from which he talks his way into working in a Monastery; and, as the Russian armies advance in 1945, he joins a group of Soviet-led partisans, and despite some hair-raising events, survives the war.  Only one brother survives from his total family. 

Martin Friedmann was at the screening and spoke to the audience after the showing of this movie.  He is now an 85-year-old upright strong looking man, who became a civil engineer after the war and left Czechoslovakia when the Communists took control in1949 when he moved to Israel, to meet up with his sole surviving brother. 

An amazing story, which is beautifully done, and which may be on a short list for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

I’ve just attended Palm Spring International Film Festival.  It is the now the largest Film Festival in the US, attracting more than 130,000 moviegoers who were able to enjoy this year, 190 films from 70 countries.  The films vary from US independent productions to foreign films, showcasing a variety of cultures, seeking awards and distribution in the US market. 

The Festival also highlighted films from Australia, and also broadly covers four different sectors of cinema excellence under the titles of New Voices/New Visions, World Cinema Now, Best Foreign Language Films and True Stories, which encompasses thirty unforgettable documentaries.  Of course, I was only able to see a fraction of the 190 films on offer, but these included some intriguing stories that provided me with some unique experiences.

The “White Ribbon” is a fascinating movie shot in black and white, in German with English subtitles.  This movie won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’or.  It is a disturbing mystery that follows the escalating hateful behavior of a group of adults and children in a rural German village in the years before the First World War.  They live in a society of strict discipline, parental fear, and religious intolerance.  Their village was part of an agriculture community isolated from the militant mechanism that was sweeping the country at that time, and cleverly illustrates human behavior and particularly German behavior.  There were multiple threads of vengeful and just plain malicious deeds in this meticulous period piece, which draws the audience into an increasingly terrifying world. 

The Director has reminded us that the German adults of the Nazi era between 1933 and 1945 were children in the years prior to World War I, and perhaps one can see in this story the precursor to the brutal behavior and genocide of the World War II.

Another movie that I found to be as unique but completely different was a film from Kazakhstan called “Kelin.”  This movie was a remarkable visionary tale of love and desire set in the remote Altai mountains in the Second Century AD.   The film is completely without dialogue, but not without sound and a beautiful music score.  The exquisite photographic beauty of the winter scenes, birch forests, and the snow-clad hills is breathtaking. 

The story starts with two fur-clad hunter herders, bargaining with a father for the rights to his beautiful daughter.  Although the girl prefers the more handsome of the two men, she winds up with the one who pays the most.  “Kelin” (the name of the girl) accompanies her groom to his distant yurt, which he shares with his mother and teenage brother.  She soon adjusts to a life of hard work and sexually pleasing her husband, but one day the losing suitor shows up and kills his rival, and she prefers to follow her heart disgracing her mother-in-law and her husband’s younger brother with dire consequences.

Even though there was no dialogue, the story was clear, the acting was exquisite, and the scenery breathtaking.  There was screaming, singing, chanting and laughter in the film, and that together with the incredible music score made this movie an enchanting experience.

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com

By Jian Ping

On Saturday January 16, I want to a dinner and show organized by the Chinese Undergraduate Student Association (CUSA) at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. It was their annual celebration of the Chinese New Year. The catered Chinese dinner of stir-fried vegetables, chicken, pork and fried rice was served at the Hutch Hall buffet style, followed by “Xiang”, a show on Liu Xiang, the renowned 110-meter hurdler. Liu became a national hero after winning the Gold Medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, but fell to disgrace amidst extreme pressure and expectations at the 2008 Olympic Games when he withdrew from the race due to injury.   

I was taken by surprise when I saw the large Hutch Hall was filled with people and the line to the buffet dinner remained long during the two-hour serving time. I asked Wilson Wu, Vice President of CUSA, how many people he was expecting for the night.

 “Over 500,” he said, smiling.

I knew Ted Lam, President of CUSA and he, along with a group of dedicated students, had been working on the event for months.  

“That’s very impressive,” I said, looking at the large mixed crowd of Chinese and Americans.  

“Xiang” started at 8 p.m. at Mandel Hall to a fully packed room of audience. As the story on Liu Xiang unfolded, I was amazed by the variety of different cultural aspects included in the show—from modern dance, to Taichi fusion and traditional fan dance. The narrative also reflected the different impact on Liu, including the roles of the media, the government, and fame/commercialism. Quite a well staged and performed program.

I gave my sincerely congratulations to Wilson and Ted on my way out. However, I didn’t tell them that the only disappointment I had was the lack of faculty members at the show. Except a Chinese professor who was at U of C teaching Chinese language temporarily, I didn’t see any other faculty. Why didn’t the professors show any support or interest in one of their students’ major annual events?

