All entries for December 2006

farewell to 2006

It might be too cliche to start with “how time flies”. But I wonder if I can find any better comment on the last day of 2006.

Nothing special really happened, while everyday has been meaningful, so meaningful that sometimes it’s getting painful…
I am getting used to this postmodern paradoxical way of thinking. And it is actually effectively comforting, as long as I do not take into account what is going on with my writing. Where can I find enough courage and certitude to continue this heavy subject?

Conference, campus,library, bookstore, home, classroom, internet, Yangzhou, Guangzhou, Hongkong, Vancouver, Icefield, London, Warwick…
Boresome, surprise, happiness, sadness, anger, disappointment, desperation, asperation, headache, stomache…
Family, friends, strangers, schoolmates, teachers, ex-colleagues…
Reading, writing, deleting, translating, travelling, flying, thinking, or rather doing nothing, blogging, sleeping, talking, shouting, weeping, whispering…

Farewell, 2006… The little flying pig survived, and is still maintaining a certain degree of its sanity!

Xiu Wang : 31 Dec 2006 02:16 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

no name

In the early spring,
Did you hear the snow weeping
as you two passed that field
vast and wild

I am actually fine

Under the tears
of the crystal ice
Grass must be growing on this field
vast and wild

Xiu Wang : 27 Dec 2006 16:42 |  Tags: Poetry |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Phone calls

I usually am very frightened at the idea of talking to an old friend on the phone, especially if it is someone that I have not seen for long. I would be excited and extremely happy if I could see a friend in person, but I have this psychological fear for telephone conversations. Without body language and eye contact, communication becomes so unbearably unpredictable.

I am afraid that the familiar voice from the other side of the world is going to sound strange; I am embarrassed by the question guess who I am which I never am able to make out the right answer; I am freaked out by the blank spots where neither side knows what to say or how to end the call; and worst of all, I hate the sizzling telephone line which always blocks the most essential signal one needs to catch. It is almost like a gambling for me to call some old friend that I have not seen for years. I do not know how many friends I lost on the phone.

Yesterday I received two unexpected phone calls from my friends wishing me merry Christmas. Both however turned out to be great! I was so happy that we can still talk so closely on the phone, and for that long.

Maybe it is not the problem of the phone anyway. When the friendship is working, it works everywhere, even on the worst phone line; when it is not, nothing helps.

Xiu Wang : 26 Dec 2006 07:25 |  Tags: Life |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

voice and action——my first and last shopping with Metro

Follow-up to pesonal/political from XIULU

When my family was stopped by the entrance, we talked to them , including the manager, for 30 minutes at first, explaining that there is no way that my child is going to be left outside and there is no reason in this company policy.
After 30 minutes aruging, I got tired and grabbed my boy and went directly into the shop. The security asked me to leave, and I told the manger peacefully but firmly that I have been spending 30 minutes respecting their right, but since my right and my son’s right is not in anyway respected at all, i now decide to enforce them myself. And if any one here dare to touch me or my kid in the slightestest way, I will definitely call 110 and handle this to the police. I, as a Chinese citizen, violated no law in this country. And I do not mind going to court for my action of entering Metro with my young kid. I took my mobil and invite the manger to call 110 immediately and report my “crime”, if he truely believed that I am guilty or wrong.
He gave up.
After that we shopped leisurely in Metro for 1 hour and bought quite a few stuffs. But I definitely am not trying that stupid place ever again.

Xiu Wang : 25 Dec 2006 15:58 |  Tags: Life |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

pesonal/political

Follow-up to Metro: No kids under 1.2M in this Store?——Germans please answer from XIULU

I was about to forget the word ‘metro’ until recently I got to know another Chinese woman¡¯s experience of shopping at Metro Shanghai. Not only her six month old baby was not allowed to enter, Metro staff also shouted rudely at their baby and nanny.
I was very upset by cases like this. When a conflict happens between asymmetrical relationships, it always implies coercive power exercise. In this case, it seems to be a doomed failure to argue with a big joint ventures like Metro.
On the other hand, I do not feel it is right to give up one¡¯s voice only because it can not be heard. I still have to say what I need to say--—-whether Metro will listen is something I can not control and can not predict. I took faith in what Michel de Certeau believes in The Practise of Everyday Life, that the least significant unit of the world can still exercise its power. The housewife¡¯s shopping decision counts.

