Skin-deep translation may mislead_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Skin-deep translation may mislead

The misunderstanding of NYT's appraisal of China's literary pop idol is more evident when the context is enlarged from the article to the whole book review section. On that day, NYT carried four full-length reviews of four Chinese novels: Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi and Serve the People by Yan Lianke - all serious works by accomplished writers. The Guo Jingming piece was like a dessert, nice and frothy, but not supposed to replace the main entrees.

None of the Chinese commentators mentioned any of the four book reviews. Through endless copying and reposting, which is the pillar of Chinese website management, the point has been hammered home that Americans, for whatever unfathomable reason, favor China's most ridiculed literary pretender as their favorite Chinese writer.

There are commentators who suspect the NYT piece was being sarcastic in its choice of words, countering "most successful" with a detailed description of Guo's less-than-flattering acts - but you won't be able to go into that much depth from the headlines or the opening paragraphs. As we know, website editors have a flair for creating outrageous headlines that hardly correspond to the general idea of the article.

This is a perfect example - albeit innocuous - of what I call "cultural mismatch". It's more than getting lost in translation. It's about picking up only what interests you and leaving behind everything else, including the right perspective and right context. It can happen between two languages and two cultures, but also between two demographic groups.