CHINA DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Tuesday, October 13, 2020 | 17 LIFE Success on the menu in search for vegetarian restaurant

With a large population that pre­ restaurants because I was unable to music to the ears. When she sug­ While I kept walking in search of by a table than I received a message cheesecake and a passion fruit fers vegetarian food, it’s no surprise get vegetarian food. Not even in gested that we have lunch at the it, I made another discovery: two from my friend, who announced mousse for desserts. one gets to see a lot of “pure vege­ fast­food joints. restaurant in a hutong close to the more pure vegetarian restaurants. her arrival. She said she would wait I need to specially mention the tarian” restaurants I’ve been trying out Indian, Mid­ Yonghegong Lama Temple, I That’s for another day. for me outside so I won’t have diffi­ assorted seasonal vegetarian sushi. in India. dle Eastern (I never tried it during couldn’t resist. I still kept walking. I realized I culty in locating the place. I always thought sushi was a non­ Some restaurants my long stint in the Gulf) and even As agreed, I set out on a “great had walked away from the restau­ But then, I was already inside, vegetarian dish consisting of cold even advertise in Italian cuisine. I have been prefer­ vegetarian adventure” on a Friday. rant I was looking for when an eld­ and she was surprised to find I had cooked rice garnished with raw or big, bold letters at ring lasagna and pasta, falafel (Mid­ After she shared the name of the erly man I enquired with for arrived before her. cooked fish. I tried the vegetarian the entrance that dle Eastern fritter made from restaurant, typed in Chinese, on directions said I had to walk back We both were famished. I, after alternative, and loved it. So did my they serve only vege­ ground chickpeas) or the much WeChat, I copied the same onto the to where I started. the long walk, and she, after a friend, who has turned vegetarian Manjunath tarian food, leaving familiar chole bhature (deep­fried Didi app, booked a cab and reached I retraced my steps. On enquiring strenuous yoga session. now. R. Setty no doubt in the Indian bread served with chole, the place (not the restaurant) 20 further, I found the entrance to the We immediately asked for the I did feel like trying out some Second minds of vegetari­ which are chickpeas cooked in a minutes earlier than the scheduled restaurant remained “hidden” since menu. I was impressed. There was more dishes, but then I had exceed­ Thoughts ans, some of whom spicy masala). time of 11.30 am. it was through a hair salon. not one non­vegetarian dish on it. I ed my limit. wouldn’t even step It’s wishful thinking to expect a The restaurant, however, was I was there finally. It was a simple had a hard time deciding what to Well, the gastronomic adventure into a non­vegetarian restaurant. pure vegetarian restaurant in Chi­ not traceable. I asked some pas­ restaurant with modest furniture. It eat. We zeroed in on mushroom was worth all the effort. As a vegetarian, life hasn’t been na. Or so I had thought. sersby for directions, but in the wasn’t crowded, and it wasn’t noisy. risotto with bechamel sauce, fried easy in Beijing. There have been When a Chinese friend told me absence of a name board, it was I loved it. potato wedges in truffle soy milk Contact the writer at times when I have walked out of about such a restaurant, it was like hard to locate. No sooner did I occupy the seat cream sauce, along with a tremella [email protected] Candid camera: Sunny prospects Translating French classics over decades

By FANG AIQING spent more than a year reciting [email protected] the French­Chinese dictionary, because it was the only learning Zheng Kelu, the Chinese trans­ material available. lator of French masterpieces by He was then able to read origi­ Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, nal French works. He annotated Stendhal (the pen name for Marie­ more than 80 novels of Honore de Henri Beyle) and Simone Beau­ Balzac’s The Human Comedy. His voir, died aged 81 on Sept 20. debut translation work was Bal­ As a professor at Shanghai Nor­ zac’s The Elixir of Life, published mal University’s school of humani­ in 1979. ties, Zheng was widely recognized Zheng went to SNU in 1987. for his translations, teaching and That year he was rewarded Ordre research. des Palmes Academiques (an aca­ In his six­decade career, Zheng demic Golden Palm medal) from translated around 60 French liter­ the French Ministry of Culture. ature and social science works, He said in an interview with and published 11 monographs and Shanghai Observer in November 10 textbooks. that the key to a quality transla­ Thanks to his