Chinese Medicine Fights Heat Evils

Lam visits Baptist U's Chinese Medicine Telemedicine Centre

For those who are in the isolation facilities because they have tested positive for Covid-19, the Hong Kong government has packs of medicine for residents to use, but it's Chinese medicine.

While people should take Panadol or paracetamol when experiencing a fever or pain, they should not mix it with Chinese medicine.

Use this when lungs are assailed by "heat evils"

The authorities have issued a notice with three different kinds of Chinese medicine and how they should be used.

But how do you translate Chinese medicine into English?

For example, for Lianhua Qingwen Jiaonang, under "nature and properties", it is described as: "Relatively cold in nature". What they really mean is "hon" or cooling.

When it comes to describing its functions it says: "To clear scourge, remove toxin, diffuse the lung and discharge heat".

And for its "indications", its description together with another Chinese medicine called Jinhua Qinggan Keli says: "These two proprietary Chinese medicines have similar functions, suitable for use in the case where conditions are caused heat evils assailing the lung, presented with symptoms including fever, cough, dry and sore throat, headache, etc."

Ah... heat evils that attack the lung!

Descriptions in actual government notice

The third medicine called Huoxiang Zhengqi Pian/Jiaonang, it is described to "remove dampness regulate Qi and harmonize the function of the spleen and stomach".

Under "indications" the note says: "Suitable for use in the case where conditions are caused by cold and damp evil, presented with symptoms including headache, lassitude, distention and distress in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etc".

Lassitude, I just looked up means, a state of physical or mental weariness, lacking energy.

One gets the feeling the English descriptions were just copied and pasted without anyone looking at it before it was disseminated.

Guess that's what happens when the government is in the midst of a full-on battle in the fifth wave and no one has time to fix the Chinglish...

Review: Central Airport THF

Ibrahim Al Hussein (left) and Qutaiba Nafer (right) are refugees in Berlin

Thursday was World Refugee Day and I should have posted this review of a documentary I saw on the plane back to Hong Kong.

It's called Central Airport THF (Zentralflughafen THF in German) and it was released last year. When refugees first arrive in Berlin, they are processed and live at Tempelhof Airport, and the documentary follows an 18-year-old Syrian teen Ibrahim Al Hussein and aspiring doctor Qutaiba Nafer from Iraq.



The airport was originally commissioned by Adolf Hitler and opened in 1923 and it was supposed to be the world's biggest airport. But it wasn't quite big enough and closed in 2008. However since 2015 it is a temporary home to thousands of refugees who want to have a new life in Germany.

The film follows them through most of the year, with Ibrahim narrating most of the time. We follow him through his daily rituals, eating in the canteen that he says serves terrible food, learning German, running outside, and smoking. Lots of smoking.

The refugees live in cubicles with open ceilings in a hangar

Meanwhile Qutaiba volunteers his services as a translator to help medical staff process the refugees in terms of their healthcare needs. He is fluent in English and we see him helping not only translate but empathizing with the refugees, and even acting as a psychologist to two boys, asking them to draw out their memories of their homelands.

The pacing is slow -- but it's a deliberate move by filmmaker Karim Ainouz to show how life in the hangars can be, that the wait for refugees to be processed can take a long time especially when there isn't much for you to do.

Everyone lives in a small space with an open ceiling that has very basic beds and no "door", except for a sheet. A couple with children complains about this, but they are told the sheet is fireproof for their safety. They have no choice but to get used to this arrangement.

Ibrahim talks about whatever memories he has left of his home in northern Syria, his family. He wants to try to remember them as much as he can, and recalls his most terrifying night when he got onto a boat and didn't know if he would still be alive the next day.

They try to find ways to pass the time everyday

This contrasts with the predictable, safe, relatively clean and monotonous life he lives in the hangar, though he has a few friends (smokers) who he hangs out with. At Christmas, there's a party complete with several Santa Clauses and presents for the children, but Ibrahim scoffs the party is hardly festive and that it's for the kids, not for people his age.

On New Year's Eve, fireworks are set off, though for Ibrahim and probably many of the refugees, the sounds remind them of bombs and shooting...

What's also bizarre is that near the hangars for the refugees are large spaces for Berliners to ride Segways, bicycles or even do beekeeping. At night security men in a car spot several foxes in the area who aren't scared of humans.

Director Karim Ainouz wanted to humanize the refugee plight

Nevertheless, viewers take a liking to Ibrahim and want to root for him. He is a thoughtful teen, and anxious to get on with his life. It's hard to imagine what it's like to be by himself day after day, being far from his family and Syria, and trying to integrate into this new country, but Central Airport THF gives a good idea.

Central Airport THF (2018)
Directed by Karim Ainouz
1hr 40 mins

Red-Faced Tencent Artificial Intelligence

Tencent's translations of the Boao Forum were hardly impressive

At the Boao Forum for Asia last week in Hainan, Tencent was keen on showing off its AI or artificial intelligence translation system, but it looks like this technology won't replace humans anytime soon.

The simultaneous translation system spouted gibberish that was displayed live in a big screen at the event and in a WeChat mini program. These included garbled characters, repeated words and even broken Chinese. There were many screen shots of these posted on social media last week.

A screen shot shows the gibberish

Tencent quickly acknowledged the errors and promised to improve in the future.

"The AI interpreter had some errors and gave wrong answers to several questions during the forum," Tencent said in a statement. "Our simultaneous [translation] machine, an artificial intelligence (AI) product, has a drawback, but it is still learning and growing."

For example, it translated "Belt and Road Initiative" -- China's international infrastructure development plan that covers more than 68 countries -- as "a road and a waistband".

Cue the laughing emojis.

So while critics are laughing, human interpreters can breathe a bit easier, knowing their jobs are still in tact -- for now.

"I do not think the technology is mature enough... Maybe in the next two years," said Lim Huisin, who has served as a conference interpreter on the mainland for the past five years. "I am not too worried about being replaced by a machine."

Personally I'm glad to hear this AI translation system isn't up to scratch yet -- the top translators in China are excellent -- they really do translate things quite accurately and with good English! Try to beat that, AI!