首先，你们想要个强大而坚固的防火墙。其次，现在系统比 较慢。最后，在奥运会期间，系统会更加慢。你们要认清 产生系统的问题是系统的本身。你们要解决这个问题的话， 必须改换系统。
Shǒuxiān, nǐmen xiǎngyào gè qiángdà ér jiāngù de fánghuǒqiáng. Qícì xiànzài xìtǒng bǐjiào màn. Zuìhòu zài Aòyùnhuì qījiān, xìtoňg huì gèngjiāmàn 。Nǐmen yào rènqīng chǎnshēng xìtǒng de wèntí shì xìtǒng běnshēn。Nǐmen yào jiějué zhège wèntí de huà, bìxū gǎihuàn xìtoňg.
DEPUTY MINISTER GAO: (rising) We do not believe our internet needs to be changed. Thank you for offering your professional opinion and for this productive discussion.
改换系统这个想法，我们并不赞成。谢谢您提供专业的建 议，并且参加这次高效的讨论。
Gǎihuàn xìtǒng zhège xiǎngfǎ, wǒmen bìng bú zànchéng. Xièxie nín tígōng zhuānyè de jiànyì。Bìngqiě cānjiā zhècì gāoxiào de tǎolùn.
THE TRANSLATOR: (staggered) We do not believe our internet needs to be changed. But thank you for offering your professional opinion and for this productive discussion.
MARSHALL: Wait, okay, tell her—that was the wrong—we’re not proposing to change the system, okay, would you translate that? I’m not trying to change anything.
THE TRANSLATOR: (staggered) He says he’s not trying to change anything.
他说他什么东西都不换。
Tā shuō tā shénme dōngxi dōu dū bù huàn.
DEPUTY MINISTER GAO: He is saying that our system has to be rebuilt?
他的意思是说我们的系统需要重建吗？
Tāde yìsi shì shuō wǒmen de xìtoňg xūyào chóngjiàn ma?
THE TRANSLATOR: (staggered) You are saying that our system has to be rebuilt?
MARSHALL: Not rebuilt, uh—iterated. Developed.
THE TRANSLATOR: (staggered) Not rebuilt. Developed.
不是重建，是改善。
Búshì chóngjiàn, shì gǎishàn.
MARSHALL: It is my professional opinion—having reviewed the latencies in your national AS topology—
THE TRANSLATOR: It is my professional opinion—having reviewed the latencies in your system—
我给的专业建议是针对你们系统延迟的问题—
Wǒ gěide zhuānyè jiànyì shì zhēnduì nǐmen xìtoňg yánchíde dewèntí—
LARRY: Marsh.
MARSHALL:—that what we can help you to do—that what it is you frankly need to do—is to decentralize your firewall.
Beat.
TRANSLATOR: A note about the word ‘decentralize’.
There are two ways I can translate ‘decentralize’ into Mandarin. The first, 分散 (fen san), means something like disperse, scatter. The second, closer to decentralize, is 下放 (xia fang). Unfortunately, like many Mandarin verbs, it has multiple meanings: to let go, put aside, do away with.
Now, another translator, in an attempt to preserve Marshall’s phraseology, might here tell the Minister that Marshall intends to disperse, or worse do away with, the national firewall. This would derail the meeting.
Happily, I am not that translator.
You see, I don’t just understand the literalities of Marshall’s proposal. I see the whole loop. Marshall McLaren is proposing an ingenious three-tiered firewall, one that will exponentially increase the government’s ability to filter and inspect the online activities of their citizenry. It will come to be called the Great Firewall, and finding ways to climb it will become a national pastime.
In other words, Marshall is talking about an increase in control, an increase in efficiency, effected through decentralization but not resulting in it. So all I have to do is change one little word. I turn to the Minister, and I say:
(to the Minister) He wants to centralize the firewall. He wants to centralize the firewall.
他想构建一个更集中的防火墙。
Tā xiǎng gòujiàn yīgè gèng jízhōng de fánghuǒqiáng.
DEPUTY MINISTER GAO: More centralized?
更集中?
Gèng jízhōng?
THE TRANSLATOR: (back to the Minister) That’s what he said.
他是这样说的。
Tā shì zhèyàng shuōde.
