评论翻译： Manipulation is an affront to fairness
魏一帆 更新于2009年10月18日
Note: The following is a translation of an editorial which first appeared in Southern Weekly on October 15. The original can be found here.
Manipulation is an affront to fairness
By Li Haipeng （李海鹏）
There were ripples outside the pool this year at the conclusion of the National Diving Competition. One national A level judge who was once the head coach of the Hunan diving team stormed out of the judges area and spoke to the media. He said all 12 gold medals had been decided beforehand and the person responsible is Zhou Jihong (周继红), the assistant director of the National Aquatic Sports Center and the man in charge of the national diving team. This judge also predicted who would win the last four gold medals and two days later he was proven correct.
It stands to reason that the identity of this whistle blower alone is enough for people to take him seriously. It should be enough to turn this allegation of fraud which occurred in plain sight into a major news story. However, thus far it has been nothing but a storm in a teacup. There has been no substantive impact to speak of.
As of yet we have not seen any evidence of a regulatory body conducting an investigation. Unless Zhou Jihong’s statements are a complete fabrication, the official response has been lacking. It is possible that they are just a bit slow and that some offices are just a bit behind the times. However, there is another possibility which is a cause for concern. There may be some who hope this will just blow over so they won’t have to take responsibility. But if one matter is left unresolved, there will be a hundred more. With this in mind, a thorough investigation is both fundamental and necessary.
It is imperative that this matter be resolved because there is a standard for civilized society that we must defend which rests on turning over these 12 gold medals. If there is no fairness in athletic competition, then athletes and spectators both become victims of deception. And if society is no longer equitable, then it will devolve into jungle warfare.
What would happen if the same thing occurred at the Tour de France or a Grand Slam tennis event? Similar things have actually occurred and were picked up by the press. Matters were investigated and adjudicated, which caused both embarrassment and intrigue. Even with seemingly insignificant matters a methodical process is used to rectify the situation. If there is incontrovertible proof of wrongdoing then athletes or organizations are fined or banned, each being put in its proper place. Processes do vary but they are all supported by a consensus within society, namely that nipping problems in the bud is laudable, sticking your head in the sand is unwise, and providing a shield for the benefit of one group will leave a long legacy of trouble.
The most recent example is a scandal in Italian Serie A soccer. Investigations were conducted over the course of four months because the principles of fair play were in question. Four prosecutorial offices were involved, including Rome and four clubs, including AC Milan, were severely punished. One was even demoted to the second division. This is probably the worst disaster for Italian Serie A since the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Their reputations have been tarnished after years of basking in the honor of winning the European Championship. Now their strength has been sapped and they have lost their ability to compete in European soccer.
Is it all worth it? From the standpoint of Chinese professional soccer, the intelligence of those in the Italian Serie A seems a little dubious. We tend to feel that Europeans are a little too straight laced sometimes. The novelist Zhang Ailing [张爱玲] once said something germane to this discussion: You don’t question whether or not love is worth it. This is because love in and of itself is worthy. In the same way, protecting fairness in society is inherently worth the effort. It has a direct bearing on the quality of a civilization and it’s also fundamental to athletics, which is why Serie A was willing to shoot itself in the foot. Simply put, fairness is its own reward. Italian Serie A will recover its reputation in about 20 years. Fairness is just like vast stretches of verdant hills. As long as they exist, you’ll never be in want of firewood.
And what of other things such as the growth of the economy or gold medals? If we are willing to cast fairness aside, we have to ask ourselves if it is worth protecting it. The best way to protect it is reform and guarantees of the system which is common knowledge. The question is where does the force behind unfairness come from in real life? Some telltale signs were given in the alleged diving championship scandal.
Chinese athletics has progressed into two distinct areas today, such that state-run athletics programs are strong and private ones are not. This strength comes from a strategic plan and greater access to resources. From the national teams down to the amateur ranks, it is all supported by a mammoth systematic plan. If the officials from the Sports Department mistakenly use their power to broadly “regulate” [宏观调控] who wins gold medals, then naturally competition will suffer. However, they will still probably be able to complete their mission of winning a world championship because of their strength, which creates an awkward situation. The more tax people pay the more financial support there is. And as the few organizations with muscle increasingly use their discretion, the more scandals will occur. The possibility that people will be deceived and made fools of becomes greater as well.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? It should because the unwritten rules of some of our monstrously large state-run enterprises have made their way onto the diving platform, creating an anecdote of another monster in the process.
