Global Voices Online » Language

China: Official Olympic Security English handbook

John Kennedy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:45:34 +0000

Matthew at Waiguoren Critic of South China notes the lack of lessons on breaking up fights or calming people down before they begin in the official Police Olympic Security English Handbook, but with dialogue like this, a nightly stand-up routine at Olympic Village is an approach Chinese police should probably be considering:

“Police: Why didn't you call the police at once? Foreigner: I was very angry. How could I stand such an insult? I hit him on the head with a bottle.”

China: Don't even think about asking

John Kennedy — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:56:29 +0000

It's The World Meets China and not the other way around, if one is to believe that anyone will the ‘Eight Don't Asks' will be taken seriously when Olympics fans show up next month. ‘Income, age, love life, health' and see Tim Johnson's post at China Rises for the rest.

Brazil: Portugal ratifies Portuguese language agreement

Paula Góes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:02:38 +0000

Portugal's President Anibal Cavaco Silva has ratified the agreement to standardise the Portuguese language and its spelling in a move to make the language, spoken in 8 countries, more uniform globally. O Hermenauta [pt] has written a round up of reactions from both sides of the ocean and concludes the agreement is still a disagreement.

Japan: Why Expats Don't Speak Japanese?

Oiwan Lam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:08:05 +0000

Dann0 listed out 10 reasons on why expats in Japan don't speak Japanese.

China: 10 Political Myths

Oiwan Lam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:49:16 +0000

Ran Yunfei listed out 10 political myths in China, such as talks about savior, people, liberation, election, and etc.

Japan: Mainichi's “Foreign Staff”

Chris Salzberg — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:30:17 +0000

In the latest step in a long and drawn out controversy, Mainichi newspaper has issued a 3-page official apology in response to the harsh backlash from Japanese people concerning its English-language WaiWai column. Written by editor Ryann Connell, WaiWai featured highly-embellished translations of articles from Japan's weekly tabloids, the majority of which were fabrications. People in Japan, particularly Internet users, have reacted by creating websites and campaigns [ja] targeting Mainichi for spreading false information about Japan, some of which went as far as to be incorporated as fact [ja] in a report on human trafficking by the Organization of American States (OAS).

Blogger polimediauk (Ginko Kobayashi/小林恭子) at “British Media Watch” (小林恭子の英国メディア・ウオッチ) wrote a long post on Mainichi's apology, in which, among other things, she questions the way that foreign and Japanese staff of Mainichi Daily News (the English-language Mainichi site) have been separated and treated differently:

それと、「外国人スタッフが」という言葉が何度も出てくる。これが非常に日本的な感じがする。何故、英文毎日の外国人スタッフと日本人スタッフを分けるのか、という問題だ。どちらも英文毎日の「スタッフ」ではないのだろうか。仕事内容や雇用体系が若干違っていても、同じ仲間ではないのか。直接は書かれていないのだけれども、「外国人＝日本の知識が少ない」、「日本人＝事情を良く分かっている人」という分け方をしているのだろうか。どうも差別に聞こえてしまう。どちらも「プロ」として仕事をまかされていたのではないのだろうか。それとも、外国人スタッフは１つ下の存在だったのか？国籍はどうであれ、日本に関しての記事を書く・編集するには十分な知識と力量があるからこそ、雇われていたのではなかったのか？「外からやってきた人」が起こした問題、と片付けたがっているような感じがする。

And then there's this word “foreign staff” that keeps coming up. It feels like such an extremely Japanese thing. Why do they have to divide the staff of the Mainichi Daily News [English-language Mainichi] into foreign staff and Japanese staff? Aren't they both staff of Mainichi Daily News? Even if their job descriptions and employment systems may differ a bit, they're all part of the same group, right? They don't mention it directly, but seems to me that they are making a division between “foreigners, who have no knowledge about Japan” and “Japanese, who understand the situation very well”. Sure sounds like discrimination to me. Both groups had their jobs delegated to them as “professionals”, no? Or is it that foreign staff are somehow one level below [Japanese staff]? Whatever their citizenship, weren't these people hired exactly because they have the knowledge and abilities necessary to write and edit articles about Japan? Looks to me like they just want to sweep this all under the carpet as a problem brought on by “people who came from outside [of Japan]”.

