What are you reading?

[bhchao]

The Washington Post published this article today on a new, controversial biography of Chiang Kai-shek: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China by Jay Taylor / http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674033388

...And as China sheds its Maoist legacy, rendering the Chairman's rule a three-decade aberration, even mainstream Chinese scholars are suggesting that the country might have been better off had Chiang triumphed in 1949.

Perhaps Chiang has emerged victorious after all. For surely today's China resembles his vision more closely than it does Mao's.

Not sure about the last statement, but economically, China today is a replica of the authoritarian capitalism the Chiang regime practiced in Taiwan.

History has vindicated Chiang to some degree. Arguably, he never got the chance to concentrate on developing the mainland economy because of civil war and the Japanese invasion. The Sino-Japanese war destroyed all the gains made in infrastructure and economic development. During peacetime after 1949, the Chiang regime implemented Dr. Sun Yatsen's Three Principles: People's livelihood through economic development and land reform; nationalism with an anti-Japanese and anti-Maoist platform; and finally political reform under Jiang Jingguo.

Edited April 26, 2009 at 05:56 PM by bhchao

[renzhe]

For all his flaws as a political leader, Chiang laid the foundation not only for Taiwan's prosperity, but also for its transformation into the only democracy in the Chinese-speaking world, and one of the few in Asia.

I can see why it's controversial.

[bhchao]

I read parts of the book today at a bookstore. I have to agree with the last statement.

While Chiang was an inept political leader, what he could accomplish on the mainland was constricted by external and internal circumstances. His personal flaws were his micromanagement and emphasis on loyalty over meritocracy. However in times of war, he needed to be first and foremost a military leader. And loyalty among military subordinates was important in creating a cohesive front against a strong, external enemy. Division among your ranks just for the sake of meritocracy is counterproductive at a time of national division and foreign invasion. Meritocracy becomes far more important when managing a bureaucracy during peacetime.

Although I give Chiang credit for refusing to surrender China to the Japanese, his execution of the war could have been better. Some of his decisions are very controversial, like his 1938 decision to blow the dikes of the Yellow River which flooded entire villages. The book says that blowing the dikes slowed the Japanese westward advance for 6 years. However regardless of the strategic gain, it was a stupid political move because it cost Chiang the goodwill of peasants.

In wartime, Mao was a more effective leader than Chiang. But Chiang was more competent during peacetime. Many of the mistakes the Nationalists made on the mainland, like hyperinflation and rampant corruption, were not repeated on Taiwan. Chiang delegated authority and decisionmaking on economic affairs to technocrats, especially overseas-educated Chinese who were honest and had high integrity. The land reform program during the 1950s that Chiang approved was designed and implemented by 海外歸來的人. Chiang gave these 'sea turtles' the authority to manage monetary and fiscal policy.

Chiang and his son made a major effort to reduce corruption in Taiwan by giving higher salaries to police and central authorities. In Taiwan, corruption existed mostly at the local level because local politics was dominated by 本省人, whom the KMT gave favorable government contracts and state loans in exchange for their political support. The central government and bureaucracy were relatively clean because they were dominated by the mainlander elite, who were a a self-sustaining privileged class at the time. Taiwanization moved the local factions and their tendency for corrupt politics up to the national level, a trend Taiwan is currently combatting.

Today's China is very similar to the Chiangs' governing philosophy:

1) Chiang wanted a modernized, economically-developed Confucian society. Like Sun Yat sen, Chiang believed that Confucian values would help bring the social discipline and order that would make a democracy possible. Now with the legacy of Maoism being shed, China is rediscovering traditional Chinese culture and Confucianism.

2) The political stability the Chiang regime enforced in Taiwan since 1949 allowed economic reforms to materialize and raised living standards. Economic mobility created an environment ripe for Jiang Jingguo to implement political reform. The CCP today place equal importance on stability. The question is what its next step will be.

3) KMT used the power of state-owned enterprises to finance the growth of industries it wanted to develop. Similar to mainland today.

