• Seth Rogen’s Criticism of Silicon Valley’s Support for Trump Was Cut From the “Full” Stream of Breakthrough Prize
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/seth-rogens-breakthrough-prize-video-cut-1236191599

    After being introduced by host James Corden, Norton began by praising some of the tech titans in the audience — which included Breakthrough Prize co-founders Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sergey Brin — for underwriting the awards. (Each recipient is given $3 million.) Emboldened by a dirty martini backstage, Rogen jumped in with a none-too-subtle reference to past attendee and current DOGE mastermind Elon Musk. “And it’s amazing that others [who have been] in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science,” he said, clearly making Norton uncomfortable. The comment underlined the irony of Silicon Valley’s increasingly cozy relationship with the Trump administration, which has cut federal science funding and defied scientific consensus. “It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr, very fast,” Rogen continued.

    The ad-lib landed with a thud, or “light applause,” as a visibly uncomfortable Norton joked. “I’d say that’s a smattering,” Rogen said. Those watching the event on YouTube a week later, though, wouldn’t have a clue about Rogen’s pointed barbs. The so-called “full video” was subtly edited to make it seem as if Norton’s “light applause” comment was a reference to his entrance with Rogen.

  • AI: The New Aesthetics of Fascism // New Socialist
    https://newsocialist.org.uk/transmissions/ai-the-new-aesthetics-of-fascism

    Gareth Watkins

    It’s embarrassing, destructive, and looks like shit: AI-generated art is the perfect aesthetic form for the far right.

    Tommy Robinson tweets an image of soldiers walking into the ocean on D-Day. Britain First’s co-leader produces imagery of Muslim men laughing at sad white girls on public transport. An AI-generated song combining kitsch schlager pop with crude racial stereotypes makes it into the German top fifty and becomes number three on Spotify’s global viral chart. Benjamin Netanyahu conjures a vision of an ethnically-cleansed Gaza connected by bullet train to the equally ephemeral Neom. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party posts, then is forced to take down, a video of its policies as embodied by anthropomorphic animals. A few days later, they promised to “mainline AI into the veins” of Britain.
    The right loves AI-generated imagery. In a short time, a full half of the political spectrum has collectively fallen for the glossy, disturbing visuals created by generative AI. Despite its proponents having little love, or talent, for any form of artistic expression, right wing visual culture once ranged from memorable election-year posters to ‘terrorwave’. Today it is slop, almost totally. Why? To understand it, we must consider the right’s hatred of working people, its (more than) mutual embrace of the tech industry and, primarily, its profound rejection of Enlightenment humanism. The last might seem like a stretch, but bear with me.
    The first point is the most obvious. ‘AI’ – as embodied by large language models like ChatGPT, and largely diffusion-based image generators like DALL-E and Midjourney – promises to make anyone who can write a single-paragraph prompt into a copywriter or graphic designer; jobs generally associated with young, educated, urban, and often left-leaning workers. That even the best AI models are not fit to be used in any professional context is largely irrelevant. The selling point is that their users don’t have to pay (and, more importantly, interact with) a person who is felt to be beneath them, but upon whose technical skills they’d be forced to depend. For relatively small groups like Britain First, hiring a full-time graphic designer to keep up with its insatiable lust for images of crying soldiers and leering foreigners would clearly be an unjustifiable expense. But surely world leaders, capable of marshalling vast state resources, could afford at the very least to get someone from Fiverr? Then again, why would they do even that, when they could simply use AI, and thus signal to their base their utter contempt for labour?
    For its right wing adherents, the absence of humans is a feature, not a bug, of AI art. Where mechanically-produced art used to draw attention to its artificiality – think the mass-produced modernism of the Bauhaus (which the Nazis repressed and the AfD have condemned), or the music of Kraftwerk – AI art pretends to realism. It can produce art the way right wingers like it: Thomas Kinkade paintings, soulless Dreamworks 3D cartoons, depthless imagery that yields only the reading that its creator intended. And, vitally, it can do so without the need for artists.
    Javier Milei, a prodigious user of AI-generated art, wants Argentinians to know that any of them could join the 265,000, mostly young people who have lost jobs as a result of the recession that he induced, to the rapturous praise of economic elites. He wants to signal that anyone can find themselves at the wrong end of his chainsaw, even if doing so means producing laughably bad graphics for the consumption of his 5.9 million deeply uncritical Instagram followers.

    On the subject of Instagram, anyone old enough to read this will also be old enough to remember when Mark Zuckerberg, and by extension the rest of Silicon Valley, was broadly perceived as liberal. ‘Zuck’ was even touted as the only presidential candidate who could beat Donald Trump. (It’s worth noting that as Zuckerberg has drifted to the right he has also started dressing badly, a fact which we will return to later.)
    […}

  • Pharrell Williams en septembre 2024: I don’t do politics
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/pharrell-williams-interview-lego-documentary-piece-by-piece-colla

    I don’t do politics. In fact, I get annoyed sometimes when I see celebrities trying to tell you [who to vote for]. There are celebrities that I respect that have an opinion, but not all of them. I’m one of them people [who says], “What the heck? Shut up. Nobody asked you.” When people get out there and get self-righteous and they roll up their sleeves and shit, and they are out there walking around with a placard: “Shut up!” So, no, I would rather stay out of the way, and obviously, I’m going to vote how I’m going to vote. I care about my people and I care about the country, but I feel there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really about the action.

    Pharrell Williams en novembre 2018: Pharrell Gives Passionate Speech at Friends of Israel Defense Forces Gala
    https://www.iamthevoluntourist.com/pharrell-gives-passionate-speech-at-friends-of-israel-defense-fo

    Pharell Williams performs Friends of The Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Western Region Gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on November 1, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

    Haim Saban, who introduced Pharrell on stage, and his wife, Cheryl chaired the star-studded gala for the 13th year, which raised a staggering $60 million dollars! The organization offers educational, cultural, recreational, and social programs and facilities that provide hope, purpose, and life-changing support for the soldiers who protect Israel and Jews worldwide. FIDF proudly supports Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, families of fallen soldiers, and wounded veterans through a variety of innovative programs and capital projects.

  • Biden Attends L.A. Fundraiser, Talks Student Debt Relief – The Hollywood Reporter
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/local-news/biden-fundraiser-student-debt-relief-los-angeles-1235832308

    Le rêve américain...

    President Biden visited Los Angeles Tuesday and Wednesday, attending a fundraiser in Beverly Hills and speaking about student loan forgiveness in Culver City.

    Biden attended a fundraiser Tuesday night at the home of Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban. However, Saban and his co-host, Casey Wasserman, were unable to attend the event as they both reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. Biden wished them “the quickest recovery” during his remarks to the crowd.

    In his speech to supporters, which included actress Jane Fonda, Biden focused on the future and “finishing the job,” hitting on topics such as lowering drug prices, the Affordable Care Act, reproductive rights, the GOP and Donald Trump.

  • 巴山夜雨 Ba Shan Ye Yu (1980)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKXCNFjqto

    Nächtlicher Regen in den Bergen, auch bekannt als Evening Rain


    Li Shangyin 李商隐

    Der Filmtitel zitiert ein Gedicht von Li Shangyin, einem berühmten Dichter aus der späten Tang Dynastie. Es heißt Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains (EN) bzw. 夜雨寄北 (Ye Yu Ji Bei)

    Jun wen gui qi wei you qi,

    君问归期未有期.