The voice here might not be heard. But the voice is uttered. And it is the action of uttering that matters.

This is my last email to them which I have not get a reply so far.

Dear XX,
Thank you very much for your email. I could have written to you in the first place if the contact information of Metro China is also made available on your Chinese website. Anyway thank you for your prompt handling of this complaint.
Although I agree with your Health and Safety reasons sounds much better than ¡°security¡± reason, I am afraid that it is still not convincing enough. I guess many other superstore/hyperstore have large trolleys, customers go there to make large purchases, large amounts of stock are also moved throughout the trading hours in most stores that I visited. It would be considerate to put up warning signs so that parents will be legally responsible for any consequences that maybe caused due to their negligence. But what Metro is doing now is inconsiderate, and perhaps even discriminatory for the kids under 1.2M, as well as their mothers (considering the high probability that many mothers need to shop alone with the kid).
And also if you have time to go around the shops personally, I think it would not be hard for you to see what I saw the other day: Kids around 5 or 6 running wildly, and even riding bikes in Metro Cash and Carry; Mothers with 3 mouths old was waiting for her husband outside in the parking lot (repeat, parking lot, not with in store, there was not even a bench for the poor mother). I can not imagine any Chinese woman, no matter how careless she might be, will have her 3-month-old crawling in your store and then accidentally bumping into a pile of stocks). The fact is that 1.2m as a borderline age does not give Metro any ¡°health and safty¡± guarantee, as you might have wished. It¡¯s not like an adult store which might assume any one above 18 as rational independent agent who can take responsiblity for their behavoirs, isn¡¯t it?
I am not interested to know if the rule is also enforced outside China or not. I do not need to know an American/German is also bearing with this rule to feel happier as a Chinese. A rule can not be respected only because it is accepted (in China or outside China). A rule can only be respected when it is reasonable. And in this case, I think this rule of not allowing a kid under 1.2 m to enter a superstore/hyperstore/cash-carry store failed to be reasonable at all.
But I am not trying to argue. I respect your right to feel this rule as genuinely reasonable. Aswhat I have suggested, this rule perhaps can be enforcedly with more concerns for younger kids and their mothers: waiting areas, Kids playground, toy cars, even chairs, whatever that might make the poor waiting mother and young kids feeling better. They are much more faithful and valuable customers than I am to Metro.
Please, respect them, and take care of them.
Good luck with your business in China.

Wang, Xiulu

Xiu Wang : 25 Dec 2006 15:53 |  Tags: Life |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Trackbacks (1) |  Report a problem

Reviewing St. Jerome's Day on Christmas…

Writing about web page http://www.fit-ift.org

The history of International Translation Day

1992 – “Translation – the vital link”
1993 “Translation, a pervasive presence”
1994: “The many facets of translation”
1995: “Translation, a key to development”
1996: “Translators and Copyright”
1997: “Translating in the Right Direction”
1998: “Good Translation Practices”
1999: Translation – Transition
2000: Technology serving the needs of translation
2001: Translation and ethics
2002: Translators as agents of social change
2003: Translators’ rights
2004: Translation, underpinning multilingualism and cultural diversity
2005: Translation and Human rights
2006: Many Languages, one profession

Xiu Wang : 25 Dec 2006 01:12 |  Tags: Translation |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Happy Western Winter Holiday??

