外面的世界 The oustside world

外面的世界 The outside world

齐秦

A long, long time ago
You held me, and I held you
A long, long time ago
You left me, and went soaring away

The outside world is wonderful
The outside world is intolerable
When you feel that the outside world is wonderful
I'll be here faithfully wishing the best for you

Every time the sun sets,
I'm here missing you
Even in the pouring rain,
I'll still be here waiting for you to come back.

A long, long time ago
You held me, and I held you
A long, long time ago
You left me, and went soaring away

The outside world is wonderful
The outside world is intolerable
When you feel that the outside world is intolerable,
I'll be here patiently waiting for you

Every time the sun sets,
I'm here missing you
Even in the pouring rain,
I'll still be here waiting for you to come back.

The outside world is wonderful
The outside world is intolerable
When you feel that the outside world is intolerable,
I'll still be here patiently waiting for you

Every time the sun sets,
I'm here missing you
Even in the pouring rain,
I'll still be here waiting for you to come back.

http://vfile.home.news.cn/music/public/vd2/200902/08/22/MUfs02200902082335025022dc06.mp3

http://www.xidannvhai.com/sp17.html

王小波是我们这个时代最虚伪、最丑陋的神话之一, Wang Xiaobo is our one of our generation’s most hypocritical and ugly myths

王小东 – Wang Xiaodong

十一、 王小波是我们这个时代最虚伪、最丑陋的神话之一

Chapter 11, Wang Xiaobo is our one of our generation’s most hypocritical and ugly myths

from:

中国不高兴, China is not happy

第三部分 放下小菩萨 塑伟大之目标，

Part 3, Stop worshiping idols and create some real goals

Wang Xiaobo is one of our generations most hypocritical and ugly myths. Exposing this myth is a deed of supreme merit. Even if people aren’t persuaded at first, as long as a seed of doubt can be put out, a doubt with actual basis, then the myth isn’t far from being exposed. I’ve certainly thought about this before, but I was always a little busy, and I couldn’t stand reading his stupid articles. But, I was fortunate enough to meet a few of his fans. People who were closer to him or people who knew the truth about him would probably be more able to do this than me.

A post I put up that clearly alluded to Wang Xiaobo’s wife caused a bit of controversy. A person online named Alex had the insightful comment, “It seems as you have quite a bit of criticism for Wang Xiaobo…I don’t think Wang Xiaobo is stupid. His ideas are rather commonplace. I don’t know if you’ve read Wang Xiaobo’s novels or not, but that is where his true achievements are. Compared to Europe, his praise for America is rather limited, or even hidden. He ranks things like this: Europe, America, China. From what I understand, he’s only traveled through Europe so the things he was able to connect with were rather limited. This helped to form the construction of Europe in his head. Wang Xiaobo’s criticisms of China are not without merit. Unfortunately, I’m not sure what he was thinking, he insisted on placing these criticisms alongside his praise for Europe and America creating a certain bad effect. Many people have seized upon this point. For example, Mr. Zhu took Wang’s praise of Western culture and simplified it into ‘Western rationalism.’ Wang Xiaobo’s intentions are good and this is something lacking in many of the ‘freedom activists’ today. Although before he died he asserted that China needed freedom before it could really begin anything, I think if he knew about the events of the past ten years he might move a bit closer to China’s position.”

To be honest, I simply can’t read Wang Xiaobo’s novels or essays. From this perspective, my understanding of him isn’t that great so I can’t hold that strong of an opinion against him. But, one thing is clear, he certainly got taken really good in America. When he came home it was it was nothing but assaults on Chinese people and a perfect picture of the West. These are the actions of a cheat. This is what I’ve seen and this is why I have nothing but contempt for him.

The only things I’ve read of Wang Xiaobo’s are a few letters and a few articles attacking Chinese people. I’ve mainly got to know him through some fights he’s got into with some of my friends. But, it’s like Sir Athur Conan Doyle put it, “If you want to know if an egg is rotten you don’t have eat it.” No matter what his novels or essays are like, I still think he’s a rotten egg because I can smell his rotten odor. It’s that odor that prevents me from being to read his works and making a lot of comments him. I have to leave that work to others.