    Ba shan ye yu zhang qiu chi.

    巴山夜雨涨秋池

    He dang gong jian xi chuang zhu,

    何当共剪西窗烛.

    Que hua ba shan ye yu shi.

    却话巴山夜雨时

    May 17, 2019 - Yigong Wu & Yonggang Wu - Ba Shan Ye Yu aka Evening Rain (1980) | Cinema of the World
    https://worldscinema.org/2019/05/yigong-wu-yonggang-wu-ba-shan-ye-yu-aka-evening-rain-1980

    This film had a deep influence upon China in the 1980s, as it was beginning to come to terms with the Cultural Revolution.

    Quote:
    Evening Rain, a feature film co-directed by Wu Yonggang and Wu Yigong, is about the years of the Cultural Revolution. Qiu Shi, a well-known poet, is wronged during that political movement. He is aboard a passenger ship bound for Chongqing from Wuhan under the guard of a young man and a young woman. In the third-class cabin, there is a village girl who has sold herself to repay her family debt, a woman teacher who speaks out from a sense of justice, an old actor who has had a full taste of suffering, an old woman who is on her way to commemorate her son killed in the violent factional struggle, and a righteous young worker. Each of them is laden with worries and sufferings. When they come to know Qiu Shi, they all show sympathy for him. Liu Wenying, the woman escort, is a simple, naive young woman. At the beginning, she thinks the persecuted poet is an out-and-out enemy. But what she hears and learns from the other passengers during the days and nights of the voyage makes her feel low, amazed, and awakened. She makes up her mind to save Qiu Shi. What makes the film unique is that although it was based on the persecution and sufferings of the people during the Cultural Revolution, it stresses the fine inner world of the ordinary people, their mutual concern and love, and their unshakable faith in the future. There was no evildoer on the screen, but the viewers could sense the sinful shadow in their own minds: the root cause of people’s sufferings. It seemed that this film aroused the people more and made them think more carefully about history than those films that directly showed the disasters caused by the Cultural Revolution. Evening Rain won the Outstanding Film Prize issued by the Ministry of Culture in 1980 and the Best Feature Film Prize at the First Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.

    Télécharger les sous-titres en anglais
    https://nitroflare.com/view/9CE08CEB8B393FC/Bashan.yeyu.1980.Wu.Yonggang.srt

    Fourth Generation gets due at Rotterdam – The Hollywood Reporter
    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/fourth-generation-gets-due-at-103241/#!

    JANUARY 24, 2008, BY JONATHAN LANDRETH, AP

    BEIJING — The first major retrospective outside Asia of films made in China following the tumult of the Cultural Revolution opens Friday at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which runs Jan. 23-Feb. 3.

    As the 2008 Beijing Olympics approach and China’s Communist government again tightens the reins on media, the retrospective will present films made from 1979-1989, in answer to former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s call to open China up after decades when media equaled propaganda.

    “This was the most culturally and politically open time in Chinese filmmaking. Even the semi-independent films today from people like Jia Zhangke have to be more subtle,” curator Shelly Kraicer said, referring to the director of 2006 Venice Grand Prize winner “Still Life,” which recently opened in the U.S.

    Although the directors of these films — known collectively as the Fourth Generation — are well known within China, they have largely been overshadowed for foreign viewers by the works of the following Fifth Generation directors such as Zhang Yimou (“Raise the Red Lantern”), Chen Kaige (“Farewell my Concubine”) and Tian Zhuangzhuang.

    Fourth Generation films represent a “fertile and creative, though sadly brief, era of Chinese cinema,” Kraicer said.

    For “Rediscovering the Fourth Generation” at Rotterdam, Kraicer, Beijing-based editor of the electronic newsletter Chinese Cinema Digest, chose a dozen films made in the run up to 1989, when the student democracy movement was crushed by China’s army in Tiananmen Square.

    From 1979’s melodramatic “Little Flower,” in which Zhang Zheng directs Joan Chen’s debut as a young woman seeking her long-lost brother during wartime, to Teng Wenji’s experimental 1984 film “At the Beach,” featuring the debut of actress Bai Ling, Kraicer said that the period saw directors stretching their craft in many directions after years in which virtually no films were made.

    “Black Snow,” released in early 1984, is a tragedy about the demise of an ex-convict, played by Jiang Wen, China’s most famous actor, who cannot reintegrate into society. It is the darkest film about China ever to get past the censors and receive a theatrical release, Kraicer said.

    “It would never get passed today,” said Kraicer, who will introduce festivalgoers to “Black Snow” director Xie, who will travel to Rotterdam with his film.

    Director Teng will be present, too, as will the female director Huang Shuqin, whose 1987 “Woman Demon Human,” is considered by film scholars a prime example of one of China’s few feminist films.

    From Jan. 25 to 29, the three directors and Kraicer plan to host a seminar on the Fourth Generation with the participation of Chinese cinema expert Tony Rayns.

    It was not easy pulling the retrospective together, said Kraicer who, with Teng, spent a long time negotiating to get the sole surviving copy of “At the Beach” to Rotterdam from the Xi’an Film Studio.

    The dozen films in retrospective will be screened on 35mm prints provided by the China Film Archive, the Xi’an and Shanghai Film Studios and the Emei Film Studio. Some are subtitled and some dubbed into English.

    A complete list of Chinese Fouth Generation films at IFFR follows.

    “Troubled Laughter” (Kunao ren de xiao), Yang Yanjin, Deng Yimin, 1979

    “Little Flower” (Xiao Hua), Huang Jianzhong, Zhang Zheng, 1979

    “Evening Rain” (Bashan yeyu), Wu Yigong, Wu Yonggang, 1980

    “The Alley” (Xiaojie), Yang Yanjin, 1981

    “River Without Buoys” (Meiyou hangbiao de heliu), Wu Tianming, 1983

    “My Memories of Old Beijing” (Chengnan jiushi), Wu Yigong, 1983

    “At the Beach” (Haitan), Teng Wenji, 1984

    “Narrow Lane Celebrity” (Xiaoxiang mingliu), Cong Lianwen, 1985

    “In the Wild Mountains” (Yeshan), Yan Xueshu, 1985

    “Sacrificed Youth” (Qingchun ji), Zhang Nuanxin, 1985

    “Woman Demon Human” (Ren gui qing), Huang Shuqin, 1987

    “Black Snow” (Benming nian), Xie Fei, 1989

    Nächtlicher Regen in den Bergen von Sichuan - Film ∣ Kritik ∣ Trailer – Filmdienst
    https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/32739/nachtlicher-regen-in-den-bergen-von-sichuan

