Researches have shown that there are some common observations in the differences between English and Chinese narratives, and it's intriguing. Both exhibits the same structural template: an orientation, initiating and complicating events, a high point and a coda. The thing is, the delivery and presentation of a situation is particularly different in informative, narrative and evaluative senses:
- English writers adopt a more specific and elaborate approach in character identification, whereas Chinese writers tend to use non-specific references and are restrictive in giving information (by this notion, I assume that English writers favours description and elaborative detail; Chinese writers favour generalisation and minimal details).
- English writers use proper names to identify characters and explicit define relationships, whereas Chinese writers prefer using specific time orientation in narrating a story (emphasis on character development again for the Westerners).
- English writers focus a lot on the action of the characters using active phrases to develop the storyline, whereas Chinese writers highlight overt temporal sequence using temporal connectors for the same purpose (I'd say that English writers use characters as "chess pieces"; they actively influence how the game (i.e. the story) shall progress. Chinese writers use them as "elements" of a chain of events; characters are just details.)
- English writers compose texts which are implicitly presented, whereas Chinese writers compose them and incorporate moral statements often explicitly pointed out (I'd assume that English writers write to entertain the readers; Chinese writers write to impart messages of virtues.)
- In general, English writers are writer-responsible in providing more information elaboration, whereas Chinese writers are more reader-responsible in providing less information elaboration (English writers write what they want to write; Chinese writers write what the readers should read. Do I sense a tinge of censorship from the Chinese writers, and a tinge of freedom of speech from their English counterparts?)
For point 4), I'd insinuate that English writers write as a way to express themselves liberally. English writers tend to make a lot of controversy because of this; they don't write to please the readers. In fact, controversy is actually good because it sets the readers thinking and voicing out their counter-opinions. This may not be true for Chinese writers; they write, bearing in mind the readership that ensues post-publishing their work. Controversy isn't favoured for Chinese writers and readers (in fact, in Asia as well) because with controversy comes tension, and it's deemed undesirable. For point 5), English writers elaborate because the key here is visualisation through words. Think Twilight, written by American English writer Stephanie Meyers. Here's a sample of her writing style:
And then Edward stepped out from the trees, his skin faintly glowing, his eyes black and dangerous. He held up one hand and beckoned me to come to him. The wolf growled at my feet. I took a step forward, toward Edward. He smiled then, and his teeth were sharp, pointed.
Bella Swan, Twilight, Chapter 7, p.131
Meyers' writing style is known to be copious with vivid descriptions and active phrases, and she uses characters as the main driving force in developing the story. Meyers displaces herself from the story and lets protagonists take charge of it. Another famous author Stephen King has even rubbished her superfluous writing style by saying the following:
"It's exciting and it's thrilling and it's not particularly threatening because they're not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet."Her active, descriptive style is distinctive because readers don't just read her story; they actually watch it because her descriptive writing enables them to. It wouldn't have worked if she had adopted the Chinese narrative style.
Point 5) is also something for one to ponder over. Writers aren't restricted only to paper; think about writers of movies. Randomly pick a Chinese movie (i.e. movie written by a Chinese writer with a Chinese background). Chances are, you'll find that the movie would contain some sort of moral statements. Think Hero, Little Red Flowers, Fearless and even the upcoming Confucius. Now, think of an English movie (i.e. movie written by an American/English writer with a Western background). Chances are, you'll likely find a movie that's for merely entertainment. Even if it has a moral statement, it's masked so that it's intepretative.
I'm pondering on whether I should write for the topic on "Listener Responses". This is another topic that I feel like discussing in a separate entry.
This is a very informative post, with an interesting illustration of how English writers write their stories. I'm curious as to what kind of writing style Chinese writers would use in decribing similar scenes.
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