[Via shinyai's Twitter feed and yuco.tumblr.com]

Blogger of the week: Elena Ignatova

Elia Varela Serra — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:22:27 +0000

Although today's Blogger of the Week is not technically a blogger, she's well known in the Macedonian blogosphere for her work at Global Voices Online in Macedonian, where she's a translator and also the founding editor. Moreover, she's also the editor of Global Voices in Albanian, and an avid blog reader.

Her name is Elena Ignatova, she's a 24 year old internet activist from Skopje, and we had the chance to meet her in the Global Voices Summit in Budapest, where she acted as a true ambassador of her country with many participants who had never met anyone from Macedonia. We talked a bit to her about her work, her involvement with Global Voices and the Macedonian blogosphere, among other things. Keep on reading.

Elena with Mialy, GV author for Madagascar, Cristina of Voces Bolivianas and Catalina of Hiperbarrio (Photo by Sipakoa)

-How did you decide to start translating Global Voices posts?
I went to a conference in Zagreb and I met Alice Backer there who was presenting Lingua and was asking for more volunteers to translate. I had never heard about Global Voices before, but I found it very interesting. So after a few more conversations with her I decided to start translating Global Voices into Macedonian and Albanian.

When I found out about the project I immediately thought it would enrich the Macedonian and Albanian online content with interesting information, coming from the people and not from the media. On the other hand, it's also a great way to tell the world what is happening here.

-Ambitious intentions!
At first I was thinking about starting only a Macedonian Lingua site, but then many people suggested that it would be great to have it in Albanian as well, so I decided to do both with the help of my colleagues from work.

-So when did you start and how many people are involved with these two sites?
We started translating in January this year, and the official launch of the sites was a month later. At the moment we are four translators for Macedonian and only one for Albanian. I would like to find more volunteers, but it's always hard to convince people to volunteer their time and to keep them motivated.

-How is the blogosphere in Macedonia, and what are the main issues that concern them?
It's quite active for such a small country (Macedonia has 2 million inhabitants), I think there are more than 200 posts a day on average. The main issues bloggers talk about are national politics, NATO, Greece :).

Maybe these have been the hot issues lately because we had early parliamentary elections and because of all the problem with Greece, so most posts were about these topics for the last few months. But now when things are cooling down, they are writing more about everyday things and their personal interests.

-Are you a blogger yourself?
No, I'm just a blog reader. With my work, studies, translating for GV, etc. I really don't have time! I'm very active in other social media such as Facebook, but after the GV Summit in Budapest I'm seriously thinking of starting one :)

-What are your favorite blogs?
There a lot of interesting ones, but if someone wants to read something from the Macedonian blogosphere, they can visit the platform that connects most of the bloggers Blogeraj.

-So what do you do when you're not translating?
I work for an independent, non-partisan NGO called Metamorphosis. Its main goals are the development of democracy and prosperity by promoting a knowledge-based economy and an information society in Macedonia. We are doing all sorts of things, like working with Creative Commons Macedonia, promoting the use of internet, privacy issues etc. My involvement with Global Voices is also part of my work with Metamorphosis.

-Why do you think it's important to increase access to internet and to online media?
It’s important for people to get the information’s they need. With internet and online media it’s very easy to get to everything you want, and much quicker. For students, it's essential to use the internet as a resource, but that applies also to all people.

-What do you do in your spare time?
I'm studying computer science, majoring in internet and mobile technologies

-What is your wish for the future of the Macedonian and Albanian Lingua sites?
That they both get connected, so that you know when a post translated in Macedonian is also transalted in Albanian and viceversa. It is essential for people in Macedonia to know about the Albanian version, to give them an alternative.

If you are a speaker of either Macedonian and Albanian and would like to be part of their fantastic teams, or if you would just like to contribute somehow, please contact Elena at elenaignatova [at] gmail [dot] com

Myanmar: Naming System

May Hnin Phyu — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:02:58 +0000

“I realized that the Burmese custom of naming is fairly unique. It symbolizes the combination of the particular virtue for a person and astrological calculation of the day of the week that the person was born based on Burmese lunar calendar year.”, Bakaung blogs and explains more in detail.

