stuck with a translation problem

March 21, 2007 at 09:16 PM

根本就没有这回事，是他们制造一个点，给我扣上一个帽子，这是我们的主业，我们家里决定的，人民币价格就是那么回事，而且钱没有什么意思直到昨天我还一再说明，再多的钱我都不要，我要还房，这是我们的选择

给我扣上一个帽子 <--- Anyone have an idea what this means in this context? Thanks!

March 21, 2007 at 10:02 PM

I would say that in the following contexts, "扣上 X 的帽子" means "to label someone as "X".

中国法院网 “精神病”帽子能乱扣? 我国精神病鉴定需立法

However searching your example came up with what might be the original article, and in that context maybe it could be translated as "trying to put words into our mouths".

http://china.rednet.cn/c/2007/03/20/1160745.htm

That article reminds me of a case in England of a farmer who refused to sell his farm in Yorkshire so the motorway was just quite callously built around his farmhouse. The road forks into two around his house.

March 21, 2007 at 10:39 PM

Thanks for the help! I first picked this up in my blog a few weeks ago http://venture160.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/chinas-most-incredible-holdout/

I am in the midst of translating a number of follow up articles and commentaries that have since appeard on the web.

March 22, 2007 at 02:45 AM

If you're interested the 新京报 has a full-page interview with the 钉子户 herself. Ideally for good story value you'd want it to be a feisty pensioner standing up to faceless corporations, but unfortunately the property owners seem to have a number of restaurants (this was one of them) and other interests. Photos are still fantastic though - there's one in the paper of them pulling water up the slope.

I couldn't spot the article on the paper's website, though I didn't look very closely. If you want it and can't find it I can send it to you one way or another.

March 22, 2007 at 03:02 AM

Yea I have a full interview transcript that I am translating right now. The Nanfang Daily also ran an editorial talking about how this relates to the new property rights law. Check the blog within the next two hours and it should be up.

According to the owner, the local government and housing authority didn't allow the press to speak with her and there was a local media blackout on the story before it went around on the net. Although it does seem odd that she has stuck out this long, why is she the only one out of 200 so households that stuck it out? Then again some people have strong witts.