The driver and I had been having a heated discussion about human rights. In Chinese, the term is commonly translated as ren quan. Ren means man and quan means power. But power-the ability and authority to act-is not the same as rights, usually defined as a claim to anything that belongs to a person by law, nature or tradition.
Since China has never had a traditional system of basic law, the concept of individual human rights is simply nonexistent. Whenever a Chinese person hears the term quan, he is hearing the term “power.” To the Chinese mind, the concepts of power and rights are so intertwined that only those who hold power have rights. No power, no rights. “They give the orders, and I obey,” the cab driver told me on that visit to Shanghai. “Everything else is foreign propaganda.”
In these days of high-stakes negotiations and instant global communication, the choice of the appropriate phrase is more important than ever. Nowhere was this more clearly shown than in the recent standoff over the American spy plane, where the insertion of the word “very” appears to have broken the stalemate between the two governments. “Very sorry” is translated as fei chang bao qian. The Chinese word qian (pronounced chien) implies that the person using it is in the wrong. With the use of that word, the Chinese agreed to release the detained American crew.
Concepts are expressed by words. Even under ideal circumstances, different backgrounds and customs may make translations inaccurate or distort the nature of a concept because no word can be found to convey its exact meaning. (Italians call this phenomenon traduttore-traditor: translator-traitor.)
If certain words are absent in a second language, the exact meaning of a particular concept expressed in the vocabulary of the first language may also be nonexistent in the second, “foreign” country and may not hold the same relevance there. That’s why translations between Chinese and English need interpreters who are not only adept at both languages, but well versed in the two cultures.
For the term human rights (ren quan) to mean what it means in the West, China has to adopt a set of laws that will not be subsumed by the power of the ruling party. This could be difficult. Unlike the West, China has no precedent for the sovereignty of a rule-based legal system. Throughout China’s long history, the emperor was known as the Son of Heaven. As such, he was not only above the law, he was the one who wrote the laws and could change them at any time.
In China’s new criminal code, which took effect in 1997, suspects are required to answer questions “truthfully” and, unlike the system in America, do not have the right (quan) to remain silent. Many ordinary Chinese people I questioned on this issue actually oppose instituting this right to remain silent in China because they fear that this would allow criminals to escape justice.
Fear of war dominates public sentiment on Taiwan. The presidential office had remained mostly silent during the crisis. Earlier in the week, President Chen Shui-bian publicized remarks he made to visiting U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, asking the U.S. Congress to “delink” arms sales to Taiwan from the ongoing standoff. After the crew members were released, Chen released a terse statement. “We are happy to see the crisis being resolved rationally and peacefully through a diplomatic approach,” it said.
Just as the English word rights has no exact equivalent in the Chinese language, the Chinese term mian zi is equally difficult to render into English. Mian zi means “face,” but it also means self-respect or honor and signifies a person’s (or a nation’s) sense of self-worth. In China, mian zi can be given, denied, begged for, borrowed, relied on, lost, sold or bought. More than that, mian zi must be preserved, especially in front of an audience.
This concept is so ingrained that it is always advisable to carry out delicate negotiations with any Chinese in private so as not to jeopardize his mian zi. In order to please the Chinese, try to give mian zi at every opportunity. It costs nothing and generates tremendous good will. This is what happened when the United States declared itself “very sorry” instead of just “sorry.”
