Kevin Yang at TongliUSA.com 美国同力公司杨志坚的博客网站

Seeing China through my camera len

2007-06-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

2007 Copyright of Kevin Yang at TongliUSA.com. All Rights Reserved.

Nowadays, it seems everyone and everywhere is talking about China. Some of you might live there everyday, some of you might have never been there, or some of you are like me who only can manage to go there once every five years. Recently, I just came back from China after I had a 20-day visit in Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou. All these cities are in the southern part of China.

I took so many pictures with my old digital camera, and selected some of them to share with you. I had to reduce the size and resolution for the quick display here. Anyhow, I hope you will enjoy seeing China through my camera lens.

Shanghai, a city that always takes my fresh doubleminted breath away. Each trip to there excited me and left me with enchanting memories. It is always at the leading edge of westernization, yet never loses its splendid colors of a trendy Chinese city. This photo was taken from the Shanghai Bund by the Huangpu River where you can see the landscape of the old Shanghai and the landscape of Pudong, the newest commercial and business district as well as the showcase of Shanghai.

Another view from the Shanghai Bund. Being from Oregon where is well-known for its clean water, blue sky and green forests, I noticed the haze in Shanghai had reached to an alarming level.

A night view of the Nanjing Road, the most famous shopping district in Shanghai. The most stores stay open till 2:00AM everyday.

Shanghai is well-known for its night lights and neon signs.

Trendy public restroom on Nanjing Road, Shanghai. No Pay, no service.

Cell phone chargers on Nanjing Road, Shanghai. You only can see such thoughtful things in Shanghai.

Housing has always being a love-and-hate subject in China. Many people are sick and tired of cranking into the deteriorated buildings, and dreaming to move into something modern and new. But the hefty prices of new houses left many people in despair and anger. Nowadays, the new housing price in Shanghai can easily run up to ￥8,000-Y10,000 RMB yuan per square meter (= 10.7639104 square feet). The current exchange rate is that $1 US dollar equals to ￥7.66, which can pay for a nice breakfast for two.

Looking at the young lady in black top and mini-skirt in front of them, the young reporter is interviewing a shopper by asking “What do you think of her outfit?” Such outfit could be called "chicken-like" in China, because "chicken" is a common way for the Chinese people to refer to a sex worker. That's why a popular Chinese call girl in New York City gave herself a nick name "Kung-Pao-Chicken". If you wonder what a man who sells his body for money would be called, you got it, it is a "duck". Can you imagine what the Chinese would think of those lady football fans of University of Oregon with their big O logo and "Go Duck" signs? By looking at the 2nd photo, it seemed this man hesitated to respond to the reporter's question, perhaps he was thinking something that could be tactic enough so he would not offend his girlfriend next to him. His girlfriend looked like someone who could castrate him right on the spot, if he gave the answer wrong.

Never underestimate this little scooter. The cops are doing their routine patrol on Nanjing Road.

My favorite “Sweet and Sour Squirrel Fish”! A popular dish in China. The chef deep fried the fish inside out and then glazed it with the delicious sweet and sour sauce.

I like this neighborhood in Huaihai Road. They renovated the old buildings built in the 30’s and 40’s and leased them out to the restaurant and bars, including Starbucks Coffee Shop.

These two photos photos were also taken on Huaihai Road, Shanghai. The young man in red shirt was my private driver. He was a soldier and now is working for a private company. We were in front of the famous historical site in Shanghai where the Chinese Communist Party was organized on July 23, 1921. I was also wondering what Mao would think of this if he could see his red revolutionary conference center has been well surrounded by all those western restaurants, bars and coffee shops, and you can hear the western pop music in just about every street corner.

There is a well-known No.8 Platoon based in the Nanjing Road, Shanghai, for peace keeping in the 60’s. I think I met them when I was on the Nanjing Road.

This is in a Buddhist temple in Yangzhou. Many Chinese people like to go to the Buddhist temples to communicate with their spiritual super beings. It seemed to me that there were more women than men there seeking for Buddha's help. I wondered why. The monks work like psychiatric counselors who can help people reconcile with their past and heal the wounds in their minds. No dress code required.

Alway keep a Buddha in mind. However, this monk was obviously having someone else on his mind. He seemed enjoying very much his new toy when the customers, oops, I meant worshipers, were not around. Traditionally, monks were taught to discipline themselves and disconnect or disassociate with the human societies where were considered to be saturated with evils and sins. It might be not easy to convince this monk with that kind of teaching. Stay "disconnected"? That is out of the question. I could tell he loved the modern technologies. He might have a screen name, too. I wondered what kind of chatroom he would go to.

