Happiness in Britain, 1982, as seen by CDP, the advertising agency for Hamlet cigars:
Happiness in China, 2008, as seen by Netease commenter IP：120.84.*.*, via ProState in Flames (Links added by me):
What is happiness?
Happiness was 2008
You didn’t go to Urumqi for the New Year
You didn’t go to Chenzhou in February*
You didn’t visit Lhasa in March
You didn’t go to Shandong in April
You weren’t in Wenchuan in May
You weren’t in Weng’an, Guizhou in June
You weren’t a policeman in Shanghai in July
You weren’t a soldier in Xinjiang in August
You didn’t go to see the dam burst in Xiangfen county, Shanxi in Septmber
Obviously, happiest of all, you didn’t buy any stocks and shares
If you did, you went in with a BMW and came out with a bicycle
You went in wearing a suit and came out almost naked
You went in a boss and came out a migrant worker
You went in with a dog on a leash and the dog came out with you on a leash
You went in standing and came out flat on your back
To sum up, the world went in and a ping pong ball came out
But, really, that’s no big deal
Even more worth celebrating
Is that you’re already grown up
So you didn’t have to drink Sanlu milk every day
Happy New Year everybody.
(*Translation note: Going on the assumption that Liuzhou is a typo, I’ve changed it to Chenzhou which is written with a vaguely similar character. I may be wrong.)
4 Comments
Yes, it must be a mistake. Nothing unusual happened in Liuzhou last February. Although, I don’t think the characters are so similar. 郴州 v 柳州
I agree, Liuzhou Laowai. I think I should have written something more like “…a character that bears a very slight resemblance to…”
Excellent blog and great post. Just wanted to note that the translation omitted the September mudslide in Xiangfen, Shanxi Province.
http://www.china.org.cn/government/local_governments/2008-09/12/content_16438962.htm
Thanks Elliot, that was slack of me. Addition made. See also ESWN’s translation of a reporter’s field notes from Xiangfen.
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[…] so on. Less triumphant was a poem published by a commenter on NetEase and translated by Black and White Cat: What is happiness? Happiness was 2008 You didn’t go to Urumqi for the New Year You didn’t go […]
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