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Speaking in the imperial tongue

By Tsering Namgyal

Tsering Namgyal Photographer unknown

I have always wondered how do the Tibetan diplomats when they go to meet with the higher ups in Beijing communicate with their counterparts. As far as I know, it is the rare official in China who speaks any English, let alone Tibetan, while most of the Tibetan representatives are not really conversant in Mandarin.

The necessity of a common language cannot be stressed highly enough. The clichéd argument goes that the translators can always be made available and all that but due to the fundamental structural differences between the English and the Chinese language — two very different linguistic and semantic systems — much is often lost in translation. Subtleties, nuances and gestures, are left unexpressed, if not mistranslated, and diplomacy suffers.

Mandarin is a rather abstract, oblique and imprecise language. It is open to multiple interpretations, and highly contextual. In other words, it is the perfect diplomatic language. Thus the knowledge of the Chinese language is often considered as a key criteria for success in China. It is on the top of the list of any Western corporate executive hired in China. Few would be able to function with any degree of efficiency in China or in Taiwan without speaking the native tongue.

Most Western journalists speak Mandarin fluently, most of them having learnt the language either in the Western universities or in Taiwan, the most common springboard — for journalists, businessmen and academics — before taking the plunge into China.

It is therefore not very surprising that Tibetan envoys often come back complaining how difficult it is to communicate with the Chinese officials. They often say that we “disagreed fundamentally,” “a sense of misperception exists between the two sides,” and “the unbridgeable gulf” and all that.

Of course, there are differences, big and small. But one of the problems it seems is the lack of a shared vocabulary between the two sides and thus the absence of even an iota of breakthrough in more than their dozen tours of China. It is quite intriguing for me. Do they kowtow at the imperial court? Or do they merely shake hands (remember, Chinese usually don’t shake hands)? Do they speak to each other in Chinese or in English, or in German, for at least one of the envoys was almost exclusively educated in Switzerland. Do they dress up in traditional dress or in Western suits?

Back in Dharamshala, however, the press conference was conducted almost exclusively in English but the envoys were dressed in traditional Tibetan dress. The chief envoy Lodi Gyari said since he had lost his voice on the day, he would have the statement read by Thubten Samphel, the spokesperson of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Samphel, dressed in a jacket, obliged dutifully. He read the document in flawless English as one might expect from a writer who published a four-hundred page novel in English last year. Two assistants, Bhuchung K Tsering and Tenzin P Atisha looked from behind, in traditional garb.

Indian freedom fighters, from Gandhi to Nehru, all educated and called at bar in England, spoke the language of the colonizer with great proficiency. Both Nehru and Gandhi were fine writers of the English prose, notably the former’s much-hailed speech delivered on the day of the Indian independence, Tryst with Destiny, often considered as perhaps the most polished piece to have emerged out of the Indo-British encounter.

Yet it is difficult to think of a Tibetan politician, political activist, or a negotiator who could speak compellingly in the language of the colonizer — let alone write back to the Chinese empire, with the exception of some writers and poets in China.

Personally, one of the greatest advantages that proficiency in Mandarin gives me is the ability to speak directly to the Chinese students, and communicate with them in their native tongue. The lack of common language between the Chinese and Tibetan negotiators is not helping the diplomacy.

Frankly speaking, nothing boosts your ego more than hearing someone speak to you in your own language: it is really the highest form of flattery I can ever think of. Imagine a foreigner conversing with you in Tibetan.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the great big powers go to colonize, so that they can have the perverse pleasure of hearing others speak in your mother tongue. Caveat however is that once your subjects begin speaking and writing to you in your language better than you do, then it normally marks the end of the empire.

As some Indians say the British left India because they could no longer tolerate the massacre of the English language, perhaps the Chinese will start leaving Tibet when Tibetans begin to do the same with Mandarin.

Copyright © 2010 Tsering Namgyal

Published in Tibet Sun