[2008.06.27] 记者日记：传统带来的震撼－昆明

South-west China
中国西南

Tradition’s rock
传统带来的震撼

Jun 27th 2008
From Economist.com

KUNMING, the capital of Yunnan province, is an affluent city. Large foreign cars fill the roads; billboards with advertisements for large foreign cars line them. These vehicles, along with the coal-fired power stations and nearby heavy industry, create a thick, hazy pollution soup that sits permanently above the town.
云南省省会昆明是一个富裕的城市。国外大型轿车在道路穿梭不息;关于国外大型轿车的广告牌更是成行林立。这些车辆，以及燃煤火力发电站和附近的重工业，正制造着十分浓重的，薄雾弥漫的污染，笼罩城市上空，久久不散。

Kunming’s success is built on a manufacturing and industrial base. During the second world war, it was the terminus of the Burma Road. Today you can now fly direct from Kunming to Yangon, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Singapore.
昆明的繁荣是建立在制造业和工业基地的基础之上。二战期间，昆明是滇缅公路的终点站。今天，昆明有直达仰光，河内，香港和新加坡的航班。

Although many tourists pass through Kunming’s large airport, which filters visitors to destinations around the southwest, few stop here. This is a shame: despite (or perhaps, at least partly, because of) its bad air, it shows what a self-confident, middle class China might look like.
尽管很多前往西南目的地的游客要经过昆明大型机场，少有游客肯在此处停留。此乃是一种羞辱：尽管（或许是，或至少部分是由于）存有不良的空气，但昆明展现出了一个自信的，中产阶级中国的大致模样。

Anyone who does wander into town from the airport should do so carefully. Silent electric scooters have largely replaced bicycles, and they zip along pavements, approaching quickly and without warning from all directions. Locals have developed an extra-sensory perception which I struggle to emulate.
从机场漫步到城市，任何人都应十分小心。无噪音的电动摩托车已在大规模地取代自行车，他们沿人行道迅速前进，从四面八方迅速临近但却毫无警告。当地人已形成一种特别的感知能力。笔者正努力效仿。

The city centre is a well-ordered place, with streets continually swept by an army of workers in fluorescent orange vests. Many of the stores attest to Kunming’s wealth: Gucci, Givenchy, Ferragamo and other luxury brands line up alongside each other on Qingnian Street.
城市的中心是一个秩序井然的地方，街道由一群身着荧光橘红色环卫服的工人在不断清扫。许多商店证实了昆明的财富：古琦，纪梵希，菲拉格慕以及其他奢侈品牌在青年路两旁一字排开。

In the backstreets are hints of what Kunming might once have been and for many still is. Away from the flashy stores are poorly-lit streets where locals eat in plain shopfront restaurants.
昆明的后街小巷暗示出这座城池的以往，甚至现在的模样。离华丽商店的不远处是灯光暗淡的街道，当地人便在街道周围简陋朴素的餐厅店堂里吃饭。

A few Buddhist monasteries attest to other cultural influences in Yunnan province, which is home to more ethnic minorities than any other region of the country. There is also a small but prominent Hui Muslim population, though many of their shops, which had been concentrated in a small part of the city centre, have been dispersed in recent years at the behest of the government.
同国内其他省份，在云南居住的少数民族则要比较多。数家佛教寺院显示出在云南的文化影响力。云南还有规模不大但有颇为重要的回族。回族人开设的许多商店曾被集中在市中心的小块地方。现在依照政府的指令，他们的商店于近些年已被分散。

Elsewhere there are signs of the China I expected to see. A tunnel of white-coated masseurs stand behind their chairs along the middle of the pedestrianised Zhengyi Street in the centre of town, working their painful magic on customers or waiting for the next ones. Around the corner, a group of middle-aged women exercise in public by line-dancing.
其他地方也有中国的迹象，这也正是笔者预料看到的情况。在市中心正义街（人行道）中部两旁设立的长椅后面，一队身穿白色制服的按摩师正费力地对顾客进行魔术治疗或是在等待下一顾客。在这个角落的周围，一群中年妇女运动在公共场合跳起了广场舞。

Five minutes further outside the centre, the road is decked with open-air stalls on either side, selling a huge variety of meats. Locals eat and chat on rickety chairs and tables. Small chickens and ducks are available, heads, feet and all, alongside dog meat butchered into sections of thighs, feet, ribs and head. The stallholders insistently extol the virtues of the latter when they notice me and my friend looking on curiously. We decide to pass.
离市中心步行5分钟的距离，那里的道路两边已是摆满了露天摊位，正在大量出售各种肉类。当地人坐着快要散架的椅子﹑桌子吃喝聊天。小鸡和小鸭四处可买，凤爪鸭首及各部分皆可购买，旁边的狗肉被分成腿，脚，肋骨和头部出售。在注意到我和朋友好奇地打量狗肉的时候，摊主便执意对其自卖自夸。我们决定走开。

The more modern face of China reasserts itself a few hours later in the district of Kundu. Like many other towns and cities in the region, Kunming keeps its loudest bars and nightclubs restricted to a tight area of the city centre. The clubs have clearly had time, money and effort spent on them, as have their twenty-something clientele who confidently walk in and out of the clubs well into the early hours, popping outside to make and take calls on their mobile phones.
中国更为现代的面貌在昆都数小时后再次体现。同本地区的许多乡镇和城市一样，昆明对最为嘈杂的酒吧和夜总会限制在市中心的小块地区。很显然，这些娱乐场所拥有时间，金钱和精力去经营管理.20来岁的顾客满怀信心地出入娱乐场所一直持续到凌晨，期间还在劈里啪啦地出入接打手机。

Unlike its clubs and bars, Kunming’s hotels do not cluster in a small area downtown: there are too many of them. Construction in the centre of town augurs even more vast shopping malls, and a high-tech industrial park is being developed on the edge of town.
不同于俱乐部和酒吧，昆明的酒店却未群集于市中心的小块地区：昆明有太多酒店。城市中心的建设预示着未来将有更大规模的商场。目前，一个高新技术产业园正在城市的边缘建设。

Southwest China was once rather a backwater: people who fell afoul of the rulers in the capital were exiled here. Today, though, Kunming doesn’t feel all that far at all from Shanghai or Beijing.
中国西南地区曾偏居一禺：得罪京城统治者的人士都被流放于此。然而在今天，昆明根本感觉不到同上海或北京相距甚远。

译者：captain21   http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12568&extra=page%3D1