This is not just one point to be made but an aspect of the way the system is designed, which is the main reason it has created such a clear threat to impartiality in all of society. We have to ask how to separate the weeds from the wheat on a national level. As was mentioned earlier, a thorough investigation and adjudication is a fundamental requirement when a problem arises.
If the beauty of a woman can be found in the details, then the wellness of a nation can be found in anecdotes about it. As far as the public interest is concerned, this alleged scandal may be just about sports, but it must be dealt with using an attitude of zero tolerance. There is only one kind of fairness and manipulation is an affront to it.
2009年 10月19日 10:26
Hello faked foreigner
yorbie Reply:
10月 20th, 2009 at 10:12
You’re mistaken. Tim Hathaway is indeed an American.
donyac Reply:
10月 20th, 2009 at 14:16
通看了所有评论后，我越来越觉得你的浅薄令人不悦。
你到底想要什么？
donyac Reply:
10月 20th, 2009 at 14:17
此处“你”指kualuiczb君
2009年 10月19日 10:34
I got some questions for you. Why do you pretend yourself to be a foreigner?? What’s wrong with a Chinese writing English editorial anyway? and who exactly are you?
2009年 10月19日 10:36
I used to pretend to be a girl on a social website, Facebook. But I never thought about going to the extreme to pretend a foreigner. I think I am just not that confident on my English.
2009年 10月20日 10:38
我很少登录南周的网站，虽然它的hardcopy版我每期都购买并且认真地阅读。今天打开这个网站，是想查一下罗志田的有关“乡愿”的文章。因为我给学生们上课的时候讲到这个目前盛行于中国大学校园内的恶劣风气－－因为教学制度的原因大学教师难于批评学生，使得学生学习生活日益松垮。
”
但今天偶然看到了Tim Hathaway翻译的我在09年10月15日南周第29版“评论”上读过的李海鹏撰写的评论“公平只有一种，‘调控’就是冒犯”的英译文，这对我这个搞英语教学和翻译的教师来说是有用的，我非常感兴趣读这个译文。进而发现了他的更多的译文。这真是值得关注。
但在他的这个译文后面，却看到了网友kualuiczb的留言，指责他是一个假老外。我依稀记得先前我在什么地方看到过这个名字。我觉得kualuiczb的指责好像没有根据，是不对的，而且kualuiczb的英文也有一些因为不细致而产生的语病。于是我立即展开搜索。结果我在网络上看到一些报道和信息，其中有中国人民大学外语学院的网页发出通知说，邀请包括Tim Hathaway在内的知名人士来人大做讲座或报告，还有Tim本人曾被新疆经济日报邀请写中英对照的专栏文章。Tim本人后来也把这段经历写成回忆文章发表在AsiaMedia Archives上。大家在下面看到的便是他的回忆文章。
从这些情况来看，Tim Hathaway并不是一个“假洋鬼子”，而是一个真的的老外。
Asiamedia Archives
A journalist in China
Tim Hathaway writes about his experience reporting and writing for state-run ‘Xinjiang Economic Daily’
By Tim Hathaway
Contributing Writer
Friday, November 9, 2007
New Jersey — Under a crystalline sky in western China in 2006, I sat in a black sedan with Zhu Youke, one of China’s most prominent journalists telling him about an illegal coal mine threatening endangered species. A foreign scientist had explained to me that this mine would directly impact the animals and he wanted news coverage. I decided to share the situation with Zhu for several reasons. He was a senior editor at state-run Xinjiang Economic Daily (XED), considered to be one of the most dynamic newspapers in China; he was a good friend; and he was also my mentor, having given me a job as an XED columnist earlier in the year.
He asked me to let him think about the coal mine story because revealing illegal activities is extremely risky in China, including Xinjiang, which is located directly north of Tibet. It is a politically-sensitive region because of tense relations between minority Turkic Muslim groups and Han Chinese. Newspapers are supposed to be the mouthpiece of the government and someone with Party connections most likely had a stake in this mine. Publishing this story could have repercussions for XED and Zhu personally. But a few hours later in the same black sedan, he said, “I want you to do it. You can interview the supervisor of the coal mine.”
