A small number of phrases from the writings of Lao She
Teahouse - Act II (Part) 《茶馆》 第二幕 （部分）
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老舍茶馆 第二幕 （部分） Teahouse by Lao She - Act II (Part)
时间： 与前幕相隔十余年，现在是袁世凯死后，帝国主义指使中国军阀进行割据，时时发动内战的时候。初夏，上午。
Time: The time is separated from the previous act by ten years. Yuan Shikai is dead and imperialism is causing China to be cut up by warlords. There are frequent calls to mobilize for civil war. Early summer, in the morning.
地点： 同前幕。
Place: As in the previous act
[幕起：北京城内的大茶馆已先后相继关了门。“裕泰”是硕果仅存的一家了，可是为避免被淘汰，它已改变了样子与作风 ...
[The curtain rises: The teahouses in the city of Beijing are closing one after another. “Yu Tai” is one of the few remaining great teahouses but has changed its style to avoid being weeded out. ...
王淑芬： （看李三的辫子碍事）三爷，咱们的茶馆改了良，你的小辫儿也该剪了吧？
Wang Shufen: (Seeing that Li San's ponytail is in the way) Li San, our teahouse has already been renovated. Shouldn't your ponytail should be cut off too?
李三： 改良！改良！越改越凉，冰凉！
Li San: Let's improve it! Let's improve it! The more we improve the more cool — as cool as ice.
王淑芬： 也不能那么说！三爷你看，听说西直门的德泰，北新桥的广泰，鼓楼前的天泰，这些大茶馆全先后脚儿关了门！只有咱们裕泰还开着，为什么？不是因为栓子的爸爸懂得改良吗？
Wang Shufen: Well, we can't really say that. You see, Li San, I hear that the Detai teahouse in Xizhimen, the Guangtai teahouse at Beixin Bridge, and the Tiantai teahouse in front of the Drum Tower have all closed one after another. Our Yutai teahouse is the only one still open. Why is that? Isn't it because Shunzi's father understands how to renovate?
李三： 哼！皇上没啦，总算大改良吧？可是改来改去，袁世凯还是要作皇上。袁世凯死后，天下大乱，今儿个打炮，明儿个关城，改良？哼！我还留着我的小辫儿，万一把皇上改回来呢！
Li San: Heng! The emperor did not have it and in the end there was a big renovation! Renovate or not, Yuan Shikai would have been better as the emperor. After Yuan Shikai died there was a bunch of chaos. Today canon fire, tomorrow closing a city. Is that improvement? Heng! I will keep my ponytail just in case the emperor comes back.
王淑芬： 别顽固啦，三爷！人家给咱们改了民国，咱们还能不随着走吗？你看，咱们这么一收拾，不比以前干净，好看？专招待文明人，不更体面？可是，你要还带着小辫儿，看着多么不顺眼哪！
Wang Shufen: Don't be obstinate, Li San. Other people have given us a republic and we still do not follow? Look, we clean and clean but it is not as neat and good looking as before. Doesn't specializing in entertaining cultured people require even more dignity? However, you insist on wearing a ponytail and it is not pleasing to the eye.
Source: Lao She, 2010. Tea House 《茶馆》. Hainan Press, Haikou, Hainan, pp. 25-26.
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