[two_third]This is a mid-level essay about learning to be honest. If you've read some of my other essay translations, you will start to see a pattern emerge in school essay writing. They usually include an all-too-tidy life lesson in morality, and usually an instance of tears welling up in the author's eyes. <!--more-->

When I was in Chinese class in college in China, my friends and I used to joke about this - how almost every essay we were assigned to read involved the author being moved to tears by what was essentially a fairy tale. We'd joke that losing our lunch money made us 哭起来 (burst into tears), or that not being able to find our socks made 泪水盈满了我的眼眶 (tears well up in our eyes). We found this especially strange because the Chinese people are not prone to crying in public - and if you do cry in front of a Chinese person, the polite thing for them to do is pretend not to notice and look the other way. Though that may seem cold and heartless to a culture where the polite thing to do is get involved and try to comfort the crying person and find out what's wrong, the Chinese help you save face by giving you the opportunity to pull yourself together and make the whole situation go away without comment.

However, during funerals it is entirely acceptable to hire professional mourners, who fake-cry and sing sad songs while fake-sobbing and crawling on their knees in fake despair. Later during the funeral, the mourners will perform happy dances to lighten the mood - it's almost like they guide the Chinese through the process of mourning and healing during the funeral. Though everyone there is aware the tears are fake, the Chinese find this very moving, whereas I think I would find it offensive if a stranger made a show of fake-crying at a funeral.

Perhaps to a Chinese person, who knows that crying in front of others is, in most circumstances, too blatant a display of one's secret inner self, the thought of someone being so upset that they lose control and cry in public shows just how upset they are, and is therefore moving. 

This is a little more accessible than most articles because it includes a trope that we're all familiar with: a variation of the devil and and angel sitting on opposite shoulders routine. This essay doesn't use the word "devil", instead it uses the term "evil angel". This confusion is probably due to the fact that Christianity doesn't get a lot of play in China. The only thing most Chinese know is that Islam, Christianity and Judaism are major world religions, and involve going to church, but that's often about it. But Chinese mythology does have good and evil spirits in it, so I imagine that's where the mixup comes in - well... if we're going to get specific, technically Lucifer is an evil angel, but my point is that there is a Chinese word for "devil" (more like "a devil" than "the Devil", though), 魔鬼, which does not appear here. 



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<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
浸泡 - [pinyin]jin4 pao4[/pinyin] - to soak, to immerse
若干 - [pinyin]ruo4 gan1[/pinyin] - A number of, a certain amount
汤匙 - [pinyin]tang1 chi2[/pinyin] - tablespoon
茶匙 - [pinyin]cha1 chi2[/pinyin] - teaspoon
适量 - [pinyin]shi4 liang4[/pinyin] - an appropriate amount
即可 - [pinyin]ji2 ke3[/pinyin] - "and that will do", or "that will be fine".
蒜瓣 - [pinyin]suan4 ban4[/pinyin] - garlic clove
翻炒 - [pinyin]fan1 chao3[/pinyin] - stir
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<div id="chinesetext">
<strong>材料:</strong>
土豆丝（需用冷水<strong>浸泡</strong>会）
干辣椒若干个
一根青椒和红椒
葱花少许，
白醋1汤匙
油辣子2<strong>汤匙</strong>（随意）
3个蒜瓣
盐1<strong>茶匙</strong>
几滴香油

<strong>做法:</strong>
1. 烧热锅，倒入<strong>适量</strong>花生油，小火炒干辣椒使之出香味<strong>即可</strong>，随即放入葱花，炸锅；
2.开大火下入青椒和红椒圈圈，翻炒后放入土豆丝，大约1分钟，放入白醋；
3.炒2-3分钟左右，再放入辣子油和<strong>蒜瓣</strong>（拍碎），<strong>翻炒</strong>；
4.待土豆丝上色后放入盐，滴几滴香油翻炒，关火盛出装盘即可。

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<strong>Ingredients</strong>
Potato strips (you have to use cold water to blanch them)
A number of dried peppers 
One red pepper and one green pepper
A few chopped scallions
One tablespoon of white pepper
2 Tablespoons hot pepper oil (to taste) 
3 cloves of garlic 
1 teaspoon of salt 
A few drops of sesame oil 

<strong>Instructions:</strong>
1. Warm up the wok on low heat [you can sub a large flat pan], and put in an appropriate amount of peanut oil, lightly fry the dry peppers until they emit a fragrant smell, then immediately put in the scallions and deep fry them; 
2. Turn the heat up high, cut the red and green peppers into thin rings and put them in, and when they've been pan fried, put in the potato strips and after about 1 minute, put in the white pepper;
3. Saute for around 2-3 minutes, and then put in the hot pepper oil and the garlic cloves (crushed), and stir;
4.Wait until the potatoes get a bit of color and then put in the salt, add a few drops of sesame oil and stir, turn off the flame and transfer to plate.

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