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标题: China through hopeful eyes
地址: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/15/opinion/edosborn.php
来源: International Herald Tribune 国际先驱论坛报
翻译: rlsrls08
【声明】本文翻译仅限Anti-CNN使用,转载请注明译者和anti-CNN.com。
China through hopeful eyes
BEIJING: I came to China expecting to find what the Western media has been harping on for ages: a stifling political climate, even more stifling pollution and indescribable poverty. But though I looked hard for proof of what I'd read, I finally had to conclude that Beijing is not that scary. Of course, China has human rights and pollution problems, but life here isn't just a series of catastrophes.
I am awed by Beijing's skyscrapers that hold their noses up too high to see the pickup-sticks mess of hutongs and razed areas that barely come up to their second levels.
Beijing is gray, but there is an eerily colorful combination of old-fashioned neon lights that start to glow as the day dies and the garish, outdated Olympic propaganda banners. On the sidewalks, a few elderly men and women wearing simple button-down Cultural evolution jackets brush shoulders with clumps of teenagers with spiky blue hair, piercings and designer (or counterfeit) jeans. Vendors sell open-fire popcorn beneath colorful, curvy, glassy architecture.
All of this is part of a new Beijing, and to see it grow and change every day is exciting for me, not frightening.
My Chinese host family and I talk about sensitive issues (Tibet, Taiwan, the dairy scandal) at dinner in our 12th-floor apartment. The living room looks out over the western side of the city; my host parents' room is partitioned off from the living room. My Chinese sister's room is plastered all over with David Beckham posters. My bedroom is all white except for my bed, which has a big pink spread covered in pictures of the animé heroine "Princess Rose."
My house is nothing like the courtyard homes with no plumbing or heat in which some of my classmates live; nor is it one of the shoddy, teetering high-rises to which so many former courtyard-home dwellers have been relocated. It is neither the worst place to live in Beijing nor the best.
A few weeks after I moved in, I listened to my Chinese host family's description of the dairy scandal. When my Chinese mother described the scandal over noodles and stewed asparagus, she did not directly blame the government; rather, she said that the small farmers hadn't been paid enough by the companies buying their milk, and so they had tainted their products with melamine to make more money. "Everything else," she said, "came from that."
Recently, the economic crisis usurped the dairy scandal. The view is that this isn't America's fault or the government's fault; it's a misfortune that must be faced while going about life normally. In middle-class China, a layoff means it's time for a new job. A stock market crash means it's time to reinvest. Besides, recessions and depressions are part of life, and Chinese people have all seen worse. "What goes up must come down," my Chinese mother reminded me.
On a drive to Hebei province with my host family one day, the pollution rendered visibility so bad that traffic was stopped for hours, and the highway became a ghostly, never-ending parking lot. But what fascinated me wasn't the gauzy sky. On one side of the highway were ancient, forgotten graves crumbling among the tall, slender trees of a newly planted orchard.
Across the road, willows shook their seaweed tresses over a trickling, dirty river. Everyone got out of their cars and walked around, chatting with strangers or surreptitiously snapping pictures of the 6-foot-tall foreigner in their midst (me). There was more to see than unclean air.
Part of what makes me hopeful in China is that people make the best of situations. A dairy scandal with disastrous health repercussions is also an opportunity to rethink the way farmers work, or to reassess a family's diet so that it's not only safer but also healthier. A bulldozed historical district can become a new arts center. My Chinese family isn't passive or apathetic, but optimistic. Everything else comes from that.
Annie Osborn, a junior at Boston Latin School, is studying with School Year Abroad in Beijing.
透过希望的眼睛看中国
北京:我来中国希望找到西方媒体多年来一直提到的情景:令人窒息的政治气氛,更令人窒息的污染和无法形容的贫穷。但是,尽管我很努力的要找到媒体是正确的证明,我终于得出结论:北京并不可怕。当然,中国有人权和污染问题,但生活在这里并不是一个灾难系列。
北京高耸的摩天大楼让我惊叹,太高了以至于看不到老旧的混乱的胡同,和夷为平地,几乎没有盖到2层楼以上的地区。
北京是灰色的,也是一个怪异的丰富多彩的结合体。天暗下来就开始闪烁的老式霓虹灯,还有花哨和过时的奥运宣传横幅。在人行道上,一些老年男子和妇女穿着单排扣的文革夹克(译者注:怀疑她说的是中山装)在刷肩膀,成群的青少年顶着高低不平的蓝色头发,戴着耳环和穿着名牌(或假冒)的牛仔裤。在彩色的,曲线的,玻璃面的的建筑物下,小贩在卖现做的爆米花。
所有这一切是新北京的一部分,每一天看到它发展和变化对我而言是兴奋的,不是可怕的。
在我们位于12层的公寓,晚餐上我的中国寄宿家庭和我谈论起敏感问题(西藏,台湾,奶粉丑闻)。客厅看出去是城市的西边,我的中国父母的房间跟客厅隔开。我的中国妹妹的房间里贴满了大卫贝克汉姆的海报。我的卧室是白色,除了床。我的床铺着印有卡通英雄“玫瑰公主”照片的粉红色的大床罩。
我的房子跟我一些同学住的没有水管和暖气的平房不一样,也不那种劣质的摇摇欲坠的高楼,为了盖高楼众多的平房居民已搬迁。这既不是北京最差的地方也不是最好的。
搬进来几个星期之后,我的中国寄宿家庭聊起奶粉丑闻。我的中国妈妈说起面条和炖芦笋的丑闻(译者注:不知道是不是指有毒的面条和青菜?国内的朋友指点一下),她并没有直接指责政府,而是说,收购牛奶的公司没有付给小奶农足够的钱,所以为了赚钱奶农在牛奶里头加了三聚氰胺。她说,“其他的一切来自这一点。”
最近,经济危机取代奶粉丑闻成为最热的新闻。这不是美国的过失或政府的故障;这是一个过正常生活的同时必须去面对的不幸。对中国的中产阶级而言,裁员意味着找一份新工作的时机。股市暴跌意味着再次买入。此外,经济衰退和大萧条是生活的一部分,中国人见过更糟的。 “上去的一定会再下来 ”我的中国妈妈提醒我。
我和寄宿家庭开车去河北省的那一天,因为污染能见度相当糟糕,交通被迫中断几个小时,高速公路成为一个可怕的,没有尽头的停车场。但让我着迷的不是淡淡的天空,而是公路一侧新栽种的果树林里,古老的,被遗忘的坟墓夹杂在高瘦的树木之间。
公路对面,柳树在肮脏的小河边摇摆。每个人都走出他们的汽车,四周围走走,与陌生人聊天,或偷偷拍摄其中一个6英尺高的外国人(我)。人们更看到比不洁空气更多的东西。
让我充满希望的还有中国人的乐观。毒奶丑闻带来灾难性的健康影响,也是一个反思农民工作方式的机会,或重新评估一个家庭的饮食,不仅要安全而且健康。被推平的老城区可以成为一个新的艺术中心。我的中国家庭既不消极也不冷漠,而乐观。一切都来自于这一点。
作者安妮奥斯本是美国麻州波士顿拉丁学校的初中生,目前参加School Year Abroad项目在北京学习。
(译者注:School Year Abroad (SYA)是美国的一个非营利机构,主要开展让中学生到欧洲和亚洲住在当地人家里进行交流学习的项目。交流的国家包括中国,印度,法国,意大利和西班牙。http://www.sya.org/)
[ 本帖最后由 rlsrls08 于 2008-12-16 01:53 编辑 ] |
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