当中国变成超级大国,世界会变成什么样？
In North America, it's become almost a cliché in science fiction to turn Japan and Korea into superpowers of the future. From William Gibson's first cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, to David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (now a movie), we are bombarded with images of a hyper-futuristic world dominated culturally and economically by these Asian countries. And yet, despite intense political debates (and fearmongering) over China's growing hold over the U.S., we rarely see science fiction stories that depict it becoming a superpower. It's like we're afraid to imagine in fiction what the U.S. presidential candidates argued over repeatedly in their debates. Even the remake of Red Dawn shies away from a Chinese future; the movie was about a Chinese invasion, but that detail was changed in post-production to North Korea.在北美，在科幻小说中将日本和韩国打造为未来的超级大国这种想法已经过时了。从威廉·吉布森（译注：加拿大科幻小说家）的《神经漫游者》小说系列到大卫·米切尔的《云图》（现在已拍成电影）。我们身边充斥着这样的形象：一个从文化到经济都被这些亚洲国家所统治的未来世界。然而，尽管关于中国崛起会掌控美国这一观点引起了激烈的政治辩论（以及各种恐怖谣言的散布），我们还是很少在科幻小说中看到中国被描绘为超级大国。似乎我们不敢让小说中出现美国总统候选人在他们辩论中反复争论的东西。就连《赤色黎明》在翻拍时也避免谈到未来的中国；该电影是有关中国入侵的。但是在后期制作时改成了朝鲜。
Still, there are stories like Looper and Maureen McHugh's novel China Mountain Zhang that are set in a future where China has eclipsed the West. A few themes emerge from stories like these, where most U.S. and Canadian fiction fears to go.
不过也有把未来设置在中国的故事，如《环形使者》和莫林·麦克休的小说China Mountain Zhang ，将未来设想为中国使西方黯然失色。但只有少数小说以此为主题，大部分美国和加拿大的小说都不敢触及这一领域。
China On Top
McHugh, who lived for a time in China, has set several of her stories in a future version of that country. Her award-winning China Mountain Zhang came out shortly after the first book in David Wingrove's series about the rise of China as a superpower, Chung Kuo. The difference between the two authors' visions is stark. In China Mountain Zhang, McHugh imagines a China transformed by wealth and technology, a place where young people in the West aspire to go for education and opportunity. In this way, her future China is similar to the one we saw in Looper. It is still a country that struggles with authoritarianism, but like the United States today it is a sprawl of social contradictions and clashing viewpoints.
中国至高
麦克休，在中国居住过一段时间，写下了几个她对这个国家的未来视角的故事。她的获奖作品China Mountain Zhang是继大卫·温格鲁夫出版了关于崛起的中国会成为超级大国的书之后很短的时间内推出的。这两个作家对中国的观点有明显的不同。麦克休描绘的是中国拥有财富和科技，是在西方的年轻人渴望去寻求教育和机会的福地。在这种思想模式下，她笔下未来的中国和《环形使者》中的国度有些相似。那时的中国虽然仍在和威权主义做斗争，但也像今天的美国一样有社会矛盾和观点冲撞。
Wingrove, however, chose to imagine a more mythical future China, its often stereotypical characters grouped into two factions who are locked into a Cold War struggle between communism and capitalism. But for McHugh and Looper writer/director Rian Johnson, the future of China is all shades of gray. It's an amalgam of communism and capitalism, existing as uneasy bedfellows, the way a science-fueled economy and Christian-dominated politics do in the U.S. Today.