Japan: The Linguistics of Nico Nico Douga

Chris Salzberg — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:10:38 +0000

Metagold is a research blog based out of a project at Goldsmiths College, University of London, focused exclusively on the video sharing web service Nico Nico Douga. In a July 15th post, Metagold takes up the story of a linguist at Kyoto University, Kanamaru-san (id:kana0355 [ja]), who “asks how the basic difference of the comments' placement […] creates the specific speech situations of commenting on Nico Nico Douga and Youtube.”

Japan: Is it all over for Mainichi?

Chris Salzberg — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 12:33:54 +0000

Nobuo Ikeda writes in English and in Japanese about the latest step in the drawn-out WaiWai controversy: after a string of earlier statements, Mainichi has issued a 3-page-long official apology, in which it pledges “to rehabilitate [Mainichi Daily News] into a site that can dispatch information to the world that can help people properly understand Japan.”

Taiwan: Observations on Yahoo! Taiwan's search filter

Portnoy — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 05:42:16 +0000

We hear a lot about issues on censorship on Global Voices Online and our Advocacy Project, and most of the cases come from Government policies or business self-censorship because of the Government policies. However, fierce business competition can sometimes result in censorship… or a kind of.

Famous Taiwan infotech blogger Briian recently protested against Yahoo Taiwan (Yahoo Kimo) filtering search results, calling Yahoo!Kimo “evil”.

In his post “Protest! Yahoo!Kimo's ‘Combined Search' monopolizes information! (抗議！Yahoo!奇摩「綜合搜尋」資訊壟斷)”, he pointed out that Yahoo Kimo's new search function, “Combined Search”, gives out web links, news, video clips, blogs results… only from Yahoo's own services.

首先，先看一下原本的Yahoo奇摩搜尋結果長怎樣，頁面最上面除了廣告跟新聞區塊，中間一大塊都是網頁的自然搜尋結果，最下面是知識+的內容。

First, let's take a look at the original look of search result page in Yahoo!Kimo. The upper part of the page is ads and news, the middle part is natural search result of web pages, and the bottom part is from Yahoo's Knowledge+.

下面這個Yahoo!奇摩新推的「綜合搜尋」的搜尋頁面：

And below is the search result using newly invented “Combined Search” from Yahoo!Kimo:

仔細看他的搜尋結果，新聞區塊全部只收錄有刊登在Yahoo奇摩新聞網站的新聞內容就算了（一直都是這樣），其他不受Yahoo青睞的媒體內容如果沒機會登上Yahoo!奇摩的新聞頻道，只能默默無名的在某個網路的黑洞裡呼吸新鮮空氣。

Look carefully at the result page. The news area contains news stories only from Yahoo!Kimo News (which seems like always), and other media outlets who are not favored by Yahoo and have no chance to get into Yahoo!Kimo News Channel would stay in some kind of unnoticeable Internet Blackhole.

最主要是「知識+」區塊下面的那個「部落格」搜尋結果列出來的全部都只有「Yahoo!奇摩部落格」跟「無名小站部落格」中的內容，意思是使用Yahoo的人全部都沒法藉由這個「綜合搜尋」的功能找到「奇摩」跟「無名小站」以外的部落格文章，全世界的部落格都不是部落格，只有寫在Yahoo所屬網站裡的才算是。

What's more important is the area of “Blog search result” under “Knowledge+” area, where all the results are from “Yahoo!Kimo Blog” and “Wretch Blog” (note: Wretch is the biggest blog service in Taiwan, also owned by Yahoo!Kimo). And that means people who search with this “Combined Search” cannot find anything other than blogs from “Kimo” and “Wretch”. Blogs all around the world are not count as blogs, while only blogs under Yahoo Services are counted as blogs.

The same situation happens when searching video clips with Yahoo!Kimo search. All videos showed in search result are from “Wretch Video”.

