China

“Click-to-kill”

By Austin Ramzy | @austinramzy | January 26, 2009 | +

Here’s a link to my latest story, on how China’s “human flesh search engines” are occasionally turning against government officials.

Related Topics: China

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  • http://underthejacaranda.wordpress.com C.A. Yeung

    This story had been blocked on PRC-based sites for a day or so. But someone is posting it again under a different title. Some smart cookies are also disseminating a poem about this incident:

    你们低俗了我们，你们和谐了我们
    我们注册新用户，我们建设新网站
    对言论和独立思考的追求是自然规律，也是市场规律
    焚书坑儒*无异于螳臂挡车
    看谁笑到最后

    Here is my very rough translation. Please make amendments as you see fit:

    You anti-vulgarised us. You harmonised us.
    So we sign up for new accounts. And we rebuild our sites.
    Free speech and independent thinking derive from our natural instinct towards liberalism, which somehow are also governed by market mechanism.
    Censorship* works like throwing straws against the wind
    Let’s see who’s the winner at the end of the fights.

    * Literally means: “burning books and burying Confucian scholars alive”

  • johnsmith9876

    “You anti-vulgarised us.” should be just “You vulgarised us”
    “And we rebuild our sites” should be “We build our new sites”
    “Free speech…” should be “Pursue of free speech and independent thinking is natural law, and is also the law of the market.”
    “Confucian” in “Confucian scholars” is not necessary. Just “scholars” suffices.
    “Let’s see who’s …” is “Let’s see who laughs last.” “Who laughs last” is an English idiom borrowed by Chinese. So literal translation is perfect for this case.

  • http://underthejacaranda.wordpress.com C.A. Yeung

    Thanks JS for the clarification. As you can see, I’m trying hard to get the rhymes right but I’m obviously not doing a very good job with it. I’m hopeless with poems.

  • johnsmith9876

    C.A. Yeung: In translation, I try to be truthful to the original text, and still grammatical and natural in the target language. Like in 我们建设新网站, there is no sense of “rebuilding”, but a very clear sense of “new web site”. The new web site can be a rebuilt site, but that is not clear in the original text.

    In 焚书坑儒, the history says not only Confucian scholars, but all other kinds, were killed too. So adding “Confucian” actually changed the meaning of the text.

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