I always love the ladies in their Mandarin dresses. I would stop and stare at them whenever I see one. While I was strolling on the ancient streets that were built as early as Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 AD) in Zhenjiang, I came cross these well-dressed ladies. I did not know them and they did not know me. Our eyesights were engaged very briefly, then they quickly looked away. They were well aware of being admired by me. Their shyness and power of beauty were killing me softly.

I have a little loyal fan in Zhenjiang. He is my 10 y/o nephew Tie-Niu (Iron Cattle). Actually he is a big fan of Yao Ming. His favorite sport is basketball and his hobby is to collect cards of the well-known basketball players. Sometime the basketball card collection can turn into a pain, because he wants to collect that particular missing card, he would persuade his parents to buy that extra box of cereal. The parents ended up with too many boxes of cereals. This kid is super talented. He can tell me the Chinese translation names of those American NBA players. I was very impressed because I only can tell a few even though I lived in the United States for over 20 years.

Before my trip to China, I asked him what he would like me to bring from the US. He said he would like to have a jersey of Yao Ming or any 5 players from the Rockets and other teams. I tried three stores in my city and did not find Yao Ming’s jersey, so I bought Tracy McGrady's who was listed as the 2nd player in his hand-written note. It was my first time to learn how expensive this stuff was. An authentic jersey like the one he was wearing cost me USD $58.00. When he received this gift from me, he was so delighted and yelled out "This is not shui-huo!" ("Shui-huo" in Chinese means "fake-stuff"). He put it on right away and gave me a big hug. At that moment, I could tell he was the happiest kid in the whole China.

Nowadays reading fancy menus can be too difficult for the TV-watching generations. Our imagination and visualization are shrinking. This top-class Chinese restaurant totally dropped the printed menu, which has been replaced by the semi-prepared dishes in showcases. At this place, you only need to point and choose. This actually works really well for the tourists who do not speak Chinese, and avoids the bad translation in Chinese menus. I was wondering if those singles club could copy such concept in their match making business, sort of like what you see is what you get.

Wining and dining are always the highlights for me when visiting China. The waitresses are always so delightful. Be careful when you address them. Just don't call them "小姐" (Xiao-jie) which means "Miss". It was OK in the past, but not anymore. This is because "Xiaojie" is often used to address a sex worker and has the connotation that additional services that are not on the menu may be possibly required. Instead of using "Xiaojie" in a hotel or retaurant, you use "姑娘" (gu-niang), which means "Girl". The problem is what if the lady is a mid-aged woman. I guess it would work by saying "Hey, you. Yes, I mean you." Then, watch her coming over to slap you silly.

After one-hour drive, we came to Mt. Mao-Shan, the famous Taoist Temples where Laozi, the Taoist Godfather, is worshiped. He got popular in China as well as the western societies because of his theory of harmonious co-existence of human being and the natural environment. I did pay RMB 100 yuan to a Taoist fortune-teller to summarize my past and predict my future. It seemed he was a quite good mind-reader. He said many things that I loved to hear, but also said other things that depressed me for the whole afternoon. So be careful when buying any fortune telling service, the depression can possibly come with it. It depends on how well you can handle the "truth".

"洗心亭"(Mind Cleansing Pagoda), what a nice name! Hangzhou is famous for its gardens and plants. Perhaps it is the most suitable place for human inhabitation in China. The air is filled with the spirit that makes me feel like to meditate.

Hangzhou is also famous for its green tea. I thought the tea pickers were those beautiful young ladies as in the movies I watched when I was young. Well, not anymore. The young ladies were having better things to do. This lady I visited told me that she could make ￥60 Yuan a day ($1 US dollar equals to ￥7.66). That young man had a green tea store. He was drying the freshly picked tea leaves with his skillful hand work so as to control the temperature and formation of the fresh tea leaves. He told me that I should only drink the fresh tea. He meant the tea that was under 1 year in storage. Otherwise, it would grow germs and not be good for health. It made sense to me, so I bought several cans of his fresh tea.

This Hangzhou young man was not being lady-like or trying to be pretty. He was actually trying to bring the traffics into his umbrella store in front of him. It worked very well. He inspired me. As a translator, have you been trying this hard to get business?

It is perhaps not quite enough by just saying China has abundant merchandises. They have so many things there to sell that the local people seem to be suffering from a kind of fatigue syndrome. Only the tourists are piling up on to each other to find bargains. A phenomenon I noticed was that no one seemed to be interest in paying for the marked prices. The shoppers would always make their counter offers. I was so kind and always paying for the marked prices, but my relatives and friends gave me so much hard time and lectures. To them, I was just not a good shopper.

