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The Chinese New Year Today, February 18 is the beginning of the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the pig. Hopefully, the Chinese New Year will fare better than the pig Holmes was trying to transfix with a harpoon in "The Black Peter." Chinese references can be found in several other stories, such as Baron Gruner being a recognized authority on Chinese pottery in "The Illustrious Client". However my reasons for today's topic is far more selfish. I mention China because I have new "best-friend" from Beijing. New "Best-Friend" status is bestowed on anyone out in the world who is willing to help me with my maniacal pursuit of non-English translations of the Canon. I was cruising through e-Bay one evening and came across a Chinese translation of the Adventures that I did not own. I was able to buy the book outright instead of going through the auction process. The seller and I exchanged a few emails before I mentioned I was a collector of non-English translations. His next email to me was a collector's gold mine. He sent me a list of about 20 Chinese translations. Several of the books were ones I already owned but there were plenty that were new to me. The majority of these books were recent publications from both Beijing and Hong Kong. What really got my heart rate up was the last 4 books on his list. These were what I refer to as the Mother Lode. These were Chinese translation from the 1930's and 1940's. None of them were listed in De Waal. The best thing about them was I did not need to spend my children's college fund to buy them. Unfortunately the only drawback so far is that these older books were not accompanied with scans of the their covers. My new best friend, "Simon", however gave very detailed descriptions for each book that included the publisher's name, the pagination, and translator information when it was available. The deal was done in a blink of an eye and now I am patiently waiting for the parcel to arrive. In the last email I had from Simon, he told me the books had been sent but due to the Chinese New Year, he would not be available until February 23. What a great concept, having a week off for the New Year. I think that would be a great way to begin a new year. Happy Oinking!! Correction: In "The Post NYC Blues - Not" Gayane Grot-Khachatryan was incorrectly identifies as "He" when she is definitely a "She". I do know the difference. -DH
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