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Letter from the Director

Spring is here! This month is a big one for IUP alumni; on Tuesday March 24 we honored one of the early groups of American students and scholars, who came to study in China in February 1979, many of them alums from the Taipei years, at a banquet at Poly Plaza, complete with slides and 1979 music! Tom Gold, IUP's Executive Director (also at Fudan University in 1979), was also in town, and moderated the panel discussion.

I would also like to direct everyone's attention to an important academic event, "Writers, Scholars, and Critics: Public Intellectuals and Chinese Literature," sponsored by IUP, Tsinghua School of Humanities and Social Science, and the Association of Chinese and Comparative Literature (ACCL), to take place at Tsinghua June 19-21. There will be over 70 papers delivered over 2 1/2 days, with many important Chinese literature scholars from China (including

Hong Kong), USA, the UK, Australia, and Singapore. If you are in Beijing at the time, I hope you can come and listen to some of the panels, it will be at the UNIS International Exchange Center outside Tsinghua's East Gate. Please see the website for conference details! http://depts.washington.edu/acclhome/

This issue is great, representing the rich interest in the literature and the arts in this cohort of IUPers, which is by no means unusual. Kitty Poundstone reports on our literary translation group, and our minstrel/troubador Alan Gaskill, a musical soul if I ever met one, reflects on how the past few months at IUP have contributed to his musical development.

On this theme, going forward we will be coordinating fine arts related activities with the help of the Arts Forum, one of many other common interest fora emerging from our diverse student group. Recently I discovered that we actually have at least three alumni who run galleries in Beijing's art districts, and since there are always students with fine arts interests at IUP, the potential for wonderful activities is great.

The same is probably true in areas of Environment and NGOs, Economics and Finance, International Relations and U.S.-China Relations, etc. All we need is student impetus and IUP will step up to the plate with funding and logistics. All these interests are addressed by our evolving relationship with the Brookings Tsinghua Center, where we have an alum working as an intern and where they have excellent workshops, lectures, and conferences on all these interest areas.

I wish everyone a happy and productive late spring! Inside:

清华大学 | Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies ( 清华 IUP中文中心)

IUPeople Volume 2, Issue 5 March 2009

(l-r) IUP Director Charles Laughlin, ’79 alum John Grobowski, and IUP Executive Director Tom Gold at the alumni event “79ers: 30 years of Reform and Opening through the Eyes of Early Liuxuesheng”

+ Spring Travel Tips

+ Musical Talents at IUP

+ Translation Interest Group

中国中国中国中国的春天的春天的春天的春天

by 贾玉婷, IUP Program Assistant

四，五月的中国是春暖花开的季节。通常

人们在形容这个季节的时候，会说“生机勃勃，

春意盎然”。但是今年北京的春天似乎晚了一

点，冬天长了一些，以至于直到现在，虽然城内

护城河畔的桃花，迎春花已经开了，但是时常擦

面而过的北风还是刮的凛冽干脆。在这个季节的

中国北方，比如东北三省（崔越老师的家在东北

大连），西北地区，甚至还会隔三岔五的下大

雪，降冰雹。当然，冰雪覆盖下的东北地区的长

白山脉，是非常美丽的。

相对而言，中国的南方地区就要温和的

多，比如，浙江的杭州，云南的元阳（孙弘毅老

师老家在云南丽江），那里柳枝新绿，梯田蜿

蜒，气候宜人。又比如咱们 IUP五月九日要去

的旅游目的地：南京（李璐老师正是南京

人）。

五月去南京是一个特别合适的季节。为什

么这么说呢？挨着长江，中国南方的冬天湿冷阴

寒，而且屋子里可没有北方地区司空见惯的暖

气。而夏天，江水蒸烘下的南京又非常闷热潮

湿。可以说，长江沿岸的大小地区都是这样的气

候，比如重庆（余燕老师家在那里），武汉（我

的老家）。只有五月这个短短的春季，气温正合

适，春光正明媚，我们可以好好的享受这个“六

朝古都”。

中国古代，曾经有六个朝代在南京建都，

给这个城市留下了很多很有价值的文化景区。加

上自古江南地区就文化繁荣，这里也有很多浪漫

的故事。我们这次旅行就会住在这些浪漫故事发

生的地方：秦淮河边。不知道你会不会碰到属于

你的故事 ☺

提供一个网站供大家参考，了解南京的有

趣之处。

中文介绍:

