【中文标题】中国语言的狂欢 － 法克鱿与河蟹
【原文标题】Chinese censorship Fǎ Kè Yóu, River Crab
【登载媒体】经济学家
【原文作者】R.L.G.
【原文链接】http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2011/06/chinese-censorship
洪天健的美术作品展“NC游记”最近在曼哈顿开幕。洪先生色彩缤纷、内容繁杂的大幅绘画作品中包括了毛泽东、邓小平和其它中国领导人的形象，并把他们与西方文化的标志，比如玛丽莲梦露和玛丽奥兄弟（任天堂游戏中的人物）并列起来。这些作品非常引人注目，我祝愿洪先生的展览成功。但是，大部分西方观众恐怕无法理解这些作品中的内涵，因为这其中充满了有关中国网络监察制度的双关语。
中国人历来喜欢玩同音异义，或者近似同音异义（一般仅有语调的区别）的游戏（尤其在中国春节期间）。最近，中国语言的这种特点被广泛用来躲避监察制度。当局以打击粗俗文化为目的在中国网络上禁止出现“操你妈”的字样，中国网民很快就创造出一个网络英雄——草泥马，这是一个类似被禁词语的同音异义字。上图中，玛丽莲梦露就和草泥马在一起。他的死对头是河蟹，即“和谐”的谐音词，这是官方对试图推广的社会监察制度的描述。
草泥马仅仅是十个被创造出来用谐音涉及淫秽话题的神秘生物之一。洪先生在一副作品中包括了另外一个生物——伟大的法克鱿（法国克罗地亚杂交鱿鱼），这个东西的中文名称需要有一点英文背景才可以完全领会。他的读音是FA KE YOU，穿着毛式上衣，用嘴里的口香糖吹出一个大大的泡泡。（KE的元音与“uh”发音类似，所以读起来大致就像“fuck you”。）按其英文名字的荒谬程度来看，或许我最喜欢的角色是达菲鸡（聪明、香气四溢的鸡），这是手淫的粗话。
中国的文字录入系统极为复杂，甚至中国人自己有时也难以把一些常用的字写正确。外国人对此更加摸不着头脑，这或许是制约中文在全球普及的一个因素。中文的支持者说，文字是必须要存在的，因为它是澄清同音异义的唯一方法。但是中国人当然可以毫不费力地领会那些同音异义词语的含义，并且也不需要文字的帮助。保留中国文字的真正意义在于其中蕴含的文化和美学价值。
一般情况下，这表示一种非常传统的“价值观”——与历史和民族紧密结合，但是洪先生的作品让这些观念产生了一些可塑性。他提到，对中国逐渐成长起来的独生子女来说，互联网已经成为生活的核心，甚至比西方Y一代人更加核心。（译者注：美国建国以来出生的第13代青年（1961—1981年期间出生）为“Y”一代。“Y”一代对父辈的人生意义从怀疑到讽刺，不再相信世界上还有什么值得“寻找”的意义。）或许，只有“河蟹”还不足以让他们远离“达菲鸡”和受挫时脱口而出的“草泥马”。
评论：
LaContra：
读这篇文章之前，我以为自己不懂中文……
Ashbird：
抱歉，洪先生敏锐的艺术感对我来说就是一种调剂，不代表中国的全部。唉……
Booth113：
草泥马……绝了！
Ashbird：
我在这方面的学识还不足以让我成为一个专家，我仅以一个以中文为母语的人的身份讲两句话。
中国文字由各种部分组成，每个部分都是一个独立的文字，或者几个部分可以组成一个其它的字。
如果你从小学习中文，你不会像文章中所说的那样为写中国字而“苦恼”，至少不会比你要记住英文的各种规则更难，比如词形变化、性别、时态、语态、情态的后缀，以及最麻烦的那些与不同名词和动词搭配的介词。你学习中文时，不用顾忌这些东西，只需要记住每个字的书写方法和发音。
在学习发音时可能会比较复杂，因为你不但要知道发音，还要学习语调，经常会遇到语调极为相似、难以分辨的情况。可是我听说，帕瓦罗蒂在北京演出图兰朵的时候似乎很轻松，他只不过因为好玩学习了几句京剧。
有一个例子可以解释中国字的组成，比如“悟”。它包含两部分：“我”和“心”，所以“悟”就是“用心了解自己”。
这门语言可以让一个5岁的孩子非常有效地学会“悟”这个字，并且理解它的含义。
其它成千上万个汉字也可以用同样的方式来解释。
在文字发展的过程中，很多偏旁部首出于美学方面的原因都变得程式化了。共产党政权设法简化了一些汉字，因此很难辨认出它们的原始形状。
