Water Margin has the largest circulation.
Reposted from People's Daily Online
The academic research is quite professional and the TV adaptation is ridiculous
It was the afternoon of April 15 this year, and the weather in New York was a little hot. In a lecture hall at Columbia University, more than 200 audiences were crowded, and they were listening to the famous Chinese writer Liu Xinwu "revealing the secrets" of "Dream of Red Mansions". The wonderful speeches constantly aroused warm applause and cheers. After the speech, a Chinese-American young man came up and said excitedly to Liu Xinwu: "Although I didn't fully understand it, your Mandarin is very nice! Such beautiful Chinese is like music, which makes people very moved." This made people moved. Liu Xinwu, who had carefully prepared his speech, really didn't know what to say. It also vividly reflected the extent to which most Americans knew the four great Chinese classics.
“Like a drop of rain falling into the vast ocean”
Mr. Liu Xinwu’s trip to the United States attracted great attention from the domestic media. Various media outlets have made reports with titles such as "Liu Xinwu's lecture on "Red Mansions" was popular in the United States, setting off a craze for classical literature", "Liu Xinwu's "Revealing the Secret of Red Mansions" speech in the United States received strong response", etc., describing in detail the grand occasion of the speech day, such as "Local 'Red fans' rushed to attend. Before the lecture began, the entire lecture hall was already packed." "Liu Xinwu's lecture on visiting the United States has set off a new round of classical literature craze in the United States. Major media have reported that Liu Xinwu will give a lecture at Columbia University. "News"; "Columbia University designated April 15 as 'Liu Xinwu Day'"... For a time, people felt that Americans were suddenly obsessed with "Dream of Red Mansions" and had a strong interest in Chinese classical culture. Is that true?
What Liu Xinwu told reporters was a different situation. "That day, there were hundreds of cultural activities taking place in New York at the same time. There was a seminar about Angkor Wat, and an Eastern European writer was signing books and selling books..." Because the speech was in Chinese, almost all of the more than 200 audience members were yellow-skinned. , black hair. Counting Hispanics, there were only about a dozen non-Chinese Americans in the audience, and a white man left the show midway through. "'A Dream of Red Mansions' is too difficult for them!" Many young Chinese listeners were born and raised in the United States and have little knowledge of "A Dream of Red Mansions". "They want to experience the culture of their mother country."
Liu Xinwu told reporters that the purpose of the lecture held by the United States was not to publicize "how to correctly understand "Dream of Red Mansions" to Americans, but to use popular and vivid speeches to let ordinary Americans know that "China has A great writer, Cao Xueqin, wrote a great novel." Liu Xinwu felt very regretful that he could not give a speech in English that day. "Language is one of the major obstacles to cultural exchanges between China and the United States." When a reporter asked what role his trip to the United States to speak about "Dream of Red Mansions" could play in cultural exchanges between China and the United States, Liu Xinwu replied vividly, "It's like a drop of rain falling on Into the vast sea.”
During his visit to the United States, Liu Xinwu was very surprised by the ignorance of many authentic Americans about Chinese culture. "It's so shocking that in Texas, there are actually Americans asking me whether Chinese women still have their feet bound and men still have pigtails!"
The Four Great Classics are Hard to Find in Bookstores Traces
After staying in the United States for a long time, it is not difficult to understand Mr. Liu Xinwu’s surprise. China's Four Great Classics are still "ivory tower" works in the American book market. They are rarely seen in American bookstores. It seems that the rising "Chinese fever" and "China fever" have not yet risen to the level of Chinese classics. the level of literature. When you walk into an ordinary American bookstore, the most popular Chinese books you see are "Tao Te Ching", "Sun Tzu's Art of War", Feng Shui and cooking books, as well as novels and information books related to the "Cultural Revolution".
Not long ago,
this reporter came to the bookstore of the famous Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., and searched through the Chinese literature bookshelf, but only saw a set of books published by Penguin Press in the United States. English version of "A Dream of Red Mansions" (this version uses "The Story of the Stone" as the title). The staff of the bookstore told me that according to computer records, the bookstore had previously carried "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West", but for some reason the books were not renewed after they were sold out. Since only a few professional bookstores sell English translations of China's four major classics, some readers can only order them online.
Among the four major classics, the one with the largest circulation is "Water Margin" translated by the American writer Pearl Buck. The English translation title is "We Are Brothers Within the Four Seas".
In 1938, Pearl Buck's acceptance speech at the Nobel Prize award ceremony was titled "Chinese Novel". She said: Chinese classical novels have "the same irresistible charm as novels from any country in the world." "A truly well-educated person should know such classics as "A Dream of Red Mansions" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms." "Brothers Within" was on the best-seller list in the United States at the time, but there were still many errors in the translation. For example, the translation of book titles was criticized by Lu Xun. The nicknames of the 108 generals are often literal meanings. For example, the flower monk Lu Zhishen is translated as "Priest Hwa" (Flower Priest), and the dominatrix Sun Erniang is translated as "Night Ogre" (night monster).
