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The Non-linguistic Context
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
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The Non-linguistic Context A goo d numbe r o f Englis h nurser y rhyme s lik e 'Thre e Blin d Mice' or 'Little Jack Horner' refe r i n a veiled fashion t o political events, using th e for m a s a cover . Thi s techniqu e i s similar t o that employe d b y Theocritu s an d other s afte r hi m whe n the y made use of the allegorical pastoral form . In what may well be the best known of our songs, Song No. 21, towards the end we find thes e lines: The boat has no bottom. It sinks, drowning two boys . In an earlier version the two victims are fan gwai or literally 'foreign devils' , a derogator y ter m fo r Westerners . Th e us e o f the ter m suggest s thi s versio n wa s curren t i n th e 18t h o r 19t h Centuries* The choice of victims reflects feelings o f xenophobi a and possibl y aversion t o foreign invasio n and oppression , feel ings whic h probabl y ros e t o a heigh t a t th e en d o f th e Chin g Dynasty. A late r version , curren t fro m th e Sino-Japanes e war , replaces fan gwai with 'Japanese' , which reflect s th e fierce anti Japanese sentiment s o f th e nerio d I t is interesting t o note tha t one subjec t takin g par t i n ou r researc h projec t deliberatel y changed 'foreig n devils ' t o 'som e children' , tellin g th e inter viewer she did not approve of racism. The song s reflec t bot h th e natura l environmen t a s well a s the cultur e an d societ y whic h produce d them , whic h i n tur n helped t o mould an d shap e th e song s an d t o ensur e thei r sur vival . The song s ar e ful l o f animal s familia r t o a n agricultura l community — cows , pigs , cats , dogs , horses , geese , chicken s laying eggs , rooster s crowing , capon s an d mice . Insect s lik e cicadas, dragonflies an d grasshopper s als o find thei r wa y int o the songs , and thei r movement s an d habit s ar e sometime s de scribed wit h a degre e o f precisio n base d o n clos e observation . This precision i s combined wit h whimsy. For example, in Song * M . Chan and H. Kwok, A Study of LexicalBorrowing fromChinese into English, Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1985, p. 233. 28 Fossils from a Rural Past No. 33, the song beginning 'Here is a new and novel tale', the fly is describe d a s clappin g hi s hand s an d th e dragonfl y i n th e original Chinese version is heard t o be making a noise like /dz i dza/. Th e vegetatio n mentione d i n th e song s i s typica l o f th e South Chin a countryside , wit h peach-blosso m trees , bambo o twigs, chrysanthemums , banya n trees , an d hibiscu s flowers. Rice appears in its many different forms , as seedlings, as plants, as unhusked grains , as cooked rice , and a s the burnt ric e stick ing t o th e botto m o f a pot . Othe r cultivate d plant s an d vege tables include lychees, winter-melons, squashes, eggplants, and olives. The chrysanthemum appears , because it is indigenous t o the South , but th e absenc e o f establishe d literar y symbol s lik e the wu tung o r the mandarin drake and duck suggests the songs are innocent of strong literary influences . The moo n figure s prominentl y i n th e songs , probabl y be cause its presence was s o powerfully fel t i n the evening, whe n the famil y woul d gathe r togethe r afte r a day' s har d work . Streams, hills, and fallin g rai n provid e a backdrop fo r huma n and animal activities. The artefacts mentioned ar e everyday objects...