訪問中國后，你對中國的看法有改變嗎?(二)

Harold Chia
I am from Malaysia and live in Malaysia.
I used to view China as a backwards country with a strong military.
My parents has a few apartments that they rented to Chinese students studying in nearby colleges and universities. The way they maintain the house is horrible and everytime they stop renting, we will need to fork out quite a lot of money to repair the house (especially cleaning the house, i have no idea how a porcelain bath tub/toilet seat can be black in color..)
My encounters with Chinese students on campus wasnt too good either. They are ill mannered and talk so loud you can hear them a mile away.
This is more than 20 years ago.

我來自馬來西亞，住在馬來西亞。
我以前將中國視為一個擁有強大軍事但落后的國家。
我父母有幾套公寓，租給在在附近大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的中國人。他們沒有很好維護房子，每次停止租賃時候，我們都要花很多錢請人修繕房子（特別是清理房間，我不知道瓷器的浴盆和馬桶座怎么會變成黑色）。
在校園里，與中國學(xué)生的相遇經(jīng)歷也不是很好。他們沒有禮貌，講話聲太大，你可以在一英里之外聽到。
這是20多年前的事情了。

My views changed slightly when i went to UK for my university education. The chinese students i met there is very generous, well behaved. When i was invited to their house for parties or to socialize, discuss things we learned in class, their residence is very clean. But then, i thought to myself back then, these students are children of the rich and powerful chinese compared to the chinese students i met in Malaysia. I thought to myself, this is probably the difference between upper class chinese and the middle class chinese.
This is 15 years ago.

My family decided to go over to China for vacation, mainly 江南 area, including Shanghai. The scenery is breathtaking. But still there is ill mannered chinese everywhere. litter on the floor.. People talking loudly etc.

This is 10 years ago.

當(dāng)我去英國讀大學(xué)時候，我的看法起了一些變化。我在那里遇到的中國學(xué)生非常慷慨，彬彬有禮。當(dāng)我被邀請到他們家參加聚會或社交，討論我們在課堂上學(xué)到的東西時，他們的住所非常干凈。當(dāng)時我心想，和我在馬來西亞遇到的中國學(xué)生相比，這些學(xué)生是有錢有勢的中國人的孩子。我心想，這大概就是中國上流社會和中產(chǎn)階級的區(qū)別吧。
這是15年前的事情。
我們一家人決定去上海度假，主要是去包括上海在內(nèi)的江南地區(qū)。景色美得讓人驚嘆。但是哪里都有沒有禮貌的中國人，隨地亂扔垃圾，人們大聲說話等等。
這是10年前的事情。

Then here is where my views really changed. last year i was asked to go to China for a business trip, to Ningbo and Shanghai. And again this year to Changzhou and Hangzhou. I am very very surprised at how China progressed over the years. The roads got better, transportation improved. But most of all, how the people changed.
People is much better behaved. Well mannered and actually obeyed traffic laws. I see slogans everywhere saying “Be Civilized”. Civilized driving, civilized usage of elevators, civilized everything.
Thats where China did it, and i will say it worked. They started educating children to be civilized at schools and everywhere.
As time passes, i am genuinely sure China will continue to improve with the right policy and education.

然后就到了我的觀點真正改變的時候，去年我應(yīng)邀去中國出差，去了寧波和上海。今年又去了常州和杭州。我對中國這些年的進步感到非常非常驚訝。道路變得更好了，交通也改善了。但最重要的是，人們的變化。
人們的舉止更加得體，遵守交通法規(guī)。我看到到處都是寫著“要文明”的標(biāo)語。文明駕駛，文明使用電梯，文明地做一切。
這就是中國所做的，我會說它起作用了。他們開始教育孩子們要文明，不僅在學(xué)校，也在任何地方
隨著時間流逝，我真的確信中國將在正確的政策和教育下繼續(xù)進步。

Chan
I am a Hong Kong-American, raised with your typical western values of generally casting suspicion on anything Chinese. As a child, I cast the same condescending attitude towards “com...st China” inherited from the peers around me. I was one of the kids who would say he was “from Hong Kong, not China.”
As a graduation gift, I was put on a charity trip to participate in a Hong Kong-funded cataract surgery drive in mainland China. I saw mainland Chinese cities, towns and villages, from the best to the poorest, from the connected eastern coast to the remote northwestern provinces, and the aggressive infrastructure drive in between all of them. This was at the turn of the millennium, and the positivity and hope really struck my impressionable teenage heart at the time.