    Melodram | VR China 1980 | 86 Minuten

    Regie: Wu Yonggang

    Menschen unterschiedlicher Herkunft erzählen ihre Schicksale, die durch die Herrschaft der „Roten Garden“ während der chinesischen Kulturrevolution (1966-1976) geprägt wurden. Im Mittelpunkt ein junger Dichter, der von zwei Rotgardisten zu seiner Verhandlung gebracht wird. Ein Film, der mit der Unterdrückung jener Jahre abrechnet - aber gleichwohl bemüht bleibt, auch von menschlichen Regungen der radikalen „Kulturrevolutionäre“ zu berichten. Trotz Gefühlsüberschwangs, gebündelter Zufälle und melodramatischer Inszenierung ein interessantes Dokument, das sich sehr überzeugend für ethische Grundwerte ausspricht.
    Filmdaten
    ORIGINALTITEL
    BASHAN YEYU
    PRODUKTIONSLAND
    VR China
    PRODUKTIONSJAHR
    1980
    REGIE
    Wu Yonggang · Wu Yigong
    BUCH
    Ye Nan
    KAMERA
    Chao Weiye
    MUSIK
    Yao Die
    DARSTELLER
    Zhang Yu · Li Zhixing · Zhang Ming · Mao Weihui · Zhong Xinghuo
    LÄNGE
    86 Minuten
    KINOSTART

    GENRE
    Melodram

    Evening Rain
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Rain

    Evening Rain (Chinese: 巴山夜雨) is a 1981 Chinese drama film which reflects the fight between Chinese people and the Gang of Four during the ten years of turmoil in China. It was directed by Wu Yonggang and Wu Yigong with Li Zhiyu, Zhang Yu, Lin Bin playing the leading roles. This movie won the first Golden Rooster Awards for Best Picture in 1981, a prize it shared with Xie Jin’s Legend of Tianyun Mountain.

    Plot
    During the time the "Gang of Four” is on the rampage in China, a poet named Qiu Shi who has been in prison for 6 years is secretly transferred from Sichuan to Wuhan by boat under the guard of Li Yan and Liu Wenying. They meet six passengers on the boat – a poor girl named Xing Hua who had to work as a prostitute to pay her debts, a just woman teacher, an old actor of Beijing Opera, a frail elderly woman who has just lost her son, a young worker who has a clear stand on what to love and what to hate, and a little girl in rags.

    One night, feeling hopeless about her life, Xin Hua attempts suicide by jumping into the river. Qiu Shi saves her and uses his own experience to encourage the poor girl. All the people aboard are deeply moved by this brave poet, including Li Yan and Liu Wenying. It turns out that the girl in rags is Qiu Shi’s daughter. With the help of the passengers aboard, Qiu Shi with his daughter finally regain freedom.

    Soundtrack
    I’m a dandelion seed (我是一颗蒲公英种子)
    Filming Locations
    The Three Gorges

    (DOC) Die Aufwertung der Menschlichkeit im postsozialistischen Film Evening Rain (Ba Shan Ye Yu | Natascha Urdich - Academia.edu
    https://www.academia.edu/6866630/Die_Aufwertung_der_Menschlichkeit_im_postsozialistischen_Film_Evening_Rain

    A Comparative Study of the Three English Versions of Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains from the Perspective of Transitivity
    https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=101027

    Ningning Wang, Hui Jia
    Department of Foreign Languages, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
    DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1106474 PDF HTML XML 119 Downloads 398 Views
    Abstract

    The poem Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains is one of the most famous poems of the late Tang poet Li Shangyin. It is widely favored by translators and has many English versions. Through the literature research, it is found that there are few studies of its English versions combined with the linguistic tool of transitivity. This paper aims to study the poem Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains and its three English versions from the perspective of system-functional linguistics, taking the concept of transitivity as a theoretical tool, supplemented by the theory of functional equivalence to evaluate the three English versions. According to the results of transitivity characteristic analysis and functional equivalence evaluation, it is found that keeping the transitivity characteristics of the original and the translation consistent is actually a kind of application and embodiment of the principle of functional equivalence, and the change of transitivity characteristics does not necessarily violate the principle of functional equivalence, because in specific circumstances, the transformation of process types can also help to achieve the effect of meaning equivalence, reproduce the artistic conception, and finally realize the goal of functional equivalence.
    Keywords

    Transitivity, English Versions, Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains

    Share and Cite:

    Wang, N. and Jia, H. (2020) A Comparative Study of the Three English Versions of Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains from the Perspective of Transitivity. Open Access Library Journal, 7, 1-10. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1106474.

    1. Introduction

    With the wide application of system-functional linguistics, Chinese scholars have made many achievements in the study of transitivity and discourse analysis, such as the critical discourse analysis of news discourse based on various processes of transitivity system, the contrastive analysis of English and Chinese novel discourse from the perspective of transitivity, etc. While in the research direction of ancient poetry translation, most scholars widely use the perspective of “faithfulness, expressiveness and elegance” to compare and appreciate the translations. Professor Huang Guowen has selected six English versions of Qingming for the comparative study [1], and has successfully applied the system-functional linguistics to the study of poetry translation. Since then, scholars have also begun to study poetry translation from the perspective of transitivity, such as exploring the formal equivalence in the English translations of Song of a Roamer from the perspective of transitivity in system-functional linguistics [2], etc. In order to enrich the research field of comparative analysis of ancient poetry translation from the perspective of system-functional linguistics, this paper uses transitivity system as a theoretical tool, supplemented by the theory of functional equivalence as a criterion to evaluate the poetry translation, so as to objectively evaluate the effect of translation under the condition of equivalence and nonequivalence of transitivity characteristics between the translated text and the original text, and finally reveal the relationship between transitivity system and functional equivalence in translation.

    2. An Overview of Transitivity Theory

    System-functional linguistics explains language structure with language function and shows the idea that language has ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function [3]. The ideational function includes two parts: experiential function and logical function. Experiential function refers to the language expression of people’s various experiences in the real world (including the inner world). In other words, it reflects the factors such as what happened in the objective and the subjective world, the people and things involved, and the time and place related to them. The experiential function is mainly embodied by transitivity and voice. Halliday believes that transitivity system divides what people see, hear and do in the real world into several processes and shows them in the clauses, including six categories: material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral process, verbal process and existential process (seeing Table 1) [4]. The transitivity system of language is constituted by these six processes, revolving around these processes are participants and circumstances, which should also be taken into consideration.

    3. The Significance of Transitivity System and Functional Equivalence Theory in Chinese Ancient Poetry Translation Evaluation

    The systemic functional grammar created and developed by Halliday provides a

    Process

    Meaning

    Participant

    Example

    Material process

    A process of doing

    Actor-Goal

    My brother built all these houses.

    Mental process

    A process of thinking

    Senser-Phenomenon

    She likes the gift.

    Relational process

    A process of being

    Attributive: Carrier-Attribute

    The cat is on the mat.

    Identifying: Identifier-Identified

    Sarah is the wise one.

    Behavioral process

    A process of behaving

    Behaver

    He sighed for the day of his youth.

    Verbal process

    A process of saying

    Sayer-Verbiage-Receiver

    She asked me a lot of questions.

    Existential process

    A process of existing

    Existent

    There is a pen on the desk.

