s****g
发帖数: 1795 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 ebiz 讨论区 】
发信人: sdwang (网络包打听), 信区: ebiz
标 题: Re: 别抗日媚日了啦， 大家还是囤积点碘吧
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Wed Mar 16 11:11:31 2011, 美东)
面子翻译成reputation? 你懂得...
At first sight nothing can be more irrational than to call that which is
shared with the whole human race a “characteristic” of the Chinese. But
the word “face” does not in China signify simply the front part of the
head, but is literally a compound noun of multitude, with more meanings than
we shall be able to describe, or perhaps to comprehend.
In order to understand, however imperfectly, what is meant by “face,” we
must take account of the fact that, as a race, the Chinese have a strongly
dramatic instinct. The theatre may almost be said to be the only national
amusement, and the Chinese have for theatricals a passion like that of the
Englishman for athletics, or the 1)Spaniard for bull-fights. Upon very
slight 2)provocation, any Chinese regards himself 3)in the light of an actor
in a drama. He throws himself into theatrical attitudes, performs the 4)
salaam, falls upon his knees, 5)prostrates himself and strikes his head upon
the earth, under circumstances which to an 6)Occidental seem to make such
actions 7)superfluous, not to say ridiculous. A Chinese thinks in theatrical
terms. When roused in self-defence he addresses two or three persons as if
they were a multitude. He exclaims: “I say this in the presence of You, and
You, and You, who are all here present.” If his troubles are adjusted he
speaks of himself as having “got off the stage” with credit, and if they
are not adjusted he finds no way to “retire from the stage.” All this, be
it clearly understood, has nothing to do with realities. The question is
never of facts, but always of form. If a fine speech has been delivered at
the proper time and in the proper way, the requirement of the play is met.
We are not to go behind the scenes, for that would spoil all the plays in
the world. Properly to execute acts like these in all the complex relations
of life, is to have “face.” To fail them, to ignore them, to be 8)thwarted
in the performance of them, this is to “lose face.” Once rightly
apprehended, “face” will be found to be in itself a key to the 9)
combination lock of many of the most important characteristics of the
Chinese.
It should be added that the principles which regulate “face” and its
attainment are often wholly beyond the intellectual apprehension of the
Occidental, who is constantly forgetting the theatrical element, and
wandering off into the irrelevant regions of fact. To him it often seems
that Chinese “face” is not unlike the South Sea Island taboo, a force of
undeniable 10)potency, but 11)capricious, and not reducible to rule,
deserving only to be abolished and replaced by common sense. At this point
Chinese and Occidentals must agree to disagree, for they can never be
brought to view the same things in the same light. In the adjustment of the
incessant quarrels which distract every 12)hamlet, it is necessary for the
“peace-talkers” to take a careful account of the balance of “face” as
European statesmen once did of the balance of power. The object in such
cases is not the execution of 13)even-handed justice, which, even if
theoretically desirable, seldom occurs to an Oriental as a possibility, but
such an arrangement as will distribute to all concerned “face” in due
proportions. The same principle often applies in the settlement of lawsuits,
a very large percentage of which end in what may be called a 14)drawn game. |
|