This hot post got 192 comments and soon was noticed by ZDNet Taiwan. ZDNet interviewed Briian on this issue and then he put whole 3 parts of Q&A on his new blogpost, which has 75 supporting comments when I write this report. I quote part of the Q&A below:

1) 你在重灌狂人上抗議雅虎奇摩綜合搜尋有資訊壟斷之虞，作為一個網路使用者與知名部落客，你期待看到雅虎奇摩會有怎樣的改變？

1) You protest Yahoo!Kimo Combined Search for its information monopoly on Reinstall Mad Man. As a web user and a famous blogger, what changes do you expect to see from Yahoo!Kimo?

以前我還以為美國Yahoo的「YST技術」是為了更快、更準確的找到更多東西，不過現在Yahoo!奇摩的作法看起來是要讓使用者找到最少的 blog跟影片，無名影音裡面的影片有比YouTube多嗎？可以囊括全世界的影片嗎？當越來越多使用者發現他在Yahoo!奇摩找不到想要的東西之後，大家轉往其他網站的速度會越快。

Previously I thought that Yahoo!USA's “YST” technology is to find information faster and more precisely, however, it seems like Yahoo!Kimo is trying to prevent their users to find more blogs and more video clips. Are there more clips in Wretch Video than Youtube? Can it cover the whole world's video? Once more and more users are aware of the fact that they can't find what he wants with Yahoo!Kimo, they will turn away quickly and decide to use other search engines.

2) 在我訪問過雅虎奇摩搜尋與工程部門主管後，他們告知我沒有作到全面性搜尋的理由，在於企業資源有限，因此是以先推出新功能為主要考量，並會再逐步增加搜尋來源，他們並認為無名加上雅虎部落格已是台灣大多數的部落格，在搜尋結果上已能滿足大多數使用者的需求，你怎麼看他們的回應？

2) After my interview with directors of Yahoo!Kimo Search and Engineer department, they told me that the reason they don't search comprehensively is due to limited corporate resources, so they decide to present new functions first and then step by step increase search resources. They also believe that Wretch Blog and Yahoo Blog represent most blogs in Taiwan, so the search result can already meet the need of most users. What do you think about their feedback?

這問題就得問他們自己囉，大家覺得這會是「技術能力」或「最賺錢卻資源有限」的問題嗎？

如果無名+雅虎已經可以滿足大多數使用者的需求，那Blogger、Xuite、Pixnet、微軟Spaces跟Yam天空、癮科技裡面的內容大概都是不重要的資訊吧？更別說是中文以外的語言與最愛寫BLOG的日本跟美國、歐洲、中國…等各地的各式資訊。

This question should be directed to them. Do people think this is a problem because of “technology capability” or “limited resources… while being the most profitable company”?

If Wretch and Yahoo can satisfy most users, then I guess contents in Blogger, Xuite, Pixnet, Windows Live Spaces, Yam Sky, and Engadget are all trivial wrecks? Not to mention languages other than Chinese and information from the most bloggy Japan, US, Europe, China….

3) 有一個很有趣的現象我不曉得你會怎麼解讀，像是Google在美國擁有很高的市佔率，搜尋並超越雅虎多年，不過雅虎在台灣近乎壟斷市場，Google的使用者仍以power-user為主，Google的開放策略似乎還無法吸引到台灣很多用戶的關注，尤其是20歲以下的用戶。對這些非power-user 來說，他們可能真的不關心雅虎有沒有壟斷的問題，你怎樣看這個現象？

3) Here's a very interesting phenomenon which I am curious about how you decode it: Google has very high market share in US, and its search has surpassed Yahoo for years. However, Yahoo seems to monopolize the market, while Google is still embraced only by power users. It seems that Google's open strategy does not attract many Taiwan users' attention, especially users under 20 years old. To these non power users, they perhaps don't care about the monopoly problem of Yahoo. What do you think about it?

