This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN: 9781473548541
Version 1.0
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
VINTAGE
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,
London SW1V 2SA
Vintage is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
Extracts from A Concise Chinese–English Dictionary for Lovers copyright © Xiaolu Guo 2007
Xiaolu Guo has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Dictionary definitions reproduced from Collins English Dictionary – Pocket Edition, with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2005
Xiaolu Guo has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus in 2007
This short edition published by Vintage in 2017
penguin.co.uk/vintage
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
prologue n introduction to a play or book
Now.
Beijing time 12 clock midnight.
London time 5 clock afternoon.
But I at neither time zone. I on airplane. Sitting on 25,000 km above to earth and trying remember all English I learning in school.
I not met you yet. You in future.
Looking outside the massive sky. Thinking air staffs need to set a special time-zone for long-distance airplanes, or passengers like me very confusing about time. When a body floating in air, which country she belonging to?
People’s Republic of China passport bending in my pocket.
| Passport type | P |
| Passport No. | G00350124 |
| Name in full | Zhuang Xiao Qiao |
| Sex | Female |
| Date of birth | 23 JULY 1979 |
| Place of birth | Zhe Jiang, P. R. China |
I worry bending passport bring trouble to immigration officer, he might doubting passport is fake and refusing me into the UK, even with noble word on the page:
China further and further, disappearing behind clouds. Below is ocean. I from desert town. Is the first time my life I see sea. It look like a dream.
As I far away from China, I asking me why I coming to West. Why I must to study English like parents wish? Why I must to get diploma from West? I not knowing what I needing. Sometimes I not even caring what I needing. I not caring if I speaking English or not. Mother only speaking in village dialect and even not speaking official Mandarin, but she becoming rich with my father, from making shoes in our little town. Life OK. Why they want changing my life?
And how I living in strange country West alone? I never been to West. Only Western I seeing is man working in Beijing British Embassy behind tiny window. He stamp visa on brand new passport.
What else I knowing about West? American TV series dubbing into Chinese, showing us big houses in suburb, wife by window cooking and car arriving in front house. Husband back work. Husband say Honey I home, then little childrens running to him, see if he bringing gift.
But that not my life. That nothing to do with my life. I not having life in West. I not having home in West. I scared.
I no speaking English.
I fearing future.
alien adj foreign; repugnant (to); from another world n foreigner; being from another world
IS UNBELIEVABLE, I arriving London, ‘Heathlow Airport’. Every single name very difficult remembering, because just not ‘London Airport’ simple way like we simple way call ‘Beijing Airport’. Everything very confuse way here, passengers is separating in two queues.
Sign in front of queue say: ALIEN and NON ALIEN.
I am alien, like Hollywood film Alien, I live in another planet, with funny looking and strange language.
I standing in most longly and slowly queue with all aliens waiting for visa checking. I feel little criminal but I doing nothing wrong so far. My English so bad. How to do?
In my text book I study back China, it says English peoples talk like this:
‘How are you?’
‘I am very well. How are you?’
‘I am very well.’
Question and answer exactly the same!
Old saying in China: ‘Birds have their bird language, beasts have their beast talk’ (
). English they totally another species.
Immigration officer holding my passport behind his accounter, my heart hanging on high sky. Finally he stamping on my visa. My heart touching down like air plane. Ah. Wo. Ho. Ha. Picking up my luggage, now I a legal foreigner. Because legal foreigner from Communism region, I must re-educate, must match this capitalism freedom and Western democracy.
All I know is: I not understanding what people say to me at all. From now on, I go with Concise Chinese–English Dictionary at all times. It is red cover, look just like Little Red Book. I carrying important book, even go to the toilet, in case I not knowing the words for some advanced machine and need checking out in dictionary. Dictionary is most important thing from China. Concise meaning simple and clean.
hostel n building providing accommodation at a low cost for a specific group of people such as students, travellers, homeless people, etc
FIRST NIGHT IN ‘hostel’. Little Concise Chinese–English Dictionary hostel explaining: a place for ‘people such as students, travellers and homeless people’ to stay. Sometimes my dictionary absolute right. I am student and I am homeless looking for place to stay. How they knowing my situation precisely?
Thousands of additional words and phrases reflect scientific and technological innovations, as well as changes in politics, culture, and society. In particular, many new words and expressions as well as new usages and meanings which have entered the Chinese language as a result of China’s open-door policy over the last decade have been included in the Chinese–English section of the dictionary.
That is sentence in Preface. All sentence in preface long like this, very in-understandable. But I must learning this stylish English because it high-standard English from authority. Is parents’ command on me: studying how speak and write English in England, then coming back China, leaving job in government work unit and making lots money for their shoes factory by big international business relations. Parents belief their life is dog’s life, but with money they save from last several years, I make better life through Western education.
Anyway, hostel called ‘Nuttington House’ in Brown Street, nearby Edward Road and Baker Street. I write all the names careful in notebook. No lost. Brown Street seem really brown with brick buildings everywhere. Prison looking. Sixteen pounds for per bed per day. With sixteen pounds, I live in top hotel in China with private bathroom. Now I must learn counting the money and being mean to myself and others. Gosh.
First night in England is headache.
Pulling large man-made-in-China-suitcase into hostel