The Subject of Smiling微笑问题
1.In the spring of this year, a Beijing television channel produced a program called, "Smile." It televised the reaction of people on the street when confronted with a smile from an unknown person, chosen at random. Most people were either surprised or seemed a little worried. A few more enthusiastic people even muttered that the person who smiled was "crazy". The number of people who actually returned the smile could be counted on one hand.
1、这一年春天，北京电视台以《微笑》为题作了一档街头调查节目：请一些人在街道上对着遇到的行人微笑，以观察行人的反应。结果多数人现出惊讶或紧张的表情，更激烈些的则骂一声“神经病”。回报以微笑的路人屈指可数。
2.It seems Chinese people don't really like to smile and that's the impression they convey to the world.
2、中国人不太爱笑，这差不多是个国际印象。
3.What is not understood by outsiders is that smiling in China is a very meaningful and subtle thing. Around 781 BC, there was a monarch called Zhou You Wang, who cared little for ruling his country. Instead, he much preferred to chase women. One of his Ministers gave the Emperor a beautiful woman, whom the Emperor really liked, except for the fact that she would never smile. After trying countless different methods to get her to smile, a Minister came up with an idea. He suggested the Emperor light the twenty or so signal fires which were spread around the capital city to warn people when the country was in danger of war. The Minister thought the fires would summon the Warlords and Dukes to bring their armies to the capital and, when the woman saw the chaos caused by tricking the armies, she would surely laugh.
3、外国人不明白，笑在中国是一件内涵颇深的事情。大概在公元前781年，一位称作周幽王的君主，酷好美女，无心国政。有大臣便将一名美女献给他。周幽王非常喜欢她，但这个美女从未笑过。百般招数无效后，有一大臣出主意让周幽王点燃烽火。京城附近有20多座烽火台，这是为战争时向诸侯求救而建立的信号台。大臣认为诸侯见到烽火就会赶至京城，美女看到兵“慌”马乱的情形，一定会笑出来。
4.The Zhou Emperor tried this idea and, sure enough, it made the beautiful woman laugh. Later, when a real enemy came and the Emperor lit the signal fires, the Generals didn't respond, thinking it was just another trick. Thus, the Emperor and his beautiful woman were both captured. Today, the Chinese refer to this story of Emperor Zhou as, "Signal fires joke with the Generals".
4、周幽王照此办理，果真引得美人一笑。只是后来外敌来犯，周幽王的烽火没能把曾受骗的诸侯召来，至使自己命丧敌手。那位美女也被敌人掳了去。这一桩君王逗美女一笑的故事，就是今天中国人所知的“烽火戏诸侯”。
5.There are four main Chinese classical stories that deal with this problem of smiling. The books are A Dream of Red Mansions, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West. The main character in A Dream of Red Mansions is a young master, no older than 15 or 16, named Jia Baoyu. When trying to get a servant girl to smile, he prepared a bunch of paper fens for her to rip. When the servant heard the ripping sound, she couldn't contain her happiness and broke into a smile. The mother of the young master took a dislike to the girl and found an excuse to cause her death.
5、中国有四大古典名著(《红楼梦》、《三国演义》、《水浒》、《西游记》)，《红楼梦》中的男主人公是年龄不过十五六岁的王府少爷贾宝玉。这少爷为讨婢女的笑脸，备下大堆的纸扇给她撕，这女子听到撕扇声就乐不可支。结果是少爷的母亲看不惯这位婢女的张扬，找了个碴，置她于死地。
6.In the 8th century AD, there was an Emperor named Tang Ming Huang who doted on one of his concubines. A famous poet of the time, Bai Juyi, wrote a poem describing the beauty of this concubine. The poem says, "If she but turned her head and smiled, there were cast a hundred spells, and the powder and paint of the Six Palaces1, faded into nothing." However, a tragic ending to the life of this beautiful concubine came about when a few Generals rose up against the Emperor. The Emperor needed a gesture to boost the morale of his loyal soldiers and urge his concubine to provide the gesture by committing suicide.
