最近好像有一波新朋友，欢迎大家，希望大家喜欢这些内容也欢迎大家分享给周围的朋友。时不时的也有人想以金钱的方式支持我，我一直都在回绝, 毕竟之前是有工作的么。但是，很诚实的告诉大家，靠广告挣钱真的不容易，每个月平均也就£15左右吧，所以如果大家想要支持我的话，可以用Buy Me Coffee 这个平台。链接（buymeacoff.ee/kaycee）我会放在下面和我的网站上。目前Buy Me Coffee 的平台还不能分享音频，但是他们在筹备中，一旦可以了，如果效果不错的话，我以后也会在平台上分享没有广告版本的音频或者其他内容。那好，那我们就进入这一期的内容吧。
In this episode, I briefly summarise the Xinjiang cotton issue and read a couple of news articles from China and a couple from the West to see how the issue was covered from different perspectives.
哈喽，大家好，我是Kaycee。
最近看到了很多关于新疆棉花事件的报道。我先客观的介绍一下这个事件吧，然后我们来看看中国媒体和西方媒体的报道。我个人认为啊，媒体背后多多少少是有它们的政治立场的，从我近几年看到的新闻而言，我已经不相信新闻是中立的了。很多西方媒体公司自己是承认自己偏左或偏右，但是即便是个别企业称自己是中立的，仔细读下来的话其实并不然。中国媒体当然，大家也清楚。所以我总爱说的一句话是：the truth is somewhere in the middle。人间真真假假，各方媒体新闻内容肯定也是有煽情的部分，选择报道的角度也是考虑后决定的所以嗯，最好还是不要一切都盲目相信。
“China likes to use its trading might and retail nationalism to pressure governments and multinationals – both at the same time preferably – to keep them quiet about its abuses.”
“Uighurs have been detained at camps where allegations of torture, forced labour and sexual abuse have emerged. China has denied these claims saying the camps are “re-education” facilities aimed at lifting Uighurs out of poverty”
“FOR MORE than a year some big foreign apparel and technology companies have been walking a fine line on the human-rights abuses committed by China against Uyghurs”
“China’s government, increasingly keen to punish critics of their Xinjiang policies, is forcing foreign companies to make a choice they have been studiously trying to avoid: support China or get out of the Chinese market.”
“This time the campaign looks like part of a broader, more enduring counterattack against critics of the government’s policies in Xinjiang, where it incarcerated more than 1m Uyghurs in a gulag for their religious and cultural beliefs”
“Britain, Canada and the EU had previously joined America in sanctions on senior officials in Xinjiang, implicated in what the American government has called “crimes against humanity” and “genocide”.”
“Instead, it is Chinese authorities who are doing the bullying. On March 24th the Communist Youth League, a party affiliate, whipped up a nationalist online boycott of H&M, digging up a months-old statement on the Swedish garment-maker’s corporate website expressing concerns about reports of forced labour in Xinjiang.”
“For Western companies in China both paths, the principled and the pliant, carry risks. But so does the Communist Party’s nationalist indignation. If it does end up causing foreign firms to leave the Chinese market and reduce their dependence on Chinese supply chains, that could itself irritate many Chinese shoppers and hurt millions of Chinese workers. It would also give Western businesses more freedom to do something the party would itself love to avoid: criticise China in the open.”
中西方媒体用的语言就放这儿了，我也不用分别作出评价了。反正自从我十几岁开始稍微关注新闻的时候就发现，中西方新闻现在越来越是两极化的了。背后的问题也是极其复杂的，涉及到了政治、文化、经济、商业，各种方面。我觉得涉及到的国家都有自己的对错所在，也有很多灰色地带。反正我意见就是：the truth is somewhere in the middle.
用英语求婚的时候会说: Will you marry me? 翻译成中文就是：你愿意和我结婚吗？这个在中文语境里就感觉很奇怪了。目前来讲，更自然的表达是：你愿意嫁给我吗？或者你愿意娶我吗？在上一期，我们读的小故事里我们也看到了，事实是这样的，大家也都是这么表达的。但是这种表达方式，严重一点我觉得是一种性别歧视，或者至少是一种过时的说法把。为什么呢？其实看一看中文的字形就知道了。
【这盘：You often hear the formal use in sentences like 这盘棋怎样怎样，or informally like 这盘操作怎样怎样。Ultimately, it’s related to some kind of game. English would be “this round” or “this game” I think. 这盘搞不定了，我找不到你想去的地方。Would be something like I can’t cope with this round, I can’t find the place you want to go to. 】
As many people know, we are now officially in the year of the ox! Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! In this episode we talk about the often talked about “年味儿”. What is it??!
In this episode I read a segment of the book 《从你的全世界路过》，author: 张嘉佳。It’s a collection of short stories about the protagonists life, half of which are related to love. It contains modern, witty, humorous slang with some profanity. If you like it, you could buy a copy of the book and read along with me. Here we go!
【路过 (colloquial): The formal version is 经过 but in daily life we would always use 路过。For example, “我正好路过你家门口，要不要下来喝杯咖啡？” etc.
路过 (slang): 网络语言指不想认真回帖，但又想拿回帖的分数或经验值。On internet forums, when people don’t really want to answer the question but want to get the points for responding to a post, they’ll say something like: “我只是路过而已” or “水瓶座路过” etc.
世界: In Chinese, we like to use ‘world’ to represent the entirety of someone’s life but in English, it can sound a bit weird in certain contexts, like here. I passed through some people’s worlds and some people have passed through my world. It’s beginning to sound like a sci-fi film. In English, it makes more sense to say, “I passed through some people’s lives, and some people have passed through mine”. It’s the same vice versa here, if you were to translate this literally back into Chinese, “我从一些人的生命路过，一些人从我的生命路过”，it’s beginning to sound like a horror film.】
【罅隙（不常用 rare）：是裂缝，缝隙的意思。在这里，更常用的词是缝隙，夹在时间的缝隙里。You can translate it quite literally so: “it’s like a bookmark, worth getting caught in the gap of time”. Or translate the summary of the meaning of the phrase, for example: “it’s like a bookmark, marking a time, for us to take an occasional glance”.】
【岁月 (常用)：通常用来指时间，尤其是过去的日子。也就是：“In the years that have passed”. 然后，
世界：“我们都会想去拥有一个人的全世界”，”We will have wanted to have a person’s entire world” just about works here I think but I would probably translate it as “We will have wanted to have the entirety of someone but we can only pass by”. This line really reminds me of the song “Let Her Go” by Passenger.】
【呆呆伫立：呆呆means a bit dull, a bit lifeless, 伫立 means standing for a long time. In English, when we’re learning to write fiction, we’re often told ‘show, not tell’. 呆呆 this kind of emotion is often implied in English so I wouldn’t literally translate 呆呆。 In Chinese, it’s kind of show and tell, which also means something else in America but let’s stop the cycle there.】
这些并不可怕。所有人的坚强，都是柔软生的茧。
【茧有“破茧成蝶”的意思，就是cacoon, breaking out of a cacoon to be a butterfly. 也有callous 的意思。In English, 所有人的坚强，都是柔软生的茧, would translate into something like “Everyone’s strength is hardened by our softness”.】
【“世界”：“属于你的另一个全世界“, here we can translate it literally I think, “This whole other world that belongs to you, it will eventually open itself up to you, in the name of happiness. We must have happiness.”
“幸福” actually means a level higher than happiness, the ultimate happiness in life, but there are limited options is English. Maybe blissful or blessed, but that depends on the context of the sentence. Most of the time, the way it’s used is closest to “happiness”. For example, here, you wouldn’t say “in the name of bliss” or “in the name of blessed” so we’d almost always settle for “happiness”. 】
In this episode, Summer and I discuss the topics of a loveless marriage and whether we should tell our friend that their other half might be cheating on them?
哈喽，大家好，我是Kaycee。
[Summary of preamble: If there’s anything from the podcast episodes you think would benefit from further explanation, please feel free to send it through via email or Instagram! I can perhaps do an explanatory episode. I will aim to bring English transcripts back once I finish my degree!]
In this episode, Summer and I discuss two main concepts often debated in China: (i) should pretty women focus on their career or on men; and (ii) should you marry someone with a similar background and family to you? Then, I go on to discuss a recent TV series called 《流金岁月》, the storyline of which encompasses both of these points.
