Chinese verb structure creates immortality

To prep for my trip to Guangzhou and Shenzhen next month (more on that later now at Writer, editor, pajama model), a friend and client suggested I read Tim Clissold’s “Mr. China.” It’s an interesting firsthand account of the business climate and culture in China when it was opening up to trade with the west in the 1990s.

Perhaps the most fascinating passage in the book, however, was this blurb on Chinese not changing verbs based on time (p. 132):

The link in China between daily language and the past is strengthened further by a lack of senses. In Chinese, there is no verb change depending on time. “Mao Zedong is a good leader” and “Mao Zedong was a good leader” are not distinguished in Chinese. Things that in our language are extinct remain alive in Chinese. Without the separation in language or thought between what “was” and what “is,” China’s past seems to merge into its present.

Confusing? Sure. But there’s something beautiful about a language allowing timelessness and immortality.

(Photo: Flickr/kevindooley)

New perspectives from China on HIV rheumatic manifestations—and a new perspective on health care for me

Most health care documents I edit are a few steps removed from the caregiver: usually they pertain to something like an analysis of midwives’ business practices or a review of pharmacists’ attitudes to new treatments for their clients.

In “New Perspectives from China on HIV Rheumatic Manifestations,” by Evelyn V. Hess and Alexander D. Brown, however, I got to edit a journal article written by two doctors. Their editorial was published in the August 2007 edition of The Journal of Rheumatology, a monthly peer-review.

Here’s an excerpt:

What are the take-to-the-clinic messages of this study and how should we integrate these intriguing findings for HIV patients with rheumatic manifestations in our clinics? Despite tremendous advances in treatment, HIV and its rheumatic manifestations remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Zhang and colleagues’ study provides further evidence of the remarkable shifts in the frequency and nature of HIV associated rheumatic complications. Thus, vigilance and careful attention by physicians to these emerging patterns of rheumatic disease in the HIV population are essential to provide the best possible diagnosis and treatment for this population.