英语阅读：Skin-deep translation may mislead
To translate a word from one language to another is easy; to translate acontext is hard.
The New York Times (NYT) carried an article in its May 4 book review that
called Guo Jingming "the most successful writer in China". That must have
pleased millions of Guo's fans, but it surely shocked a lot more people.
"How can NYT stoop so low?" many asked.
Guo is currently the bestselling author in China and, by correlation, the
highest earning one as well. But the 24-year-old is not respected. He was found
by a court of law to have committed the cardinal sin for a writer - plagiarism.
But, against the court order, he refused to apologize, explaining that he needed
to uphold his image in the eyes of his adoring fans.
Apart from this, nobody is praising his adolescent schmaltz for literary
achievement.
All this was sketched out in detail in the NYT essay. But whoever first
reported it in the Chinese press did not bother to read the whole article. He or
she was so focused on the word "successful" that everything else probably became
a blur.
From the NYT article, it is natural to deduce that the author meant
"commercial success". However, the Chinese translator-cum-commentator has
obviously interpreted it as "literary excellence" or "high quality overall".
In an ideal world, a work of great literary value should have high sales.
But we don't live in an ideal world, and bestsellers, like blockbuster movies,
do not necessarily do anything except fill a few hours of your leisure time.
The misunderstanding of NYT's appraisal of China's literary pop idol is
more evident when the context is enlarged from the article to the whole book
review section. On that day, NYT carried four full-length reviews of four
Chinese novels: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by
Mo Yan, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi and Serve the People by Yan
Lianke - all serious works by accomplished writers. The Guo Jingming piece was
like a dessert, nice and frothy, but not supposed to replace the main
entrees.
None of the Chinese commentators mentioned any of the four book reviews.
Through endless copying and reposting, which is the pillar of Chinese website
management, the point has been hammered home that Americans, for whatever
unfathomable reason, favor China's most ridiculed literary pretender as their
favorite Chinese writer.
There are commentators who suspect the NYT piece was being sarcastic in its
choice of words, countering "most successful" with a detailed description of
Guo's less-than-flattering acts - but you won't be able to go into that much
depth from the headlines or the opening paragraphs. As we know, website editors
have a flair for creating outrageous headlines that hardly correspond to the
general idea of the article.
This is a perfect example - albeit innocuous - of what I call "cultural
mismatch". It's more than getting lost in translation. It's about picking up
only what interests you and leaving behind everything else, including the right
perspective and right context. It can happen between two languages and two
cultures, but also between two demographic groups.
An American writer once noticed that street kids were wearing a special
badge as part of a necklace. He thought it was a sign for peace and was
heartened. It turned out they were insignia from brand-name automobiles, the
preferred object of theft among that group.
Another ridiculous misinterpretation was made by a reporter from a big-name
American magazine. He paid us a visit during his trip to China. Later, he wrote
that the security guards at our building were here to intimidate us into
self-censorship. At such skin-deep observation, I couldn't help but laugh.
E-mail: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
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