但是温格鲁夫所选择描绘的图景则是更具有神话色彩的中国，故事里略显老套的角色分为两个派系，在共产主义和资本主义之间进行冷战。但是对于麦克休和《环形使者》的作者兼导演莱恩·约翰逊而言，未来的中国是一片灰色地带。是共产主义和资本主义的混合体。相互之间都存在不协调部分。就如同现如今的美国，科技需依靠经济，且基督教控制着政治。
Indie film Ghosts with Shit Jobs, which takes place in a future Toronto, takes McHugh's ideas a step further. This film has a strong satirical bent, and imagines what might happen if the west went bankrupt while China soared to economic dominance. A Chinese film crew comes to Canada to find out what it's like for all those poor Westerners who take those "shit jobs" outsourced by rich Chinese companies. China has basically become the United States, and North America has become a kind of mashup of today's India, China and Central Europe.
独立电影《鬼子做苦工》，将设定放在未来的多伦多。进一步发挥了麦克休的观念。这部电影有很强烈的讽刺意味。想象一下如果西方逐渐崩溃而中国在经济上掌握了主导地位会发生什么。电影内容为一个中国电影摄制组来到加拿大，他们想看看穷困的西方人打工的样子，北美变成了现在的印度、中国和中欧一些地区的混合体。
China Is Our Best Hope
Perhaps the most Utopian of the stories devoted to the rise of China as a world power is Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, which suggests that the world might be saved by hyper-educated Chinese women. Obviously the message of the book is far more complicated than that, but it nevertheless ends with one of the most striking Utopian images in fiction about China's ascendency.
中国是我们的希望
在这些关于中国崛起为世界大国的故事中，最乌托邦的一个或许要数尼尔·斯蒂文森的《钻石时代》，其内容为世界可能会被受过教育的中国女子拯救。显然这本书的观点不止这么简单，但故事结尾关于中国优越性的描述无疑是最乌托邦式的画面之一。
Han girls who have been abandoned by their families in China organize themselves using an extremely advanced e-book teaching system called A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Armed with all the knowledge they need to become engineers, scientists, and leaders, they form a vast group called the Mouse Army. As the novel ends, they are unleashed upon the world. It's unclear what they will do, but it seems that they will be both just and unstoppable. This is a theme that Stephenson returns to in his near-future tale Reamde, where Chinese women are again represented as among the smartest and most capable characters.
被中国家庭丢弃的汉族女孩成立了一个组织，用被称为“年轻女子绘图识字课本”的非常先进的电子书系统，她们由此具备了成为工程师、科学家和领袖人物的知识，成立了一个叫做“老鼠军队”的大型组织。在小说结尾，她们走向全世界。虽然并不清楚她们接下来的行动，但是看上去她们是势不可挡的。同样的主题斯蒂文森在Reamde中也有体现，这是一本关于不久的将来的小说，在这个故事里，中国女人再次被塑造为聪明能干的角色。
We see another hopeful vision of China in some of Kim Stanley Robinson's work. In The Years of Rice and Salt, he creates an alternate history where the medieval plagues wipe out almost all of Europe's population. As a result, Christianity is barely a blip on the historical radar, and North America is colonized by Chinese and Japanese explorers. Indeed, the Americas are known by Chinese names. The world is dominated by Islam, Confucianism, and Buddhism — and eventually a strain of feminist Islam helps to reform many nations. In Robinson's work, like McHugh's, we see Chinese cultural dominance as a patchwork of many cultural traditions and ideals. But in Robinson's work the world is arguably a better place for it, while McHugh is ambivalent.
从金·斯坦利·罗宾逊的一些作品里，我们也能找到关于中国是未来希望的论述。在《大米和食盐的年代》里，他给历史提供了另外一种可能：几乎全部欧洲人都在中世纪那场大瘟疫中丧生。基督教只得以在历史的雷达上一闪而过，而把北美变为殖民地的探险家成了中国和日本人。美国人都起了中国名字，世界被伊斯兰教、儒家思想和佛教所统治。最终在一些女性伊斯兰教徒帮助下，很多国家进行了改革。在罗宾逊的作品中，像麦克休一样，中国文化综合了很多文化传统和理念，占据了统治地位。但是在罗宾逊的作品里世界因此变得更好，而麦克休在这一点上是矛盾的。
In Robinson's recent novel 2312, China has colonized Venus and is in the process of geoengineering it so that it will have an Earthlike climate. There is a certain sense that this massive engineering project mirrors some of Mao's disastrous ones — but instead of killing people, it is creating a better home for them. Though the Chinese Venus is a troubled political region, it is certainly better off than Earth in the novel.
