A borrowed word
All languages at one time or another borrow words from other languages. Most of the scientific and technical vocabulary in English is composed of Greek and Latin roots. And for some reason, lost in history for most people, our swear words are Germanic. Loanwords in Chinese are not so obvious - but they are still there. One of the more common ones is 咖啡 . Another one is 法西斯 .
The first time I heard 法西斯 used in a real context was some time just after June 4th, 1989. Three year old 毛毛 had just arrived from Beijing with her mother to join me in Columbus, Ohio, where I was finishing up my PhD dissertation. We were listening to a rally by a group of Chinese students. 毛毛 was sitting on my shoulders earnestly watching and listening.
打倒法西斯, yelled the angry crowd
爸爸, said 毛毛, with that innocent curiosity that only 3 year olds seem to possess, 法西斯是谁?
Not knowing how to explain such an abstract concept to her, I mumbled 他是坏人
And 19 years later, according to Michael Ledeen, 法西斯 is still alive. You can read a bilingual English and Chinese version of Ledeen’s article over at anti-cnn.com.
Is he correct?
我不知道. But I imagine that most people who thought that Ledeen was right wouldn’t want to learn Mandarin. And that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?