Because in this case, paradoxically, centralize is the more efficient translation.
DEPUTY MINISTER GAO: We … could consider that.
这一点 … … 我们可以考虑。
Zhè yì diǎn … … wǒmen kěyǐ kǎolǜ.
THE TRANSLATOR: The Ministry would be interested in reviewing such a proposal.
LARRY: Uh. They would?
MARSHALL: They would?
THE TRANSLATOR: Dallas, 2015.
JULIE: Now to be honest, we don’t have an extensive paper trail of ONYS’s dealings with the Ministry, for the simple reason that these dealings were mostly conducted in China.
But a document we do have access to, our exhibit A, is a leaked ONYS document. And specifically, I’m going to direct your attention to the third bullet point that features in that document, a bullet point that reads as follows: ‘to combat internet crime by terrorist organizations like Zhuangzi and other hostile actors.’
THE TRANSLATOR: Beijing, 2012.
EVA: Can I, uh, if I ask you a question, can you be like, really honest?
JULIE: That’s sort of my default.
EVA: Is this like … are you actually trying to win this case? Or is it, like, a symbolic gesture?
JULIE: Um, fuck you.
EVA: Hey, that’s like an honest question, it’s not loaded.
JULIE: The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.
EVA: Because, like, I’m no expert—
JULIE: You’re really not.
THE TRANSLATOR: You can probably guess, but, uh, roughly, ‘you’re stupid’.
Beat.
EVA: Forget it.
JULIE: Hey, no, Evie—
EVA: No, no, I can be your ventriloquist dummy for a week, it’s what I signed up for, so.
JULIE: No, fuck, it’s my bad, dude. My brand of humor is—I can be a little—
EVA: Mercenary?
JULIE: I was gonna say … zesty.
Beat.
JULIE: Hey, it’s really different, right?
EVA: What?
JULIE: This area. It’s like … Singapore or something.
EVA: Oh. Yeah. Gentrified.
JULIE: Definitely.
EVA: And like, all this nightlife? I don’t remember, like, bars.
JULIE: In full fairness, we were—
EVA: Yeah, no, sure, that’s not the sort of thing you notice, as a kid.
JULIE: And I suspect the absence of someone screaming her head off at us—
EVA: Yeah, that probably contributes to the different … atmosphere.
Beat.
THE TRANSLATOR: I feel this is the point to interject with some context.
Julie and Eva spent their childhood primarily in suburban D.C. but took yearly trips back to Beijing to visit their extended family. When Julie left for college, Eva, being the younger sibling, was still in middle school. During this time, the family moved back to Beijing, where Eva completed her schooling. Hence Eva’s fluency in Mandarin, and Julie’s comparative illiteracy.
The woman they’re currently referring to is their mother, who was, by her own metrics, an excellent parent, but by all other accounts, a violently unstable petty tyrant. She is the source of Eva’s suicidal ideation and dysmorphia, as well as Julie’s overwhelming emotional paralysis.
We won’t speak of the father, because, of course, they never did.
EVA: So who are we meeting tomorrow?
JULIE: Amanda, she’s like the NGO point-person on this, she’s the one that found the document. Wednesday, we train to Yingcheng.
EVA: To meet him.
JULIE: Right.
EVA: And he’s the—
JULIE: In the wheelchair, ye
ah. (beat) What do you do for money?
Beat.
EVA: Does it matter?
JULIE: No.
EVA: Okay then.
JULIE: Unless it’s morally compromised.
EVA: Is there a legal definition for ‘morally compromised’? (beat) Julie, you sort of … don’t have the right to that information.
JULIE: Since when?
Beat.
EVA: I’m getting room service, you want anything?
JULIE: My sister back?
EVA: Well, she’s dead. You’re getting a sandwich.
THE TRANSLATOR: Palo Alto, 2006.
JANE: (closing the document) We’re fine.
MARSHALL: (to Larry) See?
JANE: He was right to bring it to me, Marshall. I’m your Chief Legal Officer.
LARRY: We’re fine?
JANE: I mean, it’s not ideal. It’s decidedly unideal.
LARRY: But this bullet point, ‘Zhuangzi and other hostile actors’—the fact that they showed us this, I mean, they’re talking about targeting dissidents, doesn’t that, like, open us up to anything? Like, accusations of … anything?
