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“Ma ”，a Chinese character for horse,is

the 13th most common family name in China,shared by nearly 17million people.That can cause no end of confusion when Ma s get to -gether,especially if those Ma s also share the same given name,as many Chinese do.1

“马”这个表示动物马的汉字，也是中国第十三大姓———有近1700万人姓“马”。要是许多姓马的人聚在一起，尤其当他们又同名时，就会造成无穷混乱，而在中国同名同姓司空见惯。

Ma Cheng ’s book -loving grandfather

came up with an elegant solution to this com -mon problem.Twenty -six years ago,when his granddaughter was born,he combed through his library of Chinese dictionaries and lighted upon a character pronounced “cheng ”.Cheng,which means galloping steeds,looks just like the character for horse,except that it is con -densed and written three times in a row.2

但马

饱读诗书的爷爷为解决这一常

见问题找到一妙招。二十六年前孙女出生时，爷爷搜肠刮肚，翻遍满书房的中文字典，目光落到一个读音为cheng 的汉字上：。

这个字意为“奔驰的骏马”，看起来正像“马”

字，只不过三个“马”字紧缩并列在一起。

For Ma Cheng and millions of others,

Chinese parents ’desire to give their children a spark of individuality is colliding head -on

with the Chinese bureaucracy ’s desire for or -der.Seeking to modernize its vast database on China ’s 1.3billion citizens,the government ’s Public Security Bureau has been replacing the handwritten identity card with a computer -read -able one,complete with color photos and em -bedded microchips.The new cards are harder to forge and can be scanned at places like airports where security is a priority.3

对于马

和千百万其他中国人来说，家

长们渴望赋予子女个性亮点的心愿与中国

官僚机构企盼秩序的意愿形成强烈的冲突。为使中国十三亿公民庞大数据库现代化，中国正在用一种可供计算机读取的新身份证来代替手写身份证。这种新一代身份证上有彩色照片，嵌入了微型芯片，很难伪造，而且可在机场之类的重要安检场所扫描识别。

The bureau ’s computers,however,are programmed to read only 32,252of the roughly 55,000Chinese characters,according to a 2006government report.The result is that Miss Ma and at least some of the 60million other Chi -nese with obscure characters in their names cannot get new cards —unless they change their names to something more common.

然而据2006年发布的一份报告，的电脑系统设置仅能识别大约55000个汉字中的32252个。这样一来，包括马小

Obscure Characters in Chinese Names

中国人名中的生僻字

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54

2011.07

College English

姐在内的至少六千万中国人因名字中含生僻字而无法获得新身份证———除非他们将自己的名字改为常见字。

Moreover,the situation is about to get worse or,in the government ’s view,better.Since at least 2003,China has been working on a stan -dardized list of characters for people to use in everyday life,including when naming chil -dren.One newspaper reported last week that the list would be issued later this year and would curb the use of obscure names.A gov -ernment linguistics official told Xinhua,the state -run news agency,that the list would in -clude more than 8,000characters.Although that is far fewer than the database now sup -posedly includes,the official said it was more than enough “to convey any concept in any field ”.4

而且情形可能越来越糟。不过在看情况会越来越好———因为至少从2003年起，中国就一直致力于编写一套规范汉字表，便于人们日常使用，包括给孩子起名。上周一家报纸报道，今年晚些时候将颁布这套汉字表，有效遏制用生僻字命名的现象。一名主管语言文字的对国家新闻机构新华社说，新的汉字表列出的汉字将超过8000个。虽然这一数目远远少于现有数据库可能包括的汉字，但这位表示，这些字足以“覆盖任何领域的任何概念”。

Government officials suggest that names have gotten out of hand,with too many parents picking the most obscure characters they can find or even making up characters,like lin -guistic fashion accessories.But many Chinese couples take pride in searching the rich archives of classical Chinese to find a distinc -tive,pleasing name,partly to help their chil -

dren stand out in a society with strikingly few surnames.5

一些指出，中国家长为子女取名就像为漂亮服装配时髦饰物，费心挑选最生僻的字眼，甚至不惜生造汉字，以至于五花八门的名字泛滥失控。许多中国夫妇仍为能从丰富的中国古典文献中找到一个与众不同、讨人喜欢的名字而引以为荣，因为在一个姓氏少得可怜的社会，标新立异的名字从某种程度上有助于子女出人头地。

By some estimates,100surnames cover 85percent of China ’s citizens.Laobaixing ,or

“old hundred names ”,is a colloquial term for

the masses.By contrast,70,000surnames cover 90percent of Americans.6

据估计，中国常用的100个姓氏覆盖了全国总人口的85%。“老百姓”，即“老用的一百个姓氏”，便是泛指广大民众的俗称。相比之下，美国覆盖全国人口90%的姓氏多达七万个。

翻译要点注解：

本文就中国姓氏中的生僻字做了报道分析。翻译时需要注意遣词用字、适当增词、结构调整及语气措辞的约定俗成。

1.注意用增词法译出as many Chinese do 中do 的具体含义。

2.comb through 搜寻遍；light upon 突然发

生，（目光）突然落到……。

3.collide head -on with 与……迎面碰撞/抵

触；embed 嵌入；forge 伪造。

4.standardized 规范的，标准的；curb 遏制，

勒住，控制。

5.

get out of hand 失控；fashion accessories

流行配饰（如胸针、项链等）；archives 档案，公文；distinctive 与众不同的；strik -

ingly few 少得惊人的。6.colloquial 口语的，通俗的。

大学

英语

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