1. College of Foreign Languages, Fujian Normal University
Stories and History
27 November 2012
Brian Lim
College of Foreign Languages, Fujian Normal University

2. What is the importance or significance of stories to individuals, communities and countries?
“To be a person is to have a story.
Without my story, I have no identity. I do not know who I am, or what I am about.
If you have no story, how do you know where you’re going?
And if you’re going somewhere, how will you know when you get there?”
William J. Bausch, Storytelling: Imagination and Faith

3. Freedom fighters?
This army fought for a new government and country. They were considered rebels by the existing government.
They were forced to retreat and suffered greatly from cold and hunger. Many died in this retreat.
But only a few years later, this army was victorious and helped form a new country.
What would be the purpose of telling this story? What kind of influence would this story have on you when facing challenges?

4. Pop Song Deconstruction:
Video: “Yes We Can” (Will.i.am)
All of the words in the song come from a speech given by Barack Obama before he became the president of the USA.
What parts of the American story is Obama referring to?
What do you think is the purpose of Obama referring to these parts of the American story?

5. It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores, and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
It was the call of workers who organized; Women who reached for the ballots; A President who chose the moon as our new frontier;
And a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.

6. Yes we can, to opportunity and prosperity
Yes we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.
Si Se Puede. (Spanish: “Yes we can”)
We know the battle ahead will be long, But always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way,
Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We want change!

7. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant.
We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
(We want change!)

8. The hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA;
We will remember that there is something happening in America; That we are not as divided as our politics suggests; That we are one people; We are one nation;
And together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; From sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.

9. “It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation…
Yes, we can.”
Declaration of Independence (1776) (独立宣言)

10. “It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom…
Yes, we can.”
The “Underground Railroad” – a system of “safe” houses where escaped slaves could hide and then travel to the northern (non-slave) states or to Canada

11. “It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores,… “
Statue of Liberty (自由神像) and Ellis Island:
First place of entry for European immigrants
“It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores,… “

12. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
Poem by Emma Lazarus, on the base of the Statue of Liberty

13. “…and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.”
Western expansion ( ): the ambiguity of stories – belief in the success of the “rugged individual” and American “Manifest Destiny”; required expansion into Indian and Mexican territory;
National narratives often ignore the stories of many: Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” as exception

14. “It was the call of workers who organized;”
Formation of trade unions = “organized labour”, “organized workers”, 19th and 20th century

15. “…Women who reached for the ballots;”
Voting rights = “suffrage”, women’s suffrage (1920)
“…Women who reached for the ballots;”

16. “A President who chose the moon as our new frontier;”
President John F. Kennedy ( ): a vision of confidence, creativity, innovation - land on the moon by the end of the decade (actual moon landing was accomplished in 1969)

17. Yes we can, to justice and equality.”
“And a King who took us to the mountain-top and pointed the way to the Promised Land...
Yes we can, to justice and equality.”
“I’ve been to the mountaintop, … and I’ve seen the Promised Land”, Martin Luther King, 1968
Civil Rights Movement, 1950s-1960s

18. Hebrew Scriptures: Moses摩西 led the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land (Canaan 迦南);
In this painting, Moses looks down from the mountain into Canaan. (“I’ve been to the mountaintop… and I’ve seen the Promised Land.”

19. American Political and Cultural Divide? “Red States” and “Blue States”
“We will remember that there is something happening in America; That we are not as divided as our politics suggests;”
American Political and Cultural Divide? “Red States” and “Blue States”
Blue – states “won” by Democratic Party in 2008 election Red – states “won” by Republican Party in 2008 election

20. Red States:
Republican Party
“conservative”
small government
low taxes
gun rights
rural, suburban
local community
religious
free enterprise
traditional morality
anti-Communist
pro-military, pro-Israel
Blue States
Democratic Party
“liberal”
strong government (health, education, welfare)
urban, multi-cultural
civil liberties, democracy, abortion and gay rights
mixed economy
pro-environment
social justice, anti-racist
pro-United Nations

21. “…there is not a Liberal America, and a Conservative America, there is the United States of America.
There is not a Black America, and a White America, a Latino America, an Asian America, there is the United States of America.”
Senator Barack Obama, Democratic Party National Convention, 2004

22. “That we are one people; We are one nation;”
Motto: “E pluribus unum” (Latin) =
“Out of many, one”
American Pledge of Allegiance: 效忠誓词
“…one Nation under God…”

23. “And together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; From sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.”
America the Beautiful (Words by Katharine Lee Bates, Melody by Samuel Ward)
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

24. Final Thoughts
The task of translation or interpretation is not only the work of changing the words and grammatical structures of one language into those of another language;
It is also the task of communicating cultural worldviews and narratives in a way that is intelligible, understandable, to another culture;
This is the work of bridge-building.