6、公元8世纪，有一位被称作唐明皇的皇帝，对一个妃子宠爱有加。当时著名的诗人白居易在诗中形容这位妃子魅力：“回眸一笑百媚生，六宫粉黛无颜色”。这个有媚人笑容的妃子的结局更惨：当那些背叛皇帝的军人挑起战乱时，皇帝不得不逼迫她自杀以安抚军心。
7.From some of the examples above, it seems the ideal taught is, "Women aren't allowed to smile, and men aren't allowed to demand that they smile." Besides these examples, there are some ancient idioms related to smiling, sun as "Hide a dagger behind a sharp smile" and "put on a false smile." These idoms could refer to the sinister plans of an unexpected enemy or the indiscretion that sometimes occurs in the world. The saying, "smiling adds ten years to your life", sounds good, and is true if one gains a physical or mental benefit.
7、从上面这些旷世之笑中，似乎可以得出“女人不可发笑，男人不可讨笑”的教训。此外，还有一些流传久远的，与笑有关的成语——笑里藏刀、皮笑肉不笑——也许道出了人世的险恶和处世的谨慎。“笑一笑，十年少”，这条古训看上去正面了不少，却充满着功利。
8.I remember in the 1980s, I interviewed the Vice President of a high class hotel, which was state run, but eventually became a joint-venture between a Chinese and foreign ownership. At the time, everything was in short supply and the foreign guests gave the hotel staff a nickname of "No" because the standard reply to most inquiries was always, "No. We don't have it." The attitude of the hotel staff was usually downbeat and smiles were extremely hard to come by.
8、记得上世纪80年代末，我采访一个星级酒店的副经理。合资前，这是一家国营饭店。那个时代服务业的人员被外国人称为“没有”——因为当时商品匮乏，要什么都回答“没有”;服务态度也出奇地差，一笑难求。
9.In the course of my interview with the Vice President, we came to the subject of smiling. The Vice President, who came from a military background, resolutely told me, "In my Hotel, we want a 'proletariat' smile and, definitely, don't want a 'capitalist' smile. After all, my employees are people too, why would they want to smile at a guest unless they had reason to?"
9、我就同这位副经理谈到了微笑服务。军人出身的副经理坚定地告诉我:“在我的酒店，只要无产阶级的微笑，绝不要资产阶级的微笑。我们的服务员也是人，无缘无故，为什么要对客人笑?”
10.Smiling, and not smiling, according to some people, is a form of respect.
10、笑与不笑，在一些人眼里是关乎尊严的大事。
11.David Lamb is a reporter who wrote about the Vietnam War for the L.A. Times, and later wrote a book describing Vietnam's development during times of peace. In his book, he wrote, "During my first encounters with the Vietnamese during a time of peace, what struck me was the smile. Faces aglow, their smiles seemed natural and spontaneous, not a forced, mechanical flash of politeness, but rather an expression straight from the heart. A European businessman told me he had rejected a posting in China for one in Vietnam because in China, people are distant and somber. They frown all the time. In Vietnam, I walk out my door in the morning, and people are smiling. They make you feel welcome. They're approachable. They act as though life's pretty good."
11、曾经报道过越南战争的《洛杉矶时报》记者大卫，兰姆，在描写越南和平年代的书中说：“和平时期我遇到的越南人，最打动我的就是那种微笑。 那些面孔散发出光芒，那是自然而然流露出来的，而不是为着礼貌挤出的机械笑容，它们是直接从心中表达出来的。一个欧洲商人告诉我，他已经拒绝了中国的一个差事，来到越南，因为‘中国人冷淡且阴郁。他们整天眉头不展。在越南，清晨时我走出屋门，人们就在微笑。他们让你感到愉快，他们有亲和力。他们如此这般，仿佛生活特别美好。”
12.After reading this, it is easy to feel that smiling is a very simple, yet wonderful thing.
12、这番话让人感到，微笑是一件多么单纯而美妙的事情。
13.According to the papers, the director, Zhang Yimou, looked for 10,000 smiling children from around the world to feature in a program for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics. Mr. Zhang deserves to be called a "Maestro of China," because he completely understands how much those smiling faces will impact the world.
13、电影导演张艺谋为了北京奥运会，在全球征集一万张孩子的笑脸。张不愧是大师，他深知，热爱笑脸的中国人对世界将有怎样的意义。
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