endeavors, Chi­ tion lies in how to deal with sen­ nese readers were able to appreci­ tence patterns, especially relative ate many classic French works of clauses that don’t exist in the Chi­ literature including Les Misera­ nese language. bles, La Traviata and Le Comte de He emphasized polishing lan­ Monte­Cristo. guage use and concluded his Zheng’s translation of Beau­ translating style as concise and voir’s representative work The Sec­ fluent while being literarily grace­ ond Sex won the Fu Lei Award for ful. Translation and Publication in In his translation, he dared to 2012. The prize is sponsored by the use rarely used Chinese characters French embassy in Beijing to in a hope to make his readers turn reward Chinese translation of to the dictionary and therefore French literature, humanities and expand their knowledge and Residents dry bamboo strips in bright sunlight in Hedun village, Huichang county, Ganzhou city, Jiangxi Online social science works. vocabulary. province, on Saturday. With 2,667 hectares of bamboo, the county’s economy is reliant on all aspects of the Scan the QR code for He finished translation of all He chose not to retranslate bamboo trade, from planting to processing, from drying to selling. Trade in the plant has helped boost subscription or to get a Hugo’s novels last year, at the age Romain Rolland’s Jean­Christo­ incomes in villages there. ZHU HAIPENG / FOR CHINA DAILY copy of today’s paper. of 80, according to Beijing Daily. phe as he thought he would not go Zheng said in a lecture in beyond Fu Lei’s classical version. Shanghai last autumn that the He also turned down the request novelettes and short stories of to translate Marcel Proust’s Hugo he translated at the time Remembrance of Things Past for a had laid the foundation for the similar reason. Honoring TCM’s role in COVID­19 fight great writer to create Notre Dame In Zheng’s view, translating de Paris. practice helped to improve his “Chinese readers often overlook French language capability, while By LI YINGXUE patients’ cases and the treatment the psychological description of doing research inspired him on [email protected] plan. At night, when they went Hugo’s characters, but actually it’s selecting literature works to be back to the hotel, they collected all brilliant and reaches a peak in Les translated. A ceremony was held to celebrate case reports and perfected the Miserables,” he says. Benefitting from his research, the contribution by role models in treatment plan. The textbooks of foreign litera­ he attached great importance to the country’s fight against COVID­ The doctors treated the patients ture history, French literature and the preface of his translation so as 19 at the Great Hall of the People in and summed up the experience poem histories Zheng wrote are to help the readers learn about Beijing on Sept 8. together, and at the same time they widely used among domestic stu­ highlights and historical value of A 35­member traditional Chi­ shared the clinical data with spe­ dents majoring in literature, and the works, and the authors’ writ­ nese medicine team from the Chi­ cialists in their own hospitals and he promoted the establishment of ing techniques and motives. na Academy of Chinese Medical conducted research together, find­ the major of comparative litera­ His student Zhu Zhenwu, pro­ Sciences did an excellent job in ing answers from TCM’s thousands ture and world literature at SNU. fessor of SNU, said Zheng still fighting the outbreak. of years’ epidemic prevention treat­ Born in Macao in 1939, Zheng spent most of his time in office During their 66­day work in ment theory and clinical practice. was the great­grandson of Zheng these years. He attended an offline Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, Within two weeks, the team Guanying (1842­1922), industrial­ academic panel and gave a pas­ the hardest­hit Chinese city, they developed an effective prescription ist and advocator of modernized sionate speech on June 5. treated more than 100 severe to treat severe COVID­19 patients reform during the late Qing In his late years, Zheng and his COVID­19 patients, according to a and the treatment efficiency was Dynasty (1644­1911). wife Zhu Biheng, also a translator, report by Xinhua News Agency. Tong Xiaolin (front), head researcher at the China Academy of continuously raised. Zheng Guanying was the first to mainly dined at the school can­ TCM has played an important Chinese Medical Sciences, checks a patient’s test results at Wuhan Through taking traditional Chi­ use the word “constitution” in Chi­ teen. role in prevention and control of Jinyintan Hospital in Hubei province on Jan 26. XINHUA nese medicines, patients with nese and the first to propose