    Table 1. The six process types of transitivity system.

    new perspective for the evaluation and analysis of ancient poetry translation. The transitivity system in systemic functional grammar is a semantic system to express the ideational function, it is a systematic network about the process types, participants and circumstances [3]. The purpose of transitivity analysis is to analyze the experiential meaning of the text, and to find out the main content of the text by analyzing the types of process and participants [5]. Although there are plenty of translations of famous ancient poems, there are few studies on poetry translation evaluation from the perspective of transitivity. In order to enrich the research field of comparison and appreciation of ancient poetry translation from the perspective of system-functional linguistics, it is necessary to use transitivity system and functional equivalence theory to study poetry translation, so as to objectively evaluate the effect of translation under the condition of equivalence and nonequivalence of transitivity characteristics between the translated text and the original text, and finally explore the relationship between transitivity system and functional equivalence theory.

    Eugene Nida has pointed out the different stages of the theory of functional equivalence: the low-level, realistic “functional equivalence” and the high-level, ideal “functional equivalence”. Nida believes that the effect of translation can not only be judged by comparing the meaning, grammar and rhetoric of the translated text and the original text, but also by the target readers’ correct understanding and appreciation of the translation [6]. Based on Nida’s functional equivalence theory and the special literary genre of ancient poetry, it is easy to find that the translation of ancient poetry should be equivalent to the original in meaning, style and culture. Generally speaking, the realization of meaning equivalence refers to the selection of appropriate words to convey the meaning of the source language; the realization of style equivalence refers to the reproduction of the original images; the realization of cultural equivalence refers to the correct translation of allusions and the transmission of cultural information. These three standards can help to objectively compare and appreciate the English versions of ancient poems, make the translation quality evaluation of ancient poems more evidence-based, and help to comprehensively judge which translation can achieve the effect of making the target readers understand the original poems accurately.

    4. Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains and Its Three English Versions

    Li Shangyin is a famous Chinese poet in the late Tang Dynasty. As his representative lyric poem, Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains is full of touching emotional glamor. The original poem is as follows (with Pinyin):

    Ye Yu Ji Bei

    夜雨寄北

    Jun wen gui qi wei you qi,

    君问归期未有期,

    Ba shan ye yu zhang qiu chi.

    巴山夜雨涨秋池。

    He dang gong jian xi chuang zhu,

    何当共剪西窗烛,

    Que hua ba shan ye yu shi.

    却话巴山夜雨时。

    This poem is a seven-character quatrain (four-line poem with seven characters per line) written by Li Shangyin to his wife in Chang’an when he lived in Bashu (ancient cities in Sichuan). At that time, the poet was stuck in Bashu area because of the autumn rain. His wife sent letters from home to ask about his return date. The first two sentences of the poem, with the question and answer and the description of immediate environment, convey the poet’s loneliness and deep concern for his wife. In the last two sentences, he imagined the joy of meeting again in the future, which serves as a foil to the loneliness of night. The meaning of the whole poem is: You ask me the date of my return, but my return date has not been set yet. Tonight’s Mount Pa, with continuous autumn rain, the pool is overfull with water. When can we trim a candlewick together near the west window, and tell the story of the night rain on Mount Pa today? The poem is improvised to express the poet’s sudden mood changes. The language is simple, and there is no trace of modification in the choice of words and sentences. It is different from most of Li Shangyin’s poems in terms of rhetoric and diction. In contrast, this poem is plain and natural, delicate in feelings, and graceful in artistic conception. Many translators and scholars have translated this famous poem of Li Shangyin, including the British Sinologist Herbert Allen Giles, the well-known Chinese litterateur Lin Yutang, and Xu Yuanchong, a famous translator of Chinese ancient poetry. They are highly-educated and keen on Chinese literature, while all have different specialized directions. What’s more, because of the different nationality, Herbert Allen Giles may also provide some particular understanding and explanation of this poem, therefore, their three English versions have great significance in the comparative study of Chinese ancient poetry translations from the perspective of transitivity system. The three English versions chosen as the research materials are as follows (seeing Table 2) [7].

    4.1. The Translation of “君问归期未有期”

    Version 1: You ask when I’m coming: alas not just yet…

    Version 2: You ask how long before I come. Still no date is set.

    Version 3: You ask me when I can return, but I don’t know.

    There are two verbal processes in the first sentence of version 1. In this sentence, “alas not just yet...” is preceded by a colon, as if the poet is answering, which conforms to the “question and answer” in the original meaning. In addition, the sigh of “alas” shows the author’s helplessness in not knowing the date of return, and the ellipsis at the end of the sentence indicates that the date of return is hard to be determined and far away, which better achieve the meaning equivalence with the original.

    Version 2 translates the first sentence of the original text into two sentences, showing a verbal process and a material process, and the material process “still no date is set” presents an objective fact that the date of return is not determined, and also vividly shows the scene of “question and answer” between wife and husband. From the aesthetic point of view, it fully reflects the unity of poetry and artistic conception in the original text, and accurately conveys the connotation of “the date of return is difficult to be determined”.

    Version 3 translates the first sentence into a compound-complex sentence, which shows a verbal process and a mental process. Compared with version 1 and version 2, the word “return” better reflects the meaning of going back home. Besides, the mental process of “but I don’t know” also succinctly and vividly conveys the helplessness of the poet when he was stuck in a place far away from home.

    To sum up, version 1 is equivalent to the original text in transitivity characteristics, while version 2 and version 3 are not fully in line with the transitivity characteristics of the original poem, but all the three versions have achieved the goal of meaning equivalence. That is to say, the transformation of process types may not influence the effect of achieving meaning equivalence and the connotation of the source language can also be reproduced. Since the first sentence of the original poem does not contain the images and allusions, the style equiva-

    Herbert Allen Giles: Version 1

    Lin Yutang: Version 2

    Xu Yuanchong: Version 3

    You ask when I’m coming: alas not just yet...

    How the rain filled the pools on that night when we met!

    Ah, when shall we ever snuff candles again,

    And recall the glad hours of that evening of rain?

    You ask how long before I come. Still no date is set.

    The night rains on Mount Pa swell the autumn pool.

    When shall we, side by side, trim a candle at the west window,

    And (we) talk to the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?

    You ask me when I can return, but I don’t know;

    It rains in western hills and autumn pool o’er-flow.

    When can we trim by

    window side the candlelight

    And talk about the western hills in rainy night?

    Table 2. Three English versions of Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains.

    lence and cultural equivalence between the translations and the original are not judged temporarily. It is easy to find that the three versions basically achieve the functional equivalence with the original text, which reflects that the change of transitivity characteristics does not necessarily violate the principle of functional equivalence.

    4.2. The Translation of “巴山夜雨涨秋池”

    Version 1: How the rain filled the pools on that night when we met!

    Version 2: The night rains on Mount Pa swell the autumn pool.

    Version 3: It rains in western hills and autumn pool o’er-flow.

    In version 1, the exclamatory sentence started with “how” is used to show a mental process and a material process. In the literal sense, it means that “on that night when we met the heavy rain filled the pools”, obviously, “filled” and “met” are in the past tense, and the misuse of tense causes the dislocation of time and space, which hides the poet’s description of the scene before his eyes, thus destroys the artistic conception shown in the original text. However, if the translation is adjusted to “How the rain on Mount Pa fills the autumn pools tonight!”, it will not only keep consistent with the participants and circumstantial elements of the original, but also retain the characteristic of the combination of emotion and scenery in the original text.

