Short Story for August 2009 - 早安， 北京

[Meng Lelan]

Alright. Here I am, back this time with the Short Story for August. I got accepted into the blind and vision impaired teacher program so I am selecting an easier on the brain, more fun type of short story by 徐坤. Then I am going to hit the (Braille) books in September.

This story is suitable for upper intermediate level. Or so I think.

早安， 北京 was published in 小说月报 in 2005. The protagonist Zeyuan is from northeast China and is a graduate of Beijing University. Twenty years later he lives a nice albeit rather meaningless life as a white collar worker with a new young high maintenance wife. Country bumpkin relatives decide to come and take a trip to Beijing to see the sights. Zeyuan takes on the task of entertaining the relatives. One of the relatives is his nephew who has done well in school and could possibly follow Zeyuan's footsteps into the hallowed halls of Beijing University.

Why I picked this story: the Northeast dialect spoken by the relatives is quite humorous. The protagonist and his young wife show how Chinese people in their middle age (age 40 or so) are more conscious of depending on each other while Chinese people in not quite middle age (age 20s and 30s) tend to be westernized and independent.

Story on this website, anyone care to make some fancy file out of it?

http://tw.netsh.com/bbs/703275/html/table_3495070.html

Have fun.

[leeyah]

The web page you gave 'froze' the text in my browser & it was impossible to scroll down, so I made a txt file (Unicode).

Haven't read the story yet, will surely do it later. Here's the file:

早安，北京 .txt

[Meng Lelan]

Sorry it froze into your browser. Not sure what happened. It scrolled down fine on mine - I was using IE8 on the XP. Thanks for making the file.

[HashiriKata]

I've got no problems with opening the webpage.

The title sounds interesting and I'll have a go. But apart from reading it, what else are we supposed to do? Sorry, I'm a newbie in this story of the month thing.

[Meng Lelan]

Basically you read the story and if you have questions/insights/comments etc post them right here. Short Story of the Month is relatively new and operates like Book of the Month, but the selections here are much shorter and limited to modern/contemporary stories.

[YuehanHao]

I enjoyed reading this story very much about 9 or 10 months ago, or actually it was an abridged version in a book called Graded Chinese Reader 1. The biggest impression I still have about it is the sense of how people change over the courses of their lives (based on decisions they make and environment, etc.), and how, although we don't often think of or are unable to fully appreciate many things we knew in the past (either at the time or in casually thinking about them), a kernel of distilled, beautiful memory still lies latent inside us, waiting to be reawakened by the right stimulus. I can't say it's quite Proustian, but there is some kind of (grudgingly) similar realization in Zeyuan's character by the end of the story. If I remember right, one thing I found amusing about this story is that one is in some doubt, at least initially, as to whether Zeyuan is a likable character or not. Of course the relatives are good for a few laughs too.

Maybe I will see if I can understand some of the non-abridged version of the story this time.

This story, along with The Beauty of Ice and Snow (冰雪美人), which I probably liked a little bit better, were my favorite stories out of that book.

约翰好

[HashiriKata]

I will see if I can understand some of the non-abridged version of the story this time.

I've gone through a few pages (on a trial basis ). I can undestand what's going on without a dictionary but I DO need a good dictionary to know precisely what's going on. From my impression of the first few pages, I'd say the laguage is at about advanced level.

[Meng Lelan]

Hashirikata, take a look at Yuehanhao's post. I do think that this story is indeed available online as it appeared in the Grade Chinese Reader 1. If you can't find it I can look online for you. I would recommend this version if you are having difficulty with the original version.

[HashiriKata]

Thanks Meng Lelan, I'm fine with the current version. I was only saying that I still need a dictionary for it. I know about the "Grade Chinese Reader Series". The stories in it are not only abridged, but also simplified. I want to try the real thing and the real DongBei flavour

[leeyah]

Have just briefly glanced through the story, I like her style. I find the beginning of the story with all the 'bumpkin' relatives suddenly deciding to pop over for a visit to the big city (and without previous notice on the number of them!) & the way Zeyuan handles the situation quite amusing.

Why I picked this story: the Northeast dialect spoken by the relatives is quite humorous

Yes, I like that too. But I think this alone, for people unfamiliar with the dialect words, ie. who hear them for the first time may be the difficult part. In fact the thing with dialects is that some still use obsolete words (eg.耶 for 爷) and when stories like this are featured in integral form in text books, apart from picturesque phrases & more complex 文言，dialect words are usually listed as 生词 & translated or defined in 普通话, for reference. Here's a (very) short dialect vocabulary list from me:

咋 =怎么

俺 =我 (as featured in Steven Chow's Kung Fu Hustle, when the main character played by Chow, calls out for a farmer woman to step out for a duel & she says: 俺是干田的)

俺们那旮 =我们那个

干哈 needs no explanation, but is interesting pronunciation

一水儿 =一色 (this one is interesting, the mispronunciation of 色+儿化)

埋汰 =脏，不干净

颇 =很, 相当地

垫巴点儿 not sure, but I think it refers to having a snack on the go (train), 点 as in 点心，小吃 & for 垫巴 I found this, it says it's also 'Tianjinese'

Don't know if I omitted any, so if you have a list, pls post.

[Gleaves]

Many thanks, Leeyah. I'm unfamiliar with all of those.

I found this interesting:

子午卯酉 - from beginning to end, argument, reason/cause

Some of the 12 earthly branches form a set phrase. Literally midnight to noon, sunrise to sundown. It is used in this context "...仍没看出个子午卯酉."

[leeyah]

Interesting phrase Gleaves, haven't seen it in this context before.

I found this so I guess in 仍没看出个子午卯酉 it is meaning No. 3 明白(xx的原因): "couldn't understand/didn't know (the reason) why..."

Edited August 4, 2009 at 09:01 PM by leeyah

[HashiriKata]

In the context, I'd translate "仍没看出个子午卯酉" as "he still didn't see anything" (= "anything" here are the people he was waiting for)

[leeyah]

Yes, after a while I pretty much came to the same conclusion, but my dial-up was 'dead' by then

In a second go, I'd have translated it like: ..standing at the desolate train station, his shirt wet with sweat, he kept looking left and right but there was noone there, or maybe even couldn't see the reason why nobody was there of the people he was supposed to meet.

Anyway, the phrase is very good to know, if not very easy to translate, so here it is in context with reading, for example:

王浩看了半天也没看出个子午卯酉,只好讪讪地递给任盈盈,说道:“你帮我看看,这上面写了些什么?”

好象有左拉的另一本书。在一个同学的书桌里，包了牛皮纸的封皮。那同学每一个晚自习都看那一本书，总也看不完。我不知道他都看出了什么子午卯酉。

李世民让人将官员的花名册送到书房,从丞相到县令,一个个研究,只看的头昏脑胀,也没看出个子午卯酉来。　

[HashiriKata]

Just finished the story. I still think in some parts, the vocab is a bit tough without the help of a dictionary. I sometimes had to pause, unsure whether the word is just new, or dialectal or simply a typo, because you can find in the story all these three types.

I like the story, and can sympathise with the protagonist: in spite of his academic success, which led to a settled 9-to-5 job and a comfortable life style with a young and beautiful wife, he now in his 40's seems to find life hollow. In the story the few times that he was shown to feel some real emotions were when he was recalling the past. Superficially, the story is about the first Beijing visit of his relatives from his home town deep in the countryside of the North-East region, which gives some humorous occasions to the story.

[Meng Lelan]

The theme of newness and renewal repeats itself throughout the story. At first I didn't notice it then at the end I did, so I went back again to really look for it. And very telling is the way the author describe the teens' awe during their visit to BeiDa.