YingGeLiShi
YinGeLiShi is a very interesting book the presented the unique qualities of languages. It displayed the bases of chinese, that it a a vocabulary based language. It uses that quality of chinese to create meaning through sound translation and transformation. The transform from english to chinese is merely a mimic in sound. While chinese to english is the translation of basic individual vocabularies. Each chinese sound is represented by a symbol, a text, the symbol carries a meaning. Because of this quality it made it possible for this translation process to exist. This is a fascinating play on the two different language and a brilliant idea, however, at times it does feel like it is too much of a concept rather than a art from. If the book is indeed trying to portray itself as a form of art, It would not have been successful. Especially to a chinese reader. The trasformation itself is not smooth but seem rather forced. The english poem that it started with is not a good poem. The reason of it not being a good poem might be so that it could create easier grounds for the translation to take place. I understand the intension of the author thus I would expect the transformation to be smoother but it was not the case. It might just be difficult to have the best of both world.
The beginning is a lot easier to appreciate as a chinese speaker myself. The later part of the book turns out to be too kiddish to appreciate. With the same technique, the author attempts to translate daily phrases into a poem. It is just too difficult to embrace as a art from. It makes the book to look even more like a test or experiment. Overall, the book could have invested a little more into the concept as to create a much more rounded result for both chinese and english readers.
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