    Version 2 takes “巴山夜雨” as a whole part and translates it into “the night rains on Mount Pa”. In this sentence, the word “swell” not only expresses the meaning of “water level rises” in the original text, but also implies the poet’s deep concern for his wife. What’s more, every word in translation corresponds to the original text, without any additional translations or omissions. The original images of “the night rains on Mount Pa” and “the autumn pool” are completely displayed in front of the readers, which help to achieve the goal of style equivalence with the original, so that the readers can feel the artistic conception of the original text in a better way.

    In version 3, the second sentence of the original text is separated into “it rains in western hills” and “autumn pool o’er-flow”, which form two material processes. “It” is set as the subject of the impersonal verb, and juxtaposes the subject-predicate structures of “it rains” and “autumn pool o’er-flow”. The word “o’er-flow” also well embodies the feature of the original poem, which turns the poet’s deep concern for his wife into an overflowing pool. “巴山” originally refers to the Daba Mountain (at the junction of the south of Shaanxi and the northeast of Sichuan), and in the old times, it refers to a very remote place. Here, the word “巴山” is translated into “western hills”. Although it is easy to be understood in geographical position, it may be confused with “西山 (western hills in the literal sense)” in place name. “巴山” has the implication of being relegated to a desolate place. Although this implication is not easy to be embodied in the translation, the literal translation method is a more practical way to reflect this place name.

    It is easy to find that version 2 is better than version 1 and version 3 in terms of meaning equivalence, and because of the accurate grasp of images and the literal translation of the word “巴山”, version 2 is also better in terms of style equivalence and cultural equivalence with the original text. It can be seen that if the circumstantial elements such as place and time contained in the original text are omitted or mistranslated, it may influence the effect of functional equivalence between the translated text and the original text. Therefore, it can be concluded that keeping the transitivity characteristics of the original text (including the participants and circumstantial elements) in the translation is helpful to reproduce the artistic conception of the source language and achieve the goal of functional equivalence.

    4.3. The Translation of “何当共剪西窗烛”

    Version 1: Ah, when shall we ever snuff candles again.

    Version 2: When shall we, side by side, trim a candle at the west window.

    Version 3: When can we trim by window side the candlelight.

    Version 1 is roughly equivalent to the original poem in terms of transitivity characteristics, but it lacks a place element“西窗 (the west window)”, which causes the inadequacy in circumstantial elements and a lack of background to set off the emotion by contrast. In terms of the translation of “剪”, “snuff” is “to extinguish a light from a naked flame, especially a candle”. In traditional Chinese culture, the word “剪烛” means “cut off the extra wick to maintain the bright lighting”, and then this behavior is set as the allusion of having a heart to heart night talk. In this aspect, the meaning of “snuff candles” is quite different from that of the word “剪烛”. From the perspective of functional equivalence, it does not achieve the goal of cultural equivalence with the original poem, which causes the inadequacy of the original artistic conception.

    Version 2 is almost equivalent to the original poem in transitivity characteristics, and takes “side by side” as the parenthesis to fully express the meaning of the character “共 (get together)” in the original poem. The word “剪烛” in this sentence is translated into “trim a candle”, which is not in line with the original meaning of “trim the extra wick of candle”. In this aspect, the cultural equivalence is not well achieved. By contrast, using the phrase “trim the candlewick” to express the original meaning is more appropriate.

    Similar to version 2, the meaning of “trim the candlelight” in version 3 is not equivalent to the meaning of “剪烛” in the original text. What’s more, “by window side” means “by the window”, while the explanation of the location of window has not been reflected in the translation. In traditional Chinese literature, “west window”, as a unique literary image, is just like the phrase “west wind”. In “east, south, west, and north” and “spring, summer, autumn, and winter”, the contrast between “west” and “autumn” reflects a feeling of sadness. In order to express the sorrow of separation, Chinese poets often use the image of “west window” to set off the emotion by contrast. However, in this translation, there is a lack of artistic conception reproduction, which results in the lack of style equivalence between the translation and the original.

    To sum up, from the perspective of process type of transitivity, all the three versions are consistent with the original text. However, in the aspect of participant’s confirmation, for the word “剪烛”, all the three translators have not provided a translation that conforms to the cultural allusion contained in the original text, so their translations have not achieved the goal of cultural equivalence with the original. What’s more, in the translation of the word “西窗”, version 1 and version 3 have different degrees of omissions, which result in the lack of artistic conception conveyed by the image of “west window”, and also fail to achieve the meaning and style equivalence with the original poem. Obviously, there is a positive correlation between transitivity system and translation functional equivalence. Keeping the transitivity characteristics of the translation and the original consistent is actually an application and embodiment of the principle of functional equivalence, which is helpful to make the structure and expression effect of the translation similar to the original. In other words, it will result in the differences between the transitivity characteristics of the translation and the original if the cultural background of the original text is not fully understood, and ultimately the goal of functional equivalence between the translation and the original text cannot be achieved.

    4.4. The Translation of “却话巴山夜雨时”

    Version 1: And recall the glad hours of that evening of rain?

    Version 2: And (we) talk to the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?

    Version 3: And talk about the western hills in rainy night?

    Version 1 translates “却话” into “recall”, which shows a mental process. In the original text, the meaning of the word “却话” is “tell about the past”, which shows a verbal process. Although version 1 is not consistent with the original text in the process type, it can better achieve the meaning equivalence with the original when it is unable to find the corresponding word in English. However, the translation “recall the glad hours of that evening of rain” deviates from the original meaning. In the last two lines of the poem, the poet envisages the future reunion. On the day of meeting, the poet will tell the sadness of departure of that night again, which is contrasted with the joy of imagining the future reunion. However, this translation recalls the past, and once again causes the dislocation of time and space, which results in the disappearance of the artistic conception created by the contrast of the time and space in the original text.

    In version 2, the sentence “巴山夜雨时” is translated into “the time of the night rains on Mount Pa”. In this translation, each word corresponds to the original text, which reproduces the original image without any additional translations or omissions, and achieves the goal of meaning equivalence and style equivalence with the original text. However, the phrase “talk to” means “speak to (someone)”, while in the translation, the phrase “talk to” is connected with a noun phrase, which is not in line with English grammar.

    Version 3 is basically equivalent to the original in transitivity characteristics, while in the translation of “却话”, the phrase “talk about” seems to refer to a usual behavior. Due to the meaning of “tell about the past” in the original text, in contrast, the word “recall” can better convey the original meaning.

    To sum up, compared with the word “却话” in the original text, the use of “recall” in version 1 makes the process type change from verbal process to mental process, but it better conveys the meaning of “tell about the past” in the original text and achieves the goal of meaning equivalence. Take version 2 as an example, if replace “talk to” with “recall”, that is, “And (we) recall the time of the night rains on Mount Pa?”, then the translation will basically achieve the functional equivalence with the original. On the whole, version 2 does better in meaning equivalence, style equivalence and cultural equivalence with the original text. This part of the analysis once again reflects that the change of transitivity characteristics does not necessarily violate the principle of functional equivalence, because in specific circumstances, only through the transformation of process types can the translator better reflect the differences between the source language and the target language, and better express the artistic conception of the source language.

