Is Xi Jinping sorry?
When the new leader of the Chinese Communist Party stepped on stage Thursday nearly an hour later than scheduled, he acknowledged the delay by saying, ???????? ? which, as a beginning Chinese student can tell you, literally translates to ?made everybody wait a long time.? But in English, the interpreter at the event turned it into ?sorry to have kept you waiting.?
While the English translation was widely picked up by the foreign media, some that relied on the Chinese (such as the Journal) left out the ?sorry.?
People appeared to generally agree that Mr. Xi?s comment conveyed a sense of mild regret either way, with many Chinese observers on the Sina Weibo microblogging service praising Mr. Xi for apologizing. Still, the difference sparked good-natured discussion among people who watch the intersection between translation, politics and culture in China.
?Personally I?d go for fidelity and say ?I?ve kept everyone waiting,? without the appended ?Sorry.? Implicit in English too,? wrote Kaiser Kuo, a spokesman for search company Baidu Inc. and frequent commenter on current events in China, on his Twitter account.
Brendan O?Kane, a Beijing writer and translator, sided with those who would add the ?sorry? as a matter of context. Mr. Xi?s comment ?serves more or less the same function as ?sorry to keep everyone waiting?: a perfunctory apology by acknowledgement of inconvenience,? he said in a note.
The issue of apologies in Chinese and English hasn?t always been so academic. The issue came to the fore 11 years ago, after a U.S. surveillance plane flying off the southern Chinese coast collided with a Chinese fighter jet, killing the Chinese pilot, and was forced to land on Hainan island. Beijing sought a formal apology (??, or daoqian) from Washington, which was anxious to soothe tensions while at the same time keep from admitting wrongdoing. That left the two sides seeking appropriate words in both languages.
The solution ? as explained by researchers from George Mason University in a 2005 paper (PDF) ? came down to linguistics. U.S. said to the Chinese people and the family of the missing pilot that it was ?very sorry for their loss.? It also said it was ?sorry? for entering China?s airspace.
When China translated the phrase into Chinese, the meaning was subtly shifted. ?Very sorry? became ?????,? which the George Mason researchers translate as ?a deep expression of apology or regret.?
? Carlos Tejada. Follow him on Twitter @CRTejada
Like China Real Time on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
day light savings day light savings daylight saving time 2012 grapes of wrath silent house nfl mock draft project m
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.