My Daughter from the West

By Xiao Xing

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

My Daughter from the West

By Xiao Xing

Translation by Zhu Yaguang

At midnight, when I was reading Records of the Historian by Sima Qian under a lamp, I received a fax from my foreign daughter-inlaw who was studying in Japan.She told me that she was going to take Flight 649 to Bangkok from Fukuoka tomorrow, and the estimated time of arrival would be 8:25 p.m. Beneath that was a signature of her Chinese name Xidi. Perhaps she’s afraid that I might not remember her English name. She even wrote my son’s name Xiaojian beside hers.

Looking at her signature, I smiled, feeling that it was never easy for a foreigner to learn Chinese. Although she wrote each stroke of the characters carefully,there were still minor mistakes.For example, she missed a dot under “艸 ” in her name “蒂 ”(di),and she also miswrote the vertical stroke in the character “小 ”(xiao)with a right hook instead of a left one. Still, I really appreciated her efforts in learning Chinese characters.

Upon receiving her fax, I woke my wife who was already snoring,and, after hearing about the news,she couldn’t fall asleep any more.She was thinking over what to cook for Xidi during her stay, and she turned to me for help. “Which dish do you think is better? This one or that one?” my wife asked.I hemmed and hawed around and didn’t answer her directly,because I was thinking of another interesting thing.

Last year, my son, Xiaojian,who was studying in Japan, told me that he was getting engaged to his schoolmate, Xidi, from New Zealand. So my wife and I took a flight to Fukuoka to attend their engagement party, and my son and his fiancée came to pick us up at the airport. She had long blonde hair, a high nose, fair complexion, and light blue eyes that were much bigger than those of Asians.

On the day of their engagement,quite a few of their classmates and Professor Fujino came to the party. Mostly, the guests spoke Japanese and English,but sometimes a few Chinese words could be heard. My wife and I were deeply impressed by the way Xidi dressed herself that day. Rather than wearing the sort of sexy clothing that would show her cleavage, she wore a red Chinese cheongsam with alarge peony embroidered on the front, and she even had a fringe of hair hanging over her forehead. With such a gentle and elegant appearance, she had fully displayed the charm of an eastern beauty.

深夜，我在燈下閱讀司馬遷的《史記》，突然，接到在日本留學的洋媳婦的傳真，說她明天從福岡搭649次班機，到達曼谷時間是20點25分，而且用中文簽上自己的名字：西蒂。也許她生怕我忘記她的名字，還寫上我孩子的名字：小堅。

我看了她的簽名，不禁笑起來，覺得洋人學中文可不容易啊。她的簽名一筆一畫地認真寫了，但還是漏東錯西，如“蒂”字，漏掉在草字頭下的一點；“小”字，正中間的一畫是向左勾的，她卻向右勾。但對她這種肯學中文的精神，我還是十分賞識的。

接到傳真，我搖醒正在打鼾的老伴。老伴得此消息，再也睡不著。她在考慮做什么好吃的給媳婦，時不時問我：“做這種菜好，還是那種菜好？”我只是支支吾吾，因為自己腦子里正在想另一件有趣的事。

去年，在日本留學的兒子小堅，要與新西蘭的留學生西蒂訂婚。我與老伴坐飛機到日本福岡，到飛機場接我們的，有孩子和未來的洋媳婦。她披著過肩的金黃色長發，高高的鼻梁，白皙的皮膚，雙眼比黃種人的大，眼睛淡藍色。

訂婚那天，來了許多同學，還有藤野教授。他們有時說日語，有時說英語，還夾著一兩句中國話。西蒂那天的打扮，大大出乎我倆的意料，她穿的并不是西方女人展露乳溝的性感服裝，而是一套中國式的紅旗袍，胸前還繡著一朵大牡丹，梳的是額前有劉海兒的發型，看去既窈窕，又含蓄，具有東方人的風韻美。

訂婚儀式上，孩子和媳婦跪在我與老伴跟前合十禮拜。我與老伴共同把一條帶四銖重鑲鉆十字吊墜的金項鏈掛在媳婦頸上，她抬起頭用不純正的中國話高興地說：“謝謝，爸爸，媽媽。”然后想了一下，又說：“假如今后我與小堅離婚了，我會把這條項鏈還給你們。”我思想毫無準備，聽了這話，好像傻了似的，不知如何對答，幸虧我的兒子也喝過“洋墨水”，懂得洋人的風俗，馬上在旁代我們回答：“當然。”

這件事深深地印在我的腦海里。每當想起它，總覺得西洋人那種敢袒露內心真情的性格，也有可愛之處。

這次西蒂單獨到泰國來探親，因為兒子正幫助藤野先生搞一項重要的科研，抽不出時間和她一起來。

我們全家到廊曼機場接她。她與我老伴見面，高興得互相親吻起來。我把一串茉莉花環掛在她的頸上，她合十敬拜說：“謝謝，爸爸。”然后拿到鼻上一聞，用普通話說，“啊，好香呢。”

At the engagement ceremony,my son and his fiancée knelt before me and my wife, and they bowed to us while pressing their palms in a Zen gesture. Then my wife and I hung a gold necklace with a diamond cross pendant that weighed about eight grams around Xidi’s neck. “Thank you,Dad and Mom,” she said happily in Chinese with a strong accent,but after thinking for a moment,she added, “If Xiaojian and I divorce each other, I will give the necklace back to you.”