http://destguides.ctrip.com/china/nanjing/district9

/sight.html

英文介绍:

http://www.chinatravel.net/Nanjing-

guide/introduction/64.html

四月四日开始起，IUP会有一个小小的九

天假期，有时候同学会问我们：这个假期去中国

的哪里好？除了上面提到的浙江省，江苏省，云

南省，你也可以去湖南的张家界看喀斯特地貌，

或者安徽省看中国人盛赞的“归来不看山”的黄

山，到江西省看遍地油菜花的婺源乡村，或者到

闽南地区去享受宁静的厦门海滩和客家人的功夫

茶。除了流利的中文之外，也许大家也能在风景

中更深的体会到中国的人文情怀。在 IUP五楼

的学生休息室外面有一张很精彩的中国地形图，

大家也可以对照那张图看看：你是更喜欢爬山

呢？还是看海？还是沙漠？还是草原？

中国有句老话“读万卷书，行万里路”，愿

大家在不同的风景里享受生命！

Mark Your Calendars! Spring Semester Break April 4-12 IUP Day Trip to Pingguoyuan On Saturday, April 25 IUPers will go to the Pingguoyuan area in southwest Beijing to view the blossoming trees and flora welcoming spring IUP Lecture Series 4: Matthew Ferchen Former IUPer and currently Tsinghua University International Relations School’s Matthew Ferchen will discuss comparative politics on Thursday, April 30, 7-9:30 p.m., location TBA.

The IUPeople Newsletter is published monthly by the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies. Wen Bei Lou, 502, Tsinghua

University, Beijing, China 100084. Visit us at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup. Editor-in-chief: Charles Laughlin, Managing Editor: Vivian Li

With winter’s end and the arrival of spring, IUP has witnessed a blossoming of music. My bi-weekly gig at Flow Coffee near the South Gate of campus is transforming into a forum for IUPers to play and jam together. Thursday March 19th saw the second appearance of classical violinist-turned-modern improviser Sharon Nakhimovsky, playing Brazilian Choro and Gypsy Jazz. Jeff Volinski and Faaria Kherani got their feet wet with a beautiful rendition of “Misty.” The patrons fell silent as Faaria sang to Jeff’s soulful accompaniment. And this is just the beginning. Peter Witherington has an itch to get back into his guitar chops, Chen Wenhui Laoshi and Li Lu Laoshi have observed the phenomenon with interest and will require just a little prodding to join in the fun; Ashton Liu heard there was music being made and had his electric bass shipped over from home; Benjamin Roth, already a pianist, is proving a dedicated student of the Brazilian tambourine, the pandeiro. Finally, this season awaits confirmation of a rumor that IUP’s the most seasoned player-in-hibernation and arguably the best jazz trumpeter on the Tsinghua campus, Charles “The Professor” Laughlin, is to re-ascend the rostrum after a 25 year hiatus and deliver a mighty lecture from his horn. More on this later… I am a certified musician of an international NGO called MIMA Music (www.mimamusic.org), whose mission is to “inspire students of all ages with a lifelong appreciation for music-making.” MIMA organizes cost-free interactive music classes for students of all ages and backgrounds.

IUP’s semester break this year falls on the exact time of MIMA Music week. From April 6th to April 11th, MIMA musicians around the world will concurrently host interactive music classes. The week culminates on Saturday April 11th, when each MIMA class in the world will give a public performance at the same time. All participating students in Beijing will perform on midnight, Saturday April 11th, at the same time as their comrades in nine cities around the globe, spread among the nations of Jamaica, USA, Cyprus, Brazil, and Argentina. I will be hosting an interactive music course in Wudaokou for MIMA Music week. Three IUPers are currently signed on. All levels of musical experience are welcome – including those with no musical experience at all! Talk to me for more info.

