梁山伯与祝英台

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:58:09 GMT

So I have been recuited to act in a play. Don't get to excited its just for my language school though it is all in chinese. The good news is that I am the Antagonist, which (for those of you who know chinese stories know) means that I will be the only person alive in the end. I have translated the story and writen it below.

Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai

Once upon a tine, there was a person whose sirname was 'Zhu'. His daughter, Zhu Yingtai, was not only stunningly beautiful but also extremely intelligent and fond of studying. But, because in ancient times, ladies were not allowed to go to school to study, Zhu Yingtai could do nothing more then lean up against the window each day, gazing at the students going up and down the main street with book boxes on their backs, her heart full of envy. Can it really be that girls are only allowed to stay at home?

When this thought crossed her mind, Yingtai immediately went to ask her parents to let her go to Hangzhou to study. At first, of course, her parents did not agree. But later Yingtai though of a good way: she would dress up as a boy so that other people would not be able to see that she was a girl. In the end, after Yingtai's repeditive pleading, her parents finally agreed.

The next day at dawn, Yingtai set off with her servant-girl, Yinxin. Zhu Yingtai met a male fellow-student called Liang Shanbo, who was an outstanding scholar and also completely honourable in character. Subsequently, the two became like brothers.

From that moment they were forever inseperable. Zhu Yingtai though: such a good person- if we can be together everyday, I'll certainly learn a lot of things, and surely I'll be happy too. Liang Shanbo likewise felt he'd immediately hit it off with her, that it felt like they'd been friends from the moment they met. Consequently they often read poems or other literature together and talked with eachother as best friends. As they looked after each othe rand took care of each other, their friendship grew deeper and deeper.

As spring and autumn came and went, three years flashed by and the school years came to an end. So the time came for each to go back home. Having studied together for three years, Zhu Yingtai had already fallen deeply in love with her 'brother' Liang and Liang Shanbo, although he didn't know she was a girl, completly adored her. Before they parted, Zhu Yingtai finally could no longer keep herself from telling Liang Shanbo that she was a girl so that he could quickly propose to her. In the end, hating to let go of each other, they parted.

After they returned home they longed for each other day and night. After a few months, Liang Shanbo proceeded to propose to their families that they get married.

The result, however, broke his heart.

Zhu Yingtai's father had a long time ago betrothed his daughter to the young master of the well-to-do house, Ma Wencai (My Character). Ma Wencai was a fop who idled away his time all day every day with eating and drinking and having fun.

Although Zhu Yingtai did not agree she couldn't persuade her parents to change their mind no matter how hard she tried. When Liang Shanbo heard this news, he was immediately filled with grief. He fell terribly ill and before long died.

When she heard that Liang Shanbo had passed away, Zhu Yingtai, who had completly resisted her parents and openly opposed the marrige they had arranged, suddenly became unusually calm. She agreed to get married, but on one condition: that the bridal sedan chair first go to Liang Shanbo's tomb, as she wanted to pay her respects at his grave.

Before she reached the tomb, she knelt down and burst into tears, at that moment
the wind began to blow, the rain came down, the air shook, there was a rumbling of thunder, and with a loud 'bang' the tomb split open. Zhu Yingtai, it seems, once again set eyes on those soft and gentle contours of her 'brother' Liang's face and, smiling, she lept in. Next there was another thuderous sound and the tomb closed up. At that point, the wind dropped and the clouds dispersed, the rain passed and the sky cleared; and a pair of butterflies flew out of the grave mound, and fluttered gracefully and freely up in to the sunlight to dance.

New Semester

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 03:57:44 GMT

So I am almost at the end of my first week of the new semester at new century language and culture institute and I have finally reached the lesson in which they tell me how to say the full name of the school. Though knowing this doesn't help any cause the school is just for foreigners and consequently the locals don't know of it. When I tell them I'm studying Chinese they always say, oh at Nankai or Tianda? And I say, no and New Century and then they look at me like I don't really know how to speak Chinese. Then I spit out my sentence fragments explaining how the school is very small and just teaches westerners Chinese that its located in the travel university (which gets another blank look...yes I can say travel university but not language school) then I have to proceed to tell them the location of the school and what I am planning on doing after I am done. This normally leads to more frustration as no one understands me when I say cheese (nailao) in Chinese. I am saying it with the right tones I just think its something they don't here often so its confusing to them. So I say, 'I am planning on making cheese...cheese...making cheese, cheese yes cheese.' they normally in the end go, oh nai lao. and I think, that was what I was saying all along! Egh. At least today I learned the word for bike pump, very useful.

p.s. here's a pic of my dog to show you how big he's gotten (gotten is bad English aint it?)

Uncle Pauly's pearls of wisdom: 我写汉字，所以你们看不懂

梁山伯与祝英台

New Semester