Xiaolu Guo - A Concise Chinese English Dictionary for Lovers

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When a young Chinese woman, newly arrived in London, moves in with her English boyfriend, she decides it's time to write a Chinese-English dictionary for lovers. Xiaolu's first novel in English is an utterly original journey of self-discovery.
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“By turns hilarious and poignant. Xiaolu Guo has given us a fresh and bittersweet addition to the literature of cultural displacement.” – The Oregonian
“Funny and charming…more than a love story; its psychology is politically acute, and things noted lightly in it linger in the mind.” – The Guardian (London)
“Xiaolu Guo has written an inventive, often humorous and poignant story of a woman’s journey over cultural and emotional borders.” – Gail Tsukiyama, Ms. Magazine
“Xiaolu Guo’s novel, her first in English, is smartly absorbing. Grade: A” – Entertainment Weekly
“A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers cleverly courts our assumptions about the chasm between Chinese and Western cultures, only to upend them. It is an utterly captivating, and disorientating, journey both through language and through love.” – The Independent (London)
“As absorbing as a peek into a diary.” – The San Diego Union-Tribune
“It is impossible not to be charmed by Xiaolu Guo’s matter-of-factness… It is equally hard not to be impressed by Guo’s vivacious talent.” – The Sunday Times (London)
“A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers is original, humorous, and wise. Within imperfect language one can find many perfect truths of the human condition. The misunderstandings are really the understandings of the differences of the heart between men and women.” – Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
“Xiaolu Guo is a fabulous writer, fresh, witty, and intelligent. She handles language in an astonishing way. I don’t think I have enjoyed a book as much in the last twelve months.” – Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat

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mi in first tone means to close eyes.

in second tone means to fancy something.

mi in third tone means rice.

in fourth tone means honey.

Anyway, on the highway of M40, I have my dictionaries to check out what exactly that beach/beech is. Collins tells me that is a European tree, but when I look my little Concise dictionary, says it is a tree called “Shan Mao Ju,” which grows everywhere in China. We cut those trees for lighting fires in kitchen. We used to carry baskets and collect their nutty seeds when we were little.

The woods are dark, lush, and wet.

Trees are huge, tall, and solid.

The whole woods are growing silently and secretly. The whole woods are decay. On way to woods it was a beautiful day, but inside woods the climate is totally different. Is chilly and rainy. Rain drops from those hundred-year-old greyish branches and leafs, and the rain fills the ponds stuffed by weeds.

In the muddy and greeny pond, lotus gently floats, and the dragonfly dashes. You hold me and caress me. We are in each other’s arm. You lift my denim skirt, and you touch my garden. My garden is warm and moist. You stroke my hip, and I unzip your jean. We make love. We make love. We make love under the silent beech tree. So quiet, so quiet. We can hear children on the football field in the distance are yelling. Only the rain drops, fall on our hair, our skin. Rain drops on the cowslip flower by our feet, without disturbing us.

free world

free world esp. US hist. non-Communist countries.

You say:

“I feel incredibly lucky to be with you. We’re going to have loads of exciting adventures together. Our first big adventure will be in west Wales. I’ll show you the sea. I’ll teach you to swim because it is shameful that a peasant girl cannot swim. I’ll show you the dolphins in the sea, and the seals with their babies. I want you to experience the beauty of the peace and quiet in a Welsh cottage. I think you will love it there.”

You also say:

“Then I want to take you to Spain and France. I know that you’ll love them. I wish we could live over there for a while.”

Later you say:

“I feel so good about the love that you and I have with each other because it happened so quickly and spontaneously, like a forest fire.”

And you say:

“I just love the way you are.”

Everything good so far, but from one thing-you don’t understand my visa limited situation. I am native Chinese from mainland of China. I am not of free world . And I only have student visa for a year here. I not able just leave London English language school and go live somewhere only have trees and sea, although is beautiful. And I can’t travel to Spain and France just to fun-I need show these embassy officer my bank account to apply my Europe visa. And my bank statements is never qualify for them. You a free man of free world. I am not free, like you.

May

custom custom n 1 a longestablished activity or action 2 usual habit - фото 44

*

custom

картинка 45

custom n. 1. a long-established activity or action; 2. usual habit; 3. regular use of a shop or business.

The café is name greasy spoon, Seven Seas. All windows is foggy from the steam. You order tea as soon as you walk into. Noisy. Babies. Mothers. Couples. Lonely old man. You are opening the newspaper and start drink thick English Breakfast milky tea. And me being quiet.

I want talk to you. But you are reading paper. I have to respect your hobby.

“So where are you from?” I ask handsome waiter in white suit.

“ Cyprus.” He smiles.

“Are these chefs also from Cyprus?”

“Yes.”

“So your Cyprus chefs cook English breakfast for English?”

“Yes, we Cypriots cook breakfast for the English because they can’t cook.”

I see from open kitchen that sausages are sizzling on the pan. And mushrooms, and scrambled eggs, they are all waiting for being devoured.

I love these old oily cafés around Hackney. Because you can see the smokes and steams coming out from the coffee machine or kitchen all day long. That means life is being blessed.

In this café, there is a television set above everybody’s head. The TV on but doesn’t have any images, only can hear BBC news speaking scrambly from the white snow screen. It is a little disturbing for me, but it seem everybody in this place enjoy it. Nobody here suggest fix the TV.

Suddenly white-snow-screen changes to green-snow-screen, and the BBC voice continues. A man nearby eating some bacons with the Daily Mirror says to the chef:

“That’s an improvement.”

“Yes, Sir,” replies the chef. “Well, at least you don’t have to eat your breakfast, read the paper and watch the TV all at the same time.”

“That’s true.” The man chew his bacons and concentrates on page with picture of half naked blonde smiling.

I want to talk. I can’t help stop talking. I have to stop you reading.

“You know what? I came this café before, sit here whole afternoon,” I say.

“Doing what?” You put down the paper, annoyed.

“I read a porn magazine called Pet House for three hours, because I studied English from those stories. Checking the dictionary really took lots of time.”

You are surprised. “I don’t think you should read porn mags in a café. People will be shocked.”

“I don’t care.”

“But you can’t do that. You’ll make other people feel embarrassed.”

“Then why they sell these magazines in every little corner shop? Is also even sold in the big supermarket.”

I believe everything to do with the sexuality is not shameful in West.

The man next to us finishes his bacons, half naked woman photo with huge breasts still being exposed.

“I think I go now buy another porn magazine,” I say, standing up.

“OK, you do whatever you want,” you say shaking head. “This is Hackney after all. People will forgive you for not being au fait with the nuances of British customs.”

You dry up your cup of tea.

fart

картинка 46

fart vulgar slang n. emission of gas from the anus- v. emit gas from the anus.

Suddenly the man next table reading newspaper with naked-breast-woman made a huge noise.

“What is that noise name?” I ask you.

You cannot understand what I mean. Too much involving in looking house property advertisement on the newspaper.

I try to explain: “How to say a word which represents a kind of noise from the arse?”

“What?”

“You know that. You know it is a wind comes from between two legs.”

“It’s called a fart.”

Fart?

The old man who reads the newspaper stares at us for several seconds, then buries himself into the paper again.

I never hear English person says anything about fart. They must be too shameful to pronounce that sound. There are lots of words we used in China so often, but here people never use it. Even English dictionary say it is a “taboo.”

картинка 47

“ ”

is fart in Chinese. It is the word made up from two parts.

картинка 48

is a symbol of a body with tail, and underneath that

картинка 49

represent two legs. That means fart, a kind of Chi. If a person have that kind of Chi regularly in his daily life that means he is very healthy. Chi (

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