鏗鏘紫羅蘭 – 我的坐牢日記: Li Junjie Has Book on Prostitute Prison Days
Clang Goes the Violet Snare – My Prison Diaries by Li Junjie
李俊杰: 《鏗鏘紫羅蘭－我的坐牢日記》
To Hell, that’s Malaysia, and Back
About a week after Li Junjie (李俊杰, above, Oriental Daily photo), a Beijing student in Malaysia, was picked up on a December day in 2009 as a prostitute then imprisoned, Ma Yanhong another visiting Chinese was also arrested and thrown into the Dang Wangi (in Kuala Lumpur) police station cell. She was on the same accusation: prostitution. But Ma was lucky. She knew a friend who knew Teresa Kok who, after she was alerted, then pulled strings with one of Hishamuddin’s senior secretary. After some phone calls from Teresa, Ma was released five days later.
Li wasn’t so lucky; she got eight. This was plainly because she is Chinese and was alone without influential and political connections. Li knew no friend of any friend of any Umno bigwig so the arresting police officer told her to get her education elsewhere and get out of “my Malaysia”.
Three months later, unable to resist his own urgings, Josh Hong wrote in Malaysiakini to join in castigating her with the same racism, the same irrationality, the same contradictions and perversity that Li got from the police. Essentially Josh said Li should stop whining, for the police are just doing their job. Because the police also arrest Africans they can’t be racist. Besides – and here Josh lied, one of many – the police said sorry.
Eight days for anybody – especially for a woman in a strange town – is traumatic. Fifteen months later, it appears she hadn’t gotten over her experience although Li had attempted to exorcise the ghost of arbitrary imprisonment in her blog posts. That might still not work. Now, it is in a book.
There is no suggestion from Li that her kengqiang ziluolan - wo de zuolao riji 《鏗鏘紫羅蘭－我的坐牢日記》 is an indictment against the barbarity of Malaysian police or against Malaysian-style apartheid racism and bigotry found in abundance in the pages produced by Steven Gan’s Malaysiakini and Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia Today. To avoid any semblance of moral judgement she would have to rely heavily on her craft and call on the serenity of hanzi, the Chinese script.
One of the strengths of Chinese culture is in the Arts – theater, dance, literature and poetry, music and song, painting.* And it’s by culling from the depths of that Art that Li would have drawn portraits of her life for eight days in, of all places, sweaty and fetid Kuala Lumpur and that in a police cell.
In her blog, Li writes poetry, lots of it, a feat in quality and quantity unmatched by all the Anglophile Chinese, so-called ‘writers’ in Malaysiakini and elsewhere in Malaysia stacked up. Even when it’s plain prose, her writing has a lyrical density (with no way to verify, non-Chinese readers here will have take shuzheng’s word for it). Kwong Wah (光華日報), which has interviewed her for the book’s pre-release marketing, calls her a poet.
The Chinese language is, on the other part, unlike English, neither combative nor argumentative. In proper hands, its allusive and metaphorical qualities seem as if Shakespearian type of English is still an everyday language.
All which then suggests that the book is going to be, as Li had herself described it, “heavy” going. It starts from the book cover. Its title kengqiang ziluolan – wo de zuolao riji 《鏗鏘紫羅蘭－我的坐牢日記》 translates as, A Sonorous Violet – My Prison Diary. (There’s, however, no formal translation given.) But this still fails to capture the nuance in Li’s original idea.
Start with keng 鏗 (new style 铿), which on its own translates as ‘strike’ whereas qiang 鏘 means ‘clang’. This still isn’t quite right because qiang and not ‘clang’ is the actual sound that’s re-produced when a Chinese cymbal is struck. Meaning, the word is untranslatable. It gets worse. Once the two character-words are paired the popular translation says ‘sonorous’ or ‘resounding’, which adds the idea of an echo that isn’t in the original.
This problem of jumbled up nuances going with translation and interpretation is repeated in the three syllable ziluolan.
One way out of the predicament is to reorder the script to translate the nuance rather than title’s sequential, literary meaning by pulling together some essential images of a prison cell, such as the clang of the steel bars and the jangle of the keys in the lock. Hence, in the English, the title could read, Clang Goes the Violet Snare – My Prison Diaries.
Because of the difficulties with the language Li has spoken of revising 《鏗鏘紫羅蘭》, though only slightly, the manuscript for the Malaysian and New Zealand Chinese markets. Curiously, it will appear only as a three-volume Chinese set (S$39 or RM100); there is no talk yet of an English version.
