Katherine S and Tam's discussion
than1
May 18, 2008, 01:14 PM posted in General Discussionhey, I've been looking at the 'lovers spat' dialogue and I reckon their whole argument is just because of their miscommunication. Zhang Liang says 'wo zhen gao bu dong nu ren' showing that he doesn't understand how the female brain works as he can't see any logic to Lily's shopping habits. I think that Lily really starts the fight when she says 'ni bu nai fan le, bu xiang pei wo le', but Zhang Liang trys to avoid a fight by telling her that he is most happy every dey when he is with her. I think we could use strong characterisation for both Lily and Zhang Liang, especially as Lily's bad mood is obvious when she says 'ni shuo huang'. The last line 'ni zi ji qu' has a lot of attitude in it, so I think Lily would pronounce it in a harsh and hurtful manner. Maybe for the staging of it, Zhang Liang can be sitting down while Lily thinks about the clothes, and then when the argument heats up, he'll stand. Just let me know what you think!
kshe
May 18, 2008, 03:39 PMGrowing Affections - this dialogue is good for showing us how to woo someone, I will look forward to seeing this one be performed ;) Zhang Liang continues his flirting, creating a reason for him to work her home, despite her being polite and saying he shouldn't inconvenience himself: so that he knows where to come pick her up to take her to work. There's some pretty funny flirting involving him complimenting her eyelashes though she gaves away the secret to them by telling him she wears mascara - i get the feeling Lily is an honest, no beating around the bush sort of girl. This is emphasised when she is not completely blown away by his admission "the worst part of my day is leaving you" (very colin firth in love actually cough cough)
The Jealous Friend- some more awkwardness in this dialogue with Lily's jealous friend, who declares at dinner that Zhang Liang and Lily are the type of people that value lovers over friends. Useful words in this include the discussion over lobster (long2 xia1) and use of xiang zhe as we discussed a couple of weeks ago. There is also a hint of something wrong - the friend says Lily is 'always complaining' - is the friend Jingjing just stirring or does Lily feel very annoyed in the relationship by him always being busy??
kshe
May 18, 2008, 03:57 PMLove Letter -this bit of the play shows us lots more about the dynamic of the relationship, and the characters of the two main people. Lily seems to be caring about Zhang Liang as she takes an interest in his health and says he needs to take vitamins, but Zhang Liang ruins it with his cheesey line about her being exactly his best vitamin. She also seems not completely enthusiatic regarding his comment of her being the only person in his heart. She values honesty while he seems to be quite the sweet-talker
A Guy's Advice on Women: this scene features a pretty in depth discussion of how Zhang Liang feels about what is going on between Lily and her ex-boyf that Zhang Liang has with his 'brother' (old friend) Zhen Hua. Interesting bit from this lesson is the use of bi in 我们怎么和他比 - it is used to directly mean 'compare', whereas previously we have used it with 'jiao' to mean comparetively speaking. Some discussion about what women want occurs, and Zhang Liang a bit negatively proclaims 我有时候甚至觉得配不上她 - i stometimes think i am not good enough for her
Scheming Girls features Lili’s jealous friend finding out that one of her friends is Zhang Liang’s co-worker and finds him attractive. Jingjing is pretty devious and not a very good friend because she even tries to encourage Feifei to ask Zhang Liang out for a meal or drink! 各方面条件, 光啊 and 挑光 are some good new vocabs
kshe
May 18, 2008, 04:10 PMThe Come on - this last bit shows us Li Fei trying to flirt with Zhang Liang one night late at work. She's pretty clear with her intentions, stating all his good qualities 我看你不但幽默、体贴，还很有责任心, "I think you are not only humorous, considerate, but have a sense of reponsibility" and also discussing the reasons behind relationships - that they should be based on the feelings between each other - not material things. It expands upon stuff featured in A Guy's Advice on Women when the men discuss what the average woman wants in a relationship,
Back to Lover's Spat! We have to work out what props we are going to use and how we are going to present it. obviously we need several items of clothing to hold up etc. I like the idea of Zhang sitting down then getting up. Maybe we could have him sitting in the clothes shop looking extremely bored. Oh, and I think I might have to disagree with you about who starts it - although Lily does say "well, speak up!" which just pushed him over the edge while he was already annoyed - it is he who says 你喜欢就买吧 which I think is a bit rude!
It was good having a read-through last week but I think we need to start work on blocking it. Can we meet sometime Tuesday morning?
than1
May 19, 2008, 01:04 AMHey Kat, wow thanks for typing that up! I've been thinking about how we should block it and here are some of my ideas: At the beginning where Lily is thinking about the clothes and asking Zhang Liang's opinion, I think he shouldn't even look at what she is showing him before he answers 挺好的. This shows that he is totally uninterested in the shopping trip and has no patience when it comes to shopping.
When Lily gets annoyed and angry such as in 你不耐烦了, I think she should walk closer to where he is sitting and look down at him (trying to intimidate him + physically showing her dominance of the situation) and then when Zhang Liang exclaims 丽丽，怎么会呢？, his rise to his feet also shows the rise in conflict in the situation and the increasing tension between the couple. Throughout their argument, however, they should distance themselves from each other, showing the distance between their views.
At the end of the dialogue, I think Zhang Liang should come over to Lily and put his hand on his arm or something as a gesture to try to resolve their fight, but Lily should brush his hand away and mutter 你自己去. Oh, and we should definately use heaps of hand gestures (like in the picture on Chinesepod!)
Yep Tuesday is good, I have a break between 10 and 1, so just let me know when your free!
kshe
May 19, 2008, 08:57 AMHey Tam, I am free then as well so we that would be a great time to practise! Meet you in front of Fisher at 10?
Those ideas for the presentation of our scene are great! I think now we can start focusing on that and our fluency - I think we should especially take note of the proper pausing and how to pronounce certain phrases from the Chinesepod recording in order to sound natural and fluent! Lets try and have our dialogues memorised by the end of this week :)
kshe
May 24, 2008, 06:26 PMHi again Tam, it was great to go to your house the other night and practise the dialogues. I think we've made good progress with 'Lover's Spat' in terms of our actions and fluency, now we just need to focus on The Come-On. I think the props will work well to make it seem more real! I will hopefully post again before i see you for our tuesday practise.
kshe
May 18, 2008, 03:31 PMHey Tam, those are some great suggestions. I think we definitely should play up the characterisation - all the emotions in the play are so tumoltuous and over dramatic after all.
Anyway here is the translation we did last week of the other bits of the play (sorry if its a bit brief...I just typed it all up and clicked add reply and it didnt post!! :( so frustrating) lets have a second go..
A Fated Meeting -this first meeting is a bit awkward, but we see the introduction of the two characters Lily and Zhang Liang. They have some things in common - they both drink mochas, and some differences as well - Zhang Liang has to work a lot later than Lily does. There is also the start of maybe some flirting by Zhang Liang when he says "I really like the people on this forum, especially..." before he is cut off by Lily saying their drinks are ready. I believe he was going to say that he liked her especially!
An Old Flame- in this dialogue, Lily bumps into an old friend, who has made it big and we later discover used to be her boyfriend. Its very ironic, as this ex-boyfriend she sees (as does Zhang Liang) just so happens to be an internet billionaire whose business is listed on the US stock exchange - quite funny, considering Zhang Liang and Lily met and chat online. This seems to be an underlying theme running through the play...