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ssaludades's picture

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jccohen's picture

ssaludades, Your opening

ssaludades,

Your opening commentary on your commentary is itself very compelling.  Your idea that "the meaning of the stories is susceptible to change" in translation not only via language but also via transitions in identity and in self-understandings is powerful, and suggests the real challenges to presuming communication as a way to bridge difference.  The text itself reads as a kind of journey through transitioning languages and selves, and suggests to me a sense of fragility and also fluidity.  Of course in the literal sense the Chinese characters offer a visual that for an English reader like myself is both visually inviting and beyond my reach; I can scroll up to read the English version but, as you say, this doesn't mean that I'm receiving the full, nuanced message.  Your suggestion that we need to both "acknowledge that our communication is flawed" and "deconstruct the barriers" is tantalizing:  How do we do this, and how/can education help us do this?