In China, No Election Too Small to Be Free of Meddling

choi

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  

北京外国语大学 国际传播研究中心  乔 木 主任/副教授
(b) World and China Institute  世界与中国研究所
(c) 乔木就选举致北外同学. 作者博客, Nov 20, 2011.
http://www.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?newsid=218369

(2) 何宗安, 《绝密：五角大楼文件之战》中国上演. VOA Chinese, Dec 5, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/n ... pers-135019673.html

, which is translated from
Stephanie Ho, American Play Centered on Free Speech Tours China. VOA, Dec 5, 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/english/n ... hina-135020458.html

Quote:

"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.

(3) 香港媒体误报江泽民死讯被罚款. VOA Chinese, Dec 5, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/n ... ined-135017148.html
("后来媒体报道说，江泽民当时的确患病入院接受治疗")

(4) 报道称中国当局放松对陈光诚限制. BBC Chinese, Dec 5, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... henguangcheng.shtml

Note: the report is based on
Chris Buckley and Sui-Lee Wee, China Eases Grip on Blind Chinese Activist: Sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/2 ... ype=RSS&sp=true

Quote:

"'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)")


(5) 周永康要求基层更好应对社会动荡. BBC Chinese, Dec 5, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/si ... _zhouyongkang.shtml