Library, Lecture, I Call Her Bluff

The Duke of Zhou says, If you dream of spring warmth and the opening of flowers, then it means that a change of season is coming. Thanks Your Grace, but that one's a bit obvious isn't it? I know you got the weekend off, but shake the cobwebs out of that sagely brain of yours, how about, and try for something a little more profound next time. Today it was unlucky to do sacrificial rites or to set out on a journey, but bathing and sweeping out one's domicile were both fortunate. Actually, I think I did sweep the floor today... oops, no, that was yesterday. Well, I swept yesterday, so it didn't need sweeping today. The bit of luck I really need, though, is to find my bicycle tag while sweeping. It's still missing, and I can't think where it could possibly be!

It was an interesting day. I went out to the library thinking I was going to have the requested meeting with WW. However, I found out that she had had a flat tire and wouldn't be able to make it. So I worked peacefully, mostly doing downloading, until lunch. I had a giant plate of pork and cilantro jiaozi for lunch. The counter person and all the other customers were shocked when I asked for a big plate. Well, the little plate had been too small even for a snack, and I wanted a proper meal! Other people had ordered big plates. It slowly dawned on me that all the other people who had ordered big plates were male. Me and my damned gender inappropriate eating habits. One of the male students in line murmured warningly that a big plate was "four portions." The jiaozi were very mild, however, so I managed to eat every last one of those four portions, just to show 'em.

In the afternoon, I went with HJ to the lecture again. This one was about Strauss (it's hard to tell from the Chinese, in which the surname is already long enough, but I think his first name is Leo?--anyway, it's Strauss the political philosopher), Nietzsche, Gadamer, etc. The lecturer, LXf, did a pretty good job of explaining the issues clearly, even to me and my stumbling Chinese comprehension. However, as far as I was concerned LXf came down squarely on the wrong side of the debate. I had about a thousand arguments and challenges to raise, but there being no question period (and probably I wouldn't have been brave enough to say anything anyway), poor LXf, one of the most influential thinkers in China today, had to straggle on without the benefit of my brilliant objections. (Self-deprecating grimaces here, for any irony-challenged readers.)

It took us about an hour to get home because of infrequent buses and traffic. I thought of suggesting a taxi, but somehow it's just not done among modest and frugal female grad students and it would have felt weird. You just take what the transportation system dishes out and live with it. Sigh. I am more myself when I'm by myself.

Then I spent about an hour more working in the library. Finally, I got a call from WW. I had been thinking all weekend about what she said--she wanted to have more jiaoliu with me--our advisor here, YHz, had strongly advised her to. Jiaoliu is social intercourse, communication, exchange, all that and more tidily rolled into one little word. So I had been thinking all weekend about how to manage it. On the phone, I tried out my best suggestion: WW has been blabbing about translating the Shiji into English almost since I've known her. It's a thought some professor put into her head, playing on her seemingly innate sense of pride and cultural superiority. I find the idea irritating and a bit absurd, seeing as WW isn't even willing to try to speak English to me, but is perfectly willing to denigrate rather fine English translations she has probably never even read. Only a Chinese person can truly understand the Shiji, etc. etc. I've ranted about this before.

In any case, I came up with the perfect solution to call her bluff and put it to her on the phone tonight. There are some parts of the Shiji that don't yet have good English translations, and they're not even all dry and boring parts. I could tell her a few of the bits I would like to know more about, she could try translating them, and I would be happy to help her edit the English.

She responded by digging her heels in. The problem of editions…! Finding the right modern Chinese translation…! She wasn't anywhere near ready to start--how could I be so foolish as to suggest such a thing? But I held my ground and said that I work directly from the classical in doing my translations. Why shouldn't she? And as for editions, there has been a lot of work done on that, and wouldn't YHz be willing just to suggest one or five for that matter? And for that matter, hadn't YHz just done a modern Chinese translation that WW could refer to--since WW had just got through saying that YHz and herself were the only people she trusted to do the noble task?

Such off-the-cuff translations are a dime a dozen, WW scoffed. It's not a project to be lightly undertaken, but rather one that requires serious thought…still in the planning stages…

Here's the thing, I said, still sticking to my guns, and over the phone mind you--in Chinese--you all should be really proud of me. I totally understand that you don't want to waste a whole lot of time before you've given it serious thought. But if you've never even tried to translate even a little bit of the Shiji into English, how do you know that you can do it at all? Or (retreating into a slightly more polite course), how do you know that you will enjoy doing it?

I think I scored a point with this remark. I think I had a point, which is why I kept insisting. So it turns out that yep, I can hold my own against a very bossy Chinese housewife with delusions of scholarly grandeur. Score one for me. Of course I had to then stand outside for about ten minutes after I reached my building, while she sang my praises. There's something sneaky about flattery. It is more pleasing to the flatterer than to the recipient, as far as I'm concerned--me, it only makes me feel uncomfortable and slightly oily. But it's hard to get people to stop. It must be some bossy Chinese upper-class housewife trick.

My fingers almost got frost-bite.

But at last I made it safe home, where I partook of gloriously hot instant ramen dinner and several hours of Olympus, also a delightful skype-out phone conversation with my insightful professor Colin, mostly on the subject of Strauss, Nietzsche, Freud, and primacy of authors versus readers. I love it when we can actually talk shop in a way that is reasonably relevant to both of us!