Edward Wong, Myth of a Chinese Leader Is Traced Back to Its Roots. New York Times, Feb 17, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/asia/17village.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=wong%20xi&st=cse
Quote:
"His official biography is being airbrushed. Village officials here have received orders to bar journalists from sniffing around Mr. Xi’s old home.
aLocal farmer Lü Nengzhong said "his [Xi's] speech was different. We couldn’t understand his Beijing accent, and he couldn’t understand us at first.
"Mr. Xi came back once, decades later, when he was party secretary of the coastal province of Zhejiang, which was booming. He brought watches to hand out. “He was shocked by how poor the village was,” Mr. Lü said. Mr. Xi had intended to stay for three days, Mr. Lü said. He left after an hour.
Note:
(a) Liangjiahe 梁家河 (zh.wikipedia.org: 15岁的习近平来到陕西省[延安市]延川县的文安驿公社梁家河大队插队)
(b) platform bed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_bed
(Platform beds are beds whose base consists of a raised, flat, hard, horizontal surface meant to support just a mattress. Platform beds provide firm cushioning and with the support of slats or solid paneling, they eliminate the need for a box-spring 弹簧床 or a mattress foundation; they give adequate support for a mattress by itself.)
Some in China translate platform bed as 木板床, 平板床.
(c) The report cites "Lü Nengzhong." This is the first time I see "ü." See pinyin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
(A trema is placed over the letter u when it occurs after the initials l and n in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in lü (e.g. 驴/驢 donkey) from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉/爐 oven). * * * Many fonts or output methods do not support a trema for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü. * * * For these reasons v is sometimes used instead by convention.)
(d) The report says, "Women shuffle home with bundles of wood lashed to their backs."
shuffle (vt): "to move about, back and forth, or from one place to another : SHIFT <shuffle funds among various accounts>" www.m-w.com
(e) The report states further, "But there were also divides between Mr. Xi and the villagers. Like many other youths sent to the countryside, Mr. Xi had been allocated corn flour rations. The villagers ate corn husks. Mr. Xi cooked in his cave and ate alone.
Corn husks are not edible; I do not know if there is a typo.
Edward Wong, Myth of a Chinese Leader Is Traced Back to Its Roots. New York Times, Feb 17, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/asia/17village.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=wong%20xi&st=cse
Quote:
"His official biography is being airbrushed. Village officials here have received orders to bar journalists from sniffing around Mr. Xi’s old home.
aLocal farmer Lü Nengzhong said "his [Xi's] speech was different. We couldn’t understand his Beijing accent, and he couldn’t understand us at first.
"Mr. Xi came back once, decades later, when he was party secretary of the coastal province of Zhejiang, which was booming. He brought watches to hand out. “He was shocked by how poor the village was,” Mr. Lü said. Mr. Xi had intended to stay for three days, Mr. Lü said. He left after an hour.
Note:
(a) Liangjiahe 梁家河 (zh.wikipedia.org: 15岁的习近平来到陕西省[延安市]延川县的文安驿公社梁家河大队插队)
(b) platform bed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_bed
(Platform beds are beds whose base consists of a raised, flat, hard, horizontal surface meant to support just a mattress. Platform beds provide firm cushioning and with the support of slats or solid paneling, they eliminate the need for a box-spring 弹簧床 or a mattress foundation; they give adequate support for a mattress by itself.)
Some in China translate platform bed as 木板床, 平板床.
(c) The report cites "Lü Nengzhong." This is the first time I see "ü." See pinyin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin
(A trema is placed over the letter u when it occurs after the initials l and n in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in lü (e.g. 驴/驢 donkey) from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉/爐 oven). * * * Many fonts or output methods do not support a trema for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü. * * * For these reasons v is sometimes used instead by convention.)
(d) The report says, "Women shuffle home with bundles of wood lashed to their backs."
shuffle (vt): "to move about, back and forth, or from one place to another : SHIFT <shuffle funds among various accounts>" www.m-w.com
(e) The report states further, "But there were also divides between Mr. Xi and the villagers. Like many other youths sent to the countryside, Mr. Xi had been allocated corn flour rations. The villagers ate corn husks. Mr. Xi cooked in his cave and ate alone.
Corn husks are not edible; I do not know if there is a typo.