America and Americans Through Chinese Eyes
Speech at the National Press Club in Washington，D.C. on August 30,2000
Americans beginning to learn the Chinese language are invariably astonished to discover that literally,the Chinese translation of the United States,Meiguo,means a beautiful country. However,the Chinese people initially had dozens of names for the country facing them on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. We’ve finally settled on Meiguo,the best choice that not only sounds Chinese but also has the added benefit of inspiring good feelings among the Chinese.
The exchanges among our two peoples can be traced back to August 28,1784,when the US merchant ship"empress of China"?originating from New York,arrived at Huangpu Harbour in Guangzhou after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope. Such exchanges gained substantial momentum in the middle of the 19th century,starting the long voyage to an enhanced understanding between the Chinese and American peoples.
Lin Zexu,a politician of the Qing Dynasty known for his harsh crackdown on opium,had given the Chinese people the first detailed description of the US in Sizhouzhi,a book he compiled about the history and geography of the world. However,generally speaking,towards the end of the 19th century,the Chinese people’s knowledge about the country on the other side of the planet still remained largely sketchy. No wonder the first group of children sent by the Chinese government to study in the US in 1872 felt both excited and surprised,for the Native Americans were dressed like figures in a Peking Opera.
Starting from the 19th century,traditional Chinese culture and Confucianism,in particular,had found their way to the US,exerting a remarkable influence on American literature,especially the school of transcendentalism represented by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Walt Whitman,the founding father of modern American literature,twice mentioned Confucius in his Notes and Fragments. The image of idling old Chinese men also appeared frequently in the poems of Wallace Stevens. Meticulous with detail,he observed in his poem The Six Significant Landscapes,how an old man in China sits in the shadow of pines,watching blue and white beard quivering at the edge of the tree’s shadow,as his beard swaying together with the pines in the breeze. For Wallace Stevens,as shown by his poem Le Monocle De Mon Uncle,it had never been easy to understand why those Chinese elders are always checking their clothes by a mountainside pond or examining their beard by the Yangtse River.
Literature is an important channel for the Chinese people to understand the world. Numerous American literary works have been translated into Chinese,which helps us hear voices from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. In Walt Whitman’s words,we："Hear American singing,the varied carols I hear… Singing with open mouth their strong melodious songs." Yes,through translation,the Chinese readers hear Jack London’s Call of the Wild,William Faulkner’s Sound and Fury,Hemingway’s bell -- although he does not know For Whom the Bell Tolls,and hear the leadsman’s call on Mississippi"two fathoms or Mark Twain." This call became Samuel Clemens’ pen name,whose The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other books are well read in China.
Through these writers,Chinese readers find the American people optimistic,tough,and practical. This might explain why the complete translation of"American" in Chinese is mei（beautiful）,li（profitable） and jian（solid）。
Speaking from personal experience,a US sailor on his first visit to China in the 18th century once noticed a unique way through which the Chinese people differentiated between the Americans and British who both spoke English： the British tend to glare at the weighing scale while doing business.
The year 1900 saw the humiliation of Beijing at the hands of the Eight-Power Allied Forces. The eight powers referred to Britain,the US,Germany,France,tsarist Russia,Japan,Italy and Austria. At the height of the brutal aggression,Yuanmingyuan,the old royal Summer Palace,was burnt to ashes and ransacked of all its invaluable relics and treasures. Later,China was also forced to sign a series of humiliating treaties. China’s rancor ran deepest against Japan and Britain,the two countries that had launched separate wars against China not long before 1900. China had never singled out the US as a target of hatred.
Known also as the Xinchou Treaty,the Treaty of 1901 was signed on September 7,1901 （the Year of Xinchou）。 Under the treaty,the Qing government had to pay indemnities totaling 450 million taels of silver,which would amount to 980 million when the payment was completed in 39 years. The imperialist powers would manage the embassy area in Peking and imperialist troops were to be stationed in Beijing and at all strategic points along the railway between Beijing and Shanhaiguan Pass. This treaty turned China into a semi-colonial society.
Towards the final days of the Qing Dynasty,while exploring ways to salvage their nation,many Chinese had drawn inspiration from the experiences of the US. Doctor Sun Yat-sen,the pioneer of the modern-era Chinese revolution,had reiterated on many occasions the wish to follow the example of the US. His famed Three Principles of the People -- Nationalism,Democracy and the People’s Livelihood,were to a large extent based upon Lincoln’s ideal of"a government of the people,by the people and for the people."
Mao Zedong,a founder of the Chinese communist Party,was also deeply impressed by the deeds of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. After reading their stories in the book Biographies of the World’s Greatest People as a young man,he was convinced that"China also needs such figures."？