Nanjing is another great city with history and style. It tops itself in China for green vegetation coverage and historical sites. These two photos were taken at the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.

"Lao-Fu-Zi-Miao", a busy shopping district in Nanjing. You cannot hesitate and wait around. The best thing to do is to sing "Go, go, go, OleOle, OleOle, OleOle!" and elbow through the crowds, you will make it. Otherwise you could be stuck and get to nowhere. Amazingly, everyone made through without a problem.

This man is from Gansu Province in the west part o China and operating his oven-fresh pancake business in Nanjing. His white cap tells you that he is a Muslin. There are 56 nationalities in China. Just about any religion in the world can be found in China. Did you know that just about all of the religious figures and theories were introduced to China by foreign countries? The Chinese-originated saints are only in a small number.

This man is making "La-Mian", the popular noodle from Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Such noodle does not need knife to cut, just pulling the wheat-flour dough to two opposite directions repeatedly by two hands. A bowl of noodle can be prepared in less than 30 seconds.

The old Chinese proverb says "The one who knows satisfaction is always happy." These are the Chinese people I met. They were happy with whatever they were doing. Life is simple and should not be so stressful. By looking at the pictures above, they did not just create plenty wealth, they also know how to enjoy it.

This young man is a wholesaler of Chinese-made cigarettes. I guess if you have to sell something, you need to show your customers that you are enjoying it yourself. If you are able to enlarge the characters on the boxes in his truck, you will find that the following sentence is printed on each box: "吸烟有害健康" which means "Smoking is harmful to your health." Smokers in China are everywhere. They smoke unapologetically next to me while I was sitting on a public bench, even though I was there first. The cigarettes are not cheap either. The inexpensive one runs RMB 10 yuan a pack, the expensive brand is named "Zhonghua" that sells at RMB 200 yuan (that is USD $26.00) a pack. If you can pull out a pack of "Zhonghua" and offering it around to your friends or contacts, you will certainly bring lots of attention to you. It is almost like a social status thing. I was also told that certain people would keep the empty Zhonghua box and fill it with cheaper brands of cigarettes. When that happen, perhaps you'd better keep it only for yourself, because many people can tell the taste of Zhonghua cigarettes is like. American made cigarettes are also expensive but do have their loyal customers in China. The measures of banning smoking in public places, such as in train and airplane, have been implemented. However, my non-smoking sister-in-law complained to me that the smokers in her office (that is shared by six people) could smoke all day long in the office and no one would say anything about it.

Actually it is not always easy to make a living in China. This vendor was making a hell of effort to sell her fruit. Perhaps she did not have certain required permit, I saw her running away from the city market patrol officers. The fine could be a lot for her. So she was basically running a hit-and-run business.

Highway is very well built in China, even better than those in America. This is Hu-Ning Highway between Shanghai and Nanjing. But haze is so thick that I was rarely able to see the blue sky during my 20-day visit in China. It seemed that such haze issue did not bring the necessary attention of the local people. My driver told me it was just “fog”. I thought I could tell the difference between fog and haze.

China is just about having all the symptoms of the western societies. Traffic jam is one of them I experienced. More cars are sold each day.

I was impressed by this Highway Rest Stop outside Suzhou. I had never seen a rest area in the United States that would have so many urinals in the men’s room. This shows you that in a country of 1.3 billion people, you just have to be always ready to serve more people.

Interior design and renovation businesses are so hot in China. Just about every Chinese person would do something to make their home look modern. Here are two photos of the two-bedroom condo home of a newly-wed couple. They told me they spent over ￥40,000 ($1 US dollar equals to ￥7.66) on their home remodeling.

If you are wondering what the young people nowadays are wearing and how they are hanging out, these are the cool looks of the young people I saw on the streets.

"American influence" is just about on every street corner in China.

"Deep Oil Fried Fermented Bean Curd" is a popular snack food and sold everywhere. You can tell it when you are ten blocks away. Stink actually is tasteful. I tried it and could not finish my portion. It reminded me blue Swiss cheese.

No shoes like the made-in-China Nike shoes. I am a Nike fun and often get hired by Nike to work at their beautiful headquarter. I love to wear Nike shoes and clothes. I also brought the Nike products to China as my gifts to my relatives and friends. They all love the Nike stuff. While sitting by the West Lake, Hangzhou, my aunt was enjoying her made-in-China Nike shoes we brought to her from the U.S. Those Nike shoes usually sell for RMB ￥800-￥1000 yuan ($1 US dollar equals to ￥7.66) a pair in China.

If you think all the Hangzhou girls are nice and sweet, you will have to think again when you meet with this little creature. I had to take her a picture as well as the bus where she served as a tourist guide, so we all can remember who she is. Her bus would run around the West Lake about every 30 minutes. Her job was to tell the tourist about each scenic spot around the West Lake and to collect bus fares after each stop. I took her bus that day and observed this little lady scolded her customers when they asked her questions, such as “Where does this bus go to?” She would reply with her straight face and yelling-like voice, “Can’t you read what is written on the bus?” When a passenger was standing by the front door and trying to decide if that was the bus he should ride, she would say “Hurry up! Do you want to get in or not?”

My nice aunt asked her a question; she simply ignored her and did not answer her question. Her bad attitude became very bothersome to me, so I asked her “Do you have hearing problem?” She rolled her tiny eyes with scorn and responded “Can’t you see I am busy with collecting the bus fares?” I quickly said to her “I see you have been rude and obnoxious to your customers. I see you need help and have me show you how to talk nicely and make your service acceptable for a tourist bus like this. You are losing the face of Hangzhou. What a shame that someone would put you on this job. You are ruining my pleasure of touring the West Lake.”

My aunt said to me “Let her go, she must have worked a long day at a minimum wage.” This little lady obviously was not prepared for someone like me to scold her with my firm voice in front of all the passengers. Her feisty temper suddenly disappeared. At that moment, I knew I made her day. I hope I also left a long lasting memory in her mind. When China is busy with preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games, perhaps the current tourist guides there should be re-evaluated. Perhaps a general cleaning up is not a bad idea.

My Mom is hot! This 74 y/o Chinese lady was in the lobby of a five-star hotel in Shanghai and got ready to attend the wedding of her granddaughter. She always pays detailed attention to her presentation in the public. She is a firm believer of manners, such as 吃相, 坐相 and 站相. It does make a difference.

More family photos from the wedding. These are my brothers, nephew and their friends. Wedding costs a lot. I mean a lot! But I was also told that the bride and groom can collect about RMB￥500 - ￥1000 per seat. By the way, in this trip I learned and also experienced that the devalued US dollars are no longer desirable. I gave the newly wed couple USD $2,000 for their happy wedding. I hope they appreciated my effort. My money is earned by counting words.

This lady was amazing. She was painting the detailed peonies on the interior wall of a hollow glass ball. The opening of this thick glass ball was as large as that of a beer bottle.

He was making combs by using ox horns.

He was making little animals, insects, etc. by using fresh bamboo leaves.

As you can see, he was able to engrave the intricate "painting" into the china plate with a chisel and a hammer.

I always tell my brothers and nephews that they must learn to have a non-replaceable skill in order to make a living in a society. These are the people who have that kind of skills.

I wonder if these fish are happy, even though I am not a fish. The 2nd picture was inspired by Monet's lily pond.

If you are wondering about my dreamed house is like, here are some photos to show you. Now you can tell my fascinations about the bamboos.

Well, these are from me for now. I hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures. Please check back often, because I am trying to add more photos into this presentation. I am still in the process of selecting more interesting photos to show you.

2007 Copyright of Kevin Yang at TongliUSA.com. All Rights Reserved.

Back translation does not always work well when translating the English names of Chinese dishes

2007-01-18T14:27:00.000-08:00

大家注意到没有，我最近听到中央4台在谈论北京为了迎接奥运，准备把饭菜名称进行标准化翻译。这个想法很好，可是的确难度很大。我很同情和理解翻译的难处。特别是有些英文翻译，是为了按照中文原意，以外国人能够理解的语言翻译出来的。如果再把英文翻译翻回成中文，就不一定符合中国人的表达习惯，因为这涉及到两种表达的标准。即使有中国人不能理解的地方，这也不应该成为笑柄。

我听到主持人拿“四喜丸子”的英文翻译举例，说现在这道菜翻译成了“Four Happy Meat Balls”。但是再把它反译成中文，就成了“四个快乐的肉球”。听起来是满好笑的。我觉得反译是控制翻译质量的手段，但是是否应该用作确定翻译准确性和合理性的准则还有待讨论。就我看来，反译不应该成为确定翻译质量的唯一标准。

When the QA manager who does not speak the source and/or the target languages, “back translation” or “reverse translation” method is always used to check how close the translation is comparing with the source text. However, back translation does not always work well when translating the English names of Chinese dishes. For example, “四喜丸子” is a Chinese dish with four palm-sized meat balls served in the center of a plate with red sauce. The Chinese people named this dish as "Si-Xi-Wan-Zi", meaningly "Four-Happy-Mean-Balls". But for the Chinese people, when they heard the back translation of "Four-Happy-Mean-Balls", that is “四个快乐的肉球”, they found it is very funny. I guess that one thing made a Chinese person laugh is because he/she would think how the meat balls can be happy, and then the word "ball" has a quick association with the word "ball" in football, baseball, etc.

But, was the translation wrong or inaccurate? Of course not. What played a role is that those people who made fun of such translation perhaps did not realize that there are two different standards in Chinese and English in term of making good sense and such standards are not interchangeable or interreplaceable. When we say things, we have to make good sense to the Chinese people if we speak Chinese; by the same token, we have to make good sense to the English speaking people if we speak English. Therefore, the back translation is not always an effective ruler to measure the accuracy and quality of translation and no one should quickly assume if the back translation does not make good sense to him/her then it will certainly not make good sense to the people who speak the target language.

Do not throw your health away while working on translation jobs!

2006-04-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

Do you work to live or live to work? Either way, please do not throw your health away while working on translation jobs!

It is not easy to be a self-employed or freelance translator. You always have to work constantly to save enough reserve for the slow week or month, and pay on-time all your bills, among which the health insurance bill is the largest one in my case. As a single mid-aged man, my premium bill went up to $365.00 per month from this year. I knew some freelance translators decide to drop the health insurance all together. That is not a wise decision in my opinion. There are so many health insurance products, and you got to select one that is reasonable to your situation.

Through all these years by working in front of computers, just about all day and all night (occasionally) long, I developed some approaches to deal with the health issues associated with my life style.

NOTE WELL: I am not a doctor. Please seek medical professionals for help if you have anything happening to you or becoming bothersome to you.

1. Eat well: Be sure not to skip the breakfast, and be sure to have balanced meals. The coffee is good, but it cannot replace your breakfast. I skip my breakfast all the times for about ten years, and then delay my lunch. That is very unhealthy! My body took a heavy toll and developed stomach ulcer. I finally realized it was the time to change. To eat something and eat well is not really a hard thing to do. Sometime, when I know I will miss my breakfast or delay my lunch due to working away from home, I grab one or two bottles of Ensure, a milk-like, multi-nutritional elements packed drink that also offers Lactose Free type.

2. Be sure to sleep before or by 12:00AM. Lately I read that the body does its magic repair work to renew itself from 1AM-3AM while in deep sleeping. If you are wake and working, the body will postpone its scheduled session until the following day, or even later days when it gets the chance. If it missed again, the errors will be piled up, as if a computer has been constantly running and desperately needs to re-start or shut-down once while.

3. Neck pains: Being in a sitting position and staring at the monitor all day long, the stiff neck and neck pain are often experienced. The remedy I developed is to make a custom-made pillow that is designed for me only. This is how to make it. Get a shower towel. Fold at the center landscapewise, and roll it up tightly as you do to a sleeping beg. Put a rubber band at each end to secure it. Test it by lying down and make sure your neck (not head) is rested on this piston-like pillow. Be sure not to make it too thin or too fat. The thumb rule is that your head supporting point should be at the point where your neck touches the pillow. If it does not fit right, roll it open and re-fold it until it fits right, then stitch it up. This pillow is a replacement of your conventional pillow. You will experience the improvement in your neck problems almost instantly.

4. After typing on your keyboard for too long, your wrist, hand, elbow, shoulder can be painful. If the pain is not going away, and affecting your ability to perform the job, you need to see a doctor. There is a job-related disease called carpotunnel (or carpal tunnel) syndrome. If it is temporary, you can use a hot wet towel on the problem area for ten minutes, and while the pores are opening up, put one or two Chinese herbal patches on the skin where the problem is, and change every 24 hours. The best kind I like to use is “伤湿止痛膏”(just say “Shang Shi Zhi Tong Gao” to the shop owner of any Chinese herbal medicine store, they would bring it to you). It is inexpensive, too.

5. Another annoying problem I often have is mouth ulcer. It comes and goes. Very disturbing when it stays for weeks, because it is painful to eat food or drink water. Doctor says it is caused by stress, and of course, no cure. But I found some solutions with the help of my primary doctor (Many doctors do NOT know this! I am not sure if these medications are available everywhere in the world. But, I know they are prescription drugs in the North America.):

(1) When it is just about break, please wipe dry and apply “Betamethasone Dipropinate Lotion USA, 0.05%” (This is a prescription drug!) to the area once every few hours. It is a clear water-like lotion. It stings! But it should kill it before breaking up.

(2) If it did not work and developed into an open ulcer, please wipe dry and apply “Triamcinolone Acetonide Dentel Paste USP, 0.1%” (This is a prescription drug!) to the area once every few hours. It is a medicated gel. It works like a new layer of skin gluing onto the ulcer. Definitely apply it before having meals as well as before going to bed. It not just stops the sting sensations, but also speeds up the healing of new skin due to the medication in it.

(3) Stop consuming acid-forming food, and eat more alkaline-forming food. Here is a chart shows you these two food categories: http://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/acid.html

That’s all from me for now. If you have any good tips, please share with us. Let’s all help each other and live a better and joyful life. Translation is NOT everything we live for in this life after all. Our work is for making us to live better, not for ruining our living quality.

有人建议“龙”不应该翻译成 dragon，而要用loong

2006-03-31T20:37:00.000-08:00

最近拜读了华东师范大学传播学院教师黄佶的论文，使我有机会了解了一下大陆知识分子的思想动态。

黄佶的论文摘要：
“龙” 不应该翻译成 dragon。Dragon 的本意是凶残的有翼巨兽、恶魔、悍妇等。中国人在外国人面前自称 dragon，是自我妖魔化。“龙”也不应该翻译成 long。Long 的英文发音不是“龙”，而是“狼”，这不是真正的音译。“龙”应该翻译成 loong，它的发音和“龙”相近，在英文中本来就是“龙”字的音译，如著名武术家李小龙的英文名字是“Lee Siu Loong”。有些西方人也把龙称为 loong。Loong 的两个“O”字母象龙的两只眼睛，loong 使人联想到 long(长)，所以它也是一个象形文字，和汉字特色相通。而 long 在形象上是独眼龙。本文归纳了龙和 Dragon 之间最重要的五个差别，并尝试着给出了“Loong”的英文解释。

“龙”是中华民族的象征，在中译英时，“龙”被翻译成 Dragon。但是在英文中，dragon 是邪恶的有翼怪物，还有“凶暴的人，悍妇”等含义。在图画中，dragon 的身躯庞大笨拙，颜色是黑灰色的，长着巨大的翅膀，口中吐火，吞噬人和动物，非常丑陋恐怖，和中国的龙完全两样。中国人在西方人面前自称“Dragon”或“Descendants of the Dragon”（龙的传人（后裔）)，西方人当然要把中国人看成是恶魔和坏人了。所以我们再也不能把“龙”翻译成“Dragon”了！建议今后也不要再把英文单词 dragon 翻译成中文的“龙”，可以对它进行音译，如“得拉根”，解释是：“西方神话中凶恶的带翼巨兽”。

我有话说：
用loong 来翻译“龙”的想法有创意。我听到过龙由蛇变的说。我的柬埔寨翻译曾经告诉我，在柬埔寨语里没有“龙”一词，他们称龙为“大蛇”。好像中国西南少数民族也有这种说法。中华民族最早的图腾是蛇。在中国古代传说中，龙与蛇关系非常密切，比如被认为是华夏远祖的伏羲与女娲，在《山海经》中就被描绘成人首龙身和人首蛇身。中国现存文物中很多汉唐壁画、画像石、砖刻和绢画，都有关于伏羲与女娲龙蛇相配的图画。龙与蛇密不可分，但龙和蛇的区别是，蛇是真实的爬行动物，而龙是想象出来到的，是吸收多种动物的特征而组合出来的。我很怕蛇。蒙古草原上有蛇，看到了会让我毛孔悚然，穿蒙古马靴就有防蛇攻击的作用。

我不赞同中国人继续把腾飞的愿望寄托于“龙”这样一个古老图腾上。我感到龙所代表的权威是皇权和凌驾百姓之上的骄横，与以法治国和以人为本的方针相悖。如果中国人需要以崭新的面貌和心态让世界再次认识自己，可以思考新的代表符号。我看憨态可亲的大熊猫挺讨人喜欢的，很具亲和力，不妨考虑大熊猫。不过我也见过大熊猫发飙，抢游客的衣服，把游客吓得失魂落魄的样子。

我认为在这样一个英文字上发挥，意义不大，未必能对提升中国人的形象起到积极的作用。重要的是，在提升风范大国民的自尊、自信和安全感时，应该把工作重点放在继续改善全体百姓的生活水平，发展教育和科技上。一个人人富足的，有法律保障的，科学进步的国度才是最令人羡慕和向往的。

我给大陆的汽车爱好者泼冷水了

2006-03-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

我常常听到大陆的朋友说如何向往拥有一辆自己的汽车，这辈子也算潇洒走一回了。我还记得自己拥有第一辆汽车时的感觉。现在回想起来，它就像一个初恋的情人一样，感觉好极了。我的第一辆汽车虽然是个二手车，别人都不拿它当回事儿，可我还是小心奕奕的，平时停车都选在远离别人汽车的地方，生怕被别人把我的车碰坏。周末还喜欢擦车洗车，比骆驼祥子得到第一辆黄包车还兴奋。