    5. Conclusion

    Based on the above study of transitivity and functional equivalence, it is found that each of these translations has its own advantages and disadvantages. Compared with the translators using target language as the first language, the translators using source language as the first language can better understand the meaning, artistic conception and emotion of the original text. In the comparison of these three English versions, it is found that Lin Yutang’s translation is slightly better than the others. His translation not only keeps the transitivity characteristics consistent with the original for the most part, but also faithfully conveys the core connotation of the original poem, and basically achieves the effect of meaning equivalence, style equivalence and cultural equivalence. In the process of comparing the results of transitivity characteristic analysis and functional equivalence evaluation, it is found that keeping the transitivity characteristics of the translation and the original consistent is actually an application and embodiment of the principle of functional equivalence, which makes the structure and expression effect of the translation similar to the original. Although the deviations in translation caused by the differences between the source language and the target language still exist, this kind of influence can be offset by the full understanding of the original text and the accurate expression of the translation. What’s more, the change of transitivity characteristics does not necessarily violate the principle of functional equivalence, because in specific circumstances, the transformation of process types can also help to achieve the effect of meaning equivalence, reproduce the artistic conception, and finally achieve the goal of functional equivalence. This paper makes a comparative study of the three English versions of Lines Sent to the North Written during Night Rains from the limited perspective of transitivity, and explores the relationship between transitivity system and functional equivalence. In the field of translation study from the perspective of system-functional linguistics, it is still a preliminary attempt. In the future, it is meaningful to make further research on the translation of ancient poetry from the perspectives of interpersonal function and textual function in system-functional linguistics, so as to expand the effective means of evaluating the translation quality of Chinese ancient poetry.

    Acknowledgements

    This paper is supported by the project of “Courses for cultivating innovation and entrepreneurship (2019)” of East China University of Science and Technology.

    Conflicts of Interest

    The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

    References

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    [2] 张威. 功能语言学关照下的翻译形式等效——《游子吟》英译文的及物性剖析[J]. 当代外语研究, 2010(5): 18-21.
    [3] 何伟, 魏榕. 系统功能语言学及物性理论发展综述[J]. 北京科技大学学报, 2016, 32(1): 1-20.
    [4] 胡壮麟, 朱永生, 张德禄, 李战子. 系统功能语言学概论[M]. 北京: 北京大学出版社, 2005.
    [5] 胡壮麟, 朱永生, 张德禄. 系统功能语法概论[M]. 湖南: 湖南教育出版社, 1989.
    [6] Nida, E. (1993) Language, Culture, and Translating. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, Shanghai.
    [7] 刘国忠. 意境与古诗英译——评李商隐《夜雨寄北》的三种译文[J]. 黄山学院学报, 2011, 13(2): 86-89.

    简谱网 > 歌谱 > 巴山夜雨
    http://www.jianpuw.com/htm/58/278534.htm

    #Chine #cinéma #révolution_culturelle

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  • L’article d’une DJ israélienne à propos des annulations récentes. Quelques points à noter :
    1) elle n’est pas surprise de l’annulation de Lana del Rey
    2) elle est surprise en revanche de l’annulation de DJs, car ce milieu n’était pas touché par la politique et BDS, et elle se demande si ce n’est pas le début de quelque chose...
    3) elle cite Gaza, la loi sur l’Etat Nation, les arrestations d’activistes à l’aéroport, mais aussi la proximité entre Trump et Netanyahu, qui influence surtout les artistes américains
    4) on apprend que tout le monde sait qu’il y a des artistes, et non des moindres, qui même s’ils ne le disent pas ouvertement, ne viendront jamais en israel : Beyoncé, The Knife, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, Deerhunter, Sonic Youth, Lil Yachty, Tyler the Creator, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Vince Staples, Moodymann, Kyle Hall, the Martinez Brothers, Ben UFO, DJ Ricardo Villalobos, Matthew Herbert, Andrew Weatherall... C’est ce qu’on appelle le boycott silencieux...
    5) il y a aussi le cas de ceux qui ne viennent que si les concerts sont organisés par des Palestiniens : Acid Arab et Nicolas Jaar
    6) même si cela me semble faux, le fait d’accuser certains artistes de boycotter parce que c’est à la mode est un aveu que BDS a le vent en poupe dans le milieu de la musique

    The Day the Music Died : Will BDS Bring Tel Aviv’s Club Scene to a Standstill ?
    Idit Frenkel, Haaretz, le 7 septembre 2018
    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-day-the-music-died-will-bds-halt-tel-aviv-s-club-scen

    Lana Del Rey should have known better. And if not Del Rey herself, then at least her managers, PR people and agents.

    As the highest-profile artist who was scheduled to appear at the Meteor Festival over the weekend in the north, it was clear she’d be the one caught in the crossfire , the one boycott groups would try to convince to ditch an appearance in Israel. That’s the same crossfire with diplomatic, moral and economic implications that confronted Lorde, Lauryn Hill and Tyler, the Creator: musicians who announced performances in Israel and changed their minds because of political pressure.

    Del Rey, however, isn’t the story. Her cancellation , which included some mental gymnastics as far as her positions were concerned, could have been expected. Unfortunately, we’ve been there many times and in many different circumstances.

    Tsunami of cancellations

    The ones who caught us unprepared by drafting an agenda for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict turned out to be DJs like Shanti Celeste, Volvox, DJ Seinfeld, Python and Leon Vynehall, who also dropped out of Meteor. Why was this unexpected? Because Israel’s nightlife and clubbing scene – especially in Tel Aviv – had been an oasis regarding cultural boycotts, an extraterritorial hedonistic space with no room for politics.

    The current tsunami of cancellations, while it might sound trivial if you’re untutored in trance music, could reflect a trend with effects far beyond the Meteor Festival. In the optimistic scenario, this is a one-off event that has cast the spotlight on lesser-known musicians as well. In the pessimistic scenario, this is the end of an era in which the clubbing scene has been an exception.

    Adding credence to the change-in-direction theory are the cancellations by DJs who have spun in Tel Aviv in recent years; Volvox, Shanti Celeste and Leon Vynehall have all had their passports stamped at Ben-Gurion Airport. And those times the situation wasn’t very different: Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister, the occupation was decades long and there were sporadic exchanges of fire between the sides.

    Moreover, two of the DJs spearheading the struggle on the nightlife scene regarding Mideast politics – the Black Madonna and Anthony Naples – have been here, enjoyed themselves, been honored and promised to return, until they discovered there’s such a thing as the occupation.

    Americans and Brits cancel more

    So what has changed since 2015? First, there has been a change on the Gaza border, with civilians getting shot. These incidents have multiplied in the past three months and don’t exactly photograph well.

    Second, news reports about the nation-state law and the discrimination that comes with it have done their bit. Third, the arrests and detentions of left-wing activists entering Israel haven’t remained in a vacuum.

    Fourth, and most importantly, is Donald Trump’s presidency and his unconditional embrace of Netanyahu, including, of course, the controversial opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. As in the case of Natalie Portman’s refusal to accept a prize from the state, the closeness between the Trump administration and the Netanyahu government – under the sponsorship of evangelical Christians – has made Israel a country non grata in the liberal community, of which Hollywood is one pole and nightlife the other.