Google的很多東西都比Yahoo!奇摩的好用，譬如說搜尋跟Gmail，但一般使用者並不知道有其他選擇。我可以在台灣的電視、報紙、雜誌、廣播甚至是外面跑的公車上看到Yahoo!奇摩的廣告，但是看不到Google的任何廣告，雖然在台灣的愛用者很多，但Google並不重視台灣市場。

Google很多產品在其他國家可能很受歡迎，可到台灣就幾乎很少人用，網站是給人用的，除了語言之外，還有很多文化、習慣與民族性或族群習性的差異，Google中國做了很多努力、併購了很多當地的網站，可是Google並不在乎台灣的使用者，全部就只有中文化而已。

Most of Google's services are much better than Yahoo!Kimo, such as search engine and Gmail, but normal users don't know they have other choices. I notice that Yahoo!Kimo's commercials and advertisements are everywhere on TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, or even buses riding on the streets in Taiwan, but I've never see any ads from Google. Although there are many Google lovers in Taiwan, but Google does not care about the Taiwan Market actually.

Google's huge amount of products might be very popular in other countries, but they are seldom used by Taiwanese. Websites are made for people to use, and there are a forest of differences around culture, habits, nationality or ethnicity, other than language waiting to be discovered. Google China has done a lot of efforts such as merging local websites, but Google just don't care about Taiwanese users while all Google Taiwan has done is having translated its services into Traditional Chinese.

What do you think? Do you consider it a kind of censorship? Do you find the same situation in your country? Please leave comment under after reading this report.

China: Looking back at a campus shooting

John Kennedy — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 21:57:05 +0000

Desktop pirates might have noticed that last year's movie Dark Matter was chosen by eMule as one of the P2P network's movies of the month [zh] was been getting heavy rotation on Saturday. So that's why you're reading about it now; while the metaphor of dark matter as cultural insensitivity doesn't exactly fit, the connection is probably worth making given all the discussion following the revenge-stabbing of several police officers in Shanghai earlier this month.

First, a 2007 post from film critic Raymond Zhou (周黎明):

本以为这样的独立影片会勇敢地探讨人性的黑暗面、以及文化冲突、水土不服等问题。但真的有点失望，影片把中国留学生刚到美国时的种种不适应，做了最肤浅、最夸张的描写，里面当然有真实的细节，但总体上人物根本不可信。从主题上讲，影片的投机取巧使之失去了原来事件的冲击力。

一个很外向、很容易跟人相处的人，是不会一举枪杀好几个人的。

最奇怪的是，华裔导演陈士争没有给斯特里普发挥演技的广阔空间。众所周知，斯特里普是不需要导演便可以给予极具厚度的角色塑造。影片中一场较感人的戏，是刘烨扮演的刘星来到斯特里普家送礼物，欲说还休，他离开后，镜头只给斯特里普一个侧面。我想，换了别的导演，此处可以出现一个叫绝的镜头，因为那时斯特里普的角色内心非常复杂，而那样的镜头是可以把整个表演提升到奥斯卡水准的。

刘烨的表现还不错，有点像留学生中的乖乖仔。只是很难想象他最终会变成卢刚式的人物。当然那是编导的责任。…

At first I thought this indie film would bravely delve into the dark side of human nature, as well as cultural conflicts and issues of acclimatization to new environments. But I really am disappointed in how the film offers a most shallow and exaggerated portrayal of a Chinese overseas student's problems adapting just after his arrival in the United States. Of course, there are many realistic details in the film, but overall the characters are not believable. As for the subject, the impact of the original incident gets lost in the film's selfish ambitions.

An outgoing, amicable person just doesn't turn around and shoot several people.

The strangest part is, the ethnic Chinese director Chen Shizheng (陈士争) did not give actress Meryl Streep ample space to display her acting skill. As everyone knows, Streep doesn't need a director to be able to fully develop her characters. One particularly touching scene in the film is when Liu Xing (刘星, played by Liu Ye 刘烨) goes to Streep's home and she feigns interest in the skincare products he takes to selling to make ends meet after his study plans are botched; he forgets a sample, and as he leaves, the shot only shows Streep from the side. I think with a different director, this scene would have wowed the audience, because Streep's character's emotions at that point were extremely complicated. Of course, that is the director's responsibility…

In April last year, Sina blogger and media worker Wang Xudong (王旭东) attended a screening of the film followed by discussions with Liu Ye, and at the time had this to write:

