[2008.08.11] 记者日记：让奥运会开始吧!

Let the games begin
让奥运会开始吧!

Aug 11th 2008
From Economist.com

The city behind the spectacle
城市景象背后

THE 29TH Olympiad begins, at least for me, with what should be a great intellectual encounter. It is a discussion, held on the morning of the opening ceremonies, in an avant-garde art gallery, between two men whose creations are among the most striking of the remarkable buildings that China has erected either for the games or in time for them: Terminal 3 of Beijing’s airport and the National Stadium, commonly known as the bird’s nest.

第29届奥运会开幕了，至少对我来说，随之而来的是一场思想交锋。在当天早上，在一个先锋派的画廊里，两个人正在讨论着什么，而正是这两个人为北京奥运会建造了令人惊叹的建筑：北京机场第三号航站楼和国家体育场(俗称鸟巢).

These two iconic edifices will define Beijing for many visitors. The terminal building, opened earlier this year, is said to be bigger than all of Heathrow’s terminals combined. Its golden roof and red columns evoke the grandeur of the Forbidden City. It cavernous, serpentine form resembles a dragon, a symbol of China.

对许多游客而言，这两个建筑会成为北京的标志式建筑。今年早些时候开放的航站楼据说比希斯罗机场全部航站楼还要大。这个航站楼有金色的屋顶和红色的柱子，这让人想起了紫禁城的富丽堂皇.它曲折蜿蜒的结构与中国的另一个标志——龙——相似.

The stadium is a mass of intertwined steel beams; it looks just like its nickname. Its image adorns a recently issued banknote-the only one in circulation with no portrait of Mao Zedong.

体育馆是许多缠绕在一起的钢铁柱，看起来很像一个鸟巢。最近发行的钞票就用鸟巢做的装饰——这是发行的钞票中唯一一个没用毛泽东相的.

In most other capital cities, the designers（ of such monumental buildings ）would be in hot demand on the lecture circuit. But there are complications in China. Many of the architects involved in Beijing’s most famous Olympic edifices (or buildings erected in time for the Olympics, such as the new headquarters for state-owned television) are foreigners.

在大部分首都城市，这个不朽建筑的建筑师肯定会很受欢迎并被要求做巡回演讲。但在中国就难了。许多参与北京最著名奥运建筑(或及时和为奥运建的建筑物，像国家电视台的新总部)设计的设计师是外国人。

The man behind the terminal is Lord Norman Foster, a British architect. The bird’s nest architects are Herzog & de Meuron, a Swiss firm. Their artistic adviser was Ai Weiwei, who is Chinese. But Mr Ai happens to be an outspoken critic of the games.

修建航站楼的是英国设计师Lord Norman Foster.鸟巢的设计师们是瑞士公司Herzog & de Meuron.他们的艺术顾问是中国人艾未未,但他直接批评北京奥运会.

Ten hours before the games begin, Lord Foster and Mr Ai find themselves in a small lecture room in an art gallery opened last year by a Belgian couple, Guy and Myriam Ullens, on the north-eastern edge of Beijing. The gallery itself makes some Chinese uneasy. Some of them do not like the idea that foreigners are running what has become one of Beijing’s biggest non-profit galleries of contemporary Chinese art.

奥运会开始前十小时, Lord Foster和艾未未出现在一个艺廊的一个小讲堂里,这个艺廊由一对比利时夫妇Guy 和Myriam Ullens于去年开办,位于北京的东北边缘.艺廊本身让一些中国人觉得不自在.他们不喜欢外国人经营的艺廊成为现在北京最大的非盈利艺廊.

Chinese officials are in a particularly prickly mood. They fear the Olympics will be marred by protests against China’s human rights record and its policies in Tibet and the western region of Xinjiang. The Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, like many other foreign-run concerns in China, has to be cautious. At the start of the talk, the audience is reminded that the topic is Terminal 3. People are not to raise questions about politics or the Olympics.

