Addressing someone as a Hero?

Jianghu
1

In HSDS, the scene on the Devine Snake Island , Zhao Min addressed XiaXun as “Hero Xia”. Was this a way of addressing a Jianghu character respectfully? If so, would Zhao Min or Zhou Zhiruo addressed Yang Xiao as “Hero Yang Xiao”?

2

There’s no correct way to translate it. This is very similar to how Japanese honorific is translated, such as -chan, -sama, -kun.

The more accurate translation of her addressing Xie Xun would be Xie-xia. Where xia means hero.

Translating it as Hero Xie is a simpler way to make it easily understandable for non-Chinese speaking readers. Other examples would be Mister or Miss etc. When we address someone this way, we usually commonly use their family name, such as Mister Smith. We would use Mister John Smith in cases where we need to specify which Mister Smith we are referring two, such as when there are two Mister Smith present.

Likewise, the right way would be to address Yang Xiao as Hero Yang, because when we address someone respectfully we avoid addressing their full name.

1 Like
3

Thank you again for the clarification. Actually I do not know Chinese, but I have been reading JinYong Novels on this site for quite a few years. I am a big fan of The Condor Trilogy ; specially the HSDS, but I did not like the ending. It felt like it was not really the ending. It was more like “rush to finish”. So I’ve been trying to write my own version of the ending of HSDS. https://psksvp.github.io/hsdsMe/mpt.html .

4

Wow! Glad to hear that. Keep writing and do stick around the forum. I’m glad you asked the questions you raised because they are very real issues we face, especially with translators who are fluent in writing only one language. The nuances is often lost in translation.

While I have my views and ways of translating, it is a staggering task to go back and edit works that are already translated. I’m probably reinventing the wheel in a situation where no one would be bothered by how the old wheel works, except myself since I notice these issues. Perhaps we can slowly draw up a style guide that would help future translators and writers.