A bloodstain from the finger of a Chinese factory girl hides under the red embroidery on a silk wedding gown, which embarks on a decade-long journey through the American bridal industry. In China, the gown observes cheerful, industrious girls in a sweatshop factory; in America she encounters immigrant workers in limbo and men and women plagued with mysterious illnesses, jealousies and resentments, but she also witnesses love which defies all physical boundaries and expectations. The most surprising ending of all comes long after the gown has settled down, grown comfortable in a dusty box in a hallway closet—but her story cannot end until it comes full circle.
The Traveling Gown is a novel about love, lies, journeys, and the nature of waiting—of working hard and struggling in life while biding one’s time. We are all waiting for our moment to come, and laughing at absurd injustices helps us remain hopeful in the face of the worst uncertainties.
Do I need a more "adult" looking video?
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Translation Meatloaf Dream
I'm taking the elevator up to the 14th floor to my translation agency. The 14th floor is the highest story in the building, but somehow there's a 25th floor button in the elevator. I dare not press it because as it is the elevator is very wobbly and swinging back and forth and I feel like I'm having a near-death experience. The elevator moves like a pendulum towards and away from the doors on each floor, swinging more and more violently. When the elevator dings at the 14th floor and the door of the 14th floor opens, I wait until the elevator swings close enough to the door and jump out and land on the floor of the 14th floor.
My classmate is already there and I make a reference to Edgar Allan Poe with regards to the elevator. She tells me the elevator won't kill me. I open the door to the translation agency. The translation agency woman is also my violin teacher. I hand her the electricity bill for January and she gives me an additional translation case--I am already working on somebody's autobiography. The new case is in classical Chinese and about the period of Chuen Chiou.
I am translating everything all at once and mix up the pages to the two manuscripts. In fact, the manuscripts are ground beef, mostly raw, some of it accidentally cooked a little at the edges from being defrosted in the microwave. I mix it up evenly like meatloaf and notice that there are actually still page numbers on the manuscripts so I should be able to separate the translated results. While I knead my meatloaf-translation project, the translation agency is torturing a graduate student whose thesis I translated and who still hasn't paid the translation fee.
My classmate is already there and I make a reference to Edgar Allan Poe with regards to the elevator. She tells me the elevator won't kill me. I open the door to the translation agency. The translation agency woman is also my violin teacher. I hand her the electricity bill for January and she gives me an additional translation case--I am already working on somebody's autobiography. The new case is in classical Chinese and about the period of Chuen Chiou.
I am translating everything all at once and mix up the pages to the two manuscripts. In fact, the manuscripts are ground beef, mostly raw, some of it accidentally cooked a little at the edges from being defrosted in the microwave. I mix it up evenly like meatloaf and notice that there are actually still page numbers on the manuscripts so I should be able to separate the translated results. While I knead my meatloaf-translation project, the translation agency is torturing a graduate student whose thesis I translated and who still hasn't paid the translation fee.
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