How apocryphal speech became a viral hit

China's Tu Youyou (R) who won 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine gives a lecture in Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, capital of Sweden, Dec 7, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

A funny thing happened between China’s first female Nobel Prize winner giving her acceptance speech in Sweden and that speech reaching her home country: Two entirely different versions appeared, and the fake one became a viral hit.
最近有件好笑的事：中國第一位獲得諾貝爾獎的女性，屠呦呦女士12月7日在瑞典發表諾獎感言，演講內容卻在國內流傳出了兩個完全不同的版本，而且假版本還受到了狂熱追捧。

Considering we’re living in an age when a message from Europe need not take someone to ride on horseback for a month or a pigeon to fly eastward for God knows how long, it was simply amazing that such a thing could happen, especially because Tu Youyou has been in the spotlight and almost every word she utters publicly is being reported.
想想我們目前身處的時代：要把消息從歐洲傳回來，再也不需要有人騎上一個月的馬，也不需要鴿子一直向東飛啊飛，飛過鬼才知道有多遠的距離才能到達。所以大家都覺得挺驚奇，這樣一個時代，居然還能有這種事發生。更何況，屠呦呦女士站在臺上講的每個字都即時向公眾報道了。

Guess which version is genuine? The one that matter-of-factly recounts the discovery of artemisinin, or the one with extravagant literary flourishes, complete with her father explaining the origin of her given name and poetic lines such as, “I like tranquility, tranquil as the leaves of sweet wormwood; I shun the spotlight, just as the petals of sweet wormwood do; I aspire to be upright, as are the stems of sweet wormwood.”
兩個版本，一個質樸平淡，實事求是地敘述了青蒿素的發現，另一個則極盡華麗辭藻，不僅講到了父親為什么給她取這個名字，還有詩句云：“我喜歡寧靜，蒿葉一樣的寧靜。我追求淡泊，蒿花一樣的淡泊。我向往正直，蒿莖一樣的正直。”猜猜哪個才是真的？

Well, sweet wormwood is the plant from which Tu and her fellow scientists successfully extracted artemisinin. Most readers were so touched by the literary version they were left in tears.
的確，青蒿素正是由屠呦呦女士和她的同事們一起從青蒿中提取出來的。所以很多讀者都被這篇“文藝版致辭”感動得潸然淚下。

They just forgot that Tu is not a woman of letters, but one of science. It was totally made up by someone who obviously has great literary talent, but could not fathom the inner life of a scientist.
他們忘了，屠呦呦女士不是作家，而是科學家。顯然，“文藝版致辭”從頭到尾都是由某位頗具文學天賦的人炮制的，只可惜他根本不了解一位科學家的內心世界。

I have not met a great many scientists, Chinese or foreign, but the ones I talked to invariably impressed me as no-nonsense and would not cloak themselves in purple prose.
我接觸的國內外科學家都不多，但與我交談過的科學家都給我留下了一個深刻的印象：他們嚴肅認真，用詞樸素。

I don’t know who fabricated the Tu speech, or for what purpose. It does not strike me as a parody. Fortunately, no mainstream media seemed to have been fooled. Yet, the fake one has probably been retweeted more than the real one because it played to the Chinese stereotype of what such a speech should be.
我不知道是誰炮制了屠呦呦女士的諾獎感言，也不知道他是出于什么目的。這篇拙劣的模仿根本沒有打動我。幸運的是，主流媒體都沒有被騙。但由于假感言契合了大眾對中國式感言的一貫印象，其在社交媒體上的轉發次數可能已經超過了真感言。

Early this year, when Professor Yu Dan, a celebrity scholar specializing in Chinese culture, publicly quoted from a speech ostensibly made by the Emperor Guangxu (1871-1908), she fell right into the trap of apocryphal text. That particular speech was actually from a historical novel, written by an author who had meticulously studied the reform-minded emperor’s thoughts. However, the author employed poetic license with one detail: when the emperor was supposed to have given that speech, he was already under house arrest by the Empress Dowager.
今年早些時候，專門從事中國文化研究、受人熱捧的學者于丹教授發了一條微博，援引清朝光緒帝（1871-1908）在京師大學堂的“開學講話”，結果卻不幸跌進了坑里。這段話其實來自于一本歷史小說，作者倒是認真研究過這位一心變法的皇帝內心的所思所想。不過，他卻在一個細節上露出了馬腳：京師大學堂成立的時候，光緒帝早已被慈禧太后囚禁瀛臺了。

Professor Yu should have known better. She was so ashamed, said some, that she did not come out to explain or apologize.
于教授本不應該上當。有人說，她為此肯定倍感羞愧，以至沒有勇氣出來回應或認錯。

China’s cyberspace is dotted with the flotsam and jetsam of educational and uplifting quotes, most of which are attributed to luminaries of all kinds, and quite a lot of them are made up. There is a joke that says the United States’ spying network collected and sifted through all the Internet data in China and found that the Chinese are addicted to such chicken soup, including that from dubious sources.
中國的網絡上充斥著大批“名人名言”，看上去極具教育意義，充滿勵志的正能量。這其中，大部分據說都出自各類杰出人物，然而很多都是杜撰的。有個笑話，美國間諜網絡收集并篩選了中國所有的網絡數據，結果卻發現中國人沉溺于來源可疑的心靈雞湯，無法自拔。

作者：周黎明（Raymond Zhou）

聯系作者：raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

譯者：顧楠+qfnu

審校：欽君