Chinese press and blog circles frequently have uproars over small matters; a recent example was the translation of “行百里者半九十”, quoted by Premier Wen in a speech; (the quotation was from a document of the Warring States era) the interpreter translated it into

–Half of the people who have embarked on a one hundred mile journey may fall by the way side.

Many disagree; some came up with

–90% is only half done.

which undoubtedly reflects the essence of the quote in summary form: half the people would only complete 90 out of 100 miles because the last 10 are the hardest part.

You can say that the two translations deviate from the original meaning in opposite directions, but neither is “wrong”, and which one works better depends on context, on the specific issue the speaker is addressing. The matter is not worth the fuss made about it. Presumably, if the interpreter had not been a young woman, people would not have focused on this issue in that manner.

The other current uproar concerns an old PhD thesis 《反抗绝望》by 汪晖 of Qinghua University; a professor at Nanjing University, 王彬彬, pointed out that it contains various passages that are very similar to certain contents of other authors’ works or are translations from foreign authors, and these had been used without appropriate citation; others have since found more such items.

While these do violate strict rules of academic writing as generally required today, it is not at all clear to me that the historical issue is worthy of a riot. The thesis was subsequently published as a book, with revisions, in several editions, and some of these are still available for sale. Its current availability makes little difference, however, as books written for general readers are usually not required to observe the same academic standards that are applicable to PhD theses.

In summary, who says the Chinese people are placid? Not long ago, the websphere got all excited about some pornographic photos of a car exhibition model, presumably posted by a disgruntled ex-boyfriend. It is so nice to see them interested in matters of literature instead.