Edited June 16, 2009 at 12:53 PM by bhchao

[skylee]

Re #389 and #399 on "The Host". I really enjoyed the story. And I've posted a summary (in Chinese) on the story. Take a look if you are interested ->

Part 1

Part 2

[studentyoung]

Here is an short article from a blog by someone named “莹”, which I think it is right for Mother’s Day (tomorrow), so I translated it. Hehe. Anyway, happy Mother’s Day for mothers on this forum! Hehe.

http://bbs.baby.sina.com.cn/treeforum/App/view.php?fid=505506&tbid=2545&bbsid=170&subid=5&isMain=0&id=34423

妈妈投诉糖糖的七种行

Mom’s Complaint: My Girl Sweetie’s Seven Deadly Sins

一、随地拉尿，然后用小手在尿湿的那一滩上面拨来拨去扩大灾区面积，增加收拾难度，并且耍赖蹲在那里玩不肯起来，随着年龄增长此种行为并不收敛，更变本加厉发展为偷拉偷玩然后偷走，试图让妈妈不发现，等妈妈发现她裤子湿一片之后，还要象小狗一样去寻找她的尿尿。

One. She pees everywhere, and then uses her little hands to wipe on the pool, which just increases the stricken area and the difficulty of cleaning. At the end, she just sits there shamelessly and unwillingly to get up. Her behavior doesn’t diminish with age. Instead, it gets even worse. She pees secretly, messes up secretly and leaves the spot secretly, so that her “good deed” won’t be discovered by mom. Till mom has found out her pants are wet, mom still needs to sniff around, like a puppy, to search for her piss.

二、喜欢当人肉榨汁机，水果放进嘴巴里，先嚼成一小块一小块，然后吐到手上（当然身上也无所幸免），然后小手用力捏捏捏，让果汁顺着小手流到身上地上，再拿脏兮兮的手摸沙发以及拉妈妈的衣服，把残渣糊上去，扩大污染范围，然后观看妈妈濒临爆发的脸色并以此为乐。

Two. She likes to be a human juice-extractor! She puts fruit in her mouth, chews it into pieces, and spits them on her hands (of course, her body also can’t miss them by luck). And then, with her two little hands, she squeezes the mess heavily again and again to make juice run down from her body to the ground. With her dirty hands, she touches the sofas and pulls mom’s clothes, and then even pastes the mess on to increase the polluted areas. Finally, she takes mom’s facial expression, which is like a volcano on the verge of explosion, as extra entertainment.

三、喜欢趴在地上扮演擦地布，软绵绵的一块，拎都拎不起来，还会自动向后退着擦地，妈妈非常欣赏你对家务的献身态度，但是一点都不喜欢你这么奢侈地用衣服擦地板。

Three. She likes to pretend to be a rag of scrubbing the floor, which is too soft and tender to pick up. It even moves backwards to mop the floor. Oh, my dear, mom highly appreciates your sacrificing yourself for housework, but she doesn’t like to see you luxuriously using your clothes to clean the floor.

四、妈妈一打开电脑或者靠近电视机，糖糖就会以光速出现在妈妈身边并且纠缠不放，嘴巴里一直叫着“巧虎、巧虎、巧虎”，可以不休息叫无数声的哦，一直叫到如她所愿打开巧虎宝宝版光盘或者被奶奶强行抱走为止。

Four. As soon as mom opens a computer or approaches to a TV, Sweetie will appear at mom’s side at the speed of light to cling to her. With crying “Qiao Hu, Qiao Hu, Qiao Hu”(she can cry many, many times incessantly), she will keep nagging till her wish is fulfilled, i.e. when “Qiao Hu Baby” VCDs are played, or when she is carried away by her grandma by force.

