Talk:How to Cook and Eat in Chinese

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In my old copy of How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, the author explains that her English-speaking daughter translated the original Chinese text into idiomatic English, and her husband then restored a Chinese feel to the language by the use of such terms as stir-fry and potsticker (which caught on) and dot heart (for dim sum, which didn'tl. So Dr. Chao actually is the author of the text of the book, just not of its final form. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaxineKL (talk • contribs) 22:46, 30 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Removing claims that she did not write this book[edit]

Here and elsewhere, it is claimed that Buwei Yang Chao did not really write this book, but rather her husband, Yuen Ren Chao. The only support I can find for this claim is the Jason Epstein article, who says "it is obvious", because she didn't speak or write English. An academic article that is also cited in support of this claim (Hayford, Charles W. (2012). "Open Recipes Openly Arrived At: How to Cook and Eat in Chinese (1945): The Translation of Chinese Food". Journal of Oriental Studies. 45 (1 & 2): 67–87) only refers back to the Epstein article to support it. As the author explains, her daughter translated her Chinese and her husband revised her daughter's translation. Yuen Ren Chao himself discusses his wife's authorship and style in the 1977 interview also cited in the text. Given Epstein's only stated argument is that she didn't write English, which is irrelevant, and given Yuen Ren Chao himself states that his wife wrote her books in Chinese, I am removing this claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faff296 (talk • contribs) 23:45, 25 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I repectfully reverted these edits. The Charles Hayford article gives more than Epstein's word as evidence and treats it only as corroboration. The primary evidence is Mrs. Chao's own opening statement: "I didn't write the book." I added the supporting observation that the cookbook is structured in the same taxonomic organization as YR's Mandarin Primer, with each chapter numbered and each section sub-numbered -- 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. It is not conclusive, but unlikely that Mrs. Chao would use that organization in a Chinese manuscript.

In addition, although I did not add it because it's not documentable, YR's style is distinctive and nearly impossible that Mrs. Chao would duplicate it if she was not comfortable in English. The interview cited does not support the statement "It is clear....," which is Original Research because it draws conclusions from a WP:PRIMARY SOURCE. It is in fact unclear HERE whether YR is talking about How to Cook and Eat or about the Autobiography.

Hope this helps!ch (talk) 23:14, 28 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]