《中式英语》登上百老汇

Yet for all the mishaps along the way, more Chinese are learning English and more Americans and other nationalities are learning to speak Chinese. At the recent Canton Fair, where retailers and wholesalers from places as far-flung as Ethiopia and Brazil discussed consignments of office furniture and Christmas decorations, it was apparent how much easier it has become to do business in China. Almost everyone spoke enough English to get by just fine with a bit of sign language, a decent product catalogue and that handy tool for all complicated haggling in China — the calculator.

然而，尽管存在这些小意外，但越来越多的中国人在学习英语，越来越多的美国人和其它国籍的人在学说中文。在最近的广交会上，人们明显看出了如今在中国经商已经变得容易多了，在这次交易会上，远至埃塞俄比亚和巴西等国的零售商和批发商讨论了办公家具和圣诞装饰品的交货事宜。借助一些手语、像样的产品目录以及用于中国所有复杂侃价的方便工具——计算器，再加上够用的英语，几乎所有人都能用顺利交流。

But, as Chinglish brilliantly sets out, the problems of two vastly different cultures interacting but never quite integrating have less to do with language than one would think.

然而，正如《中式英语》睿智的情节那样，两种有着巨大差异、互动但从未相互融合的文化存在的问题，不仅仅是人们所认为的语言问题。

When Daniel is pitching to a Chinese official who asks out loud "Why should we put our faith in him?", Daniel counter-intuitively lets on that he used to work for Enron. The Chinese are transfixed. Did he know Kenneth Lay? Did he know Jeffrey Skilling? Ms Xi, Daniel’s mistress, a government official who is also present at the pitch, tries to swing the deal his way by saying, "Mr Cavanaugh knew them all! He was a chief architect of the disaster!" Never, says the awestruck official presiding over the meeting, has such a world-famous financial figure come to Guiyang.

当丹尼尔向一位中国官员推销时，这位官员大声问道：“我们为何要相信他？”，丹尼尔违反直觉的透露，他曾为安然(Enron)工作过。中国人呆住了。他认识肯尼斯．莱(Kenneth Lay)吗？他认识杰弗里．斯基林(Jeffrey Skilling)吗？丹尼尔的情妇Xi是一名政府官员，她也在场。她试图让这笔交易按丹尼尔的计划进行，她说道：“卡瓦诺认识他们所有人!他是这场灾难的主设计师！”主持会议的官员肃然起敬地说，从来没有这样一位世界闻名的金融人物来过贵阳。

Chinglish is a play, of course, but similar differences in outlook abound in real life when doing business in China. Recently, the world's largest retailer, Walmart, was ordered to close all 13 of its stores in the city of Chongqing for 15 days because ordinary pork had been mislabelled as organic. The Chongqing government railed about how often the retailer had been in trouble with the city administration; Walmart announced that its China CEO and local head of HR were resigning for "personal reasons". It outlined the "rectification actions" it had taken.

当然，《中式英语》只是一部戏，但在中国经商时，在实际生活中，类似的观点分歧大量存在。最近，全球最大零售商沃尔玛(Walmart)被勒令关闭在重庆所有的13家门店15天，因为他们在普通猪肉贴上了绿色猪肉的标签。重庆市政府责怪这家零售商经常与管理部门发生不愉快。沃尔玛宣布，其中国区CEO及人力资源主管因“个人原因”辞职。该公司并介绍了其采取的“整顿措施”。

But when they reopened, consumers mobbed the stores and said the bargains were better than ever — they didn't care what the Chongqing officials thought.

但在这些门店重新营业时，消费者蜂拥而入，他们表示，这里的商品价格比以往更便宜了，他们不关心重庆市政府官员的想法。

As Daniel says while giving a lecture in the US at the end of Chinglish: "Nowadays to be successful, you have to understand your place in their [China's] picture. Just be aware that you may not — well, I can assure you that you will not get everything you want. And that may just have to be enough."

正如在《中式英文》结尾丹尼尔在美国做演讲时所说的：“如今，要想成功，你必须明白你在他们（中国）那里的位置。要知道，你或许不会——哦，我可以向你保证，你不会得到你想要的一切。或许只能这样。”