Okay, this week's lecture left me rather doubtful about Kaplan's generalizations on the circular style of Oriental writing. From the classic Li Bai's "Bedfront Moon Bright Bright" poem, we learned that Chinese written discourse tends to use indirect, abstract analogies to indicate what they really mean. But i wasn't (and still am not) entirely convinced so i decided to test out another example. As a primary school student eons ago, I remembered having been forced to memorize another Chinese poem, by 杜牧 (Du Mu) called Qing Ming. Some of you might find it familiar ;)
Credits to this website
I'm going to attempt my own translation at this, pardon my very lousy grasp of Mandarin.
First Line: It's drizzling heavily during the Qing Ming (i.e Tomb-Sweeping) season
First Line: It's drizzling heavily during the Qing Ming (i.e Tomb-Sweeping) season
Second Line: On the roads, people are gloomy and despondent
Third Line: I ask if there is a tavern nearby
Fourth Line: Shepherd Boy points out a distant village surrounded by apricot blossoms.
Actually the poem does somewhat fit into the qi-cheng-zhuan-he structure. Du Mu sets the atmosphere, develops the scene by introducing peripheral characters. Then he presents himself in first-person, posing a random question. And the final line serves as a proper "closing" that sums up everything Qing Ming is about! In Singapore, during Qing Ming festival (which happens around April each year) we're supposed to visit the tombs of our ancestors to pay our respects and tidy up the place. But in China, Qing Ming also marks the beginning of spring, and the apricot blossoms mentioned draws parallel with that.
I still do think that Kaplan's perspectives are highly debatable though. Especially in today's globalized context, where there is an increasingly creative fusion of diverse language styles.
I still do think that Kaplan's perspectives are highly debatable though. Especially in today's globalized context, where there is an increasingly creative fusion of diverse language styles.
i do agree with you. even among users of one single language, ppl have different styles of writing.
ReplyDeleteand not only there's an increasingly creative fusion of diverse language styles, ppl may come out with their own new styles!
kaplan's ideas might hold in his time when generalisation on styles of writing was pretty much possible, but ya, highly debatable now.
You're right that culture has limited influence on our writing styles. Other factors can also come into play. We don't have to accept what others (no matter how prominent they are) have concluded about cultural styles of writing. I certainly agree with you that overgeneralisations can be risky and even wrong.
ReplyDelete