The Foreign Service Journal, May 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2013 11 After AFSA sent the book transla- tion with edits marked back to the publishing house in Nanjing, all was again quiet for months. In October 2012, we heard that Cherrie had been replaced by “Queenie.” Finally, in Feb- ruary 2013—four years after the initial inquiry—Queenie let us know that the Chinese translation of the 2005 Inside a U.S. Embassy was published. However, when we tried the link she provided for Taobao, the search resulted only in the message, “Your view of the baby does not exist.” Eventually one of the translators, a professor from Nanjing University, provided a new link and the Chinese title of the book, which led to much more successful searches. We invite you to visit the Web sites below to take a look at the book, find excerpts, and enjoy the creative Google translations. The book is most often translated as “Walk into the Embassy: U.S. Foreign Office at the Secret.” SearchfortheChinesetitle:“ 走进大使馆— 美国驻外事务处揭秘 ” or go to: • Jiangsu People’s Publishing ( the publisher) • Dangdang • Taobao • Amazon China • 360 Buyl • China University of Political Science and Law Library • Uncoiling Book Network • Phoenix Xuzhou Book Mall • Nanning Bookstore —Shawn Dorman, FS Books Publisher and Journal Associate Editor A New Take on the Arab Spring T he Center for American Progress, the Stimson Center, and the Center for Climate and Security published a joint report in February titled “The Arab Spring TALKING POINTS Walk into the Embassy! I n February a brand-new Simple Chinese translation of the 2005 edition of AFSA’s intro- duction to the Foreign Service, Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America , was finally published in the People’s Republic of China. The road to publication was long, and we were never entirely convinced a Chinese edition would materialize. In fact, as of press time, we have yet to see the physi- cal book—our copies are literally on a slow boat from China. However, we have con- firmed its existence, and can report that the book is easy to find on some of the largest online shopping sites in the PRC, including Taobao, Dangdang and 360buy, as well as on Amazon China (amazon.cn ). The initial print run was 2,000, and the price is 24 RMB ($3.86). So how did this amazing feat come about? In July 2009, AFSA received an inquiry from “Cherrie,” copyright mana- ger for Jiangsu People’s Publishing in Nanjing, asking if they might procure the rights to the Simplified Chinese ver- sion of the 2005 revised edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy. Sure, we replied. We signed a contract…and waited. Contact with Cherrie was sporadic; months would go by without replies to our inquiries. For all of 2011, there was no word. Then, in February 2012, Cherrie told us the translation was complete and being edited. We had included in the contract a clause giving us the right to review the translation before publication. One day in March, a Chinese-language Word document containing the entire book arrived by e-mail. With no in-house Chinese language capacity, AFSA was extremely grateful when Embassy Beijing agreed to look it over and found it a reasonable transla- tion of the original. The embassy had not been entirely surprised by our request: The same week that the book translation came to us, a Chinese translation of the parody Foreign Service exam from the 2011 Inside a U.S. Embassy was circu- lating on microblogs in China. It drew enough media attention that the embassy had to clarify officially that it was a “fake test.” No, the real Foreign Service exam did not include taking out your own appendix or writing a piano concerto (see th e April 2012 Journal ).