说道中国谐音字的问题，想想吧，在数千个发音相同或者相近，但书写完全不同的文字中玩这个游戏。再加上不同地区的方言，这些方言差异极为巨大，与美国的“阿巴拉契压口音”和“缅因口音”完全是两回事。你有一个无穷无尽的金矿来创造出幽默，这就是中国人所热衷的。
人们都说，品味有标准之分，所有的文化和语言都有其精致和粗俗的一面。人们需要掌握足够的知识和品味才能分辨出哪些是旅游纪念品商店里的便宜货，哪些不是。但是，如果你像我一样是个刚踏入美国的陌生人，你会完全摸不着头脑。
就像Booth113所说：绝了。
A7d6SyKkcM：
《经济学家》在中国也被审查吗？
dingy78：
我认为这两幅画实在“丑陋而且疯狂”！里面人物的形态太扭曲了。
LaContra：
“《经济学家》在中国也被审查吗？”嘘……你不可以问这个问题。
Rinngu：
看着这篇文章我快笑死了。作为一个中国人，我第一次看到用外国语言来讲述我们的内部笑话！
eQpkJiNM25：
有趣。幸运的是《经济学家》在中国并没有遭到审查，这个留言有点尴尬。
Dian Cecht：
真好看，天才的洪先生竟然给毛这样的皇帝竟然赋予米老鼠造型（译者注：应为皮卡丘造型）。我真希望自己能用中文来表扬洪。中国人和中国文字真棒！
Justlistenall：
《经济学家》在中国并问遭禁，但我认为没什么人喜欢它，因为它的内容总是充满偏见。
当然这也没什么不对，《经济学家》只代表了西方人，尤其是英国人的观点。
Thischarmingmatt：
我很喜欢这篇文章，要推荐给所有的朋友。
Garaboncias：
Faux King Fun Knee和Robert North。
现在这都变成了艺术！！！
Toytony：
嗨，谁说中国人缺乏想象力？
milonguero139：
很遗憾地看到在讨论中国谐音字幽默时，《经济学家》小脑瓜的第一反应竟然是“审查”，这与TE蚍蜉撼树地试图颠覆中国的行为如出一辙。你们这些人很有趣，但不是你们所认为自己有趣的原因。继续吧，你们在中国的可信度早就变成负面的了。
严格地说，《经济学家》网站只在中国极少数地区被禁止。比如2008年5月西藏发生暴乱，任何有关这些内容的报道都被禁止。
禁止印刷版的现象更常见一些，但依然比较低调。在一些商店（比如机场），偶尔会看到《经济学家》的杂志，其中一些不大讨好中国的文章被撕掉了。最近我还看到了更加孩子气的把戏，有人用黑色墨头笔把东亚地图上“台湾”的名字划掉了。你只能翻翻眼珠，继续往下看……
greg ole：
非常搞笑的文章。想澄清一点，《经济学家》在中国大陆的确遭到审查。一般用到的方法是在杂志进入商店之前，把有关中国的文章撕掉。我在上海浦东这个相当发达的地区生活过，那里就是这样。你或许可以通过直接向《经济学家》杂志社订阅来躲避审查。我曾经在一些学校的图书馆中看到过未经审查版本的杂志，但在书店中几乎不可能找到。
Salkagga：
“保留中国文字的真正意义在于其中蕴含的文化和美学价值。”
不是这样的。作为一个西方人，我可以读懂中文。拼音或许是帮助你识别中国文字的最好字母工具，但是它只能表达发音。用拼音来解读一篇长文是极为痛苦的，因为你根本无法分别同音异义的字。我不知道有没有人能做到这一点。
就像我所说的，普通话的拼音无法体现方言，而中文的录入系统又必须无视你的方言发音。因此，将中文强迫转化为字母文字将破坏方言文化，这是中国文化中宝贵的一部分。
Tang Yuan：
这篇文章更多提到的是Y一代艺术家（以及像他一样不幸的社会网络成瘾者），而不是活力宝贝和毛。
互联网让所有人得到共享信息的机会，之前的人们难以了解朋友的宠物猫、自然灾害、革命、晚餐和全球领导人的丑闻。可惜的是，似乎Y一代在利用这个共享的信息平台作为当前事件的信息分享场所。
这样做将导致相当危险的误会，因为相关的话题就像文化大革命一样广泛。Justin Bieber，你朋友夜晚醉酒和活力宝贝两件事情在Facebook或者推特上可以得到相同的空间，所以了解两件事情需要付出相同的事件，并且重要性也差不多。可实际上不是这样的。Y一代，包括这个艺术家，利用“代沟”这个概念来反抗他们的长辈（通常使用的借口是“网络自由”、“言论自由”或者“民主”。）
报纸、书籍、口语、电台，甚至电视台都允许编辑强调他们认为重要的事情，而社交网络之所以摧毁了年轻一代，是因为它对所有事情一视同仁（降低了毛的重要性，提升了活力宝贝的重要性）。