Alan Gaskill and Sharon Nakhimovsky performing at Flow Coffee

IUP Band on Tour: Musical talents Ben Roth, Sharon Nakhimovsky, Alan Gaskill, and Jeff Volinski jam the night away on the Luoyang trip last fall

Photo: A

lan Gaskill

Beijing Jam by Alan Gaskill

Exploring Chinese Literature through Translation

by Kitty Poundstone

Several of us at IUP are interested in Chinese

literature, and we have begun meeting about once a month to discuss literary translation and pieces that we ourselves have translated. We come from different levels of knowledge and experience and welcome anyone curious about Chinese literature to participate.

During our group meetings, we discuss Chinese literature (history, authors, etc.), we read each other’s translations and provide helpful feedback on how to improve our drafts. This can get pretty detailed. We dive into aspects of the translations that can make or break a smooth reading experience, debating things like voice, punctuation, footnoting, capitalization, sentence structure and register.

In February 2009, we discussed Peter Witherington’s translation of an early Yu Hua short story called “The Northwest Wind Howling at Noon”: Sunlight crept in through the windowpane that was without a single crack or cleft, nearly reaching the leg of the pants I had tossed across a chair. I was reclining shirtless under my quilt at the time, my right hand rubbing from the corner of my right eye the dirt that had accumulated there as I slept. It felt wrong to leave it there, but handling it violently didn’t seem right either, so I worked at it quite daintily. At that moment my left eye was idle, so I dispatched it to go and take a look at the pair of pants. I had taken them off before I went to bed, and I regretted tossing them carelessly onto the chair, such that now they drooped precariously. The rest of my clothing was in the same state. As my left eye gazed at them I began to wonder whether in my sleep I had in fact shed a layer of skin, like a snake; my pants and the rest of my clothes really had this appearance about them. By this time a thread of sunlight had reached the leg of my pants, a jumping pin-point of light resembling a golden flea. Seeing this, my body began to itch, and I was going to use my idle left hand to scratch it but, as it wasn’t enough, I had to enlist the right to help out. There was someone knocking at the door...

During our second meeting in March, we discussed my translation of a farcical piece written by Eileen Chang called “Glazed Tiles.” In this short story, Chang recounts the trials and tribulations of Mr. and Mrs. Yao as they struggle to ensure that their seven beautiful daughters marry well: … each of Mr. Yao’s seven daughters was more beautiful than the next. It was strange: when classical beauty was at the height of fashion, Mrs. Yao gave birth to a girl with an oval face. When an oval face was no longer the style, Mrs. Yao added a girl with a heart shaped face. When the craze for the large eyes and long eyelashes so adored by Westerners took hold, Mrs. Yao translated

this with impeccable fluency. The beauty of the Yao family girls was never in danger of becoming passé. In every detail, they followed the fashions of their day, they were elegant and refined, a collaboration with the divine.

Daughters are a burden, goods sold at a loss, but beautiful daughters are in another league. Mr. Yao understood this well, but he really was not the kind of person who would bank on his daughters’ marriage prospects. Of course, neither was Mr. Yao in the best financial position…

The story was originally published in 1943, and has not before been published in English. Like many of Chang’s, this story lends itself to stage adaptation, and was performed as a play in Shanghai years ago.

Both Peter and I participated in the 2009 Chinese-English Literary Translation Workshop sponsored by Penguin Books in March in Suzhou. This week-long workshop included working with published Chinese and English-language authors and translators on a translation of recently published fiction; learning about publishing houses and literary magazines that publish Chinese fiction in translation; and working on film subtitling. It was a great opportunity to meet writers, literary agents, publishers, and fellow translators. Peter and I worked with Yan Lianke, a satirical writer who has written a number of novels, including Serve the People, and translator Julia Lovell. One great feature of the workshop was being able to work with published English language writers on polishing our translations. Our group worked with Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian and Two Caravans.

We hope that anyone in the IUP community with an interest in Chinese literature will join us for our next meeting in late April!

Peter Witherington (back, 2nd from left) and Kitty Poundstone (front, far right) together with translation group at the Penguin 2009 Chinese-English Literary Translation Workshop in Suzhou. Authors Marina Lewycka (back, 3rd from left) and Yan Lianke (back, center) shown with translator and professor Julia Lovell (back, 2nd from right).

Photo: K

itty Poundston

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