Between January 2006 and July 2007, I was given spaces of freedom in Chinese journalism that no other foreigner has been afforded. I maintained a semiweekly column in English and Chinese and wrote nearly 30 feature articles and photo editorials in Chinese. The majority of my writing focused on people and culture rather than politically sensitive topics such as illegal mines. I interviewed award-winning writers and poets, Pakistani gem traders, Filipino musicians, Malaysian and American entrepreneurs, German scientists, and government officials both on and off the record. I also wrote about Mongolian nomads, Uyghur farmers, and other minorities in Xinjiang.
I saw Chinese journalism from the inside and witnessed the struggle reporters have finding significance in their work. It is the rare journalist who is able to achieve a successful balance between censorship and significance. XED has several successful writers because of its editorial vision, emphasizing cultural exchange and understanding. On May 20, at the first ever Central and South Asia Media Summit, XED’s editor-in-chief Su Jishang said, “The closer person-to-person relations are, the deeper economic exchanges will be.” He also believed “mass media is under obligation to introduce foreign cultures, which requires broader vision.”
The primary reason XED allowed me to write for them was the cultural perspective I brought. Prior to working there, I had lived in Colombia and Japan as an English teacher. My teaching career continued in China for three years before becoming a writer in Xinjiang. It was during my tenure as a teacher at a local university in the capital city of Urumqi that I met Zhu. We had met at the local Catholic Church and became good friends. After I quit teaching in 2005 to study Chinese full-time, he began lobbying the leadership of XED — without my knowledge — to let me write a column. I had no experience in journalism so in January 2006, when he offered me the job, I nearly turned it down.
I had many fears at the time, not the least of which was my less-than-fluent Chinese. I could barely read a newspaper at the time, let alone write for one. The column he proposed would be a paragraph-for-paragraph translation of English and Chinese. He assured me he would help clean up my translation.
My second fear was censorship. I did not believe I could write anything of significance for a Chinese publication. Zhu simply said, “Write anything you want. Just don’t write about politics or religion.”
He coaxed me into writing two sample articles for the other senior editors at XED. I struggled to find topics with meaning; my two sample articles ended up being on table manners and long underwear.
To my surprise the other editors at XED said they had value. For XED, they were a way to differentiate the newspaper from other publications. For readers, they were a chance to study English and to see their culture through the eyes of a foreigner. Though my first articles may seem trite, I used personal experiences to draw out cultural contrasts and the reasons for them. I showed readers how a westerner feels when a Chinese host uses his or her chopsticks to put large pieces of smoked horse meat, dog meat or even bovine intestines on a guest’s plate and why, to the consternation of locals, westerners like me do not wear multiple layers of undergarments in the winter like they do.
In the beginning, even extremely simple articles took over 10 hours to write and translate. I slowly learned how to construct articles of more significance on education, morality, economics and cultural bias and improved my writing time to three or four hours.
Throughout the course of my year and a half at XED, I produced over 160 column pieces, and I remember only six were rejected due to censorship concerns. Just after I returned to the United States, Zhu wrote in a July 30 article, “The column ‘A Foreigner in Xinjiang’ printed in Xinjiang Economic Daily’s culture section received praise from readers all over China. Among them was the former editor-in-chief of New China Daily in Nanjing, Mr. Jin Jingzhong. In a letter to the editor to XED he specifically praised this column. It has become one of the trademarks of this paper.”
Because of the success of the column and the working relationships I had, I was given greater latitude during my time there. The investigative piece I wrote on the illegal coal mine was published in two parts in the fall of 2006. It included interviews with the mine supervisor, government officials, and Chinese and western scientists. It named the organization responsible for the incursion into the nature reserve and detailed the direct impact it had on the endangered animals. There were no repercussions for the newspaper. But it did nothing to improve the lot of the endangered species in the area either.
The spaces of freedom I was given at XED were a result of a strong desire to develop journalism in China. I was technically a freelance writer, but I gained the trust and cooperation of XED and members of the Ministry of Information. I was allowed to participate in some state-sponsored activities for journalists and listened to officials talk on and off the record. Government officials, editors and readers I spoke with all want a freer press just as much as they want a government free of corruption, but reform is a slow process — glacially slow. I was fortunate enough to be given a chance to see Chinese journalism from the inside and how difficult it is to find ways to be significant as a writer in that society. But it can be done and is being done, by organizations like XED and individuals such as Zhu.
