The Garlic Ballads

CHARACTER AND PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Surnames (family names) always precede given names and titles (our author is Mr. Mo, not Mr. Yan). It is common in rural villages for a single surname to predominate; it is also common for rural and urban Chinese alike to address one another not by name but by family hierarchical title-Elder Brother, Aunt, Cousin-even in the absence of blood relationships. The major characters in the novel are:

GAO YANG (“Sheep” Gao): a garlic farmer

HIS WIFE XINGHUA: his blind daughter

GAO MA (“Horse” Gao): a garlic farmer

GAO ZHILENG: a parakeet raiser

GAO JINJIAO: the village boss (formally “director”)

The FANG family:

FANG YUNQIU (Fourth Uncle): head of the household

FOURTH AUNT: his wife

FANG YIJUN (also Number One, Elder Brother): his son FANG YIXIANG (also Number Two, Second Brother): his son

FANG JINJU (Golden Chrysanthemum): his daughter

DEPUTY YANG (Eighth Uncle): a local dignitary

SECRETARY WANG (Wang Jiaxiu): the local party boss

YU QIUSHUI: a peasant

ZHANG KOU: a blind minstrel

The proximate pronunciation of modern Chinese has not been materially aided by the pinyin (“spell-sound”) system. For the most part, the key is in the vowels:

a as in father (except after y, when it is the same as e)

e as in met

i as in see (in and ing are the same as in English)

O as in pork

u as in mood

ao as in cow

ei as in hay

iu as in use

ou as in old

u after j, q, x, and y, as the German ü (über)

c is pronounced as ts (its)

q is pronounced as ch (chill)

x is pronounced as sh (she)

z is pronounced as ds (yards)

zh is pronounced as j