讨论的话题围绕，电影文本的并不太多，更多焦点是放在：几年前中国留美研究生枪击美国博导和同门师弟这个新闻事件，能否在国内上画？在美上画的考虑等社会话题展开。
影片，整体的感觉就是稚嫩，尤其表现在导演手法和叙事上。故事是以一个真实的新闻事件改编，在我看来，“卢刚校园枪击案”的事件，很震撼，至少结果很震撼，由于当年咱国媒体只是淡化处理了，我们只知道的是个结果，其中的过程并不了解。本期待着通过影片获得些真实的信息，可影片应该没能完成这个任务。

Topics of discussion were sort of peripheral, and there weren't many about the movie script; most were focused on whether news of a Chinese PhD student in the US shooting his American supervisor and several of his peers could be shown in China, as well as social issues in it having been shown in the US.
Overall, the film felt rather raw, especially seen in the narration and directing techniques. The story was based on true events, which I assume was the “Lu Gang (卢刚) campus shooting incident”, which was very shocking, or at least the outcome was, and because our domestic media only played it down at the time, the outcome was all we knew, left unclear about the events leading up. I'd expected to get some of the true facts from this film, but I don't think that's a task this film as achieved.

Intrigue is part of working life for many people in China, but then isn't it for everyone, everywhere? An anonymous writer on this Baidu thread thinks so, although looking primarily at the academic world:

中国知识份子到外闯的确困难重重: 想要出头果真需要天时、地利、人和. 刘星不过是想改善家人生活和追求知识顶峰罢, 谁料到这种不回头的固执会毁灭自己! 主角不幸遇上一个不容其他人挑战自己、好保著自己学术地位的「名师」(Aidan Quinn) . 教授年青时推翻了老师的理论, 成名多年后是个死守学说、靠留学生替自己研究学术, 但内里极度轻蔑门生的学棍. 并非所有人都同意教授, 只是身在学府, 最重视的是自己饭碗, 靠人脉关系「埋堆」才可以生存. 刘星一心只想研究学术, 不会阅读人性险恶, 他甚至估计不到教授反对通过他的论文, 并不是因为使用何种运算方法, 而是因为锋芒过露, 足以动摇教授的地位. 刘星向教授赞扬美国的老师比中国的更能接挑战, 其实东西方都一样, 都不喜欢学生胜过自己.

Chinese intellectuals have it hard anywhere they go abroad; those who want to stand out really need the right opportunity, to be in the right position, and to have the right support. Although Liu Xing only wanted to improve his family life and reach the peak of intellectual pursuit, nobody foresaw that this sort of blind obstinance would lead to his own destruction! The main character unfortunately coming up against someone with no tolerance for being challenged by others, his renowned supervisor (Aidan Quinn). Having disproven his own supervisor's theory in his youth, years later and having built a name for himself, has become an academic thug forced to defend his own theory, having his PhD students' research do his research for him but despising them at the same time. And not everyone agrees with this professor, but being in the academy, are ultimately concerned about keeping their own rice bowls full, relying on their relationships to survive. Liu Xing lives only to do research, and is oblivious to people's ill intentions, to the point of even not being able to realize that his professor's opposition to approving his thesis has nothing to do with calculation methods, but because of being outdone by talent, enough to rock the professor's position. Liu Xing praises to his supervisor American professors' wider acceptance of being challenged than Chinese professors, when actually it's the same both in the East and West: nobody likes being outdone by their students.

And finally, some cherrypickings from the comments thread from Dark Matter's download page on VeryCD:

Ryancou:
其实看到真实事件和拍摄花絮，心理很难受的，中国大学生到美国大学就读，由于人际关系的纠纷，酿成惨剧。
还有，“初进剧组的那几天，气氛非常诡异，他们私下里都在议论我是不是从中国来的功夫巨星”
为什么中国人和美国人在一起总是那么尴尬呢？
为什么我们中国人和美国人永远不能成为彼此之间互相了解的好朋友呢？