五、不让妈妈上厕所，简直是人世间十大酷刑之一，一旦妈妈进了洗手间关上门，无论宝宝正在做什么，都好像有探测感应一样飞奔过来进行三项标准动作，拍门-试图开门-大哭大叫“妈妈”。以至妈妈每次上厕所都像打仗一样，长此以往极容易让妈妈形成心理阴影，影响妈妈的健康成长！

Five. She doesn’t allow mom to go to toilet. It’s really one of the top ten tortures in the world. Once mom has walked into the toilet and closed the door, no matter what she is doing, like with some kind of inductive probe, she will dash to the door and practice her three standard actions; one, beating the door; two, trying to open the door; three, weeping and crying out loud, “MOM ~ ~!” To mom, it has turned out that every time going to toilet is as tough as battling in a war. If things keep going on like this, mom will very likely to develop mental trauma and her healthy growth will certainly be affected!

六、假如只有妈宝二人在家里的话，糖糖立刻就由胆大老虎变成胆小老鼠，喜欢拉着人的裤腿亦步亦趋地走路，生怕妈妈把她丢下。假如有机会被妈妈抱上的话就再变身为无敌树熊——别想再剥她下来了，妈妈想干什么家务活基本上都歇菜。以至基本每次奶奶买菜回来都会问：“你的衣服怎么还没有晾？

Six. If only she and mom are left at home, Sweetie will turn from a brave huge tiger into a timid little mouse. She is so afraid to be left alone by mom that she likes to pull at the bottom of mom’s trousers to go with mom anywhere mom goes. If she has a chance to be hugged by mom, she will turn again, into an invincible koala, which you can never put it down. At times like this, whatever housework mom wants to do will be given up by mom. Therefore, basically, every time when Sweetie’s grandma comes back from shopping food at market, grandma will ask mom, “Why haven’t you hung out the washing to dry?”

七、喜欢吃，无论什么都想吃，番薯干、小馒头、面包、糖果、各种水果、奶制品以及一切大人正在往口里放的东西（包括药丸），甚至牙刷、奶粉勺都往嘴巴里塞并且咀嚼，连铺窗台的大理石都由左舔到右！不给就哭这招她已经玩到过时了，如果你把食物全都塞进自己嘴巴里不给她，她会先用花儿一样的天使笑容和小树苗一样张开的双臂引诱你把她抱起，然后强行用她嫩嫩的小指头把你嘴巴撬开。

Seven. Her interest in food. She likes to eat all kinds of things, dried potato pieces, ball cakes, bread, candy, various fruit, milk products and everything family members trying to put into mouth (including medicine pills). She even puts a tooth brush or a milk-powder spoon into the mouth and chews it. She goes so far as licks marble window sills from left to right! “No offering is weeping”? Oh~ ~, the trick is too outdated for her to play again! If you put food all in your mouth so as not to give her, she will wear a flower-like angel smile, stretch her arms like a baby tree to temp you to pick her up, and then she will try to use her tender little fingers to pry open your mouth.

(Note: Special thanks to Mr. C. who helped me to polish my translation. 注：特别感谢C先生百忙之中拔冗，帮我修改译文。 )

Cheers!

Edited May 9, 2009 at 04:49 AM by studentyoung

[renzhe]

I have finished 巴金's 家 and 春, and I'm starting to read 秋.

You can follow the discussion about these at the BotM thread.

[Gaogao]

Hi!

Right now, I´m reading Graded Chinese Reader 2 and some Chinese children´s books, but in the summer I´m planning to get some real Chinese novels for myself to read, even if it´s will be sooo hard in the beginning.

I was wondering whether you could recommend me some current Chinese bestsellers, I´m curious what books are the most popular at present. It can be anything, fiction, non-fiction, romance, crime.... Thanks!

[yersi]

.

[bhchao]

I am reading China Underground by Zachary Mexico.

[heifeng]

I'm finishing up 破晓...last of the twilight books. Good thing too, I have to get crackin' on the new stack of books I just brought from China...

[skylee]

are you still reading the mainland version? people say that the translation is horrible.

the translation of the taiwan version of 宿主 seems to be quite good (i had a quick look of it at the commercial press).