The book is due for release next month by its Singapore publisher. Li had been well-advised not to publish or launch the book out of Malaysia. Malaysians are a vindictive, crass people and Josh Hong, courtesy of Malaysiakini, along with its Anglophile mob, would probably hound and nail her to his Jesus cross as a bitch better to be kicked out of the country. Malaysia boleh, Joshie lagi boleh. She has told reporters she’s done with her courses and would return soon to the motherland where her father still doesn’t know she had been imprisoned as a prostitute. It almost seems as if she’s been to hell – and back.
Li doesn’t need Josh Hong or Malaysiakini. Elsewhere and all over the Chinese online sites, they are backing her: in China News, in Sina, in China Review (大馬被誤扣留 中國女作家出書揭內幕) and in NOW (曾被大馬警方當妓女扣押 中國女作家出書揭秘).
Politically, Li showed the way for the Chinese in Malaysia: they could emerge stronger from the hell hole that’s Malaysia without Teresa Kok. And if they can do without Teresa, why would they need the DAP?
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*The Art of dinuhua 帝女花
To comprehend the depth and richness of Chinese art, consider one of its signature theatrical productions, dinuhua 帝女花; its longer title is Death’s Fragrance of Princess Chang Ping.
The background of the story is circa 1600 when China was invaded by the northern barbarians. One of the last Ming emperors had died suddenly in the aftermath, and her daughter finds that her scheduled wedding turns into a funeral wake. Her betrothal must decide: proceed with the wedding, which is to die by suicide with the princess, or call it off. The concluding song in the theater production is, in effect, a dialectical conversation between the pair, who lay out the reasons and arguments for choosing the wedding, which is death.
Since then multiple versions in various genres have emerged from the same play. The consequent effect has been the evolution of a part of Chinese history, surviving to this day, into theater, drama, opera, music, song and dance, unrivaled by any or the best of western art. Throughout, history provides the setting for a deep humanistic Confucian culture, underscored by the virtues of filial piety, allegiance to state, and honour to spouse. (In this, one can see why and how, through the Arts, documented Chinese history – and not some cockamamie books of wacky Arab and White man gods, the so-called ‘People of The Book’ – actually write, supply and infuse the ethical foundations of the Chinese.)
Videos below, from past to most recent, are multiple genres in the rendering of dinuhua, beginning with a segment from a Cantonese film version, 1959 (?) (Overlook the English translation because it does no justice to the exquisite quality of the original hanzi.)
Below is another example of an ethical culture passing from a historical event – construction of the Great Wall – through Art into literary prose, painting and, circa 2,300 years later, into song sung by Tong Li 童丽. The primary historical character is again a woman, Meng Jiangnu 孟姜女 or simply Meng Jiang. At the site of the construction, she searches for her husband who had been conscripted for work and hadn’t returned home since. When at last she found him among some rubble, he had been dead from physical exhaustion. (The video traces snatches of the plot line from home to eventual death.)
Third sample work. The clip below is the song 月满西楼, the lyrics of which were lifted in its entirety from its name-sake poem by the Song era woman poet 李清照 Li Qingzhao (d. 1155 AD). Two technical elements in the poem deserve mention: (a) its four-line metrical and rhythmic structure in its precise script word count, and (b) the exquisitely abstract quality of the script text. Upon bundling structure and text, the entire poem could be rendered into music – and this is a class of its own in the art and literary world.