Jian Ping: author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. www.mulberrychild.com, www.moraquest.com

By Jian Ping

Ha Jin was the featured author at Victoria Lautman’s Writiers on the Record, an hour-long live interview with famed authors at the Harold Washington Library Center. The program is conducted on a monthly basis (except in the summer) and open to the public. The recording of the interviews is broadcasted on 98.7 WFMT later and is available on her website at www.victorialautman.com. Featured authors include Richard Russo, Sherman Alexie, and Alaa Al Aswany. I’m a big fan of the program—having always been impressed by Victoria’s ability to draw out the essence of a featured book from the author. Whenever I am in town, I make my best effort to attend it and always walk away feeling inspired.

This month’s author is Ha Jin, one of my favorites. The focus of the interview was on his latest publication, A Free Fall, a collection of short stories on Chinese immigrants. It was very interesting to hear Ha Jin talking about how he set the scenes for all the stories in Flushing, New York, a Chinese concentrated area that had experienced dynamic growth in the last decade, and is still growing. What surprised me was that Ha Jin had never been to Flushing until 2005 when he was there to attend a conference. He said he had many of the stories written already by then and was looking for a setting. The bustling of the new Chinese immigrants in Flushing impressed him and he returned to the area 20 times afterward, including staying a night at $15 per night lodge to get a feel for the day-to-day life of working class immigrants.     

I like Ha Jin’s writing, especially his short stories. He is able to transcend his stories in simple language and mundane incidents to reflect something profound—the cultural conflicts between the grandchildren and the elders when it comes to name changes (Children as Enemies), the greed and pursuit of material things in China today (The Bane of the Internet), and the disconnection and longing of a Chinese man (A Composer and His Parakeets), to name a few.

I talked with Ha Jin after the interview.

“I was in Jilin when I served in the army,” he said upon learning I am from Jilin.

In Chinese, we refer to people from the northeast “dong bei lao xiang,” an endearing term for folks from the three northeast provinces in China. We chatted.

When I asked him if he was going to turn his writing to focus on Chinese immigrants in the U.S. from now on (His last novel A Free Life is the first to set in the U.S.), he said not necessarily. His next work would be on expatriates in China.

“Don’t you feel the 20+ years you have been away from China has created a distance from the pulse of life there today?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “It gives me a different perspective,” he smiled.

That’s a nice way to look at it, I thought.

I look forward to reading more of his writing. He has been a very prolific writer and a true inspiration.   

Jian Ping, author of Mulberry Child: A Memoir of China. www.mulberrychild.com, www.moraquest.com

Image via Wikipedia

In all our efforts to beef up homeland security, the one word that everyone tries to avoid in an effort to be politically correct is profiling.  Our long-suffering flying public is about to endure even more delays and inconvenience because of further changes in security protocols.

We are also about to spend an additional one-billion dollars on the newest high-tech security apparatus.  But technology will not solve our security problems.  Shortfalls in our security defenses come not from technology lapses, but from human error.  Whether it is connecting the dots between Homeland Security, FBI and the CIA, or TSA officials leaving their post or failing to follow procedures, it is these human errors that could be the cause of terrorists’ successes.

While technology can cover some of the problems, it seems to me that profiling of passengers is the least costly and the most effective way of dealing with potential terrorist threats.  The American public does not like to face the fact that we are at War, and if the country is at War, sacrifices have to be made.  Profiling is not necessarily discriminatory.  The suspect could be black, white, male, female, Muslim, Christian or Jew.  We know of course that the vast majority of Muslims are law-abiding and would have nothing to do with Al-Qaida or similar organizations.  However, it is regrettably true that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, every terrorist is a Muslim. So accordingly, our Homeland Security officials need to know the background of every Arab and Muslim name that appears on a passenger list.  Homeland Security needs to train specialist officers to interview these selected passengers on their arrival at airports with flights bound for the USA.  This is an expensive process, but it’s probably a lot cheaper than further investments in advanced technologies.

These officials should be trained to observe passengers as they move towards the check-in desks, looking for nervousness, or other behavioral patterns that might be suspicious. The trained interviewers should review passports and tickets and ask a series of simple questions, making eye contact with the passenger to discern suspicious behavior. 

These procedures have for many been carried out on all flights to and from Israel – a country that has been continually under terrorist threats for the past forty or fifty years – and very few incidents have taken place over the past decade or so.  More importantly, the passengers going through this process are dealt with courteously, speedily and efficiently.  And clearly, the process seems to work.

Perhaps Homeland Security and our other agencies will now move towards these procedures, which would certainly relieve stress and discomfort for the vast majority of the flying public and should eliminate the sort of incident that happened on the Delta flight to Detroit over Christmas.

Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com