在罗宾逊的最新小说2312中，中国殖民了金星并且正在对它进行改造以获得像地球一样的气候。这项浩大的工程在某种意义上映射了毛时代那些灾难性的运动，不同的是在这项工程里没有杀戮，反而是为人类创造了更好的家园。尽管小说里中国的金星是个麻烦的政治地带，但比地球要好得多。
China Is Everywhere, But It's Invisible
One of the best-known examples of science fiction about the rise of China is Joss Whedon's TV series Firefly. Though all the characters speak Chinese, eat Chinese food, and appear to live in a universe dominated by Chinese culture, we never meet anybody who seems even remotely Chinese. This omission has been so widely remarked upon that it's become almost a trope unto itself. I would argue that Firefly is a perfect example of the fear and confusion that lurk at the heart of western representations of Chinese power. We can imagine that China will eventually dominate human culture, but somehow can't bear to work out the details of how that might work. Nor can we stop believing that western characters will dominate that future somehow, even when that future belongs to China.
中国无处不在，但却是隐形的
关于中国崛起最好的科幻例子就是乔治·文登的电影《萤火虫》，该影片中所有的角色都说汉语，吃中餐，生活在一个被中国文化主宰的宇宙里，却从来没遇到过一个像中国人的人，这一疏漏被广泛解读，以至于其自身即变成了一种隐喻。我认为《萤火虫》是一个完美的例子，它显示了关于中国力量的西方表述中潜伏着的恐惧和困惑。我们可以想象中国最终统治人类文化，但却忍受不了对于具体操作的描述。我们也不能停止认为不管怎样西方还是会统治未来，尽管这个未来其实是属于中国的。
In 1930, famed SF author Olaf Stapledon published Last and First Men, another novel of invisible Chinese domination. In this epic future history of humanity, China wins out over America and becomes the dominant human culture — until humans evolve into new species (the second men, third men, and so on). So there is a history of Chinese rule, but it has long since faded away into the prehistory of post-humanity.
在1930年，著名的科幻小说家奥拉夫·斯塔普尔顿出版了《最后和第一个人》，也是一部关于隐形的中国统治的小说。在这部人类的未来史诗里，中国战胜了美国成为主导性的人类文化，直到人类进化成新的物种（第二种人、第三种人，等等）。于是就有一段中国统治的历史，但它其实在后人类的史前就已经消失很久了。
Through Western Eyes
It's important to remember that these fantasies I've been discussing — just a handful of stories told in the west about the future of China as a superpower — is not the same kind of fantasy you'd expect to see in China itself. SF is very popular in China, but sadly very little exists in English translation. Not surprisingly, one of the best-known works of Chinese SF in the west right now is The Gilded Age: China 2013 a dystopian tale that was banned in the mainland.
透过西方人的眼睛解读
很重要的一点是要记得我所讨论的这些都仅是幻想——只是通过少数几个故事告诉西方中国成为超级大国的未来是什么样子的——在中国也许并没有相同的幻想。科幻小说在中国很流行，但是不幸的是很少被翻译成中文。
目前在西方最有名的中国科幻作品之一是《盛世：中国，2013年》，一部反乌托邦式的作品，在中国大陆被禁。.
It's about how the Chinese government suppresses dissent by drugging everybody in the country and causing national amnesia so that nobody remembers a protest movement. This story — which has struck a chord among Chinese dissidents as well as westerners — fits neatly with popular western ideas about China as a country whose authoritarianism will lead to a future of even greater political abuses.