JANE: By whom?
LARRY: Like, I dunno, the UN?
JANE: You mean the ICC?
THE TRANSLATOR: International Criminal Court.
LARRY: I don’t … know?
JANE: The tribunal responsible for prosecuting individuals guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide?
LARRY: Yes?
JANE: Have you committed any genocides lately?
LARRY: I don’t … think so?
JANE: You’re fine.
LARRY: Okay, but—
JANE: Larry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret about international law. The only effectual branch of international arbitration—the only practicable branch—is the one I specialize in. Corporate law. This means that the mechanisms of international arbitration have been built to serve corporate interests. In other words, there are several mechanisms by which we, as a multinational, can take someone to trial. There are essentially none that allow anybody to prosecute us. So what I’m telling you is: we’re fine.
MARSHALL: I could kiss you.
JANE: That would be wildly inappropriate and I would sue you.
MARSHALL: Nah you wouldn’t.
JANE: No, I’d miss your winning personality.
LARRY: But we’re fine?
JANE: (the PowerPoint document) Now, regarding this question of the board—
MARSHALL: No. Nope.
LARRY: We have to, Marsh.
MARSHALL: No, no fucking way. No board.
LARRY: We have to? Right? Jane?
JANE: Gentlemen. Please. (beat) As your CLO, this is my suggestion. What you’ll do is, you’ll call a board meeting, and you’ll bring the board this document, this PowerPoint.
MARSHALL: But why—
JANE: Because, Marshall, you’ve just told a bunch of Chinese bureaucrats that you’d show the board this document, and it’s generally a good idea to keep the promises you’ve made to Chinese bureaucrats.
MARSHALL:… that’s a fair point, Bollman.
JANE: Thank you. However, as your CLO, I also recommend you bury it in a stack of paperwork. How long’s the contract?
LARRY: Around, uh, three hundred pages.
JANE: Perfect. Stick in the Appendix. And this is the most important part. Larry.
Josh McConville (with Sophie Ross obscured in foreground).
LARRY: Yeah?
JANE: After the meeting?
LARRY: Yeah?
JANE: It’d be unfortunate if that document didn’t make its way into your records.
LARRY: Huh? Oh. Like—shred ’em?
JANE: As your CLO, I would never tell you to destroy material evidence related to a contract. I’m just saying, if due to a clerical error, that particular appendix were to go astray, well, that would be a shame.
LARRY: Wait, so—am I shredding them?
MARSHALL: Yeah.
JANE: Absolutely not.
LARRY: No?
MARSHALL: No, Larry. You’re not shredding them.
LARRY: Oh. So—
JANE: Definitely don’t shred them.
LARRY: Right. But—what?
MARSHALL: For fuck’s—Larry, shred every fucking copy.
THE TRANSLATOR: Beijing, 2012.
EVA: I’ll have the Chicken with Fried Noodles, and she’ll have—
我要雞肉炒麵，她要—
Wǒyào jīroù chǎomiàn, tā yào—
JULIE: (pointing to the glass bottle) Can we get some bottled water, with a seal, I don’t know where you’ve gotten this from.
EVA: She just wants a plastic bottle with a seal, sorry.
她只想要矿泉水/密封的，麻煩你了。
Tā zhǐ xiǎng yào kuàngquán shuǐ/mìfēng de, máfan nǐle.
JULIE: I’ll have the shrimp fried rice, don’t put any MSG in it, and I know you’ll say you don’t use MSG, but then I leave with a migraine, so can you actually not put MSG in it? Thanks.
THE TRANSLATOR: Monosodium glutamate, food enhancer, rumored to cause dehydration and headaches.
EVA: You shouldn’t …
THE TRANSLATOR: Studies do not support this.
JULIE: What?
EVA: Forget it.
JULIE: No, what?
EVA: You can’t be so blunt with people here.
JULIE: I’m American. We have a global reputation to uphold.
EVA: Well, you look Chinese, people assume you’re Chinese.
JULIE: I should fucking hope not. Pass me the hot sauce.
Beat.
EVA: Hey, you remember the food matching?
JULIE: Hm?
EVA: You know, the matching thing? With food? You remember this?