1201：
“中文的支持者说，文字是必须要存在的，因为它是澄清同音异义的唯一方法。但是中国人当然可以毫不费力地领会那些同音异义词语的含义，并且也不需要文字的帮助。保留中国文字的真正意义在于其中蕴含的文化和美学价值。”
一种语言不仅用来说，还要用来读和写。如果中文只是用来说的，那么文字或许可以被抛弃。如果完全使用罗马字母，中文是完全不可以被读懂的。或许也能读的通，但是困难巨大。还有，口头谈话总是相对简单、不包含复杂逻辑的，所以中国人说中文，如果没有文字的帮助，经常无法暗示出阅读才能领会的含义。
并存的两套体系（发音和文字）在很多学习中文的人看来是多此一举。但是，如果一个中国人从未学过外语，比如英文，他/她绝不会意识到这一点，因为他们认为语言的发音和文字相互独立是本应如此的事情。必须承认，这种二元性在某种意义上说的确增加了学习的难度，即使对中文母语的人也是如此。但是从另一方面来看，这绝对是一个非常聪明的有效传达信息的方法。如果你看过一些演示文件、招贴画或者书籍，你或许会发现，凭借一张图表能让你比一段文字容易100倍地理解这件事情，无论这段文字是多么的详尽。我知道这个比喻或许并不恰当，但是中国文字的确有这样的功效。其它语言都占据了所谓的“怎样说就怎样写”的优势，而汉语文字与发音或许只有隐约那么一点关系。然而，汉语文字携带了大量和语义和图形信息（如偏旁部首），这些信息以二维的方式展现出来（而英文仅仅是字母的罗列，属于一维的方式）。
还有很多很多，我就不再继续深入了。我不会说中文是一种完美的语言，或许它还远不完美，在某些方面也比不上英语和其它语言。但是，我认为上面引用的一段话的确不符合实际，而且缺少对中文的了解。不能因为你觉得它不好，或者整个世界都觉得它不好，那么它就是个坏东西。
Veritatem Cognoscere：
我同意你的看法，在对付单词和短语的时候，拼音或许有用，但无法应付一篇文章或者一本书。
没错，《经济学家》在中国被封锁了，我在用代理服务器绕过大防火墙。
我建议大家去学点中文，这样你看这篇文章的心情就会从困惑和有趣进化到歇斯底里的狂笑。
Ashbird：
Tang Yuan，谢谢你这么出色的回复。
Y一代也是在西方人内心逐渐形成的一种反向仇外心态的温床，通过这些评论就可略见一斑。所谓“反向”是因为，中国是19世纪末20世纪初的仇外者，西方是他们仇视的对象。
大部分“西方”媒体都在仰仗Y一代人提供的信息，把互联网上的内容信手拈来。这也没错，互联网是一个很好的信息来源，但是仅依赖唯一的信息来源就给中国所有事情都做出一个判断是错误的。具有讽刺意味的是，Y一代中的一些人根本不了解如何书写中国字，他们的学习欲望被电脑键盘上的拼音字母浇灭了。
仇外的人必将为此付出代价。二战之后，人们或许认为这种现象已经逐渐消亡，可是并没有，现在似乎是风水轮流转。
清朝末期，中国是一片废墟，对废墟效忠似乎是一种自戕的无知态度。当时的口号是：“一切排外，打到鬼子。”鬼子并没有被打到，他们自己倒下了。
现在，中国人似乎在幸灾乐祸地看着西方人重蹈他们的覆辙。
Kinsbabe：
这篇文章驳斥了一些思想，比如有人说“毛是中国人的偶像”，或者“人们对政府发表负面的意见会被抓起来”。根本不像西方媒体说的“中国政治紧张”那样严重。在中国，每个人都可以对毛和中国政府提倡的“和谐”理论自由发表见解，甚至还能以此开玩笑！
BearStearns：
汉字如果用罗马字母代替，根本没人可以读懂。下面是一个例子：
石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事。
这段话用拼音写来是这样的：
Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi shi shi. Shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi. Shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi. Shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi.
这段话讲的是，一个人喜欢吃狮子，有一天，他在市场上买到了10只狮子。要吃的时候，发现原来都是石狮子。
没有汉字，你怎么能看懂？
另外说一句，《经济学家》网络版根本没有受限制，不需要代理服务器。
yBhJMLgQ9X：
中国政府或许会赞同这个艺术家“引人瞩目”的“法克鱿”态度，也并不需要洪氏陪审团。
Will@Moor：
Toytony，中国人不缺乏创造力和幽默感，只不过别人难以理解。
我曾经把一些中文笑话翻译成法文，然后对我的朋友说，你们只能理解其中的一部分。
我想是因为我长大了。
顺便说一句，这两幅画太恶心了。
DocQ：
维基百科中的百度十大神兽：
1，草泥马
2，法克鱿
3，雅蠛蝶
4，菊花蚕
5，鹑鸽
6，吉跋猫
7，尾申鲸
8，吟稻雁
9，达菲鸡
10，潜烈蟹
Bigtisas：
洪先生的作品非常愚蠢，用同音异义词做游戏太幼稚了。行了，《经济学家》，别在你的杂志上宣扬愚蠢的东西了。
Garaboncias：
Bigtisas，偶们不素洒瓜。
Manipulation：
法克鱿的意思就是fuck you，跟法国克罗地亚杂交鱿鱼没关系。
原文：
"THE Travelogue of Dr Brain Damages", a show of Kenneth "Tin-Kin" Hung's artwork, opened recently in Manhattan. Mr Hung's garish and busy large paintings feature images of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and other Chinese leaders juxtaposed with icons of Western culture, such as Marilyn Monroe and the Mario Brothers (of Nintendo fame). These pieces are arresting, and I wish Mr Hung success, but most Western viewers will fail to understand some of the games the artist is playing. His work depends heavily on Chinese puns about internet censorship.
The Chinese have played with homophones and near homophones (usually differing only by a tone) for a long time. (They're a staple at the Chinese New Year.) More recently, this feature of Chinese has been particularly useful for evading the censors. When the authorities banned the phrase cào nǐ mā, or "fuck your mother", from the Chinese internet, in the name of combating vulgarity, the Chinese were quick to coin an internet hero, the Grass Mud Horse, whose name is a near homophone: Cǎo Ní Mǎ. Maorilyn Maoroe can be seen with him above. He is an opponent of the River Crab, a pun on "harmonious", the official description of the society censorship is meant to promote.
The Grass Mud Horse is just one of ten mythical creatures all designed to talk about naughty stuff through puns. Mr Hung includes a painting of another of them, the great French-Croatian Squid, whose Chinese name requires a little English to get the pun. He is Fǎ Kè Yóu, and wears a Mao jacket while blowing an inflationary bubble with chewing gum. (The vowel in ke is a sort of "uh" sound, so this sounds roughly like "fah-kuh you".) Perhaps my favourite character, for the absurdity of his English name, is Intelligent Fragrant Chicken, which is one tone off from dǎ fēi jī, slang for masturbation.
The Chinese writing system is hugely difficult, so much so that Chinese natives struggle to write even common words. It is also so difficult for foreigners to learn that it probably constrains its spread as a world language. Defenders of Chinese writing say that the characters are needed to disentangle the many homophones in the language, but of course Chinese people speak (homophones and all) without too much trouble, and without the aid of characters. The real reason to keep the Chinese characters is the cultural and aesthetic value they store for China.
Typically this has meant a very traditional kind of "value"—connection with the past, and with the nation. But Mr Hung's work shows the plasticity of all symbols. He notes that for China's ageing one-child children, the internet has become an essential part of life—more central, in fact, than for your average Western member of Generation Y. It's going to take more than an imposing River Crab to keep them from enjoying Intelligent Fragrant Chicken, or from exclaiming the odd Grass Mud Horse out of frustration.
LaContra
....before reading this I thought I didn't understand the Chinese.
Ashbird
Sorry. Mr. Hung's sensibility is like fish sauce to me. And please, this is Mr. Hung, not all things Chinese. Sigh...
Booth113
Grass Mud Horse... AWESOME
Ashbird
I do not possess a level of knowledge on the subject that properly qualifies me to be a decent expert. I speak here as someone who speaks and writes Chinese as a native language.
The Chinese written character is made up of “components”. Each component can be an entire character itself, or it can be one, two, or more of the root components that form a character.
If you grew up with the language, you don’t “struggle” with learning to write the characters, as the present article suggests, any more than you struggle to memorize the rules on conjugations and declensions of gender, tense, case, mood, mode, and on top of all that a different preposition for every noun and verb. None of those things are on the “to learn” list when you learn Chinese. All you have to learn are the characters in their written and spoken forms.
In spoken form, the characters can get tricky, as not only do you have to learn their sound, you have their tone. Quite often the differentiations in tones are so fine they are indistinguishable, although I read Pavarotti had no trouble on the occasion when he performed Turandot in Beijing and learned a few lines in a Chinese Opera for sport.
An example of a character formed by two components is “goal”. It consists of the component “point to”, and the component “heart “. So a “goal” is “where the heart points to”.
Thus it is a very efficient language in the sense that a 5-year old learning to write the character “goal” will simultaneously learn the meaning of “goal”.
And so it goes for thousands of characters.
In the course of the evolution of the written form, some of the root components have become highly stylized for esthetic reasons, and in the Communist Regime’s effort to simplify the characters, many have become hard to trace to their classic form.
Thus on the present subject of Chinese puns, imagine the word play between and among literally thousands of words that sound the same or almost the same but are different words altogether in the written form. And add the regional dialects, each of which has its unique identifying accents quite different from all the rest , not unlike, for example, the “Appalachia accent” or “Maine accent” in USA . You have an inexhaustible gold mine for punning humor, which Chinese delight in.
All said, there is a standard of taste. There is refinement and crassness in all cultures and all languages. One needs to have enough sense and taste to be able to tell what are 5 cents trinkets belonging to a tourist shop and what are not. But if you are like me when I first arrived in America, I couldn’t when it came to all things American.
As Booth113 said: AWESOME
A7d6SyKkcM
Is The Economist (print/online) censored in China?
dingy78
What I can say about the two paintings are "Ugly and Insane"! What a distorted character the painter can have?
LaContra
"Is The Economist (print/online) censored in China?"
Shhhh!
You're not allowed to ask that.
Rinngu
I nearly laughed to death by reading this..As a chinese, this is the first time I read from an article in other languages on these insider's jokes..GJ!!
eQpkJiNM25
Interesting,seriously and luckly economist(print/online)isn't censored in China.And I have to say that this blog is really a little embarassed
Dian Cecht
It is so nice to see an emperor like Mao having the mickey taken, by such a genius as Mr.Hung. I wish I could write Chinese characters to honour Hung as he deserves. Chinese, a wonderful script and a wonderful people.
Justlistenall
The Economist is not censored in China, but I don't think it is much respected because of its much slanted and biased views.
Nothing wrong there, the Economist typically presents Western views of the world, particularly the British view of things, as it supposed to be.
Thischarmingmatt
I'd loved this article and will recommend it to all my friends.
Garaboncias
Faux King Fun Knee
Robert North
Now THIS is ART!!!