[heifeng]

'reading'...sort of. I'm applying my powerful 'scanning' abilities. Mostly if you scan thru it, it's not too bad (I mean, there's still some vocab and Chengyu and such to pick up here n' there). I actually have a chuckle now and then when I can figure out EXACTLY what the English must have been from the weird way they 'translated' it....I think they totally must have missed the saracasm in most cases and somehow I think the original must have said 'finish him' or something like that which then got translated into ‘结果他’. Seriously, 'ta' seriously became the 宾语of 结果. ?!?! And not just once..twice! I'll have to find the exact page. Totally did not make sense.....All I can conclude is someone must have been working under an intense deadline, and someone else didn't want to pay for some actual proofreading:mrgreen:

[leeyah]

I find the re-reading process quite exciting and very challenging and I especially like reading English novels in Chinese translation.

So I downloaded a 汉英对照 version of 《戴珍珠耳环的少女》 (Girl With a Pearl Earring) a couple of days ago. I prefer novels to movies, and it reads smooth so far.

(No, I never saw the movie)

[skylee]

Re the movie, Colin Firth was obviously a miscast for Vermeer. But Scarlette Johannsson was perfect.

The novel is good. Never read the Chinese translation though.

And I like Vermeer's paintings.

[studentyoung]

《站在我家的门口》

Standing at the door of my house

(written by some student, and translated by studentyoung)

我家门口站着一条狗。

There is a dog standing in front of the door of my house.

这是条普通的狗。黄色皮毛，粗短四肢，腥臭的大嘴往外滴着口水，好一幅正宗的流浪的土狗。

It’s a common dog, light brown fur, short strong limbs, a stinking and dribbling big mouth, -- a perfect quick sketch for a vagrant dog.

然而狗先生，您为何站在我家门口，似乎我家并没有养过类似的狗，同样也没有养年轻漂亮的西洋狗，难道你是来骂我的？不对，你的眼神告诉我，你是不屑做这种事的。你的后腿是跛的，这一点我很好奇，是怎样跛的呢？是路见不平，露牙相助，被小偷打跛的？是狭路相逢，争风吃醋，被同类咬跛的？还是乞讨时被别人打跛的？

However, Mr. Dog, why do you stand in front of the door of my house? It seems that my family desn’t keep a dog like this or a young and smart-looking foreign-breed. Are you here to scold me? No. Your eyes tell me that you disdain to do so. Your hind legs are crippled. I’m so curious about it. How you got crippled? Fought for justice with your teeth but got beaten by a thief? Felt jealous but got bitten by your love enemy? Got hurt when you’re begging?

狗是一种忠诚的动物，也是一种勇敢而可怜的动物，我现在考虑是不是邀请站在我家门口的这位狗先生留下来，但我毕竟只是个弱小的书生啊!

A dog is a royal animal, brave but pity. I’m now considering whether I should invite this Mr. Dog to stay. But I still a still a weak and small student!

正当我想开口挽留这位狗先生时，与我对视良久的“他”肚子“咕噜”一响，“呜咽”了一声。走了。

When I tries to ask this Mr. Dog to stay, whom has been looking into my eyes for a long time, with a sound of craving nourishment in his belly, and a whisper in his mouth, he just goes away.

接着，来了一位猪，站在我家门口。

And then comes A pig, standing in front of the door.

我家不养猪，我很好奇这头猪是如何逃离猪圈，逃离农村，来到城市，来到我家门口。

My family doesn’t raise pigs. I’m so curious how this pig fled from a pig pen, ran away from countryside, came to this city and arrived at the door of my house.

这肯定是一位英雄的猪，为表示尊敬，我用上了“位”，而不是其他的量词。有了前一位狗先生的教诲，我开始想猪先生是不是向我求助的，然而猪先生啊！如你所见，我不过是个弱小到不能再弱小的人，你是一个英雄的猪，你能冲破牢笼，冲破命运，奔向自由，而我却要受种种枷锁，背负种种负担，应当是您来拯救我啊.