This is the greeting I got from Yvonne---an obviously resistant translation of Merry Christmas. I told her that Venuti might adore that.
This resistant/foreignizing/covert translation somehow reminds me the simple fact that this is not my holiday after all. There was a stupid and perhaps ridiculous incident that happened to me when I was a sophomore in GW. Qi and I organized a fantastic Christmas party for our department, and it was until several hours before the party started we were informed that the university would not ‘appreciate’ any festival event with relate to the ‘western’, perhaps worse ‘western and religious’, holidays, and we’d better cancel the party for the sake of ‘being politically correct’. Qi and I were astonished, and eventually outrageous. After arguing with the ‘authority’ for a long time, the deal was that we could still have the party on the Christmas Eve on condition that there was nothing that connotes ‘Christmas’. We tear down smiling pictures of Santa Clause and removed the huge Christmas tree, and changed all the signs to ‘happy new year’. It turned out to be a very successful party after all, but that stupid ‘happy new year but not merry Christmas’ warning really pissed us off: For Buddha’s sake, this is a English Language and Culture Department!
Today nobody can say anything if I want to dress up Edward into a Reindeer. His kindergarten actually organized a grand Christmas party and put them on stage in XinHai Theatre, the most prestigious ‘high culture’ place in my city. Edward played a cute monkey with ‘Xmas’ on his belly, and the dance he performed was ‘All little animals singing Christmas Songs’. I really loved it, with out any feeling that this is a cultural invasion of the evil ‘west’.
Finally we have to agree the political is not the personal, but rather the personal is the political. The western and the Chinese, the religious and the Communist, the past and the present, the mother and the child, boill down to nothing but the life that I live every day.
This is written today, on the traditional Chinese Winter Festival. I bet Edward will also be very happy tonight---we reserved his favorite lobster from Australia and clam from Canada to celeberate this Chinese day of winter…

Xiu Wang : 22 Dec 2006 03:31 |  Tags: Life Thoughts |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

fact or value

The collapse of fact/value dichotomy
This is not really about Putman’s book, which I eagerly read in the past few days. It is more of a interesting story about Edward.
We were playing weiqi today and he insisted on taking the white pieces at the beginning. Half way in the game, when the black side seems to be evidently overwhelming, he decided that he will switch to black. I protested by saying that it would be utterly unfair, but he looked at me innocently by saying: I do not do fair play. I dont care about the play; I just want to win.
Everyone laughed. I gave up, not because I wanted to spoil him, but because he made a point! A descriptive one! I am the one who endowed the word ‘fair’ with ethical considerations and the accompanying normative forces. It does not work for Edward who uses the word in its ‘pure’ descriptive sense. This funny phenomenon extends to his proud use of ‘spoil’:’my teachers spoil me!?’, ‘miserable’: I enjoy making mother’s life miserable’, or ‘brutal’: ‘Father beats me up brutally.’ We usually laugh at his (mis)use of these words. Today, he used the word ‘unfair’ so sincerely that I started doubt that he actually was trying to describe what he wants. The language that has been so morally-laden for me does not seem to be the same for him.
Maybe as soon as he grows older and develops his own moral system, he will find it hard to use these words again in the way he is using them now. Some day he will have to face the collapse of fact/value dichotomy, and realize that his actions and words will be heavier.

Xiu Wang : 18 Dec 2006 14:40 |  Tags: Thoughts |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

a miserable trip back to GW

“Gosh! See who that is… How come you are back! I bearly recognize you at all! Has it been 3 years? or 2? oh, no, it’s just one and a half year! Why you look so… eeeeh, so mature? Hold on, you gained some weight? You must be. Look at your face! It is so…eh…so ‘round’ now!”
(Ah?! )
“Anyway, how come you are back? Oh, you finished your PhD, right? It’s really been a while, or, at least, you must have finished most of your writing!”
(Ouch!)
“Nice to meet you! Got to run, have a class to attend to. What are you doing recently? Looking for a job? I guess XX university must be very interested! Good luck! bye!”
She left. I finally felt released: Thanks mate! Love you too!

Xiu Wang : 15 Dec 2006 01:07 |  Tags: Life |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

For Siyi

The coffee
in the dark dark
night
I drink

The value
with the hard hard
fact
I swallow

CHOCKED
and I ask

Do I have to live
this sad sad
life with things that I
never and ever can
digest

Xiu Wang : 12 Dec 2006 14:20 |  Tags: Poetry |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem