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Today is July 4, Independence Day. On this date in 1776…not much happened. The Declaration had been completed two days earlier. As John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail: “July 2nd will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the [...]
Sharp-eyed visitors to the Palace Museum will note the number of signs which are written in both Chinese and Manchu. Makes sense considering who actually ruled the Qing Empire and so many of the signs at the Forbidden City look something like this:
But the signs on the main attractions, the big gates and halls of the outer court, the ones EVERYBODY sees (even the “In 35 minutes we have to be at Badaling” package tourist) have signs only in Chinese. By way of example, check out this picture of the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohe Dian), in which scholars of centuries past toiled away to pass the highest level of exam.
Only Hanyu. What gives? I’ve been wondering this for awhile, and on the off-hand chance that either Freda Murck or Geremie Barmé reads this blog they could drop me a note. Until then, Joel Martinson, the translation machine behind the Danwei blog, tipped me off to this article from 163.com posted back in 2004 which claims to have the answer. I’ve translated and appended it below the fold, but I’m not entirely convinced…sounds a little too neat and clean to blame old Yuan Shikai for everything. But it’s the only explanation I’ve heard so far so I’ll leave it to readers to make up their own minds. In the recent issue of Forbes Magazine, Lee Kuan-yew writes about the continuing perception gap between East and West, citing the recent protests surrounding the torch relay and the angry response by ethnic Chinese both inside and outside the PRC. Lee argues that this is part of the developmental process and that as China [...] |
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