其内容是关于中国政府怎么压制不同意见的小说。它给每个国民都下了药，导致全国性的失忆，以至于没人能回忆起一场抗议性运动。这个故事正符合西方的流行观点：中国的威权主义将会导致未来更严重的政治迫害。在中国持不同政见者和西方人中引起了共鸣。
Still, looking at the novels and movies I've discussed here, we can see that North American fiction about China's great future is also filled with anxieties about America's own flaws. Often, the future China is a distorted version of the present-day America — full of wealth and opportunity, but dogged by a history of violent conflict and conquest.
希望各位看看我在这推荐的电影和小说。我们由此可见北美关于中国美好的未来方面的小说因自身的缺陷而产生焦虑的情绪。未来的中国常常为描述成如今的美国——充满了财富和机遇，但是充满暴力冲突和征服的历史依然存在。
转自龙腾
1、I think most westerners simply are unable to understand China. Specifically, Americans can't grok that culture at all.
When we think of China, we think about the authoritarian government, but mostly we don't get how far down that sort of thinking goes in their culture. For instance, all that Tiger Mother stuff that was such a scandal awhile back? In China, that's called "parenting." The majority of Chinese parents don't see a kid as a precious snowflake right out of the womb - that kid has to be molded and shaped and pruned, and he's graded harshly on everything he ever does. It's a level of control over a child's life that Americans can't understand; in fact, we consider it cruel.
我认为许多西方人很难理解中国。尤其是美国，在文化上不能与中国相通。龙腾网版权所有 http://www.ltaaa.com
当我们想起中国时，我们想到的会是独裁政府，但多数时候在他们的文化中我们并没有看到这种思想。举例而言，那些关于虎妈丑闻，在中国，被称做“教育方式”。中国的大多数父母并没把孩子看做珍贵的宝物——这些孩子们被塑造和修剪，而且被严厉的分了等级。这种把孩子的生活控制在等级下的生活方式使美国人理解不能；事实上，我们认为那是非常残忍的。龙腾网版权所有 http://www.ltaaa.com
2、I strongly disagree with your death of individuality statement. I don't know how much you understand Chinese culture but the sentence "It's a level of control over a child's life that Americans can't understand; in fact, we consider it cruel" is something I find to be biased and not factual. Being raised from an Chinese mother, I see nothing but personality in her. All her friends in the US all have personalities and are each an individual. But its not because they are living in the United States where they are "free." I visited China and everyone there had a great personality. Some people were friendly and some people were rude. At dinner, there was the funny person, the serious person, the smart person etc etc. Just because there is "ruthless pruning in their upbrining" doesn't mean a person's personality dies. As a matter of fact, when you say that the child doesn't have a chance to think for themselves . That statement is absolutely not true, for anyone at anytime can have a thought to themselves. I feel that the mindset is the fault of the United States and its history of admonishing communism.
（回复楼上）我完全不同意你关于消磨孩子个性的观点。我不知道你了解中国文化多少，但是你所说的“这种把孩子的生活控制在等级下的生活方式使美国人理解不能；事实上，我们认为那是非常残忍的。”在我看来是有偏见且不符合事实的。我被一位中国母亲抚养长大，在她身上我看到了个性的特色。她在美国的所有朋友都是个性鲜明且都独特的。但是这并不意味着她们生活在“自由的”美国。我去过中国，那里的每一个人都很有个性。有些朋友很友好，有些则比较粗鲁。在聚餐时，也会有许多有趣的人，严肃的人，聪明的人等等等等。他们不会因为“无情的个性压抑”而丧失性格特点。事实上，当你说孩子没有机会为他们自己思考这种话时，是完全错误的，他们可以在任何时候为自己思考。我感到我觉得你这种心态是美国想劝告共产主义的错误言论。
3、Thank you for writing this! I mean, seriously, China has been a superpower for quite some time now- we in the USA just noticed in the last 6 years or so!
谢谢你的这篇文章！我的意思说，显然中国做超级大国已经有段时间了——在美国的我们再过去六年就看到了！ 西方害怕中国
页:
[1]