Actually, having seen both the real thing and the footage on the news, it's unbearable, a Chinese university student goes to an American university to study, but then an interpersonal dispute turns to tragedy.
Also, [quoting Liu Ye] “the first few days with the cast were really strange, everyone kept whispering to each other wondering if I was a big kung fu master back in China.”
Why does it always have to be so awkward when Chinese and Americans get together?
Why will we Chinese never become friends who understand each other with the Americans?

demonzion
真人真事，当时很轰动，报纸上说是结业时导师没有给他第一的评价而是给了另一个中国留学生，这位应试教育出身的“才子”就把美国天体物理学的半壁江山毁了。美国老师死就死在不懂中国学生从小就是：考考考，老师的法宝；分分分，学生的命根儿。

Based on true events, it was quite a stir at the time. The newspaper said when the program finished, the supervisor didn't give him top spot but gave it instead to another Chinese student. This “genius” brought up on test-taking education turned half of America's astrophysics world on its head. American professors died for not knowing that for Chinese students, it's all tests, tests, tests, and the magic power for teachers is: score, score, score, it's what Chinese students live for.

wangu571
没有看此片给人第一印象，我心底总感到有辱华的感觉呢，虽然刘烨说没有。

I haven't seen this film, but my first impression is that it's humiliating to China, even if Liu Ye says it's not.

NicholasGunn
Meryl Streep?! 这也成？！必须下了。

They got Meryl Streep to be in it? I have to download it.

kreax:
中国人在美国做出这件事，这部电影对我们国人来说也是一个审视自己的机会和角度……

For a Chinese to have done something like this in America, this film also offers an opportunity and point of view for us with which to examine ourselves……

moolemon:
非常好的电影,发片时期很巧和,和virginia tech的枪击残案.华人导演华人主角,我们应该支持.非常沉重的话题.

An extremely good film, which coincidentally was released at the same time as the horrible Virginia Tech shooting. A Chinese director and Chinese main actor, we ought to support it. An extremely serious subject.

suprakit:
看完了，说两句。大家不要把电影看作当年事件的再现，影片中讨论的是文化冲突，而且强调主人公受到教授的不公正对待，均与事情的本来面目有一定出入。
当时卢刚枪击的受害者中，就有斯特里普扮演人物的原型。受害人单林华，也没听说有片中描述的刻意讨好美国人的行为。
就表现卢刚事件而言，不存在什么辱华的问题，反而对卢刚付出更多的同情。
事件中，卢刚也是受害者，但是我以为不存在太多文化冲突的因素，更多的是他个人性格缺陷的结果。

I've just watched it, and I've got two cents. Don't everybody look at this as a rehashing of the events at the time. What this film discusses is culture clash, and emphasizes the unfair treatment the main character received from his professor, and clearly departs from the original incident. Among Lu Gang's shooting victims at the time was the character played by Streep. Of the victims you only see Shan Linhua (单林华), and I didn't hear any discussions in the film that went out of their way to praise Americans' behavior.
As for the displaying the Lu Gang incident, I wouldn't say that any of it was humiliating to China, instead it puts forth even more sympathy to him.
In this incident, Lu Gang was also a victim, but I wouldn't say that there exist too many culture clash factors, the majority of it was the result of his individual personality defects.

Egypt: Stop Writing Arabic in Latin

Amira Al Hussaini — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:45:43 +0000

A new Facebook group urging Arabs to stop writing in Latin letters has been launched. The group has so far attracted around 2,500 people from across the Arab world.

Tanzania: On language and unity

Elia Varela Serra — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:14:53 +0000

Kenyan blogger Jerry Okungo, writing at Siasa Duni, comments on “the realisation that Tanzanians may not be as good masters of Kiswahili as the rest of East Africa may think” and on last week's decision by the Tanzanian Parliament “that the country had abandoned Ujamaism—the country’s version of socialism”. And he wonders: “Will the end of Ujamaism usher in unbridled greed and high level corruption that has permeated the Kenyan society?”

Jamaica: Patois Parlance

Janine Mendes-Franco — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:56:13 +0000

Transition Sunshine says that “all Jamaicans are multilingual, and while some may not speak patois, they all understand it”. Posted with video to prove her point.