Adventures in Chinese translation: Tibet auntie recalls asking Hu Jintao to dance: She was nervous!

Here’s an article from Xinhua that I translated. I am by no means a Chinese translation pro-star, so don’t go citing this in your dissertations or anything. And BTW, I tend to gravitate towards the feel-good, love-your-country articles because there’s a certain camp quality to them- nay, a ‘Growing Pains’ feel to them. In fact, the lyrics: ‘Show me that smile againnnnnnn’ were looping through my head when translating this.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-10/06/content_12185905_1.htm

October 10th, 2009 | Source: China news agency

Ang Wang is a zhongyang national university graduate student in dance. She, with the nation’s Chairman in hand, led a group dance at Tiananmen Square.

During the national day holiday, Ang Wang partook in a special interview by a [new society] reporter. This beautiful Tibetan girl, [adorned in Tibetan dress], wearing a [duck tongue] hat, a loose-fitting white blouse, and black leisure pants, seemed to glitter under the sun’s rays. She still excitedly recalls the events of that evening as, “happy, moving, and unforgettable.”

October 1st, the night of New China’s 60th anniversary, 9;21pm, in the middle of a lively song, Hu Jin Tao, Jiang Zemin, party members, national leaders, walked under the Tiananmen [gate tower], walked on the [gold water] bridge and prepared to ask the Tiananmen crowds to a collective dance.

In front of the gold water bridge, A Tibetan girl named Ang Wang and [another minority] teacher stood at the very front of the crowd. They were intent on waiting for Hu Jintao to arrive and enter the joyous crowd to dance together. Amidst the torrent of cheers, Ang Wang couldn’t nail down any plan for when she got to speak with Chairman Hu. At the last minute, she decided: “Whatever the chairman asks me, I’ll just answer it.”

“The first thing the Chairman said was: ‘who are you representing?’”, Ang Wang said after recalling the event, “I told him I was from zhongyang university.”

“Seeing Chairman Hu was pretty enlightening. He was completely friendly, with none of that rigidity that you’d imagine. I got the sense he was very warm and kind,” Ang Wang recalled.

“However, in retrospect I think I was a little nervous that day, and not satisfactory. If I had another opportunity I’d introduce myself using my own name and study field.” Thus, Ang Wang was still left with little regrets.