Toytony
Hey! Who says Chinese lack imagination?
milonguero139
Sad to see that the first thing that comes to the little minds at The Economist when discussing the joys of Chinese puns is "censorship"... This is keeping in with TE's task of doing its puny little best to destabilize China. You gentlemen are funny, but not for the reason you think you are. Keep it up, your credibility in China must be below negative.
Strictly speaking
The Economist online is only censored very rarely in China, but it does happen. E.g. Tibetan riots in March 2008 saw blockage of anything related to that story at the time.
Print censorship is a bit more common, but still fairly low-key. At some outlets (e.g. airports) you will occasionally find pages torn out if they contain unflattering articles on China. Recently I also noticed a pretty childish use of black marker to block out the name "Taiwan" on a map of East Asia on one of pages. You just roll your eyes and read on...
greg ole
Hilarious story. Just wanted to confirm that The Economist absolutely IS censored in Mainland China. This is usually done by the crude method of tearing pages out of the magazine related to China sometime before it heads to store shelves. This is even true in the most developed areas of Pudong, in Shanghai, where I have lived. You may be able to bypass the censors with a personal subscription to The Economist - I have read uncensored versions in the libraries of schools with a subscription - but it can sometimes be impossible to find an uncensored version in store shelves.
Salkagga
"The real reason to keep the Chinese characters is the cultural and aesthetic value they store for China."
this can't be. i can read chinese, as a westerner, but pinyin - which is probably the best alphabetic system you could come up with for writing chinese language - is good only for describing the pronunciation of the national dialect. reading a long text only in pinyin is really painful, because you're constantly disambiguating homophones. i don't know if anyone could get used to it.
and, like i said, it's just the national dialect, the putonghua. pinyin doesn't describe local dialects at all, while the chinese writing system is intelligible whatever dialect you speak. forcing an alphabetic writing system on china would probably destroy the profligacy of local dialects that is a part of chinese culture, if it could succeed at all.
Tang Yuan
This art says more about the Generation Y artist (and the unfortunate social-networking addicts like him) than about Pokemon or Mao.
The internet has levelled the playing field for the provision of information. Never before has it been equally easy to learn about your friend's LOLcats,, natural disasters, revolutions, dinner and global leadership scandals. Unfortunately, it appears that Generation Y (and the artist in question) is using this levelled media-playing field as a primary source of information on current affairs.
The result is a dangerous misconception that because topics as diverse as The Cultural Revolution, Justin Bieber, your friend's drunken night out and adverts for Pokémon are awarded equal Facebook space (or equal Twitter characters) that they're on the same level intellectually and in terms of importance. They're not. Generation Y, including this artist, is using this aspect of the "generational gap" to rebel against their elders (usually under the guises of "Internet freedom", "freedom of speech" or "democracy").
Newspapers, books, word of mouth, radio and even TV allow editors to emphasise what they believe is important. Social networking damages youths because it treats big and small with equal importance (degrading Mao and giving rise to infamous LOLcats).
1201
"Defenders of Chinese writing say that the characters are needed to disentangle the many homophones in the language, but of course Chinese people speak (homophones and all) without too much trouble, and without the aid of characters. The real reason to keep the Chinese characters is the cultural and aesthetic value they store for China"
A language is not only there to be spoken. It is there to be read and written too. It is probably possible to abandon the character system if Chinese language is to be spoken only. If total Romanization is applied, the Chinese text will be really hard to read. Maybe it is still readable, but with much more difficulty. Also keep in mind that oral conversation is always simple and usually don't have complicated logic. Thus the fact that Chinese people speak Chinese without the aid of characters really doesn't imply it will be the case for reading.
Having two systems (pronunciation and characters) is always regarded to be redundant for many Chinese learners as a second language. It might never occur to a Chinese if he or she never learns a foreign language, such as English, because it is so natural for them that a language has two systems. I have to admit, to some degree, this duality really creates a steep learning curve even for native speakers. But on the other hand, it really shows this is a very clever device for information efficiency. If you have ever read any slides, posters or books, you might have realized that a graph, diagram or table makes you understand something 100 times easier than reading the text no matter how elegant the language is. I know this is a bad analogy but Chinese characters serve this function. While other languages are slaves to the somewhat convenient “what you say is what you write” principle, the Chinese characters bear only partial or very little information about the pronunciation. In contrast, the Chinese characters carry more semantic and graphical information and these informations (strokes and parts) are organized in a 2D fashion (while English words for example is composed of letters which are organized in a 1D fashion).