that Some SNU students noted the pandemic as well as the treat­ symptoms of short of breath and Shanghai should hold a World under the university’s obituary ment and cure — it was involved asthma saw notable improve­ Expo to boost trade and economy. posted through WeChat public early, participated entirely and demic, was Huang’s team’s main the ward area, be it patients’ cham­ ments. Other treatment methods Zheng Kelu was fond of Russian account that they often saw the complemented Western medicine battlefield. ber pots, or cleaning patients’ bod­ including acupuncture, plasters and French literature since high couple pulling their iconic cart of with mutual collaboration. On the night they arrived in ies. They quickly built a platform to applied on acupuncture points and school and later studied French at books between school and home When Huang Luqi, president of Wuhan, Huang asked to lead his guarantee the supply of herbal ear­pressure therapies were also Peking University from 1957. over the years. the China Academy of Chinese team to take over a ward area. “We medicine, and also set up three effective. After graduation, he worked at One note reads, “Since then the Medical Sciences, recalled the trip have a full team of doctors and shifts that rotated every 24 hours. The first batch of 8 patients were the Chinese Academy of Social pleasant picture of an aged couple to Wuhan seven months ago. He nurses, please give us the battle­ The first batch of 30 patients at discharged on Feb 3, six days after Sciences, led by late poet Bian supporting each other on their was still emotional. field that we can bring out the the ward was in severe condition the team took over the wards. The Zhilin (1910­2000). During the way to and from campus has been “Traditional Chinese medicine advantage and characteristics of and they were too weak to even get patients were treated with TCM or “cultural revolution” (1966­76), he reduced to a lonely silhouette.” must intervene as soon as possi­ traditional Chinese medicine,” he out of bed. a combination of TCM and Western ble! I’ll lead the team,” Huang said. On the second day after arriving medicine. asked to offer help to Wuhan, He asked over and again before in Wuhan, Huang, as the head spe­ After that, the patients in other according to Xinhua. Within half a the team received the mission of cialist of the national TCM medical ward areas also started to take tra­ day, more than 300 medical work­ taking over the first south ward team, and Tong Xiaolin, head ditional Chinese medicine. Within ers from China Academy of Chi­ area of the hospital — it was the researcher of the China Academy of one month, many more patients nese Medical Sciences’ first time in a major public health Chinese Medical Sciences, orga­ could get out of their beds and walk Guang’anmen Hospital and Xiyu­ emergency that TCM doctors and nized the medical team and special­ around. There was almost no need an Hospital signed up. nurses took over a whole ward for ists in Wuhan to discuss the TCM for high flow oxygen inhaler. The first batch of the team was seriously ill patients. treatment of patients with COVID­ A cooperative mode between formed with 25 medical workers Qi Wensheng, head of emergency 19 according to their ward round TCM and Western medicine was from multidisciplinary depart­ department at Guang’anmen Hos­ and local treatment experience. built to fight the pandemic at Jiny­ ments, including respiratory, criti­ pital, told Xinhua, “With my dec­ They also discussed with the spe­ intan Hospital. cal care medicine and emergency ades’ experience as a TCM doctor, I cialists in other hospitals outside By March 30, of all 158 COVID­19 on the first day after Spring Festi­ can accomplish what Western doc­ Hubei and finally developed a TCM patients treated by the team, most of val. They set off to Wuhan within tors can.” diagnosis and treatment plan, whom were in severe conditions, 140 10 hours after the team was set up, There were many challenges which was included in the fourth were discharged. A total of 88 of with nearly 80 boxes of epidemic waiting for the team, from lack of edition of the national diagnosis them were treated solely with TCM prevention supplies. herbal medicine to the shorthand­ and treatment plan. methods, and 42 were treated with a Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, the ed nursing staff. During the day shift, the doctors combination of traditional Chinese Book covers of Simone Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, translated by “eye of the storm” during the epi­ Both doctors and nurses cleaned had a meeting to discuss the and Western medicines. Zheng Kelu. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY