Country Driving

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  城墙

  祖伊-皮特 (You are what you read)

  随便翻看中文版的时候，发现了中文版所删节的一段。这一段正是我阅读中印象深刻的段落之一，果然被删。如下： The mausoleum's central room features a row of coffins, supposedly belonging to Genghis Khan and his closest relatives. Outside the room, a Mongolian tour guide approached me, speaking Chinese. She asked where I was from, andwhen I answered, she smiled wistfully. “The Great America,” she sai... (更多)

  随便翻看中文版的时候，发现了中文版所删节的一段。这一段正是我阅读中印象深刻的段落之一，果然被删。如下：

  The mausoleum's central room features a row of coffins, supposedly belonging to Genghis Khan and his closest relatives. Outside the room, a Mongolian tour guide approached me, speaking Chinese. She asked where I was from, andwhen I answered, she smiled wistfully. “The Great America,” she said. “It's like Genghis Khan used to be.” I didn't know exactly how to respond to that. Among the flocks of cadres shelooked as out of place as many of my hitchhikers—dyedred hair, silver earrings,tight jeans. She was twenty-four years old, with high cheekbones and the long thin eyes of the steppe people. I was still thinking about the Great America when she spoke again. “This isn't really Genghis Khan's tomb,” she said. “I work here, but I wantyou to know that this place is fake. Those coffins are empty, and nobody knows where his tomb really is. Anyway, according to tradition there were specia lceremonial objects that contained his soul.” She mentioned the names of the objects, but the words were unfamiliar; Iasked her to write them in my note book. For a moment she stared helplessly atthe pen and paper. “I'm sorry,” she said at last. “I'm too drunk to write.” She gave me an impromptu tour of the exhibits, pointing out mistakes and exaggerations. She told me that Genghis Khan had been born in what is now independent Mongolia—that detail was important to her. She believed that InnerMongolia had become an ecological disaster, because of all the Chinese-stylefarming in the region. “That's why you have dust storms in Beijing every spring,” she said. “Anyway, we're a fallen race. We used to be great, but now we'renothing. We don't have a united country—there's Mongolia, Inner Mongolia,and then the Buryats in Russia. And yet at one point we were the greatest racein the world. We're not the same as the Chinese; those are two totally differentraces. Mongolians like freedom, but that doesn't matter to the Chinese. Have you noticed that Mongolians drink a lot?” I said yes, this was something I had noticed. “It's because of the psychology,” she said. “It's bad for your psychology to fall so far. And there isn't anything for Mongolians to do about it, so we drink.” We walked outside into the blazing sunshine. Beyond the mausoleum walls I could see flat dry scrubland, and the wind blew the woman's hair around herface. “Of course the Mongols killed a lot of people in the old days,” she said. “But they also had great advances in culture and religion. It's like Hitler—peoplemight say that he's bad, but at least he was capable of leading a country. You can't deny that.” “Do you think Hitler was bad or good?” I said. “It doesn't matter,” she said. “That's not important for me to decide. What matters is that he left his name for history. You can call him fascist or anything else you want to, but he succeeded in leaving his name. The same is true for Genghis Khan. The whole world knew him and they still know him. Osama binLaden is the same. When he attacked America, I was happy for him and the Afghans. Nothing against America, but the Taliban were a small race of people and they wanted to get noticed. Now everybody knows Osama bin Laden. Heleft his name for history, and I respect that.” She wavered unsteadily in the wind and asked if we could sit down. We found a bench outside the museum entrance and she rested, closing her eyesin the sunshine. “I like to talk to strangers,” she said. “Sometimes it's easierto talk with somebody I don't know. And today it's easier because I'm drunk. Usually I'm not as drunk as this, and usually I don't talk so freely. But ther eare many things in China that I don't like. You go to this museum and they say that Genghis Khan was a Chinese hero, and it's nonsense. He fought against the Chinese. This museum is all garbage.” Periodically other employees walked past, along with groups of drunkencadres, and everybody grinned when they saw us together. The woman didn't seem to mind. “When I first started giving tours,” she said, “people complained because I talked about the Mongols—the Mongol leader, the Mongol victories,the Mongol empire. They wanted me to say it was all Chinese. So the leaders criticized me and now I have to say that it's Chinese, but I don't believe it. Even so, the way that I tell the stories isn't the same as other tour guides. People tell me it's different. I don't know exactly how, but it's different in some way.” “Maybe it's different because you say the museum is all garbage,” I said, and she laughed. “It's different because I'm different from other people,” she said. “I talk with strangers, and women aren't supposed to do that. My boyfriend doesn't like that.” On the bench she had edged closer, and now I could feel her leg against my thigh. Her breath came strong—the sickly-sweet smell of baijiu. “Actually,” she said, “I don't like my boyfriend very much.” It seemed like a good time to change the subject, but I couldn't think of anything to say. She studied my face closely, looking into my eyes, and finally she spoke. “Are you a spy?” she said. “No,” I said. “I'm a writer. I told you, I write articles and books.” She pressed closer. “If you're a spy, you can tell me,” she said in a low voice. “I promise I won't tell anybody.” “Honest, I'm not.” “Come on!” Her tone was pleading. “You're here alone, you speak Chinese,you're in Inner Mongolia, you drove your own car. Of course you're a spy! Can't you just tell me the truth?” “I am telling you the truth,” I said. “I'm not a spy. Anyway, why would aspy go to Genghis Khan's mausoleum?” She pondered this and looked crestfallen. “I've always wanted to meet a spy,” she said in a small voice. “I wish you really were one.” The woman seemed less drunk now and she asked to write her name and phone number in my notebook, in case I ever returned. She wrote the wordscarefully, in both Chinese and Mongolian, and then she sketched a picture. Itwas the sun—childlike rays around a ball of flame.