The poem/lyric is reproduced below – and this Li Junjie’s kind of tea. (Double click on the clip takes you to the YouTube page which contains a stab – brave attempt there – at the English translation):
李清照
月满西楼
紅藕香殘 玉簟秋
輕解羅裳 獨上蘭舟
云中誰寄 錦書來
雁字回時 月滿西樓
花自飄零 水自流
一种相思兩處閒愁
此情無計 可消除
才下眉頭卻上心頭
卻上心頭
紅藕香殘 玉簟秋
輕解羅裳 獨上蘭舟
云中誰寄 錦書來
雁字回時 月滿西樓
花自飄零 水自流
一种相思兩處閒愁
此情無計 可消除
才下眉頭卻上心頭
卻上心頭
花自飄零 水自流
一种相思兩處閒愁
此情無計 可消除
才下眉頭卻上心頭
卻上心頭
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From Kwong Wah (光華日報), report dated Mar 25, 2011:
声称坐冤狱李俊杰 坐牢日记料下月面市
二零一一年三月二十五日 凌晨十二时二十二分（吉隆坡24日讯）两年前声称坐冤狱的中国女诗人李俊杰，自费把８天坐牢日记结集付印，预料下月面市。
李俊杰接受《光华日报》访问时说，《铿锵紫罗兰－－我的坐牢日记》一册三部，在新加坡出版，首轮印刷1000册，每册定价39新元（约100令吉）。
她曾是本报专栏作者，她说，初步阶段，以冷玉为笔名的《铿》书将只在马来西亚及狮城整册出售，而在中国方面，由于顾及书中内容，因此将稍作修改，并且只推出上部。
“目前，我在找着马新两国的书商接洽，希望我的作品尽快与大家见面。”
询及《铿》书内容，她强调，内容是陈述事发经过，尤其是下半部，有歌颂大马的真善美一面，而不尽是一味抨击大马警察。
她透露，自从在部落格停写坐牢日记后，许多网友及读者都回帖表示支持，要她写下去，所以盛情难却，就把8天的坐牢经历，以及获释后遇到之事，全部收录在《铿》。
李俊杰叙述，刚到大马的第一年时，曾与数名朋友到马六甲游玩，途中遇上车子轮胎泄气，却幸好得到警员相助。
“当时我们遇上一名男警员，他眼看我们几位女生落魄的样子，就立即致电给几名同僚前来帮忙更换轮胎，我们才能以继续行程。”
她强调，尽管无辜收押在扣留所，然而并非每名警员都是坏的，况且自己确实得过友善警员的相助，所以《铿》不是在抨击我国警员。
不是每位中国子是妓女
她希望读者看过《铿》书后，能客观看待中国女子，而不是每位来马的中国女子都是妓女。
询及是否担心《铿》书再次遭到网友两极化的抨击，李俊杰说，凡事没有完美，但希望读者看后了解书中内容，因为《铿》书有入狱经过，也有出狱后的点点滴滴，如媒体的追访、武吉阿曼警察总部的认真接受投诉等等。
她希望读者对《铿》书抱着客观态度阅读，理智分析，平心而论，不好有过激语言。
父母不知爱女出书 不敢告诉父亲自己入狱
父母不知爱女出书，为父者更不知女儿枉进扣留所。
李俊杰说，父亲性格较暴燥，要是知道她在国外入狱，一定会火冒三丈，所以她至今隐瞒实情，不敢相告。
她透露，母亲是在电视新闻上得知她的冤情，所以她在回国后向母亲表态纯粹误会，尽量解释，避免忧心忡忡。
不管怎样，她说，现在把坐牢日记结集出版，根本是瞒着家人，避免再惹担心。
她说，在中国有一半的朋友支持她出书，其余则表示担心。
“不管是支持还是担心，我知道这都是出于关心。”
不向往浪漫爱情 女诗人想过安定生活
女诗人不向往浪漫爱情，回国后将过安定生活。
李俊杰说，她会在本周内回中国，寻找一份稳定工作，也会依照父母意愿，组织家庭。
她说，少女时期，对爱情总是充满憧憬，但历练一定的人生过程，才觉得浪漫爱情不代表真实，生活总要踏踏实实地过。
提及择偶条件，李俊杰说，一切随缘，但对象以中国男子优先，“双亲在，不远行”，尽量嫁得不离父母太远。
询及牢中之友，她说，这些同乡回国后，多数已转行，例如从事美容、理发，过着朴实日子。
中国画送女警 寄意尊重入牢中国女
中国画送女警，寄意尊重入牢的中国女子。李俊杰说，她为自己的第二本著作《铿锵紫罗兰－－我的坐牢日记》设计封面，一位女子身袭白色连身裙，眯着双眸项背迎风，长发飘逸，正面是一朵朵绽放的紫罗兰。
“《铿》书书名灵感取自于希腊神话的女神维纳斯，她因为情人送行，泪珠滴落到泥土上，过后开出一朵朵紫罗兰。”
她仿如感受那种凄楚地说：“当我身系牢狱时，因为恐惧而几度哭泣，却需继续咬紧牙根，坚持面对。”
昔日的际遇，造就今日的灵感，这便是《铿》书书名来源。李俊杰说，一名曾看守她的女警看了《铿》书封面的女生图画，心有灵犀，仿如看见中国女子。这此，她准备把这帧图画送予，希望对方尊重及体谅每位入狱的中国女子。
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李俊杰: 这里并不安全,一种变态的国家
归来吧! 已经春天
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