标题: In China, No Election Too Small to Be Free of Meddling [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 12-5-2011 13:07 标题: In China, No Election Too Small to Be Free of Meddling Sharon LaFraniere, Alarmed by Independent Candidates, Chinese Authorities Crack Down; No election too small to be free of meddling. New York Times, Dec 5, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/0 ... Franiere&st=cse
Excerpt in the window of print: An independent candidate found his blogs disabled and his volunteers threatened.
Note:
(a) QIAO Mu, associate professor and director of Center for International Communications Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
"Playwright [Geoffrey] Cowan says one interesting question he answered in one of the post-play discussions in Shanghai was: should there be different free speech rules for developing versus developed countries. He points out that the United States was a developing country in 1791, when it adopted the first Constitutional amendment, that guarantees free speech. 'We were a relatively poor country, against the rich British and the rich French, but we decided this was right for us,' Cowan said.
"The Top Secret audience members in Shanghai and Beijing took part in post-performance discussions, although similar talks were canceled at Peking University and at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou.
My comment:
(a) The report quotes producer Susan Loewenberg as saying, "It was wonderful the other night in Guangzhou. When Kay Graham makes the decision to publish, they broke out in applause." "[T]hey" means Chinese student.
(b) As a rule of thumb, I do not read BOTH Chinese and English versions--only English one. But I was curious how "lampoon" was translated in this report. So I checked the Chinese version, and discovered at least two paragraphs were not translated into Chinese--the paragraph with lampoon and the one before.
"'Several senior officials, including from the central government, have visited Yinan recently, and it's clear that they're trying to work out what's behind the protests and criticism over Chen,' said the other anonymous source, referring to the area of Chen's home village.
"He [Peirong], the Nanjing-based activist, said sources had told her local government officials have conflicting views about how to treat Chen. Some of them 'believe that they went overboard with this matter,' said He
Note:
(a) work out (vt):
"1b : to solve (as a problem) by a process of reasoning or calculation
c : to devise, arrange, or achieve by resolving difficulties <after many years of wrangling, worked out a definite agreement — A. A. Butkus>" www.m-w.com
This is the usual meaning and the one I had in mind. However, I was surprised to see BBC translation: "路透社的报道援引其他不愿意透露姓名的人士的话说，一些高级官员，包括来自中央政府的官员，最近来到了沂南，显然希望了解围绕陈光诚出现的抗议和批评的原因。"
The phrase "work out" does not mean 了解, and I just now checked several online dictionaries to make sure I was right. Indeed I was.
Maximillian dictionary defines the transitive verb:
"to deal with a problem in a satisfactory way <We’ve worked out our differences.>" http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/work-out
(b) go overboard
(i) Betty Kirkpatrick, Clichés: over 1500 phrases explored and explained. St Martin's Press, 1990 at page 78 http://books.google.com/books?id ... 0origin&f=false
("The expression which is found on informal contexts, has its origins in going to teh extreme act of jumping off a ship.")
(ii) Paul Heacock, Cambridge dictionary of American idioms. Cambridge University Press, 2003 at page 153 http://books.google.com/books?id ... 0origin&f=false
("ORIGIN: based on the literal meaning of go overboard (=to fall over a ship's side)")