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  2011-09-29 23:33:25   1回应

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  第65页

  everpassenger

  But everybody knew the basic principle of the Reform years: it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission (更多)

  But everybody knew the basic principle of the Reform years: it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission

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  2011-10-27 16:15:20   1人收藏   回应

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  第56页

  everpassenger

  There as always some new situation to figure out, and it was hard for people to get there bearings. Often the ones who react quickly without thinking were the most successful. .. Long-term planning made no sense: the goal was gain some profit today before you found yourself overwhelmed by the next wave of change. (更多)

  There as always some new situation to figure out, and it was hard for people to get there bearings. Often the ones who react quickly without thinking were the most successful. .. Long-term planning made no sense: the goal was gain some profit today before you found yourself overwhelmed by the next wave of change.

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  2011-10-27 16:03:24   1人收藏   回应

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  第6页

  pbfootball

  A block of streets had been cordoned off expressly for the purpose of testing.....or makeshift stand lined the sidewalk....no cabs darting like fish for a fare.,.....pure English, beautiful and meaningful (更多)

  A block of streets had been cordoned off expressly for the purpose of testing.....or makeshift stand lined the sidewalk....no cabs darting like fish for a fare.,.....pure English, beautiful and meaningful (收起)

  2011-03-26 11:39:02   回应

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  第10页

  everpassenger

  The farmers carefully arranged the vegetables on the side of the asphalt, because that was the best surface for drying and sorting. They tossed the chaff crops into the road itself, where vehicle would be sure to hit them. That was illegal -- there's no other act that so publicly violates both traffic safety and food hygiene. (更多)

  The farmers carefully arranged the vegetables on the side of the asphalt, because that was the best surface for drying and sorting. They tossed the chaff crops into the road itself, where vehicle would be sure to hit them. That was illegal -- there's no other act that so publicly violates both traffic safety and food hygiene.

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  2011-10-27 15:37:15   回应

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  第11页

  Ian (经济压力一下子有点大。。。)

  Most of them came from the growing middle class, for whom a car represented mobility, prosperity, modernity. (更多)

  Most of them came from the growing middle class, for whom a car represented mobility, prosperity, modernity. (收起)

  2011-08-10 11:37:36   回应

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  第211页

  海上的亞德里安 (Destiny holds the key, not me)

  ... the rural system turned into a particularly unfair combination of the old and the new, the communist and the capitalist. Profits are individual, but risk is communal: local cadres benefit from land sales while villagers are stuck with the ramifications. A half century after the revolution, rural land reform has accomplished exactly the opposite of its original intentions. (更多)

  ... the rural system turned into a particularly unfair combination of the old and the new, the communist and the capitalist. Profits are individual, but risk is communal: local cadres benefit from land sales while villagers are stuck with the ramifications. A half century after the revolution, rural land reform has accomplished exactly the opposite of its original intentions. (收起)

  2012-01-13 13:53:58   回应

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  第42页

  海上的亞德里安 (Destiny holds the key, not me)

  It posed the same problem for the Chinese as Americans have with al Qaeda, with the people who just hate us. Americans often feel like they just need to know us better. Give them a good old American barbecue, show them what life here is like; they’re bound to like it! But it just doesn’t work. There was a similar fault line in Chinese culture. There was a fault line between a tremendous confiden... (更多)

  It posed the same problem for the Chinese as Americans have with al Qaeda, with the people who just hate us. Americans often feel like they just need to know us better. Give them a good old American barbecue, show them what life here is like; they’re bound to like it! But it just doesn’t work. There was a similar fault line in Chinese culture. There was a fault line between a tremendous confidence in the strength of the culture and an awareness that force may have to be invoked. (收起)

  2012-01-07 13:32:25   回应

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  第20页

  海上的亞德里安 (Destiny holds the key, not me)

  In China, much of life involves skirting regulations, and one of the basic truths is that forgiveness comes easier than permission. (更多)

  In China, much of life involves skirting regulations, and one of the basic truths is that forgiveness comes easier than permission. (收起)

  2012-01-06 16:03:23   回应

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