(http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=81687#)
魏一帆 Reply:
10月 26th, 2009 at 15:19
Yorbie,
You seem to be very good at online research. Everything you have found about me is true. I also appreciate your desire to refute the claim that I am somehow a fake foreigner. It shows that at least some readers are more careful and discerning than others. These are the ones I hope will frequent this column.
Frankly, I find this whole discussion rather silly and counterproductive. My national origin makes no difference. My hope is that people will respond to the ideas within the articles and translations, which is a much better use of our time and energy.
I look forward to hearing from you again in the future on issues of more importance than this.
Best,
Tim
2009年 10月20日 10:42
以前不愿意经常登录南周网站主要是因为既然读了纸版的报纸，网站上有无新意，加上它的资料性不强（很久以前读过的文章在它的系统里查不到【但现在似乎有了很大改善】），所以不愿过多地浪费时间和精力。
现发现还有这样的译文，觉得这个网站在吸引网友方面往前走了一小步。
2009年 10月20日 10:42
“网站上又无新意”
2009年 10月20日 11:01
原文中的“游泳运动管理中心副主任”的“副主任”的英译文是the assistant director。这个译文似乎有点问题，我觉得译为the deputy director更合适。因为这个副主任的角色在中国这个环境里常常是权利很大－－看周继红的所作所为便知。美国的国防部副部长和中央情报局副局长的英文均用deputy director。下面的一段粘帖似乎也印证了那个译文更好一些。
The assistant director position is generally positioned below an associate director and/or director. The associate director classification typically requires more years of experience and has a broader responsibility for the department’s operations, including a greater role in representing the department in various settings, staff supervision. The associate director position generally has greater decision making authority.
（http://hr.nau.edu/m/content/view/87/96/）
2009年 10月20日 11:13
虽然如此，Tim Hathaway本人的信息披露还是太少了点。点击他的所谓专栏首页，也没有看到对他本人背景包括教育背景的更多介绍。在一个透明性日益成为普遍标准的大气候里，你本人的那一点点介绍难免让人失却了更多了解你的宝贵机会－－网站那么多，点击的自由在网友们手上。
魏一帆 Reply:
10月 26th, 2009 at 15:30
yorbie,
I have a BA in English literature and an MA in TESL from St. Michael’s College, Vermont, USA. I have lived and worked in Colombia, Japan and several cities in China, as well as my alma mater. I began my career in journalism while in Xinjiang in 2006. I am originally from New Jersey, USA.
I have intentionally kept these details out of my profile. Perhaps I will take your advice and include it later on.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Best,
Tim
kualuiczb Reply:
11月 6th, 2009 at 12:20
是”inclue them later on”吧。。。唉真搞不懂，你对你自己的介绍本来就是self defeating了，你还没解释你是在哪学的中文。
魏一帆 Reply:
11月 13th, 2009 at 17:39
kauluiczb,
我到中国之后开始自学汉语，只有一段时间报名新疆农业大学的对外汉语课程。
如果你要我改变自我介绍，那问我就行了，尽量保持文明的在线沟通方式吧。你也应该相信南方周末，编辑部不可能允许这种虚伪。
如果更多人或编辑要我改变自我介绍，我就满足他们的要求。但是在这种情况下我不太喜欢说自己的事。我看，关键不是我，而是翻译的内容。
祝好。
Tim
2009年 10月20日 11:46
以下这个网页也验证了Tim不是一个假洋鬼子：
http://tim.z.infzm.com/2009/08/02/too-late-to-talk-about-xinjiang/
2009年 10月21日 21:10
如果不是干嘛删掉我的评论。。。又保留另一些评论，他连姓都没写你怎么指导他姓hathaway
2009年 10月23日 20:04
“The man responsible is Zhou Jihong (周继红), the assistant director of the National Aquatic Sports Center and the man in charge of the national diving team.”
Actually, “the man responsible” (Zhou Jihong) is a woman.
魏一帆 Reply:
10月 26th, 2009 at 15:03
fujieshi,
Thank you for correcting my mistake.
Best,
Tim