Alex, that person online, said, “You’re right about this point. It’s rather sad. Wang Xiaobo’s time living in America as a student was very representative. Later, he strategically avoided talking about this, preferring instead to talk about the faults of the Chinese people. This is his biggest fault. However, I’m more familiar with him than you are and I’m able to sympathize with him more. He didn’t buy into the myth of the West and he’s still much better than the freedom fighters nowadays. His top priority was giving these American-bred freedom fighters a dose of reality, showing regular Chinese people what Chinese people in America were really living like. If someone doesn’t know their own strength, they’ll spend an eternity working for someone else. There are a lot of Chinese people who are slaves to the West, but most of them would never admit it.”

Wang Xiaobo’s little brother was killed by an American and his body was left on the side of the road. According to the police, they estimated that before he died he had struggled for quite a long time. During that time, not a single American went to help him. Although his brother’s death came after he had already died, the tough life his brother was living was something Wang Xiaobo knew about very well. Originally, Wang Xiaobo had the most authentic personal experiences, and according to you guys, he could write very well. He came home to tell the regular people here what struggles the Chinese people in America were facing, but what happened? Tell me, how can you make not look down on him?

It’s been a decade or two, but these days, under the influence of Wang Xiaobo, Chinese people living in America are still displaying some sad signs. A friend of mine recently went to America. In San Francisco he went out to dinner with some friends who had been living there for a long time. Along the way the bumped into a white person who for no reason decided to hit one of his friends. My friend wanted to fight back but the four others absolutely forbid it. On the way back, no one said a word. Finally, my friend spoke up, “So, this is the life you’ve been living after all.” Their faces turned white. At last, they exploded. But, they didn’t have anything bad to say about the Americans, only assaults on the Chinese people and their lack of class. These people are all Wang Xiaobo and I will always look down on them.

沉默的男朋友 My quiet boyfriend

沉默的男朋友 My quiet boyfriend

新井一二三 Xinjing Yiersan

From: 123成人式 : Seijun Shiki (Coming of Age Ceremony)

Part 1: 现实和远景 Reality and a Vision

When we were in high school we’d spend hang out for hours together every day..

When I was 18 I graduated high school, but I didn’t get into college.

In April of that year my classmates were wearing light makeup and wearing pink, pastel green and other kinds of light colors. They were starting to enjoy the perks of being a college student. I started taking classes at a cram school in Yoyogi wearing the same old dark clothes of winter.

Cram school cost just about as much as college. Since I didn’t dare ask my parents for any spending money or consider getting a job, I had no way to buy new clothes. Every day I went to class wearing the same jeans I wore in high school. And when I say jeans, I mean overalls. I paired them with blue and red argyle flannels. I looked a lot like a female auto mechanic from the American Midwest.

Wearing those big pants, I got fatter and fatter every day. Cram school students are under a lot of pressure and they don’t have many opportunities to relax. Unconsciously I started eating a lot more. Bu, more importantly, cram school isn’t a real school: there’s no gym class and there’s no playground. If you take in a lot of calories and you don’t burn them off, you’ll inevitably get fat.

So, is laziness the root of obesity? Or is laziness the result of obesity? For a whole year I didn’t bother to check my weight. Cram school students have no standing in society, they are simply looked down upon. My life consisted of nothing more than putting on my big overalls everyday and going to class. If I gained a little weight, so what?

I was shocked. After only a year I had gained 25 pounds. That spring when I finally got into college and saw my old classmates their response was uniform, “How’d you get so fat? ‘I’ doesn’t mind?”

So it turns out that fat cram school student had a boyfriend. ‘I’ was a high school classmate of mine. During senior year we would cut class together, leading to my failure to get into college. ‘I’, on the other hand, got accepted into the not very prestigious engineering school at "C" University.

