Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father Translated Awkwardly into Chinese
When Hilary Clinton learned her book Living History was censored by the Chinese publisher, she was “amazed and outraged“. Given Mrs. Clinton’s memoir was heavily censored, I would guess Mr. Obama won’t feel that angry when he discover his memoir Dreams from My Father was translated into Chinese in an awkward and broken way.
I’ve previously known from the Chinese media that President Obama wanted the translation of his books to be satisfactory, and he specifically required translations in all the languages shall have the same cover. I do believe Obama should be happy about the cover, which is the quite the same as English version:
Front cover of the Chinese version of Dreams from My Father
But the Chinese version itself is anything but a satisfactory translation. In fact, the Chinese translation is really awkward, according to this comment on the translation [in Chinese].
This book was translated by Henry (Wang Huiyao) who possesses a shiny resumé and a bunch of glamorous titles. But when it comes to translation, he is far from good. Bill Clinton could be a president and play saxophone as a hobby, but this doesn’t guarantee he is a professional musician.
I wish I could explain how bad the Chinese translation is, but this seems impossible if you can’t read Chinese. And if you can, I’d recommend you to read that blog article linked above. For short, I would like to tell you there was a lot of omission and mistranslation in the Chinese version, and the Chinese text was far from fluent or coherent. Also it seems the translator didn’t know much about American politics (he didn’t even know what a Primary is) or the life of Barack Obama.
Chinese Blogger Attacked When Giving Speech in Bookstore
It was February 14 yesterday, the Valentine’s Day, and it didn’t end up like a day of love, but fear. Chinese liberal blogger and author XU Lai (徐来) a.k.a. ProState (钱列宪) on the Web was attacked by two unidentified men with knives when he was giving a speech at One Way Street Library. Soon after that he was hospitalized and had a surgery. I sincerely wish he will recover soon.
Although nicknamed “ProState”, on most cases the blogger writes “against” the State. Because of his witty satires and sensitive news postings, his blog “ProState has Something to Say” has a large reader base, and has been taken down by the State for many times.
No one knows who did this, and probably we’ll never know. As noted on this blog, Mr. ProState is very much liked among the public. The attackers are not likely to be those who have different opinion, because it is “politically correct” in this country to challenge liberal opinion, you don’t need a knife. Probably not the government either, an assassination in small bookstore is not quite terrifying to the public. The most likely attackers are the evil individuals and companies that were criticized by ProState on his rather influential blog.
What I have to say is, if it was really the government, I’d say democracy is an inch nearer.
PM Wen, Although Some Love You
Chinese students at Cambridge said they LOVE the sweet Premier Wen Jiabao
Premier Wen Jiabao apparently loves adoration, and doesn’t like being protested against, because he’s been always respected and adored in his home country, without any awareness that people should be allowed to disagree and protest. That’s why he called an act of free speech (although impolite) “despicable”.
In a democracy, individuals are allowed to have their own opinions other than government. Government doesn’t automatically get approval & support from all the citizens. I hardly think that guy did think he could damage “friendship” between China & UK by this isolated incident, but Premier Wen took this too serious.
Wen is a good senior gentleman, and I guess most people would agree he is morally respectable. But respect in moral terms cannot translate to ability in governance. What Wen practices by showing care, goodwill, and his moral character and virtue is the same as how this country had been managed in ancient times: when government officials had good qualities in poetry, music and morality (mostly to their own family & parents). But note here, public responsibility, competency in managing public affairs, check & balance of public power are all missing.
By Confucius doctrine, a leader of state shall take all the responsibility to their people (making all decisions for their people, and denying their right to discuss & disagree), good dictator doctrine. Wen and the current Chinese government continues such belief.