我是一個來自香港的美國人，在典型的西方價值觀下長大，通常對任何中國的一切事情都持懷疑態(tài)度。當(dāng)我還是孩子時候，我對gc中國懷有一種優(yōu)越感，這來自于周圍同齡人的影響。（污蔑hk不是中國的。）
作為一個畢業(yè)禮物，我進行了一場慈善旅行去大陸參加由香港贊助的白內(nèi)障手術(shù)活動。我看到了中國大陸的城市、鄉(xiāng)鎮(zhèn)和鄉(xiāng)村，從最發(fā)達的到最窮的，從東部沿海到偏遠的西北省份，還有在這些省份之間雄心勃勃的基礎(chǔ)建設(shè)運動，那是在千禧年世紀之交，那種積極和希望沖擊我那敏感少年的內(nèi)心。

Yes, much of it was staged, as most large charity events tend to be. But it was very real.
Yes, I was relieved to be back in Hong Kong with my comforts, but the hardship that I saw in China was mostly optimistic. And the biggest city I went through on that trip, Guangzhou (Canton), was still developing (polluted and chaotic) but felt like a place that would come of age soon. Of course it’s very developed, clean and mature now as countless YouTubers have shown.
That visit more than 20 years ago was the turning point in how I viewed “com...st China” and my Chinese and Hong Kong identities. I began to recognise that China does things their way due to history and their own perception of it. Not because some fat cat at the top spends his days plotting how to make his subjects cry. Also evident all around me was that “Com...ism” is a part of China’s history preserved only in name.

正如大部分慈善活動一樣，很多活動都是表演，但這個是真實的。我?guī)е牢康母惺芑氐搅讼愀?，我在中國看到很多困難，但大多數(shù)都是樂觀的。在那次旅行中，經(jīng)過的最大的城市廣州仍在發(fā)展中(污染和混亂)，但感覺像一個很快就會“成熟”的地方。當(dāng)然，現(xiàn)在它非常發(fā)達，正如無數(shù)油管博主所展示的那樣。
對于我如何看待“gc中國”以及我的中國和香港身份認同，20多年前的那次訪問是一個轉(zhuǎn)折點。我開始意識到中國的方式做事，是出于它的歷史和認知。而不是權(quán)勢階層整天密謀如何tz國民。gczy是中國歷史的一部分，它只是名義上被保存下來。

Most importantly, it taught me that China is not a monolith—it is very varied and very human, a billion’s worth of them, each wanting a better life and looking to the government to provide the tools and environment to achieve it. I will never agree with all of its ways (nobody should fully agree with any country—that would be absurd), but I can now appreciate and respect our differences.
I also felt an element of safety, reassured that Hong Kong was not returned to a basket-case of a country in 1997. China gave the impression of an awakening giant, long broken but now determinedly on the mend. There are millions of layers of functionality and variability between the often stuffy-sounding leadership and the street level environment. It’s incredibly wrong to assume that everything around you in China is as “dictated” by someone like —in fact it would be absurd because they have so much on their plates running the world’s most populous country.
Does all this make me proud of China? ”Pride” would be an incorrect term to use, for I did not personally make any significant contributions to mainland China. I would say that I am very pleased and heartened with how far they have come, and I wish it continued success in growing its middle class and economic/STEM maturity.
Yes, I am also American but that identity is beyond the scope of this answer.