There are more to go. But I will stop here. I will not say Chinese language is perfect and maybe it is far from perfect and not as good as English or other language in certain aspects. But I would think statements quoted above really lacks some true and deep understanding of the Chinese language. Don’t say it is bad just because it does not “make sense” in your mind set or view of the world.
Veritatem Cognoscere
I agree with your statement that pinyin can be convenient for short phrases and such but it would seem unbearable to read from, say, a newspaper or a book.
Yes, the Economist is blocked from China, I had to use a proxy server to bypass the great firewall of China to get my Economist fix.
But I'd recommend some readers to take some mandarin. It makes this go from amuse/bemusing to absolutely fabulous hilarity.
Ashbird
Tang Yuan,
Thank you for a great post.
Generation Y is also the breeding ground for a reverse xenophobia that is forming in the Western psyche, if what is gleaned from TE posts and comments represents a cross-section of that psyche. “Reverse” because it was China who was the practitioner of xenophobia in the 19th and early 20th century, when the object of the phobia was the West.
Most “Western” media rely heavily on information from and about the Y generation, using what is available on the Internet. That is fine. The Internet is one of many good sources. Taking what comes from a single source as the sum total of all things happening in China, however, is a mistake. A bit of irony here is some in the Y generation do not even know to write Chinese characters very well, their need to learn having been hijacked by the ease of use of “pin-yin” alphabets on the computer keyboard.
Xenophobia is self-defeating to whoever who practices it. One would expect this phenomenon has gone out of style after WWII. Amazingly it hasn't. The change that has seemingly occurred is the chairs have reversed as the music continues.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China was a country in ruins. Contributing to the ruins was a national attitude of self-corrosive ignorance. The slogan was: “All things foreign are bad. Down with foreign devils”. The foreign devils didn’t go down. It did.
Now it appears China gets to gloat as the West adopts its historical mistake.
Kinsbabe
this is another article that contradict with what some people said about "Mao is an idol of Chinese" or "People will be arrested because of the negative comment on the government", its far not that serious as what western media said about "Chinese political tension". In China, everyone can comment freely about Mao or about the current "harmonious" concept Chinese government promote. They even make jokes about it!!!
BearStearns
It's impossible to completely understand a text if Chinese were "romanized". Here's an example:
石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事。
In pinyin:
Shi shi shi shi shi shi, shi shi, shi shi shi shi. Shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi. Shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi. Shi shi, shi shi shi shi shi.It's impossible to completely understand a text if Chinese were "romanized".
This is a story about a man who loves to eat lions. One day he captured 10 lions at the market and when he tried to eat them he found out they're all made of stones.
Now how do you read/understand that without characters?
And BTW, online version not censored at all here. No proxy required.
yBhJMLgQ9X
The Chinese govt may agree with the writer about "arresting" pieces with their "Fǎ Kè Yóu" attitudes, and it may not be a "Hung" jury! But really nice to learn of the irreverence prevalent amongst the Chinese.
Will@Moor
@toytony
Chinese don't lack imagination, neither humour. Chinese only have imagination and humour that others don't understand.
Once I tried to translate many jokes from Chinese to French, and then I told to my friends. They only got a few of them.
And I gave up.
B.T.W.,these two "paintings" are really ugly.
DocQ
Baidu 10 Mythical Creatures
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1,Cao Ni Ma
2,Fa Ke You
3,Ya Mie Die
4,Ju Hua Can
5,Chun Ge
6,Ji Ba Mao
7,Wei Shen Jing
8,Yin Dao Yan
9,Da Fei Ji
10,Qian Lie Xie
bigtisas
Mr. Hung's art is stupid and playing with homephone is so childish. Come on. Economist, please don't promote stupidity on your magazine.
Garaboncias
@ bigtisas
Wee Knot Stew Pit. Yew More On.
Manipulation
Fǎ Kè Yóu just mean fuck you, none of the great French-Croatian Squid's business. |
狗仔卡
发表于 2011-6-16 14:12
提升卡
变色卡
抢沙发
千斤顶
显身卡
发表于 2011-6-16 14:50
还有不要拿毛主席画像搞事，什么玩意？