‘I’ loved to read books and listen to music, but he loved being alone more than anything else. I was his only close friend. Almost every day when I got out of cram school, ‘I’ would come pick me up and take me home. To keep my spirits up he’d write me letters. That year I received over one hundred letters from him.

Although his girlfriend gained 25 pounds, he never once said a word. Later, when I lost it all in a matter of months and started wearing makeup he still didn’t say anything. That kind of silence in a man is very rare.

When we were in high school we’d hang out for hours together every day. Only later did we start off on separate paths. After I started college every day brought new experiences and new friends. When I got home and read his letters he was still talking about whatever new book he had read. It simply wasn’t enough for me.

By summer vacation I had lost all the weight I had put on. Wearing a cool new t-shirt, I went camping for a few days. When I got back I didn’t call ‘I’. A few days later he called my house but I pretended I wasn’t home. After that I went to a park and burned all the letters he ever wrote to me. A two year relationship and that was how it ended.

After that I never saw him, wrote him or talked to him ever again. It’s been over 20 years since then, but to this day I still feel guilty. ‘I’ accepted me more than anyone else I ever met, but in the end, I ended our relationship without any reason or cause, without a single word of explanation.

中国可以不说 - China can choose to say nothing, Translation Part 1, 翻译第一部分

宋强 - Song Qiang

十九，中国可以不说 - Chapter 19, China can choose to say nothing

第二部分， 中国的主张 - Part 2, Propositions for China

中国不高兴 ： China is not happy (Unhappy China = 'official' title)

大时代、大目标及我们的内忧外患: Important Times, Big Goals and our Internal and External Troubles （The Great Time,Grand vision and our Challenges = 'official subtitle', 'yes, with the comma not being followed by a space like that, I know, right?)

Here we come back once again to the origin of ‘China can choose to say nothing’. Our sarcastic responses to some laughable performances actually almost caused us to face the wrath of Cui Weiping. Two years ago at SOHO (SOHO 小报) we posted an article mocking the famous Professor Cui Weiping. It’s actually rather simple: She was selling the Adam Michnik book she translated by herself. It was selling well so she raised the price quite a bit. Originally, no one really knew how to respond to that. The issue was, if the government decided to suppress the book she’d become a martyr for democracy. She played this up to her benefit. Everyone had an opinion about this, but no one wanted to say anything to offend anyone. But, eventually Zhang Xiaobo let it out, “Screw her! There, I said it!”

The article, “Who is reading Michnik these days?” goes something like this:

We need to accept that this is a huge moment in this history of thought. There’s female professor with a concern for the general welfare of the world selling her 400 page must-read primer on Democracy. It cost 30 RMB. After as things went well, the price went up to 35 RMB. Using one’s good name to make a quick buck doesn’t seem like Michnik had in mind. (Will there be any good soul willing to ask if Michnik is getting a cut?). Translators usually don’t think too hard about getting their check for the translation and at the same time collecting alms for the noble cause they are fighting for. The book isn’t being openly distributed, so it’ll naturally be face some barriers and run into some trouble. Her ‘out-to-save-the-world’ posturing combined with her brazen concern for profit cause us to think there’s a bit of tension in this story.

…

In the Buddhist test Quanshiwen (劝世文) there is a story where Yama gives two men about to be reincarnated two choices: do you want a lead a life of demanding, or a life of giving? The first man said: A life of demanding. The second man said: Then I’ll take a life of giving. Yama then set the two men’s fates. The man who wanted a life of demanding ended up as a beggar, every day outside collecting alms. The man who wanted a life of giving became a millionaire with a lot of economic power. He could go out every day and help the poor, fix the temples or repair the roads. Although the story is very simple, it gives those bright people who want to go out and save the world a bit of encouragement. The metaphor is a bit simple, but it works. No wonder our intellectuals are falling in line.

When the article got printed and then posted online Cui Weiping was furious and demanded: “Take it down!”

This is the attitude the freedom fighters take in response to articles they don’t like.