最重要的是，這次經(jīng)歷教會了我中國并不是一整塊“巨石”，它是由各式各樣的，有人性的十億人組成，每個人都想要更好的生活，并希望政府提供工具和環(huán)境來實現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)。我不會同意它的所有行為方式(沒有人應(yīng)該完全同意任何國家，那將是荒謬的)，但我現(xiàn)在可以欣賞并尊重我們之間的不同。
香港不會在1997年回歸一個毫無希望的國家，我對此感到安心了。中國給人的印象是一個正在覺醒的巨人，長期處于衰弱狀態(tài)，但現(xiàn)在決心恢復(fù)。在領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層和街道之間有各種功能性和變化性的層級。要是以為中國的一切由幾個領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人決定，這是非常錯誤的。也是很荒謬的，因為在一個世界上人口最多的國家，他們有這么多事情要做。
這一切讓我對中國感到驕傲嗎? “驕傲”這個詞是不正確的，因為我個人對中國大陸沒有任何重大貢獻。我想說，我為他們?nèi)〉玫某删透械椒浅８吲d和鼓舞，我希望它在中產(chǎn)階級和經(jīng)濟/理工科等方面繼續(xù)取得成功。
是的，我也是美國人，但是身份認同這個問題不在回答范圍之內(nèi)了。

Shane Rooney
I turned to my Chinese friend and asked. This is the conversation.
Me: When was the last time you lost electricity
Her: Lost electricity? I don’t understand.
Me: When was the last time that the government stop supplying electricity.
Her: When?
Me: yes.

我問了我的中國朋友，下面是我們的對話：
我:你上次停電是什么時候
她:沒電了?我不明白。
我:上次政府停止供電是什么時候?
她:什么時候?
我:是的。

Her: The last time they need to fix something. They cut the electricity. Fix it.
Me: When was that?
Her: It is getting less and less. The last time it happened was when something burnt.
Me: Burnt? …
Her: [looks up on phone] short circuit. But this is very rare. Did you forget to pay the electricity? forget to pay for your light at home so now the lights don’t turn on.
Me: No. Nothing like that.
Her: Then why you ask.
Me: No reason.

她:上一次他們需要修理器械時。他們切斷了電源，修理它。
我:那是什么時候?
她:越來越少了。上次是什么東西燒了。
我:燒了?
她:(抬頭看手機)短路了。但這種情況很少。你忘記交電費了嗎?忘了給家里的燈付錢，所以現(xiàn)在燈亮不起來了。
我:不是的。
她:那你為什么要問。
我:沒有理由。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Her: I think the last time was in 2005. do you know why? Too many people turn on their Air-Con and there is not enough electrcity. So the government build more power plants. Do you know __________. It is very famous.
Me: (doesn’t reply. too busy typing up this answer)
Her: Three gorges hydro electric…
Me: Three gorges dam. In English it is just called “three gorges dam”
Not only do they have electricity supply 24 hours a day, but the last time my friend remembers there being a blackout WAS IN 2005. That is impressive.

她:我記得上次是在2005年。你知道為什么嗎?用空調(diào)的太多了，沒有足夠的電力。所以建造更多的發(fā)電廠吧。你知道三峽嗎?它非常有名。
我:(沒有回答)忙著打這個答案
她:三峽水電……
我:三峽大壩。用英語來說就叫三峽大壩。
他們不僅有一天24小時的電力供應(yīng)，而且上次停電時間是2005年，這真讓人印象深刻

Wasut Pornpatcharapong
I went to China in 2008 joining my university’s summer program in Beijing. 2008 was also the year of Beijing Olympics.
Since I studied in an American university using English language and I barely spoke Chinese back then, most of the information about China I received was mainly through the English language mainstream media. Early 2008, most English language media seemed to be unanimously reporting on China’s human rights problems just like today, but back then it was all about Ti.... I remembered the news when a Ti...an monk self-immolated and this stirred the Ti...an community outside China to the point that many Westerners also joined forces. Then, I remembered seeing this image,
This was the news in 2008 when a pro-Ti...an independence protester tried to disrupt the Olympics torch relay in Paris. Similar scenes were also seen in other Western cities such as San Francisco. When I heard the news on some American entities tried to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, this picture came to my mind. How things doesn’t change after all these years!