    It’s no coincidence that the DJs canceling are either Americans or Brits on the left; that is, Democrats or Jeremy Corbyn supporters in Labour – people who see cooperation with Israel as collaboration with Trump and Britain’s Conservative government.

    Different from them is Honey Dijon, the black trans DJ from Chicago who in response to the protest against her appearance at the Meteor Festival tweeted: “All of you people criticizing me about playing in Israel, when you come to America and stand up for the murder of black trans women and the prison industrial complex of black men then we can debate. I play for people not governments.” Not many people tried to argue with her. Say what you will, contrarianism is always effective.

    The case of DJ Jackmaster

    Beyond the issue of values, at the image level, alleged collaboration can be a career killer, just as declaring a boycott is the last word in chic for your image nowadays. That’s exactly what has happened with Scotland’s DJ Jackmaster, who has gone viral with his eventual refusal to perform at Tel Aviv’s Block club. He posted a picture of the Palestinian flag with a caption saying you have to exploit a platform in order to stand up for those who need it. The flood of responses included talk about boycotting all Tel Aviv, not just the Block.

    Yaron Trax is the owner of the Block; his club is considered not only the largest and most influential venue in town but also an international brand. Trax didn’t remain silent; on his personal Facebook account he mentioned how a few weeks before Jackmaster’s post his agent was still trying to secure the gig for him at the Block.

    “Not my finest hour, but calling for a boycott of my club at a time when an artist is trying to play there felt to me like crossing a line,” Trax says. “Only after the fact, and especially when I saw how his post was attracting dozens of hurtful, belligerent and racist responses – and generating a violent discourse that I oppose – did I realize how significant it was.”

    Trax talks about the hatred that has welled up in support of Jackmaster’s Israel boycott – just between us, not the sharpest tool in the shed and someone who has recently been accused of sexual harassment. As Trax puts it, “The next day it was important to me to admonish myself, first off, and then all those who chose to respond the way they responded.”

    In a further well-reasoned post, Trax wrote, “I have always thought that people who take a risk and use the platform that is given to them to transmit a message they believe in, especially one that isn’t popular, deserve admiration and not intimidation or silencing.” Unsurprisingly, the reactions to this message were mostly positive.

    Notwithstanding the boycotters who have acceded to the demands of Roger Waters and Brian Eno – the most prominent musicians linked to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement – there are plenty of superstar musicians like Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and the Rolling Stones who have come to Israel as part of their concert tours, even though they suffered the same pressures. The performers most vocal about their decision to appear in Israel have been Radiohead and Nick Cave.

    At a press conference on the eve of his concert, Cave expressed his opinion on the demand to boycott Israel: “It suddenly became very important to make a stand, to me, against those people who are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians and to silence musicians.”

    Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke took the message one step further and tweeted: “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.” As Yorke put it, music, art and academia are “about crossing borders, not building them.”

    There’s a lot of truth in Yorke’s declaration, but whether or not musicians like it, appearances in Israel tend to acquire a political dimension; any statement becomes a potential international incident. Thus, for example, after Radiohead’s statement, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan saluted the band, and after Cave’s press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted “Bravo Nick Cave!”

    The trend continues when we step down a league from the A-listers, like Beyoncé, who doesn’t intend to perform in Israel despite her annual declaration that she’ll come “next year.” There’s the second level, the cream of international alternative rock and pop – refusals to appear in Israel by bands “of good conscience” like the Knife, Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire and Deerhunter.

    The most prominent voice from this territory is that of former Sonic Youth guitarist and vocalist Thurston Moore. Yes, he appeared with his band in Tel Aviv 23 years ago, but since then he has become an avid supporter of BDS, so much so that he says it’s not okay to eat hummus because it’s a product of the occupation.

    ’Apartheid state’

    At the next level of refusers are the major – and minor – hip-hop stars. In addition to Lil Yachty and Tyler, who canceled appearances, other heroes of the genre like Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper and Vince Staples have refused from the outset to accept invitations to Israel. It’s quite possible that the connection between BDS and Black Lives Matter is influential. As early as 2016, Black Lives Matter published a statement supporting BDS and declaring Israel an “apartheid state.”

    Which brings us to electronic music and the cultural phenomenon that goes with it – the club culture. In numerical terms, club culture is smaller, but the information that flows from it on the ground or online flows much faster.

    Moreover, not only is club culture more sensitive to changes and far more alert to ideas and technological advances, its history is marked by struggles by oppressed groups. It can be said that African-Americans, Hispanics and gay people were the first to adopt the “night” way of life, back in the days of New York’s clubs and underground parties in the ‘70s. Accordingly, these groups have been the ones to nurture this lifestyle into today’s popular culture. Hence also the association with movements like BDS.

    Boiler Room Palestine

    Indeed, the current trend points to a step-up in the discourse; in the past year the top alternative culture magazines – of which the electronic music magazines play a key role – have published articles surveying musical and cultural happenings in Palestinian society.

    The online music magazine Resident Advisor has had two such stories, the first about a workshop for artists with the participation of the Block 9 production team, musicians Brian Eno and Róisín Murphy (formerly of Moloko) and American DJ the Black Madonna. The workshop, which included tours, discussion groups and joint musical work, was held at the Walled Off Hotel in Ramallah, also known as Banksy’s hotel because of the street artist’s involvement in its planning in the shadow of the separation barrier.

    The second article surveyed the Palestinian electronic scene and its leading players – promoters, DJs and producers who are operating despite the restrictive military regime. In addition, the writer accompanied the production of Boiler Room Palestine in Ramallah in June. (The wider Boiler Room franchise has been the world’s most popular pop party for the past five years.)

    Another example includes the style magazine Dazed, which wrote about the cultural boycott movement immediately after the cancellation of Lorde’s concert, and just last month New York Magazine’s culture supplement Vulture set forth its philosophy on the boycott (also in the context of Lana Del Rey). It predicted that the awakening we’re seeing today is only in its infancy.

    This partial list isn’t a clear declaration about “taking a stance” – after all, progressive media outlets in culture laud Israeli artists (for example Red Axes, Moscoman and Guy Gerber) or local venues, like the Block club. But if you add to these the scores of Facebook battles or Twitter discussions (like the one Del Rey found herself in), you’ll get noise. And noise generates questions, which generate more noise and raise consciousness. And from there to change on the ground is a modest distance.

    ’These are people who slept on my sofa’

    Refusals of invitations or cancellations of concerts in Israel by artists didn’t begin with BDS or the increasing volume of the past two years. After all, a visit to Israel all too often requires an intrusive security check. It’s hard to complain about a DJ who isn’t keen to have his underwear probed.

    Also, there’s a stratum of artists who’ve appeared in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa and have decided to stop coming – unless there’s a Palestinian production. Two examples are the French band Acid Arab (Parisians Guido Minisky and Hervé Carvalho) and the American producer – and darling of the hipster community – Nicolas Jaar . Jaar appeared in Tel Aviv a bit under a decade ago, just before he became a star, while Acid Arab not only performed in Tel Aviv but was also involved in projects with Israeli musicians – so plenty of people called the duo hypocrites.

