Archive for March, 2009
Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong)
Li ShiMin’s Horses (a.k.a. Emperor Tang TaiZong)
A colleague here in Nanjing said that he finds most famous tourist sites in China “underwhelming”. The Chinese somehow manage to take a relic or site that has an interesting story behind it and turn it into trivia and platitudes. I don’t know how the process works, but they [...]
Decisions
Localizing visual media presents interesting challenges.
Decisions from 中翊 ED on Vimeo.
incest, someone on a bus, towel of babber
Book Reviews at a Shanghai Bookstore
This bookstore orders most of its history books from the same few publishers, so it’s a good place to learn about the incestuous world of writers and those who write book reviews. Writers sometimes cluster into groups that review and promote each other’s books. The author of this book is [...]
Translation and the damage done
An article appeared today in the Liberty Times:
成年（adulthood）變通姦（adultery） 英譯太離譜
民進黨立委陳瑩昨日指出，由台灣史前文化博物館所出版的「跨越與連結－臺灣與南島文化」一書中部分英文翻譯嚴重錯誤，有侮辱原住民之嫌。（記者王敏為攝）〔記者林曉雲、黃明堂、趙靜瑜／綜合報導〕原住民的紋面是成年的標誌，有肯定、尊敬的正面意義，但由國立台灣史前文化博物館出版的「跨越與連結｜台灣與南島文化」一書，英文說明卻把成年（adulthood）錯譯成adultery（通姦），導致外國人誤認紋面是通姦的標誌；立委陳瑩、卑南族長老陳冠年及英文教授張武昌直批「太離譜」！
It is the often-told story of a translation gone bad — a poorly executed Chinese-to-English translation at that. In this case, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples are claiming damage to their cultural dignity and demanding that the offending translated book be recalled immediately.
After a bit of sleuthing (seems that [...]
The Back Dorm Boys and The Song of the Alpaca Sheep
So, what does this have to do with anything, you might rightly ask?
Both are popular YouTube videos, which have had an impact beyond “cyberspace”.
YouTube and similar social Internet tools have opened up a rich world of new modes of expression in China. While the first video has landed a group of young men a recording [...]