2008年我去的中國，參加了大學(xué)在北京的暑期項目，2008年也是北京開奧運會的時候。因為我在使用英語的美國大學(xué)，我?guī)缀醪粫f中文，所以我收到的關(guān)于中國的信息主要是通過英語主流媒體。2008年初，像今天一樣，大多數(shù)英文媒體一致報道中國的人權(quán)問題，不過那時的報道都是關(guān)于xz的。我記得一個xz僧人自焚的新聞，這挑動了中國以外的xz社區(qū)，以至于許多西方人也加入了進來。然后，我想起看到過的這張照片（指的是有人搶奪奧運火炬的照片）。
這是2008年的新聞，當(dāng)時一名zd分子試圖擾亂在巴黎的奧運火炬?zhèn)鬟f。類似的場景也出現(xiàn)在舊金山等其他西方城市。當(dāng)我聽說美國一些機構(gòu)試圖抵制2022年北京冬奧會，我的腦海中出現(xiàn)了這樣的畫面。這么多年過去了，一切都沒有改變!
當(dāng)時我相信了西方那些謊言（污蔑中國的）。

However, back then I bought the narrative that China is a place where there is no personal freedom at all and the Chinese government is the Big Brother that watches over their populaces and rules with an iron fist.
This doesn’t sound like a place that I should go for a summer program, but I thought I should go to see with my own eyes how “oppressive” China is so that I have hands-on experiences to tell others about the Chinese oppression.
Out of curiosity, as soon as the plane landed in Beijing and I got a cab, I asked a cab driver in Chinese whether he felt oppressed under the com...st regime. His reply shocked me as he said “It’s OK” without sounding worried in his tones at all. Really? But I was told that China is an oppressive place!

這聽起來不像是一個我應(yīng)該去的地方，但我想我應(yīng)該去親眼看看中國有多yp，這樣我就能用親身經(jīng)歷告訴別人中國的yp。
出于好奇，當(dāng)飛機落到北京，我叫了一輛出租車，我用中文問出租車司機在gczy下是否感到y(tǒng)p。他的回答讓我很震驚，因為他說“并沒有”，語氣里一點也不擔(dān)心。真的嗎?但我被告知中國是一個yp的地方!
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Days went by and as a young avid adventurer, I ventured more and more in Beijing to make the most of my little time there. I started to change. The shopping streets were full of people eating and shopping without looking oppressed. People there just went on with their lives, trying to better themselves, as all of us do all over the World.
Let all these photos tell the story instead of my words. I took all those photos in 2008 in various places in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, and Hangzhou. The people in all those photo didn’t look like they live in a complete Orwellian society as lots of Western media like to portray.
The Chinese people also seemed to know a lot about my country, Thailand, as well, and when my broken Chinese back then started to give away that I wasn’t a Chinese and they asked me where I’m from, they all bombarded me with questions about Thailand. Chinese people are probably one of the most curious group of people I have ever met!
If you could, I would suggest you visit China once! I’m sure it will be such an eye-opening experience in a pleasantly surprised way!!

時間一天天過去，作為一個熱衷冒險的人，我盡可能利用這段時間參觀了越來越多的地方，購物街擠滿了人，吃著東西，買著東西，一點也不顯得被yp。像世界各地的其他人 一樣，那里的人們只是繼續(xù)他們的生活，努力使自己變得更好。
讓這些照片來告訴你，而不是我的文字。2008年，我在北京、上海、桂林、杭州等中國各地拍攝了照片。這些照片里的人并不像西方媒體所描繪的那樣生活在一個yp社會中。
中國人似乎也知道很多我們國家泰國的事情，那時我差勁的中文暴露了我是外國人，他們連珠炮般問我從哪里來，還有其他關(guān)于泰國的問題。中國人可能是我見過的最好奇的一群人了!
如果可以的話，我建議你拜訪中國一次!我相信這將是一次令人大開眼界的驚喜之旅!

Allen Peyton
I came to China because I needed a job. I went through a messy divorce and I had to quit my job to take care of my mother who was dying. Then I was in my 50’s and couldn’t find work. A friend suggested I teach in China. So I interviewed with different schools and signed a 1 year contract. That was 5 years ago. I’m still here. The cost of living is cheap. The food is healthy. The infrastructure far surpasses America with high speed rail, modern highways and modern airports. And no one gets shot!

我來中國是因為需要一份工作，我經(jīng)歷了一場糟糕的離婚，我不得不辭職來照顧生命垂危的母親。后來我50多歲了，找不到工作。一個朋友建議我去中國教書。所以我面試了幾個學(xué)校，然后簽了一年的合同。那是5年前的事了。我還在這里。生活費用很便宜。食物很健康。有現(xiàn)代高速鐵路，高速公路和現(xiàn)代機場，基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施遠遠超過美國。還有就是沒人會被槍殺!