Question about Chinese unity

[Skywalker]

I'd always meant to read Three Kingdoms, but it took a recent viewing of Red Cliff to finally give me the kick up the backside to finally read it. I thought it was a very enjoyable movie, though I understand that the English cut is about half the original movie's length. Still, it gave enough flavour to persuade me to read the book!

The full version is available as well.

Yep! I've got both parts (all 288 minutes! ) on DVD.

Unfortunately, I found it on Blu-ray like two days later at a different store. If only I'd known...

 

[Rosalind]

It's why I can't get into the English translation of Chinese books, or vice versa, I always find things lacking. Probably because I would always seek out the original.

For those of us without your language skills, the translation will have to do.

Well, I had to read the translation of books like Les Miserables or Count of Monte Cristo, so yeah, I know what you mean.

Actually, the translation seems very good to me, and the accompanying brief Notes add a little extra depth and explain some of the cultural motifs/allusions being played upon sometimes.

Even the Chinese versions should have notes to explain certain sentences, otherwise, it's like reading Shakespearian plays, you wouldn't understand everything.

So in the scenes where a character chooses to use a person's style when talking to them, they're demonstrating a blend of respect and trust. That makes sense because characters switch how they call someone depending on whether they're trying to charm them or not. I figured the style was just a nickname used between friends, but your explanation adds more meaning to those scenes as it flags up some characters' two-faced nature (eg. Cao Cao).

yup, it's a very subtle thing, how a person addresses another. very glad my explanation helps.

I'd always meant to read Three Kingdoms, but it took a recent viewing of Red Cliff to finally give me the kick up the backside to finally read it. I thought it was a very enjoyable movie, though I understand that the English cut is about half the original movie's length. Still, it gave enough flavour to persuade me to read the book!

Good! I've watched both versions, the English cut is very good. It's like the cinema version of the LOTR movie, still tells a very good story.

Yes, it includes the poems (at least, as far as I've read, it has the relevant poems). Translating poetry is, I think, much harder than translating text and I must admit that not all of them resonated with me as much as the prose. Sometimes I get the emotion and points being made, sometimes they feel a bit abstract. Maybe part of that is that I've never had as much affinity with poetry compared to prose, even in English.

Yeah, poetry in most cases are not possible to translate fully, they can really test a translator's skills. Sometimes, I think the authors include poetry in the text just to show off how well they can play with the words.

Which of the other four great novels would you recommend next? I'm tempted to go with Journey to the West, largely because I liked watching Monkey...

that's what I would suggest anyway. Although I found sometimes the stories can be a bit repetitive, there's only so many ways they can encounter obstacles on their journey. But it is a fun book.

of the other two, Dream of the Red Chamber is one with the most scholarly study, I think, probably because the author wrote some amazing words, like Shakespeare, he invented a lot of new phrases, and words. And it is a very comprehensive look into the household of nobility, because the author was from such a family. But unless you're interested in stories like Romeo and Juliet, or Downton Abbey, it's probably not so interesting. Outlaws of the Marsh，is the one I'm most unfamiliar with. There's a saying in china that 'young man read Water Marsh, old man read Three Kingdoms'. because Marsh is a book about 108 men who, for one reason or another, came together and became the outlaws (think of Robin Hood and his merry men), so it appeals to young men who are in their rebellious stage. whereas, Three Kingdom is about building nations, so it appeals to older man who are thinking about gathering powers for themselves.