JULIE: No.
EVA: Whenever we, like … whenever she served us a plate of something, to be shared between the two of us, she’d insist on absolute equality, so we had to count the grapes, or, or the peas, to make sure we got exactly our share. And she never put odd numbers on the plate.
JULIE: Uh … that didn’t happen.
EVA: No, she did this till I was like six.
JULIE: Well, I was there, I was older, that didn’t happen. There was a time where you did that, you counted what you ate, but that’s ’cause you—
EVA: No, this was earlier, like way earlier.
JULIE: Then you’re conflating things.
EVA: No, I—
JULIE: Also can we not—let’s not suddenly treat her with nostalgia, now she’s—
EVA: Jules.
JULIE:—fuck, as though literal decomposition somehow reduces her level of fucking toxicity—
EVA: That’s not what I—
(Amanda enters.)
AMANDA: I’m late, ugh.
JULIE: No, it’s, you’re all good. Uh, Eva, Amanda Pearson, International Project Manager for the Digital Freedom Fund. Amanda, Eva Chen, our translator.
AMANDA: What, you guys sisters?
EVA: We, uh, we are, actually.
AMANDA: Oh, for real? You hired your sister?
JULIE: Yep.
THE TRANSLATOR: ‘Regretfully.’
AMANDA: That’s convenient, your sister’s a translator. Nice. Well, nice to meet you, Eva.
EVA: Yeah, ditto.
JULIE: So, any word?
AMANDA:… it’s not good. We’re down a couple.
JULIE: How many?
AMANDA: Of the fifteen I spoke to, five of them are willing to sign on as Does, three willing to be named plaintiffs.
JULIE: Damnit, seriously?
AMANDA: A lot of these people are still under close surveillance, Julie, it’s a big ask.
JULIE: Fuck. Well, okay. Fuck, uh. Any of the three willing to travel?
AMANDA: One.
JULIE: The professor?
AMANDA: Yeah, and I gotta say, I think, from what little he’s told me, I think his testimony would be pretty compelling.
JULIE: He’s willing, I mean he’ll testify?
AMANDA: We’ll have to negotiate that tomorrow. There’s some kind of—he’s on board in principle, but there’s some kind of reservation.
JULIE: Safety?
AMANDA: He wouldn’t say over the phone, I think it’s best we discuss it in person.
JULIE: Okay, uh, what about the document? Can we authenticate it?
AMANDA: Well …
JULIE: Amanda! Seriously?
AMANDA: I mean—it’s WikiLeaks, they have a near-perfect record of document authentication.
JULIE: We can’t get up in front of a Dallas jury and say WikiLeaks has a—most of these people won’t know the difference between WikiLeaks and Wikipedia!
EVA: Wait, so, you need to, like, authenticate the document?
JULIE: Eva, I keep telling you, you don’t have to—
AMANDA: Jules, it’s beyond reasonable doubt that the Head of China Ops saw it.
JULIE: Why don’t you let me be the judge on what reasonable doubt entails here? WikiLeaks is not beyond reasonable doubt.
EVA: Wait, this thing was presented at a board meeting?
JULIE: Evie.
THE TRANSLATOR: ‘Shut up.’
EVA: And there aren’t any other copies?
AMANDA: Not with this appendix. For all we know they shredded the rest.
EVA: Oh. Well, it’s just, uh—maybe this is stupid, but this thing is dated, there’s a date in the header.
JULIE: Eva!
AMANDA: No, Julie—she’s—
EVA: Don’t—like—don’t companies with public stock, don’t they have to publish the minutes of board meetings? So, like, couldn’t you cross-reference the agenda of the board meeting with the document to prove it’s real? And couldn’t you check the attendance and prove the guy was there, so he had to have seen it?
Beat.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIE: Huh.
AMANDA: You go to law school?
JULIE: That’s, uh.
EVA: No.
JULIE: Shit.
EVA: I majored in Asia Studies.
JULIE: That’s good.
AMANDA: Uh, what kinda jobs do you get with that?
EVA:… this, I guess?
JULIE: Evie.
EVA: Yeah?
JULIE: That’s fucking good.
TRANSLATOR: ‘I love you.’
Golden Shield Page 4
