# 窜访: visit



## zhg

中国官员谴责佩罗西“窜访”台湾。
Chinese authorities condemn Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

窜：竄 (会意。从鼠，从穴。老鼠在洞穴里，表示“隐匿”、“逃窜”。简化为“窜”，形声，从穴，串声。本义:躲藏) Source: 汉典

How would you translate 窜访? As far as I see, the word "visit" in English seems unable to accurately convey the negative sense in 窜访. Any suggestions?

My attempt: Chinese authorities condemn Nancy Pelosi's "rat-like" visit to Taiwan.


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## pimlicodude

zhg said:


> 中国官员谴责佩罗西“窜访”台湾。
> Chinese authorities condemn Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
> 
> 窜：竄 (会意。从鼠，从穴。老鼠在洞穴里，表示“隐匿”、“逃窜”。简化为“窜”，形声，从穴，串声。本义:躲藏) Source: 汉典
> 
> How would you translate 窜访? As far as I see, the word "visit" in English seems unable to accurately convey the negative sense in 窜访. Any suggestions?
> 
> My attempt: Chinese authorities condemn Nancy Pelosi's "rat-like" visit to Taiwan.


Well, "rat-like" visit doesn't have a certain meaning in English. What about a use of the word "scurry"? Scurried visit? (I wasn't previously aware of the character cuan4, or I might have seen it in some other word than cuan4fang3, but forgotten it, but anyway "scurried visit" is attested as a phrase - see Google.)


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## hx1997

这篇文章似乎把窜访译为 sneak visit.

Edit: 要用手机点链接，电脑打开可能有付费墙。



pimlicodude said:


> scurried visit


Does that carry negative connotations? Because 窜访 does.


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## pimlicodude

hx1997 said:


> 这篇文章似乎把窜访译为 sneak visit.
> 
> Edit: 要用手机点链接，电脑打开可能有付费墙。
> 
> 
> Does that carry negative connotations? Because 窜访 does.


I think it has a slight negative connotation, but you can't always translate everything literally from one (unrelated) language to another. You might not get something with the exact connotation you are seeking. In Lexico, "scurry" is defined as "(of a person or small animal) move hurriedly with short quick steps", and so rats and other small animals can make such movements. See SCURRY | Meaning & Definition for UK English | Lexico.com . Another possibility is just to translate it as "visit" instead of trying to force something unnatural into the sentence.


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## pimlicodude

hx1997 said:


> 这篇文章似乎把窜访译为 sneak visit.
> 
> Edit: 要用手机点链接，电脑打开可能有付费墙。
> 
> 
> Does that carry negative connotations? Because 窜访 does.


你和牛津词典熟悉吗？他是我们最有权威的词典，在scurry词条之下，有这个定义：


> b.2.b A run (made by an animal).
> 1865 Daily Tel. 4 Mar., She [the hare] steals the help of a scurry up the ditch-bottom.    1874 S. Beauchamp Grantley I. xiii. 247 [The dog] has his scurry‥night and morning.


但是，scurry 不是很常用的词，所以我不能特别地推荐这个翻译。也许，最好把它翻译成to visit就行了吧。


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## henter

这个词原本不存在。就是为了故意羞辱佩罗西造出来的词。西方媒体一般用whirlwind visit. 这里whirlwind visit 没有贬义。窜访带有贬义。


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## henter

Rat-like" visit 这个不要用。不要乱造词汇。我看到这个单词想到了rat someone out 这个表达方式。还有一个和rat有关系的是I smell a rat. 这两个可以用


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## elroy

zhg said:


> As far as I see, the word "visit" in English seems unable to accurately convey the negative sense in 窜访.


Can you explain the negative connotations of 窜访?


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## pimlicodude

elroy said:


> Can you explain the negative connotations of 窜访?


Well, Henter explains above in Chinese that this is not an established word, but rather a made-up word to be negative about Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. 

窜 cuan4, normally glossed as "to flee, scurry away".
访 - fang3, to visit.

The character 窜 was written 竄 before the Communists simplified it, and that character is made up of 穴 at the top, xue2, meaning "hole", and 鼠 below it, shu3, meaning "mouse". So the meaning is scurrying off like a mouse fleeing to its mousehole. 

There is a phrase 抱头鼠窜 bàotóushǔcuàn, "to scamper off like a frightened rat".

So it seems cuan4fang3 has been concocted to mean "scampering, scurrying on a visit like a rat", but the whole thing is difficult to translate with a natural phrase in English.

There is also a phrase 窜进, cuan4jin4, to slip in. So Nancy P. can be seen to have slipped into Taiwan like a rat?


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## zhg

elroy said:


> Can you explain the negative connotations of 窜访?


It depicts Pelosi as a rat scurrying around for food. It also implies that in the view of Chinese authorities her visit was not a legitimate visit that usually happens between high officials of different countries (I think visit in this sense always carries a neutral or even positive connotation, does it?).


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## elroy

Maybe we can (sardonically) call it a *scavenger hunt*?


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## hx1997

I think 窜访 also suggests that her visit was not aboveboard - it was not included in her itinerary, and we were kept in the dark about whether she was going to visit. A very tricky word indeed.


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## zhg

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China

I have just found out this on the website of the MFA. Looks like the official translators were satisfied with the word "visit", in spite of the derogatory sense in 窜访.


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## pimlicodude

her scurry-in, scurry-out visit to Taiwan


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## elroy

To me that just means the visit was quick.  It doesn’t have any of the negative connotations people have described.


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## Kiddo_K

once saw "provocative visit" in Chinadaily


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## Silver

From NYT:

The Chinese word used in the official statements for "visit" - cuanfang - connotes a sneaky or illicit encounter, not an aboveboard meeting.


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## henter

hx1997 said:


> I think 窜访 also suggests that her visit was not aboveboard - it was not included in her itinerary, and we were kept in the dark about whether she was going to visit. A very tricky word indeed.


其实中文媒体故意用窜这个词就是暗指Pelosi象个老鼠一样乱窜。中文当中还有一个类似的说法叫做无头苍蝇。英文当中的scurry的意思是疾走。在这里如果把窜翻译成scurry感觉没有故意揶揄Pelosi的意思。同样 ，如果用slink也不会有中文媒体想表达的意思。其实我能想到的英文表达方式是frig around。这个意思就是花时间做无用的事情。 不过这个用法属于比较脏的那种，也就是粗俗的用法。如果非要故意的贬低Pelosi，这个倒是可以用。还有一个没有贬义的用法是bimble around.

还有一个是stravaig about. 这个意思就是漫无目的地闲逛。这个也没有贬义。也就是说我能想到的有侮辱人英文表达方式只有frig around.


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## henter

That said, it's a bit infra dig to use frig around to describe an old woman like Pelosi, even though she seems to be another undesirable just like  Nikki Haley, who makes a point of excoriating China. 

  Thus, a better option would be to use such "agreeable" headlines to refer to her Asian trip: Pelosi Tilts At Windmills in Asia. And one could also add, "you are not alone, Don Quixote."


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## pimlicodude

Silver said:


> From NYT:
> 
> The Chinese word used in the official statements for "visit" - cuanfang - connotes a sneaky or illicit encounter, not an aboveboard meeting.


Why can't it just be "a sneaky visit" in English, then?


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