在美国生活多年之后，再加上回国看到公路、停车、汽油、空气污染给人民带来的痛苦和烦恼，我就开始确信：中国切勿走西方汽车发展的老路。中国政府应该严格控制国内汽车销售。大力发展地铁、公共汽车、轻轨电车，以及出租汽车行业，让每个城市都形成自己完善的四通八达的公共交通网。上个星期CCTV4的“我有问题问总理”活动征集观众的问题。我以我上面的想法向温总理提问：中国政府有没有决心或计划通过政府和市场两个手段严密管控中国国内的汽车增长数量，避免走西方汽车发展的老路？

我现在的城市是俄勒冈州波特兰市，以环保工作和措施出名。耐克公司和英特尔公司的总部都设在这里。大陆经常派代表团来学习经验。我们这个城市的特点就是大力投资公共交通，重点建设公共汽车和轻轨电车，形成颇具规模的公共交通网。我进城办事也常常使用公共交通。多年的努力，使这个城市的环境真正达到了山青水秀的境界。

从能源战略的角度看问题，中国不应该让国内汽车的增长数量失控。中国人是很聪明的，为何要轻易增加自身对能源的消耗，陷入对能源的严重依赖，任由别人卡脖子和“勒索”的境地？从环保的角度看问题，中国的环保已经出了严重的问题，让汽车数量大幅增长势必使这个问题更加恶化。难道中国的发展必须走这样一条别人已经走过，而且人家现在已经开始绞尽脑汁进行修正的老路吗？

听说大陆朋友无法访问我的网站了

2006-03-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

昨天我从一位大陆的翻译朋友建军那里了解到，他无法进入我的网站访问了。经过查询，今天又得到另一位大陆翻译翔东的报告：情况属实。刚才又听到建军证实，他在大陆也无法登录我的Blog网站。台湾的翻译朋友文哲说，他还可以从台湾访问我的公司网站。看来只有大陆的朋友遇到了访问我网站的问题。究竟原因何在？让我百思不得其解。

经过大家的分析和研判，我明白了很多。我的确在两个月前，为我的网站换了寄存东家。原来的那家公司为我服务了五年，从来没有过问题，只是服务价格越来越贵，我就换到美国Network Solutions公司，结果成本降了一半。但是万万没有想到讨了便宜之后会遭遇这样的尴尬和烦恼。Network Solutions公司是一家美国"老牌"网络服务公司，一定是触犯了大陆的什么忌讳。我会向该公司反映这个情况的。这也让我想起了一个英文字"collateral"。现在我就好像是在一场战役中那个被无缘无故捎带进入去的牺牲品。死得不明不白，真比窦娥还冤！

但愿这是个暂时的现象，或是一个误会，或是一个技术故障。希望大陆不要封锁我这样的网站。要搞革命斗争也要讲究一定的方式方法，区别对待。要学会团结大多数，打击一小撮。像我这样根红苗正的革命同志也被捎带列入重点封锁对象，于情于理都说不过去。现郑重提请有关部门的领导同志注意，深刻认识到这一问题的严重性，及时纠正错误，改进工作。希望大陆的父老乡亲们见谅了，我对现在的这种尴尬局面也感到实在无可奈何。

Blog with TongliUSA

2006-03-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

Finally, I jumpped onto this blogging wagon and turned myself an instant blogger, and felt like a dream came true. I am having so much fun with it. Please come and Blog with me!

For the Neida 78 classmates, I am thinking to add those of you who are interested in blogging into my blogger list, so you would be able to post your writings right here. Let me know if you like that idea.

TongliUSA

Mr. Li and His Beautiful Interpreter

2006-03-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

As an interpreter, it is always a nerve-racking job to interpret for a press conference, let alone the speaker is an important political figure. Have you ever being corrected by a speaker like that in front of the audiences? I agree that the speaker has the final interpretation power in terms of how his or her words should be interpreted. What if the translation that the speaker suggested or imposed on cannot top the translation you previously delivered? To fight with such a speaker, you are actually fighting a losing battle.

It happened to me once in the past. Lately, when I was watching the press conference on CCTV4, Mr. Li Zhaoxing did it to his interpreter. I found it was totally unnecessary. His interpreter was so beautiful and superb with her interpretation job. I was very impressed that China has such a wonderful interpreter. She was so professional and polite and simply let Mr. Li run over her. I think she was very smart, too. What could you really do in a situation like that? Keep mouth shut perhaps was the best solution.