In contrast, the Monkey King, who has great kung fu and a sense of humor, is more attractive to ordinary Americans. Many Americans know the story of "Journey to the West". The English translation is "Monkey", and other translations include "The Monkey King", "The Adventures of the Monkey", "The Monkey's Journey", "The Man and the Pig", "The Adventures of Gods and Demons", etc. Unfortunately, after "Journey to the West" was translated into English, many hidden allusions and morals were lost, making the book lose most of its color. "Journey to the West" translated by Jenard and published by China Foreign Languages ??Publishing House is very popular in various translations, but some American readers have reported that the printing quality and binding technology of the book seem to need to be improved.
As for "A Dream of Red Mansions", which ranks first among the four great classics, it is mentioned in American high school and college world history textbooks as one of China's greatest novels. These textbooks often describe the decline of the Qing Dynasty by introducing "A Dream of Red Mansions". "A Dream of Red Mansions" is called China's "Romeo and Juliet" by some book critics in the United States. Generally speaking, Americans pay less attention to the concept of clan. However, the intricate family relationships and numerous character names in "A Dream of Red Mansions" make American readers confused.
For American teenage video game fans, "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not very unfamiliar. A few years ago, a video game called "Dynasty Warriors II" became very popular among American teenagers. "Dynasty Warriors II" is adapted from the storyline of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The names of people and places are all from the original work, and there are Chinese Pinyin buttons for "Martial Arts" on the control panel, but the language and music have been "fully Westernized". However, "Dynasty Warriors II" still led many American teenagers to "find their roots" in the original work. This is how Rich Chakang, a young man living in New York, found "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by "searching for pictures" and was deeply attracted by the original work. He told reporters that he truly understood what loyalty, heroism and military strategy are from the book, and understood from a historical perspective the Chinese principle that "if we unite for a long time, we will divide, and if we divide for a long time, we will unite." "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (literally translated as "Three Kingdoms" in English) translated by Moss Roberts and published by China Foreign Languages ??Publishing House is more popular in various versions, and the title of another translation is translated as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
“The professionalism of academia even exceeds that of China”
“The United States is a diverse society. Although most ordinary Americans do not understand the four major classics, in academia, some experts The professionalism is even more than that of Chinese scholars,” said Mr. Liu Xinwu.
Professor Lakeman Jenny, a famous sinologist at Yale University in the United States, has done extensive research on the four major classics. In the past few years, he also published a monograph commenting on the four major classics. The book writes that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is an eternal soul of Chinese culture. It is the profound humanistic artistic conception of "Dream of Red Mansions" that makes it the most popular among China's four great masterpieces.
There is also a master of red studies at Yale University—Professor Shi Jingqian. He was born in London, England, in 1936. In 1959, he went to Yale to pursue a PhD in modern Chinese history. Shi Jingqian is an out-and-out "Red Scholar". He once went to the Palace Museum to collect first-hand information, did a lot of research, and completed his doctoral thesis "Cao Yin and Emperor Kangxi". This paper is quite original. It was published as a book in 1966 and has been cited by many Chinese scholars to this day. Shi Jingqian also always required his students to read at least one of the four major classics.
Let Tang Monk and Guanyin Kiss
Some Americans ignore the Four Great Classics, some Americans study the Four Great Classics, and some Americans like to adapt the Four Great Classics according to their own ideas. The four great classics they adapted often changed beyond recognition, leaving the Chinese people dumbfounded.
The NBC television network in the United States once broadcast a 4-episode TV series adapted from "Journey to the West". In the drama, Guanyin Bodhisattva actually fell in love with Tang Monk, and there was a scene of the two kissing.
After watching it, many Chinese people no longer feel angry at all, and all their comments are "ridiculous" and "ridiculous".
In June this year, news came out that the famous American director Spielberg has begun work on the adaptation of "Journey to the West", and another American version of "Journey to the West" will be released in 2008 Available. However, Chinese actor Liu Xiaolingtong, who has successfully played the role of Sun Wukong, is deeply worried about this: "I'm worried that he will make 'Monkey King' into 'King Kong'!"
"The four classics will definitely attract people's attention. More and more Americans are paying attention."
A scholar who majored in Chinese history under Professor Shi Jingqian at Yale University in the 1980s told reporters that under the influence of Shi Jingqian, she I read all four classics in college. This scholar fully agrees with Shi Jingqian's view that the Four Great Classics are the essence of Chinese culture. If you want to truly understand Chinese culture, you must first understand the Four Great Classics.
Ms. Ji Zhaojin, project coordinator of the China Studies Department at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced Foreign Service, told reporters that in recent years, public high schools in the United States have begun to add Chinese courses and related exams, and the content taught and the scope of exam questions Emphasis on Chinese history and cultural knowledge. Many East Asian or Chinese studies departments at American universities offer courses on the study of "Dream of Red Mansions". Some universities have included "A Dream of Red Mansions" in their student recommended reading lists.
Ji Zhaojin said that when the "Chinese craze" in the United States extends to a deeper level, Chinese classics will surely attract the attention of more and more Americans. It is foreseeable that in the near future, the Four Great Classics will become more common in American bookstores and among the books read by ordinary Americans.