译者 iGREEN
Don’t hold your breath waiting for any kind of Occupy Beijing movement to set up camp. Visitors to Tiananmen Square must pass through airport-style security checkpoints, and nobody is likely to try smuggling in a protest sign, much less a tent. The vast, wind-whipped plaza is a quiet place. China’s leaders intend to keep it that way.
千万别屏住呼吸等着任何形式的“占领北京”运动建立起大本营。因为想要进入天安门广场，你必须通过如同机场安检般严格的程序，更不用说带进任何比帐篷小得多的抗议标语。这个视野辽阔、狂风呼啸的广场是一个安静的地方。中国的领导人们似乎正想要她保持现在这个样子。
Walk away from the square in any direction, however, and soon you find yourself amid a raucous riot of commerce. Whatever you’ve read about the speed and scale of development here, you have no idea until you see it with your own eyes. The contrast between China’s uninhibited economic life and its repressed political life could not be more stark.
然而，从广场四面八方向外走去，你会发现自己走进了一个灯红酒绿的花花世界。无论你如何解读这里的发展速度和规模，若非亲眼所见你绝不会想到这里现在已经是这样。中国开放的经济生活和压抑的政治生活的对比显得不能再突兀了。
The iconic portrait of Chairman Mao that looks out over Tiananmen seems anachronistic. At least in the urban centers, today’s China has abandoned communism in favor of a kind of hyper-capitalism. Even officials acknowledge Mao’s mistakes, especially the ruinous Cultural Revolution.
天安门城楼前伟大领袖毛主席的画像显得有些和时代格格不入。至少对于现在的城市中心来说，今天的中国已经远离了共产主义转而在施行超级资本主义。甚至是官方都意识到了,特别是那些经历过文化大革命灾难的官员们。
Yet Mao’s portrait remains. The government has essentially rebranded him as a nationalist who put a definitive end to centuries of imperial decadence and foreign domination, elevating a sovereign China to its rightful status as a great power.
现在，毛的画像仍然悬挂在那里。他终结了千年的封建帝国统治和外来殖民统治，将中国提升到一个本应具有主权的实力大国。。政府必须重新定义他为以为共和国缔造者。
“We have been very candid,” said Hong Lei, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. “We admit that he made serious problems for the country. But we never give a 100 percent disavowal of Chairman Mao’s accomplishments.”
外交部发言人洪磊说道：“我们的观点是十分公正的，我们必须承认他在历史问题上犯下的一些严重错误，但是我们不能完全否定毛主席的成就。”
And in any event, Hong said, the way to look at China’s evolution is that the country has moved into a new phase of the transformation Mao’s revolution began. Never mind that China is speeding down a road Mao never would have taken.
“无论如何，观察中国发展进程的方式是她已经进入了从毛泽东时代革命之后的新的阶段。不要介意中国正在走一条毛不会走的路”洪磊说。
It makes sense that a government seeking to maintain the monopoly of power that Mao established would want to keep the chairman’s legacy alive. But many of the sightseers at Tiananmen on Thursday afternoon were recent arrivals from the hinterlands — among millions of migrants who leave the countryside to flock to China’s cities this year — and they seemed to gaze upon Mao’s visage with a sense of awe, not of irony. It was a reminder that, for all the sophistication of the big cities, most of China remains rural and poor.
可以理解的是政府正在寻求保住毛时代建立起来的垄断权力，想要使毛主席的遗志得到继承。但是最近很多周四下午从边远城市到天安门来的观光客——他们其中有数百万从中国农村涌入的外来人员——他们在凝视毛主席头像的时候带着一丝敬畏而非讽刺的眼神。这提醒我们。对于所有人口复杂的大城市来说，中国的大部分地方还是破旧和落后的。
Living in a communist country without communism requires a finely tuned sense of what is permissible and what is not. Journalists acknowledge that they practice self-censorship and, when necessary, toe the party line. A businessman will reach the brink of explicitly denouncing a government policy but not take the leap, instead lapsing into awkward silence. Commentators know they can criticize officials by name for incompetence or corruption, but only up to a certain level; an expert on the Chinese media said that such attacks against the president, the premier or other top-rank officials would be unthinkable.
生活在一个没有共产主义需求的共产主义国家里必须知道什么能做，什么不能做。记者们承认他们会在触及红线之际履行自我审查之职。商人们如果明白地批评政府的政策会走到危险的边缘，但不会有机会大发其词，最终会落入尴尬的沉默之中。评论员们知道他们可以点名批评一些低级官员不履行职责或腐败。但上升到一个专家在中国媒体上批评主席或者总理以及核心领导层依然是不可想象的。
“We have a red line,” said Hong. “No media can violate the basic laws and constitution.” He said this meant that “the basic political system should be kept. You cannot overthrow the government.”
“我们是有红线的”洪磊说“没有媒体可以违背基本法和宪法。”他说的意思是“基本法体系应该被遵守。你做不能颠覆政权的事。”
To me, there’s an obvious difference between criticizing any official, even a head of state, and advocating a revolution. A Chinese journalist might see the distinction, too — but might be ill-advised to assert it.
对于我来说，批评任何官员甚至是一个高层官员与发起一场革命还是有显著区别的。中国记者也许也了解这中间的区别，但是也许他们不能提出来。
Still, history does matter. I had dinner one night at the home of Hao Jiang Tian, an acclaimed opera singer who performs at the Metropolitan Opera and other great venues around the world. He is in his 50s, and it was fascinating — and harrowing — to hear him and several of his contemporaries describe how they survived the years of the Cultural Revolution.
但历史仍然重要。有一天晚上，我在中国一名颇受欢迎的歌剧歌唱家田浩江家中吃饭。他曾在大都会剧院和其他一些世界知名剧院表演过。他现在五十来岁，但当听起他和他的同事们讲述其如何在文化大革命的岁月里幸存下来的故事时。我依然听得聚精会神有带着一丝揪心。
They were of high-school age, but instead of continuing their educations they were sent to menial jobs in construction, forced to join the army or banished to toil in the countryside. They were hungry, exhausted, always fearful. When the nightmarish upheaval finally ended, they had to rebuild their lives from scratch.
在他们仍然是读高中的年级里，他们没能继续学业而是被送去参加建设，被迫加入军队或被流放去农村做童工。他们饥寒交迫、疲惫不堪，经常感到害怕。当噩梦般的日子最终结束，他们还不得不从伤痛中重塑他们的生活。
I heard these stories while we sat around a table groaning with exquisite food. Tian’s large and elegant apartment is in a new high-rise — all the high-rises in Beijing are new — that has the distinction of being one of the city’s few “green” buildings, making innovative use of geothermal energy. Among our company were two prominent architects, who also live in the building, and a famous artist.
我听这些故事是我们正坐在摆满丰盛菜肴的桌上。田的房子很大也很漂亮位于一处新的高层建筑中——北京所有的高层建筑都是新的——这些建筑与其他建筑的区别在于，它是少有的“绿色”概念建筑，使用了创新的地热能源。在我们的公司里有一名知名的建筑师和一位知名的艺术家住在这里。
No, China isn’t free. But yes, it has changed.
不，中国还没真正的实现自由开放。但是，她正在改变。
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/207279/237130