I didn’t expect to hear such an answer, so I was a little shocked and didn’t know what to say. Luckily, my son, who had received a Western education and understood Western culture,answered for us at once. “Sure,”he said.

Whenever I thought about this, I always felt that Westerners were admirable to be able to speak their innermost feelings.

The reason why Xidi came to visit us this time in Thailand by herself was because my son was assisting Professor Fujino with important research and didn’t have time to come along.

The next day, my family went to pick her up at Don Mueang International Airport. As soon as we met, Xidi and my wife kissed each other happily. After I hung a jasmine wreath around her neck,she pressed her palms in prayer and said, “Thank you, Dad.”Then she sniffed at it and said in Chinese, “Oh, it’s so fragrant.”

“Xidi, your Mandarin is very good now,” I said approvingly.

“No, it’s not good enough,” she said, waving her hand.

When we met for the fi rst time,she’d carried a pocket dictionary in her hand. Whenever she wanted to speak a Chinese sentence, she would look up the words in the dictionary and combine them together.Therefore, I asked her, “Have you brought your dictionary with you?”

She replied honestly, “Sure.I’ve brought two this time.Yígè (one) English-Chinese dictionary and yígè (one)Japanese-Chinese dictionary.”

I smiled and corrected her,“In Chinese, you can use either běn or bù as the classifier of a dictionary, but not gè.”

And she said, “Oh, I forgot.”

After arriving home, she handed out presents to everyone,which made them happy. And then, she specif i cally gave me and my wife 100,000 Japanese yen each.

On the third night, Xidi, my wife, and I went shopping at Big C Supermarket. I pushed the shopping cart and put in everything that we wanted to buy. At the counter, Xidi immediately took everything that belonged to her out of the shopping cart. When I prepared to pay for everything together,she hurriedly waved her hands and said, “I must pay for my own stuff.”

During her stay in Thailand,she asked me to teach her Chinese at night. Of course, I agreed at once. “How much should I pay you for one hour?” she asked.

I was stunned, as I wasn’t prepared for such a question, so a moment later I said, “Nothing. It’s free.”

But she said seriously, “Dad, if you do not charge money, then I can’t learn it well.”

“Why?” I asked, puzzled.

“Because I can’t put all my heart into it if it’s free.” At last,she insisted on paying 5,000 yen per hour to me, which was the same as that of learning Chinese in Japan.

Every night, she attended the class on time and finished exactly when one hour was up.Once I taught her for one and a half hours, and she insisted on paying the extra half to me. I tried to change her mind, but she refused. Knowing that it was part of Western culture, I accepted it eventually, but I thought that I could return the money to her via a farewell gift.

On the night before Xidi’s departure, I invited all our family members to my home to have a farewell party for her. The big family sitting around our dining table had three different skin colors, which were yellow,black and white, as well as three different hair colors, which were black, blonde and grey.Half-jokingly, I said, “We are a big family with members from different countries and races.”

Xidi smiled and said with a thumbs-up, “A mini United Nations!”?

(From The Secret inside a Bamboo Pole, Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House)

我贊許說：“西蒂，你的中國普通話講得很不錯了。”

“不行，不行。”她邊笑邊擺著手說。

我記得，第一次見面，她手里拿著小字典。要講一句中國話，她得先查字典，然后按字典的發音，合拼成一句話。因此，這次我問她：“帶字典來了嗎？”她天真地回答說：“帶來了，這次還帶了兩個呢，一個是英漢字典，一個是日漢字典。”我笑著糾正說：“字典不叫一個，而是叫一本或一部。”她忙答：“是，我忘了。”

到了家里，她給每人一件禮物，全家皆大歡喜。她還特意給我與老伴每人十萬日元。

第三天傍晚，我們和西蒂到博大超級市場買東西。我推著車，凡要買的東西都一一放進車里。等我推車到結賬處，西蒂馬上把自己選購的東西從車里拿出來。我要把她的東西一起結賬，一起付錢。她忙擺著手勢說：“這是我買的東西，應該我付錢。”

在泰國逗留期間，晚上，她要我給她補習中文。當然，我滿口答應了。可是她問我：“教一個鐘頭收多少錢？”我毫無思想準備，傻了片刻才回答：“不收錢，不收錢。”她卻很認真地說：“爸爸，你不收錢，我就學不懂了。”我疑惑地問：“為什么？”她說：“不收錢，就會不認真學嘛。”她硬要按在日本教中文每小時五千日元付給我。

每晚，她是準時上課，也準時下課的，一分鐘也不差。有一次，我多教半小時，她一定要多付給半小時的錢。按她們西方的習慣，我推也推不掉，只好都收了。我想，收了這些錢，等她返回時買成禮物送給她。

西蒂就要返回日本了，臨行的頭天晚上，我把家里人都叫齊，在家里開了個餞行的晚會。圍坐在席上的家族，有黃皮膚、黑皮膚、白皮膚；頭上的毛，有黑毛、金毛、白毛。我半開玩笑說：“我們的家是個不分國籍、不分種族的大家庭。”西蒂莞爾一笑，蹺起大拇指說：“是個家庭聯合國。”?

洋媳婦拾趣

文/曉星 譯/朱亞光

（摘自《竹竿里的秘密》四川文藝出版社）