This is a paradox stemming from losing touch with the times. The truth under her furious anger might just be the mirror she needs to look into. In China these days, proponents of democracy fear being behind the times. But if look at their crap and false pretensions and you can’t help but feel optimistic about the future. Even if China goes along their path, the only ones who’ll get screwed are the regular people. If the corrupt elites take power, it’ll just be another post-Marcos Philippines. But, for the believers in democracy, it’ll be a beautiful morning.

不潮不用花钱 If it's not cool don't buy it

Ethnography.

If I only had the words. But y'know, greedy, don't fret.

Danah Boyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzctKajhI0

林俊杰
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoT-waxlxew

My zero and my hero. Who would want to write a dissertation about Sui dynastry crap when you have this?

不潮不用花钱 - If it's not cool don't buy it （High Fashion)

hey greedy,don't fret
what you see is what you get
you name it,i have it
what you see is what you get

left left, left, left,
if you like left, go left
you don't need to think too much

boomb boom, boom boom,
got my heart beating and my eyes open
just remember the passion

Sometimes a light passes right by me,
and Newton did eat apples.
My ideas aren't too complicated
there's a limited about of time to get in.

Please, don't be going everywhere
You need cash to follow the trends
if you're not careful you won't have any
going everywhere for cash and then spending all you got,
Money can't buy you anything special

You said, you heard, heard what, who said what?
Going with the flow
Let it through, through, it's easy
if you don't get it, then don't reject it

Sometimes a light passes right by me,
and Newton did eat apples.
My ideas aren't too complicated
there's a limited about of time to get in.

little chick having chips on my sofa
bearbricks take a shit on my sofa
smudge babies lying on my sofa
neighborhoods and kicks singing "so-fa"

little chick having chips on my sofa
bearbricks take a shit on my sofa
smudge babies lying on my sofa

hey greedy,don't fret
what you see is what you get
you name it,i have it
what you see is what you get


Please, don't be going everywhere
You need cash to follow the trends
if you're not careful you won't have any
going everywhere for cash and then spending all you got,
Money can't buy you anything special

hey greedy,don't fret
what you see is what you get
you name it,i have it
what you see is what you get

hey greedy,don't fret
what you see is what you get
you name it,i have it
what you see is what you get


No, seriously, why are you translating 林俊杰 lyrics?
Because I couldn't find any english lyrics online?
I think you're missing the meat of the question.
No, I hear you loud and clear.

Update:

From the youtube comments, because I love them:

"so many sofas? where u download from thiz video? "

My thoughts exactly.

P.S. Dear China, please stop blocking youtube. This is really getting annoying. I promise not to watch videos of snatebiT anymore. Don't make youtube the new wikipedia, which strangely enough you can still watch! I'm freaking translating 中国不高兴, give me a break!

没有如果 No ifs

Friday Special: Big Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfETTcuNUSI

If I said there were no ifs in loving me
would you be sad if you missed your chance?
If you make if an excuse
isn't that a bit sad?

If I said there were no ifs in loving me
If you truly loved me you'd give it a go
What is there to think about, what are you scared of?
Hurry up and take my hand

People say,
The greatest distance on earth isn't between life and death,
but the space between us when I'm standing in front of you
and you don't know that I love you.
I always say,
If people can't even love one person without reserve
then the end is already here,
there's no need to wait for the world to be destroyed.

If I said there were no ifs in loving me
would you be sad if you missed your chance?
If you make if an excuse
isn't that a bit sad?

If I said there were no ifs in loving me，
If you truly loved me you'd give it a go
What is there to think about, what are you scared of?
Hurry up and take my hand

If, If
No If, If, if it disappears in then end,
I can't accept that.
Miss it, Miss it,
Miss it, miss it, if I miss it I'll be even more sad,
I won't miss another chance
(Yea, don't let it pass you by this time.)

Why are you translating 梁静茹 lrc's anyway? Well, because the other translated versions kind of ____.

Hat-tip to 黑兔子 for the 'go for it' line.