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Front Page of the Day
Premier Wen refuses tea from villagersPosted by Alice Xin Liu on Monday, March 22, 2010 at 3:56 PM
 New Express, March 22, 2010 Today's New Express shows Premier Wen Jiabao on an inspection tour of Yunnan and the drought that is plaguing the area. The smaller caption reads: "Premier Wen inspects Yunnan drought, says that water transportation isn't easy. Also that under no circumstances will the people have no water to drink." In red is the slogan about refusing villagers' tea to drink. The image of a concerned Wen adorns most front pages today. Links and Sources
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Comments on Premier Wen refuses tea from villagers
Premier Wen Jiabao consistantly shows concern and respect for the land workers of China. And in return is respected by the people. Not accepting tea is not a snub in China. You have to remember he gets offered tea a hundred times a day. Basically hes a nice guy with a tough job.
Alternate caption for the photograph: "Premier Wen: 'These are the worst tea leaves I have ever seen.'"
I think the proper translation should be " politely refuses" the tea. The idea is that if the place is suffering a drought, Wen doesn't want to be adding burden to the villagers' problems by drinking their water [tea] when there isn't enough to go around.
Colynn,
Yeah, really really tough job for Maestro Wen: touring China to visit places of disaster where he can try imitations of Bill Clinton's "I can feel your pain". It's true he does perform these very strenuous duties with a little more conviction than the Qianlong emperor. On the other hand, I pity all those bureaucrats who are imprisoned in office cubicles for 10 hours a day number-crunching and doing the paper work while Wen gets to ride the roller-coaster.
Dear felicia:
You're right, it should be "politely refuses" (婉拒). And good call on the explanation. I suppose one thing that comes with doing this for a long time is realising that some things need to be explained more clearly.
Cheers, Alice