Is the Umbrella Revolution about to end.....?(Shellon, NG Yuen Shan)

Students and Hong Kong government reach breakthrough on talks to end Occupy Central stand-off

Selected from SCMP PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 08 October, 2014, 4:52am http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1611714/breakthrough-talks-end-occupy-central-stand

Students at the forefront of the pro-democracy protests that have swept the city have agreed to hold talks with top government officials including Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor林鄭月娥 on Friday to find a solution to the political impasse.

The agreement was reached after preliminary talks between the Federation of Students 香港專上學生聯會and Undersecretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Lau Kong-wah 劉江華.

Lau said Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung 袁國強 and Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Raymond Tam Chi-yuen 譚志遠would join Lam at the talks, which are scheduled to start at 4pm on Friday. Media coverage will be allowed, though the meeting will be closed to the public. The venue for the meeting is yet to be decided.

Despite the talks, Federation of Students' deputy leader Lester Shum 岑敖暉said the protests would continue until there were clear signs of progress.

Shum also warned that the dialogue would end if the government took action to clear the protest sites or failed to guarantee the safety of the demonstrators, who are demanding a reversal of Beijing's北京 decision to impose a restrictive framework for the 2017 chief executive election. They also want Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying 梁振英 to resign, a move that Leung has repeatedly ruled out.

Protesters gather on Connaught Road Central干駱道中. Photo: Dickson Lee

Joshua Wong Chi-Fung 黃之鋒, convenor of student activist group Scholarism, which along with Occupy Central and the Federation of Students is one of the main organisers of the protests, called on members of the public to gather at Harcourt Road 夏懿道, near the government headquarters in Admiralty, on Friday afternoon to support the students attending the dialogue with officials.

Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing 曾鈺成 announced the controversial decision yesterday after 41 pro-establishment lawmakers requested a delayed start to the first full-council meeting.

Pan-democratic legislators accused their Beijing-loyalist 親北京counterparts of trying to fuel discontent among people already inconvenienced by the civil disobedience movement.

Classes resumed at all primary schools in Wan Chai 灣仔and Central 中環 and Western, a day after lessons at secondary schools in both districts restarted. But kindergartens remain closed.

Protest sites in Mong Kok旺角 and Causeway Bay銅鑼灣 were largely calm yesterday.

Meanwhile, a writer going by the name Guoping published his 11th commentary on Occupy in state media. "It is only a matter of time before Occupy Central ends," Guoping wrote. "If there are still people who continue to stir up trouble, pragmatic Hongkongers 香港人will not agree to it."

Analysis

1)Transliteration
“Beijing” is transliterated due to its pronunciation - “Běijīng” in Mandarin. It is also sometimes romanized as Peking.
“Wan Chai” is also the transliteration of灣仔. Transliteration is commonly used in names of location and human names. For instance,
-Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor林鄭月娥
-Lau Kong-wah 劉江華
-Yuen Kwok-keung 袁國強
-Tam Chi-yuen 譚志遠
-Leung Chun-ying 梁振英
-Wong Chi-Fung 黃之鋒
-Tsang Yok-sing 曾鈺成

2)Partial Transliteration
“Connaught Road Central” is partially transliterated to “干駱道中". The front is transformed according to its pronunciation while the middle and the end are transformed according to its meaning.  “Connaught” is transliterated to "干駱" while “Road Central” is translated to “道中"

The same applies to “Harcourt Road”(夏懿道). The front is transformed according to its pronunciation whereas “road” is transformed according to its meaning.

3)Paraphrase
Although those who are pro-Beijing are usually called“親北京人士”(pro-Beijing supporters), in this article, they are termed “Beijing-loyalist”(北京忠誠分子). Although “supporters” and “loyalists” have similar meaning, but when they are translated to Chinese, they have different meaning.

"中環", which is "Central" in English, actually means "Middle Ring" or "Central Ring" literally. Yet the name of the place is paraphrased. 

As for “Causeway Bay”, the Chinese translation is "銅鑼灣", which means “Gong Bay” literally. However, the word “Causeway” means “raised road or track across low or wet ground.”, which has nothing to do with “Gong”.

4)Appropriation

In the article, it is said that the demonstrators requested the chief executive to RESIGN. However, according to demonstrators’ speech, they actually want the chief to GET OFF THE STAGE (下台, step down)  literally. Although “getting off the stage” equals “resign”, but the latter is more gentle and appropriate when used in news report.


5)Deduction

Federation of Students, which is香港專上學生聯會, is actually shortened. “香港專上學生聯會” means “Federation of Hong Kong Students of Higher Education” literally, yet the translation of it is only “Federation of Students”.