IceEagle Posted August 4, 2014 at 05:51 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 05:51 PM Does anyone have a good translation for this? "It's time to start talking about Herstory ... History is her story too." I know I can get the point across with a pretty dry translation like this, but I feel that this loses something. 現在是談談女的故事的時候，歷史也是女人的故事。 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPhillips Posted August 4, 2014 at 06:32 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 06:32 PM Since the 史 （"those who record events" according to the 說文）were almost exclusively male, 歷史 is closer to being a sexist term etymologically speaking than is the word "history". Although we can't forget the contributions of a Chinese woman historian named Pan Chao(Ban Zhao) who completed her brother's work, she did write a book called 女誡 which according to Wikipedia “advised women to be submissive”. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted August 4, 2014 at 09:23 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 09:23 PM Eh? Since when is Chinese history exclusively male? Most of the important people were male, sure, but there are plenty of women in ancient Chinese history. The emperor's wives, for starters. IceEagle, since 'history = his-story' is a pun that only works in English, the best translation of that sentence depends on what you need the translation for and how much freedom you have translating. If you can, the best solution might be to just rewrite the whole sentence. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPhillips Posted August 4, 2014 at 09:57 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 09:57 PM I'm sorry my previous comment left ground for confusion, by 史 （shi3）I meant the original definition as found in the ShuoWenJieZi （說文解字），“ 記事者也" or the "one who records events"--my point being that it was a profession reserved exclusively for men. But silly me--a minute after writing it I remembered Ban Zhao, so I amended my comment. Still & all, it's not that far from the truth--just because there was a Wu Zetian doesn't mean the position of imperial ruler wasn't thought of as an exclusively male one--just as the great majority of historians in Imperial China were men. My point was that it's easier to find fault with the word 歷史 than the English word "history", since "history" is derived from Greek & has nothing to do with "his". Still I am sorry for writing a rather muddled comment, my only excuse being the 37° heat. I hope I've made sufficient amends to the memory of Ban Zhao! :-) P.S. I went back and edited my previous post so that no confusion remains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanglu Posted August 4, 2014 at 11:03 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 11:03 PM For 'herstory' what about 女性历史? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofmann Posted August 4, 2014 at 11:57 PM Report Share Posted August 4, 2014 at 11:57 PM No matter what you do, the pun will be lost. If you really want to preserve it, say "herstory" with a footnote or something. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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