they speak Chinese in China

[Randy W]

.

This was written by Thorsten Pattberg, a research fellow at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University.

 

Chinese dream may get lost in translation

 

Western commentators love to translate zhongguo meng as "Chinese dream," thereby patronizing China's socio-cultural originality and marketing it as a franchise of the "American Dream." But are the two civilizations really sleeping on the same pillow?

What is that - a "China Dream" - if not first a Western translation?

Few people in China, not even President Xi Jinping, actually said "dream." That's because they speak Chinese in China.

The distinction between what Western media thinks China dreams and what China is actually saying is of great significance to the future of global language. In fact, China should compete for its terminologies like it competes for everything else.

Everyone has heard about the brand "American Dream" which - if US policymakers had their way - is now being replicated by the CPC to better the lives of the people.

As if China could not draw up designs on its own; as if a "Chinese dream" had to have its epistemological roots in the West, only to be shipped under trademark to Asia, a ship full of freedom, equality, Hollywood, McDonalds, and other Western technicalities.

The zhongguo meng is about achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, an element that is totally missing in the "American Dream."

Chinese people are expected to pay lip service to oneness (tianren heyi) and great harmony (datong): They work hard, study vigorously, and try to climb out of poverty.

The meng is what the Chinese dream, and let us not forget that China has memories of dynasties and emperors, of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and that it is a spiritual wenming, a category beyond the narrow European definitions of nation, state, culture and civilization.

Little wonder then that meng is attached to centuries of a very different quality and color than that of the US.

Confucian values and priorities differ from Puritan ones. East Asia has a unique tradition of shengren and junzi (archetypes of wisdom as unique as, say, philosophers and saints), and Chinese value xiao (filial piety), xue (the love for learning), li (ritual) and thousands of other non-European concepts.

We would all see Chinese creativeness crystal-clearly if translation were put on hold, if only for a few years.

Translation is a human strategy - older than the Stone Age - to annihilate one's opponent beyond the mere physical removal of his body from the world.

That's why, by the way, linguists speak about the "death" of cultures. It was never meant to be just a metaphor.

Some scholars have argued with me that English is entirely sufficient to describe China.

After all, it's just a silly "dream," right? That is not only showing disregard for new knowledge; it is also a cultural death threat against Asia.

The West only sees China through often biblical and philosophical European translations, and because all European vocabularies look familiar to Westerners, it has often been concluded, prematurely, that China was some place of zero originality. As if the Chinese people for the last 3,000 years didn't invent a thing.

It is often claimed that before the arrival of the Europeans, the Chinese had no sense of intellectual property rights. This "cultural weakness" is observable - every second in China as some Chinese compatriot gives away his name to some foreign company: "You can call me Mike, ok?"

 

 

[Allon]

Good article. Almost funny but somehow sad.

 

 

 

As if China could not draw up designs on its own; as if a "Chinese dream" had to have its epistemological roots in the West, only to be shipped under trademark to Asia, a ship full of freedom, equality, Hollywood, McDonalds, and other Western technicalities.

 

 

Very cogent remark. This guy is good. Thanks, Randy.

[Randy W]

Another rant on the subject of Chinese language

 

English translations don't do justice to 'untranslatable' Chinese concepts

 

Yes, I am fearless and indifferent to convention and limitation. If there are shengren and junzi 君子 in the world, let them be known. And if there is a tianxia 天下 or a datong 大同, we shall restore them to the global lexicon, too.

More and more writers have irreversibly lightened up to the fact that each culture had purpose and design. Europe never invented rujia 儒家; China did. Americans didn't trailblaze the concepts of dharma, karma or yoga; India did. The wisdom of the East is immortalized in its vocabularies and must be liberated from European language imperialism once and for all.

 

. . .

 

In the age of conquest, Europeans could make a colored man and his livelihood disappear — and get away with it. They could also omit — or shall we say erase — any of his words, or simply substitute a European term for it.

. . .

I ask, is such practice really necessary, ethical or even legal anymore in this 21st century of knowledge, information, and intellectual property rights? Can we really disown, say, Japanese sake and sushi any way we want, perhaps calling them "rice wine and fish" even though sake and sushi are their names?

 

. . .

 

Thorsten Pattberg is a research fellow at The Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University. Shanghai Daily condensed the article.