中国官员也觉得很棘手.他们害怕示威者扰乱奥运会，示威者指责中国的人权状况和其在西藏和新疆的政策.像许多外国人办公司一样, 尤伦斯当代艺术中心也不得不小心.在讨论开始时,他们提醒观众主题是3号航站楼,不要提有关政治或奥运会的问题.

The opening ceremony of the games is hours away from being held in Mr Ai’s bird’s nest, but the speakers and audience keep to their instructions. The bird’s nest is far too sensitive a topic. Mr Ai has condemned the way the stadium and the games in general are being used by the Communist Party to show off. This time he confines his remarks to the new terminal (about the construction of which he has helped produce a book of photographs). The gallery is doubtless grateful.

在艾未未的鸟巢里举行的开幕式已经过去几小时了,但演讲者和观众还在讨论.鸟巢是个太敏感的话题.艾未未谴责共产党用体育馆和奥运会来炫耀.这次他把话题局限在新航站楼(他出版了关于这个建筑的一本画册).艺廊无疑很是感激.

The Ullens Centre is in a cluster of former state-owned factories that have been rented out to artists and galleries. It is swarming with security officials and Olympic volunteers this morning. Officials say 798-the name of this area, after the codename of one of its former military factories-has become one of Beijing’s biggest attractions for foreigners after the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. But like many parts of Beijing, 798 feels unusually devoid of visitors. China’s paranoia about protests has led to tougher visa restrictions, which have kept many foreigners away.

Ullens中心是前国有工厂租给艺术家和艺廊的,今天早晨这个地方挤满了安全人员和奥运会自愿者.官方称798—这个地方的名字,是以其前军事工厂的编码命名的-已经成为继长城和紫禁城后最吸引外国人的地方.像北京的很多地方一样，798今天出人意料的没有多少游客.中国对示威者的惧怕让他们严格限制了签证的发放,许多外国人被拒之门外。

The opening ceremony at the bird’s nest this evening is spectacular, but with touches of the authoritarian. Zhang Yimou, a filmmaker who once pushed the boundaries of artistic freedom in China but is now an establishment favourite, directed the spectacle.

今晚在鸟巢的开幕式很壮观,但带有专制的痕迹. 导演了这个壮观的开幕式的电影导演张艺谋曾经在中国鼓吹艺术自由,现在却成了当局的宠儿,

The display begins with 2,008 soldiers dressed in traditional (civilian) gowns banging in unison on drums. It sets an uncomfortably martial tone (more than half of the 14,000 performers this evening are troops). The uniformed goose-stepping soldiers who raise the Olympic flag do not help alleviate this.

2008个解放军身穿古装同时击缶揭开了开幕式的帷幕.这让开幕式披上了一种令人不舒服的军队气氛， (今晚的14000名演出者人的大部分人来自于部队).迈着正步的士兵升起了奥委会的旗帜，更增加了这种气氛。

Neither do China’s leaders, who watch impassively from a podium in the sweltering heat dressed in near identical suits. Performers move in perfect unison or in regimented choreography in a way that would make North Korea, a master of such extravaganzas, envious.

看台上中国领导人也给人这种感觉，他们穿着差不多一样的服装面无表情的观看着表演。演员们整齐的移动，严格的舞蹈设计甚至会让北韩都嫉妒了——北韩精通于这种表演。

China is missing its chance to smash stereotypes: the opening ceremony displays a nation marching in lockstep. It avoids overt political references, but does little to refute Mr Ai’s criticisms that the Beijing games are, for China, about politics. A normally vibrant city feels stifled. Dissenting voices are subdued.

中国浪费了打破其陈旧形象的机会，这场开幕式显示中国还在墨守成规.它避免公开提及政治,但却无法反驳艾未未认为北京奥运会事关政治的批评.一个平常生机勃勃的的城市变得沉闷.不一样的声音被扼杀了.

译者：soleil, enhua10000    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13259&extra=page%3D1