The chemical plant in the county town has closed for good. Two thousand people out of work, and a river running clear again.
Zhang laoshi
我老家那个化工厂，上个月彻底停了。
Wǒ lǎojiā nà gè huàgōngchǎng, shàng gè yuè chèdǐ tíng le.
The chemical plant in my home town shut down for good last month.
Chen Hao
关得好。我小时候去过，河水是红的，味道隔着两条街都闻得到。
Guān de hǎo. Wǒ xiǎo shíhou qù guò, hé shuǐ shì hóng de, wèidao gé zhe liǎng tiáo jiē dōu wén de dào.
Good riddance. I went there as a child: the river ran red, and you could smell it two streets away.
Zhang laoshi
关得好，可两千人一下子没了工作。
Guān de hǎo, kě liǎng qiān rén yīxiàzi méi le gōngzuò.
Good riddance, and two thousand people are suddenly out of work.
Xiaoyu
那些人后来怎么办？
Nàxiē rén hòulái zěnme bàn ?
What became of them?
Zhang laoshi
一部分去了新的光伏厂，还有的出去跑车。四十多岁的最难。
Yī bùfen qù le xīn de guāngfú chǎng, hái yǒu de chūqù pǎo chē. Sìshí duō suì de zuì nán.
Some went to the new solar panel plant, others drive for a living. The ones in their forties have it worst.
Auntie Wang
说到底，厂是脏，可当年也是它养活了半个县。
Shuō dàodǐ, chǎng shì zāng, kě dāngnián yě shì tā yǎnghuo le bàn gè xiàn.
When all is said and done, the plant was filthy, but in its day it kept half the county fed.
Chen Hao
阿姨，这话不能这么说。河脏了，病也跟着来。
Āyí, zhè huà bù néng zhème shuō. Hé zāng le, bìng yě gēn zhe lái.
Auntie, you cannot put it like that. When the river is polluted, illness follows.
Auntie Wang
我没说不该关。我是说，关的时候得想着人。
Wǒ méi shuō bù gāi guān. Wǒ shì shuō, guān de shíhou de xiǎng zhe rén.
I did not say it should not close. I said that when you close it, you have to think of the people.
Zhang laoshi
王阿姨说的才是真问题。治污的钱好算，转行的账难算。
Wáng āyí shuō de cái shì zhēn wèntí. Zhì wū de qián hǎo suàn, zhuǎnháng de zhàng nán suàn.
It is Auntie Wang who is raising the real problem. The cost of cleaning up can be worked out; the cost of retraining cannot.
Xiaoyu
现在不是有补偿和培训吗？补偿的钱总能顶一阵吧？
Xiànzài bùshì yǒu bǔcháng hé péixùn ma ? Bǔcháng de qián zǒng néng dǐng yī zhèn ba ?
Are there not compensation and training schemes now? Compensation must last a while, surely?
Zhang laoshi
有。培训三个月，学个电工。可五十岁的人，学完谁要？
Yǒu. Péixùn sān gè yuè, xué gè diàngōng. Kě wǔshí suì de rén, xué wán shéi yào ?
There are. Three months' training, learn to be an electrician. But at fifty, once trained, who takes you on?
Chen Hao
那怎么办？难道就一直烧煤？
Nà zěnme bàn ? Nándào jiù yīzhí shāo méi ?
Then what? Do we burn coal for ever?
Zhang laoshi
当然不是。我的意思是，把时间拉长一点，别一刀切。
Dāngrán bùshì. Wǒ de yìsi shì, bǎ shíjiān lā cháng yīdiǎn, bié yī dāo qiē.
Of course not. What I am saying is that the timetable should be stretched, not cut through at a stroke.
Xiaoyu
一边建新的，一边关旧的。可新的建起来，得好几年。
Yī bian jiàn xīn de, yī bian guān jiù de. Kě xīn de jiàn qilai, de hǎo jǐ nián.
Build the new while closing the old. Except that the new takes several years.
Zhang laoshi
对。可这需要耐心，而耐心恰恰是最贵的东西。
Duì. Kě zhè xūyào nàixīn, ér nàixīn qiàqià shì zuì guì de dōngxi.
Exactly. Except that it takes patience, and patience is precisely the dearest thing there is.
To cut through with a single stroke of the knife, that is, to apply one uniform measure without looking at cases. The expression is the commonest reproach made to a Chinese administrative decision, and it is worn enough to belong to ordinary conversation. Zhang is not disputing the closure, he is disputing its form, and the word says exactly that.
Two actions carried on at once. The construction is repeated before each of the two verbs and expresses no priority between them, which is the very point of the line. Take care not to confuse it with 一方面…另一方面, which sets two aspects of a question against each other rather than making two actions simultaneous.
To feed in the sense of keeping alive: 养活了半个县, the plant kept half the county fed. The complement 活 makes clear that subsistence is at stake, not mere upkeep. It is said of a person as of an activity, and it often carries a gratitude the speaker knows to be debatable, as here.