    “I have no problem with strong opinions, but in the case of Acid Arab it annoyed me at the personal level – these are people who slept on my sofa, recorded with local musicians, and the day they put up their post announcing they wouldn’t play in Tel Aviv, they also asked me to send them some music,” says Maor Anava, aka DJ Hectik.

    “I have no problem with people changing their minds on the go; it’s clear to me that a visit to the separation fence can do it, but what bothered me is that it’s entirely a PR and image move, apparently at the advice of their agent,” he adds.

    “We’ve reached a situation in which a boycott of Israel is the trendiest thing and situates you in the right place in the scene – as a supporter of the Palestinian freedom fighters against the terrible Zionist occupier, something that can get you to another three big festivals. If you performed in Tel Aviv, apparently they’d do without you.”

    Thus at the end of last year, Acid Arab and Nicolas Jaar appeared in Haifa and Ramallah at parties produced by Jazar Crew, the only electronic collective in Israel that isn’t afraid to mix in politics.. So it surprised no one when Jazar received laudatory – and justified – coverage not only in Bar Peleg’s Haaretz piece but also in Resident Advisor.

    Is the party over?

    So are we seeing the onset of the electronic boycott of Tel Aviv, one of the world’s clubbing capitals? Well, the city is still a flourishing center of parties and club events every week. “ As of today it hasn’t yet happened that we’ve directly encountered an attempt by the cultural boycott to influence artists who are slated to appear at the club,” Trax says.

    “But we’re definitely seeing a change in the surrounding behavior. Nasty responses that people are leaving for a DJ who announced an upcoming gig with us have led to fewer famous DJs announcing appearances at the Block – even those who always promote themselves.”

    He notes a slowdown in the past two years. “A number of DJs who used to appear with us – Moodymann, Kyle Hall, the Martinez Brothers – have announced they won’t be returning, ” Trax says, referring to three American acts. “But there isn’t any set reason why. If the cultural boycott has an influence here I wouldn’t be surprised, because the Detroit junta is very political. And this also applies to UFO,” a successful British DJ and a high-profile voice in the European underground arena.

    Not all DJs who have chosen not to come to Israel have taken their stance amid the strengthening of the BDS movement. Some of the top people in the dance industry – including star Chilean-German DJ Ricardo Villalobos and British DJs and producers like Matthew Herbert and Andrew Weatherall – have for years been refusing to spin in Israel. They’ve made clear that this is their way of opposing Israel’s activities in the territories.

    Another great DJ, Tunisian-born Loco Dice who lives in Germany, is also considered a vocal opponent of Israel. But in December he played at the Block, and Trax doesn’t recall any signs that his guest was hostile to the country. This shows that a change of awareness works both ways.

    There’s a similar story: the decision by DJ Tama Sumo of the Berghain club in Berlin to play in Israel after a long boycott. She and her partner DJ Lakuti, a pillar of the industry, donated the proceeds of her Tel Aviv set to an organization for human rights in the territories.

    “As of now I don’t feel that the names who have decided to stop coming will change anything regarding the Block, because our lineup of VIPs isn’t based on them,” Trax says. “But if the more commercial cream of the clubs – DJs like Dixon, Ame and Damian Lazarus, or the big names in techno like Nina Kraviz, Ben Klock, Jeff Mills or Adam Beyer – change their minds, that will be a real blow to us, and not just us.”

    Amotz Tokatly, who’s responsible for bringing DJs to Tel Aviv’s Beit Maariv club, isn’t feeling much of a change. “The cancellations or refusals by DJs and artists based on a political platform didn’t begin just this year. I’ve been encountering this for many years now. There are even specific countries where we know the prevailing mood is political and tending toward the boycott movement. For example England. The rhetoric there is a priori much stronger,” Tokatly says.

    “But take Ben UFO, who has played in Tel Aviv in the past. When we got back to him about another spinning gig he said explicitly, ‘It simply isn’t worth it for me from a public relations perspective, and it could hurt me later on.’ DJs like him make their own calculations.”

    Tokatly doesn’t believe in a “Meteor effect” that will send the visiting DJ economy to the brink of an abyss. “I’m giving it a few weeks to calm down, and in the worst case we won’t be seeing here the level of minor league DJs who have canceled due to the circumstances,” he says.

    “In any case, they’re names who would have come here – if at all – once a year. Regarding artists who have a long-term and stable relationship with the local scene, we haven’t seen any change in approach yet.”

    Unlike Trax and Tokatly, Doron “Charly” Mastey of the techno duo TV.OUT and content director at Tel Aviv’s Alphabet Club says the recent goings-on haven’t affected him too much; his club is unusual in that doesn’t base itself on names from abroad.

    “I don’t remember any case of a refusal or cancellation because of political leanings,” he says. “But with everything that’s happening now regarding Meteor, and if that affects the scene down the road and the airlift to Tel Aviv stops, I’m not at all sure that’s a bad thing.”

    Mastey has in mind the gap between the size of the audience and the number of events, parties and festivals happening in Israel right now. “The audience is tired, and indifferent,” he says.. “And if this kick in the pants – of cancellations – is what’s going to dismantle the scene in its current format, then it will simply rebuild itself. I hope in a way that’s healthier for everyone.”

    In any case, if the rest of the world has realized that it’s impossible to separate politics from anything, and definitely not from club culture, which started out as a political and social movement, then the best thing we can do is try to hold the discussion in an inclusive a way as possible. An Israeli DJ working in Berlin who requested anonymity thinks that these ideas should be taken one step further.

    “Nowadays, for artists who want to go to Israel, two proposals are on the table,” he says. “Support the boycott or support the occupation. These two things are depicted even if they aren’t accurate, and between the two options there are a thousand more levels.”

    He believes there is scope for taking action. “The local scene must know how to fill the vacuum and craft alternatives to the boycott’s demands,” he says. “For example, by showing artists other ways to take a stand, whether by cooperating with Palestinians or suggesting that they donate the proceeds of their Tel Aviv appearances to a human rights group.”

    The voices calling for a cultural boycott of Israel, whether in sports, concerts or the subfield of electronic music, aren’t going to disappear. If anything, they’re only going to grow louder.

    Moreover, if we take into account the complexity of the conflict, maybe we should seek to communicate these insights in a way that drops the imagery of absolutes like left-right, bad-good, Zionist-anti-Semitic. The club culture exists to connect extremes, not separate people. Our demand to continue a vibrant electronic scene is just as legitimate as that of the boycott supporters’ attempts to create awareness.

    Even if we don’t agree with the idea of the boycott, it’s still possible to accept the realization that there are people who think differently – who want to perform for the other side as much as they want to perform for us. This doesn’t make them an existential danger.

    Moreover, as the Israeli DJ working in Berlin says, the Israeli scene needs an arsenal of proposals for constructive activism; it must provide alternatives to the BDS call to boycott – and not automatically flex an insulted patriotic muscle. This might not be the easiest thing to do, but hey, this is Israel. It’s not going to be easy.

    #Palestine #BDS #Boycott_culturel

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