Here is the sentence that Mr. Li had a problem with:

“山不在高，有仙则名，国不在大，热爱和平、主持公道就好。”

The lady interpreter: “A mountain, no matter how high it is , if it is blessed with the touch of divine, it would be well-known. A country, no matter how big it is, if it can uphold peace and justice in the world, it would be a good country.”

Then, Mr. Li made a quick and partial "correction": “What the matter of a mountain is not its height, what the matter of the country is not its size.”

As you see, Mr. Li’s version is an incomplete and partial translation. Personally, I found Mr. Li’s translation sounding awkward and lacking the style. It would be something that made the audiences wondered what he was trying to say here. Don’t take me wrong. I always admire Mr. Li’s work style in his line of work. His kick-butt attitude made me so proud to be a Chinese. But, I cannot applause to his English, especially this “correction” he made during his press conference. A translator friend of mine even asked "Would the former Premier Zhou also handle it the same way?"

With great interest, I translated this sentence myself. Here comes my version: “The height of a mountain does not matter. What matters is if there is an immortal dueling there. The size of a country does not matter. What matters is if this country can uphold peace and justice.”

What do you think?

Finally I decided to sell my condo and buy a house

2006-03-15T00:32:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy with my translation business in the past three months. Now I got my Condo (Be careful. This word is different from Condom) all fixed, detail cleaned, and have kept it displaying like a "museum" for over a week now. It is really a pain in the butt to keep the house clean and tidy like a museum. This is because that I finally put my Condo on sale with the help of a real estate company.

One day I was talking on the phone and having dinner at the same time in my "office" room, I heard the strangers were talking in my living room. I knew my door was locked and why I heard someone talking. It turned out that a Realtor was showing the house to his customer and did not realize I, the owner, was in the room. It turned out he used the key in the Realtor lockbox. Thank goodness, I was decent at that moment. So far 8 buyers came and checked it out, there is no offer yet. I hope it will not drag too long. I am just looking for that one perfect buyer.

If everything goes well as planned, I should be able to move into my new dream house by the mid of May this year. It is a brand new house, 1,857 sq. feet, priced $285,000 with the upgraded interior. My current Condo is expected to be sold 20 days before the moving day and cover half of the mortgage of the new house. Now I will be really like an American, because everyone here carries a big house mortgage. Fortunately, mine is still less than most people.

I made this decision solely because a Chinese lady friend who was poor 2 years ago, but she made a smart decision to buy a house in a good neighborhood 2 year ago. Now the value of her house went up $60,000 on top of the price she paid her house. Her story inspired me, and I want to repeat her successful story. I hope the fortune will shine on me, a hardworking soul, eventually.

July 1, 2007: This is a side note I am adding one year later to the previous post. I have moved into my dream house for a year now. Everything has been fabulous. The feeling of being able to climb into the middle class in the American society has been very rewarding to my proportionated self-ego. I am still learning how to interact with my American neighbors. Some of them are very friendly and nice, and some are as cold as frozen fish. The most beautiful thing that upset them is that I am the youngest house owner on my block (well, the Bank still owns half of the house). I designed a greeting card with my new house as the center piece for the year of 2007, the Year of Pig, according to the Chinese zodiac calendar. Enjoy!

与时俱进，活出精彩

2006-03-14T22:35:00.000-08:00

人到中年，时常有一种不名状的危机感。这种危机感，就我个人的情况来说，与家庭和事业的关系不大，反而更多是来自于自己对新鲜事物的接受程度，对新技术的了解和驾驭，以及对青出于蓝的后辈油然而生的敬畏。

我们放弃对时代的追求，就会被时代所淘汰。要与时俱进，活出精彩，就要对这个时代的人和事拥有及时的了解和敏锐的观察，并对新技术和新思想保持浓厚的兴趣。我是一个不满足现状的人，追求的就是与众不同。身居美国二十年，对身边的一切都充满着兴趣和激情。通过多年的观察和思考，对中美不同文化、社会，及制度都有了较多的了解，特别是对来自这两个社会人有了较深刻的认识。虽然还没有做到处处“以身相许”，但也有不少深入虎穴的亲身经历。衷心希望借此平台，就广泛的话题，与朋友们进行交流。让我们用活跃的思想，健康的心态拥抱明天，共同吸收永葆青春的营养元素。

乏味的生活，枯燥的工作，受他人支配的处境会让我感到恐惧。贫穷不可怕，因为智慧能致富；落后也不可怕，因为勇于进取，就有机会超越。不怕一无所有，只求曾经拥有，天马独来独往，潇洒人生漫游。这就是我对人生的态度。