He must be a hero pig, so I use “A” to show my respect. Because there was a Mr. Dog’s lesson before, I start to think whether Mr. Pig is asking for help. But, dear Mr. Pig! As you can see, I’m nothing but a weak and small student, someone who can’t be weaker, yet you’re a Pig Hero, who can break through fences, break through the doom, and dash to freedom. And I? I have been shackled with fetters and loaded with burdens. It’s you that should save me!

可惜，显然猪先生并没有为我的话所动。那充满智慧的小眼只是盯看虚空的某一处，沉思着，沉思着。

It’s too bad that it seems that Mr. Pig isn’t touched by my words. With its full of wisdom little eyes, it’s staring somewhere vague, in meditation.

这是一头智慧的猪，我想到，它应该在思考时间与空间的关系，可惜我语言与它不通，要不可以和它讨论一下牛顿三大定律，霍金的时间猜想，以及讨教一下金融危机等问题。我悲哀地想到，或许这位猪先生比我还牛，参加高考获得文科状元也不为奇，我沮丧地望了望这位猪先生，最后还是把门关上了。

It’s a wise pig, I think, and it should be considering the relationship between time and space. It’s a pity that I can’t communicate with him, or I could discuss Newton’s three laws, Hawking’s conjecture on time, financial crises, etc. I sadly think that perhaps this Mr. Pig is smarter than me, and it’s shouldn’t be so surprising that he can be the very best in the College Entrance Exam. In low spirits, I look at this Mr. Pig, and close the door.

忽然，门口站着一个人。

Suddenly, someone is standing in front of the door.

这回终于正常了。是谁？有可能是收水费、电费、管理费的，也有可能是收网费的，也有可能是小偷、杀手，那样我就死也不开门，把门反锁。

Oh, it’s back to normal now. Who is he? He might be someone to collect water fee, electricity fee, management fee, and Internet service fee, or a thief, a killer, etc. If so, I’d rather die than open the door. I lock the door on the inside.

细看，他是个年轻人，白衬衫，牛仔裤，从口袋中拿出钥匙，居然打开了门!

Have a look at him. He’s a young man, in a white shirt, a pair of jeans, taking keys out of his pocket. And he even open the door!

啊，原来这个人就是我自己!

Oh, the man is ME!

Cheers!

Edited June 23, 2009 at 06:52 AM by studentyoung

[heifeng]

so I've finished twilight. It was fun enough:~I wouldn't mind rereading the series if I found the other translated version too for comparison though...

Anyway, I have more books waiting for me, first on my list..well, I already started is 蓝血人。

[skylee]

I've just started reading Bill Bryson's Shakespeare. I am very glad that I am able to start reading something not written by Stephenie Meyer.

Actually I thought about buying Dead Until Dark when I was at the bookshop but luckily I was able to put it down.

I like most of Bill Bryson's books.

In parallel I will read guidebooks on Sicily and Malta, my next destinations (planned).

[student]

醋溜族 by 朱德庸,

[renzhe]

I'm still reading 巴金's Torrents trilogy, I've reached 秋. It is becoming a bit slow, though, and I'm not getting through it as eagerly and quickly as I used to.

Perhaps it's general burnout relating to work rather than 巴金, but I've stocked up on shorter stories in the meantime. I have a collection of 张爱玲 short stories, and a selection of 鲁迅 short stories, both are something I've really wanted to read.

Right now I'm not sure how to proceed, but I think I'll put 巴金 on hold for a while and read some shorter stuff.

I'm finding that 张爱玲 is considerably more challenging than 巴金, and I'm much slower. Should help my reading improve!

[Lu]

I tried Zhang Ailing once or twice, but I agree she's more difficult than Ba Jin.

Now reading a book titled Es ist so einsam im Sattel seit das Pferd tot ist, because the title is so great.