What a Play on Words Says about Business in China

David Henry Hwang’s entertaining new play， Chinglish ， which has just opened on Broadway， is about what is lost and what gets inflated in translation. It begins with a British consultant giving the main character， American businessman Daniel Cavanaugh， some advice so he can get around the widespread problem of poor interpreting， “When doing business in China， always bring your own translator.”

In the play， Daniel has come to Guiyang， the small provincial capital of Guizhou， to sell English signage to the city for its fancy new arts centre. On a trip to China in 2005， Hwang visited an arts centre in Shanghai. It featured sleek German design and the best Italian marble， but also the badly translated signage that is ubiquitous in China. The rest room for the disabled had a sign reading， “Deformed Man’s Toilet”.

劇作家黃哲倫的喜劇新作《中式英語》（Chinglish）最近在百老匯上演，該劇講述的是翻譯中失去和被夸大的東西。該劇一開場，一名英國顧問給劇中主人公美國商人丹尼爾·卡瓦諾提供了一些建議，這樣他就能避開普遍存在的蹩腳翻譯問題：“在中國經(jīng)商，要永遠(yuǎn)帶著自己的翻譯?！?/p>

劇中，丹尼爾來到貴州省會貴陽，向該市新建的漂亮的藝術(shù)中心推銷英語指示牌。2005年，當(dāng)黃哲倫來到中國時，他在上海參觀了一個藝術(shù)中心。這個藝術(shù)中心運用德國的時尚設(shè)計，采用來自意大利上好的大理石，但標(biāo)牌的翻譯很差，而這在中國是普遍現(xiàn)象。殘障人士洗手間的標(biāo)牌是這樣翻譯的：“殘疾人廁所”。

As the comedy unfolds， however， one realises that language is among the least of the problems. The misunderstandings are more fundamental. When Daniel pitches for a contract to the cultural minister of a province， the translator describes his hometown， Cleveland， as close to Chicago， and the minister takes the conversation in unexpected directions. He loves Chicago， he says， especially its steakhouses. Daniel’s sales pitch is thrown off course， but he replies that the steak chain Smith Wollensky is his second home. “A steak restaurant， where he sometimes lives，” explains the translator.

Poor translation cuts both ways as Daniel discovers when the minister’s assistant looks at the website for his company， Ohio Signage， and ridicules the poor Chinese on the website， which Daniel had asked a languages student to write.

然而，隨著這部喜劇的展開，人們意識到，語言是最不重要的問題之一。誤解是更根本性的問題。當(dāng)?shù)つ釥柫η笈c某省文化局長達(dá)成一份協(xié)議時，翻譯描述了他的家鄉(xiāng)克利夫蘭離芝加哥很近，于是文化局長把談話帶到了意料之外的方向。他說，他喜歡芝加哥，特別是那里的牛排餐廳。丹尼爾的銷售說辭被帶離了軌道，但他回答，連鎖牛排餐廳史密斯沃倫斯基是他的第二個家。翻譯則解釋說：“有時他會住在這家牛排餐廳?！?/p>

蹩腳的翻譯對雙方都有影響。這位局長的助手在瀏覽丹尼爾的公司“俄亥俄名片”的網(wǎng)站時，就對網(wǎng)站上糟糕的中文大加嘲笑，而丹尼爾是讓一個學(xué)語言的學(xué)生來寫這段文字的。

Yet for all the mishaps along the way， more Chinese are learning English and more Americans and other nationalities are learning to speak Chinese. It is apparent that to do business in China has become much easier. Almost everyone spoke enough English to get by just fine with a bit of sign language， a decent product catalogue and that handy tool for all complicated haggling in China—the calculator.

But， as Chinglish brilliantly sets out， the problems of two vastly different cultures interacting but never quite integrating have less to do with language than one would think.

然而，盡管存在這些小意外，但越來越多的中國人在學(xué)習(xí)英語，越來越多的美國人和其他國籍的人在學(xué)說中文。人們明顯看出了如今在中國經(jīng)商已經(jīng)變得容易多了。借助一些手語、像樣的產(chǎn)品目錄以及用于中國所有復(fù)雜侃價的方便工具——計算器，再加上夠用的英語，幾乎所有人都能順利交流。

但，正如《中式英語》睿智的情節(jié)那樣，兩種有著巨大差異、互動但從未相互融合的文化存在的問題，不僅僅是人們所認(rèn)為的語言問題。

Chinglish is a play， of course， but similar differences in outlook abound in real life when doing business in China.

As Daniel says while giving a lecture in the US at the end of Chinglish， “Nowadays to be successful， you have to understand your place in their—China’s—picture. Just be aware that you may not—well， I can assure you that you will not get everything you want. And that may just have to be enough.”

當(dāng)然，《中式英語》只是一部戲，但在中國經(jīng)商時，在實際生活中，類似的觀點分歧大量存在。

正如在《中式英文》結(jié)尾丹尼爾在美國做演講時所說的：“如今，要想成功，你必須清楚你在他們——中國人——眼中處于什么位置。要知道，你或許不會——這我可以向你保證，你不會得到你所想要的一切?；蛟S只能這樣?！?/p>