書寫中國 美國人利文斯講述中國故事

Jack Livings spent time in China as a student and an English teacher in the '90s. The American author recently published 'The Dog,' his first collection of short stories, set in the contradictory landscape that is modern China.

美國人利文斯(Jack Livings) 20世紀90年代曾在中國留學並擔任英語教師，他最近出版了一本名爲《那隻狗》(The Dog)的書，這是他的第一本短篇故事集，其中的故事以錯綜複雜的現代中國爲背景。

The stories touch on everything from a factory owner forced to donate vast sums of money to charity in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to a retired racing dog rescued from becoming dinner to a fictionalized account based on the true story of a group of glassworkers charged after Mao Zedong's death with creating a crystal sarcophagus in just 10 months--a task that normally takes three years.

利文斯的新書《那隻狗》這本故事集內容豐富，既有2008年四川地震後被迫向慈善機構大量捐款的工廠主的故事，也講述了一隻退役的賽狗如何獲救避免成爲盤中餐的故事，還有根據真實故事創作的關於玻璃廠工人的小說，這些工人在毛澤東死後僅用10個月的時間就製造出了一口水晶棺，而這項任務通常需要耗費三年時間。

The author, who works in the licensing division at Time Inc. in New York, talks about the challenges of writing about China from afar, precision of language and finding the human element in a story. Edited excerpts:

利文斯目前在Time Inc.紐約辦公室的專利許可部門工作。他談到了寫這本書時所面臨的挑戰，例如從遙遠的地方描寫中國，語言的精準度以及在故事中發掘人的元素。以下爲採訪節錄：

Where did you draw your inspiration for the characters in your stories?

你從哪裏獲得靈感來寫故事中的這些人物？

'The Dog' [the story from which the book takes its name] is based on a story one of my English students told about this horrible experience she had where they were going to take a racing dog out to the country and barbecue it and she stepped in and said no. I didn't start writing that till I had been back for at least five years, but that story just stuck with me.

《那隻狗》（也是這本書的書名）來自於我的一名英語學生給我講的可怕經歷。有些人想把一隻退役的賽狗帶到鄉下做成烤肉，這名學生挺身而出制止了這件事。我回國至少五年之後纔開始寫這個故事，但這件事一直在我腦海中揮之不去。

Several came from ideas based on news stories I read. A couple came from a weird mix of my own sick brain and things I was reading at the time. Very few actually contained any characters based on people I met.

還有一些角色的靈感來源於我讀到的新聞報道。另外一些是我自己腦海裏的想法和當時閱讀的東西結合的產物。很少有故事是根據我在現實中遇見的人而創作的。

Why did you want to write fiction about China?

爲什麼會想寫關於中國的小說？

I'm a fiction writer. That's how I look at the world. I admire what writers like Evan Osnos and Peter Hessler [who have written nonfiction books about China] do. But if I were going to write nonfiction about China, I would have had to be there for at least 10 years.

我本來就是寫小說的，這是我看待世界的方式。我很欽佩像歐逸文(Evan Osnos)和彼得・海斯勒(Peter Hessler)這樣的（撰寫過有關中國的非小說類作品的）作家。但如果我自己也要寫一部非小說類的作品，那我至少得在中國住上10年才寫得出來。

For a fiction writer, distance is a good thing, although it can lead to horrible mistakes if you're not careful.

對於小說家來說，距離是個好東西，但如果在創作中不小心，距離也會導致作品漏洞百出。

How much research did you do to ensure you didn't make mistakes? Particularly with the story about the crystal sarcophagus?

爲了不出錯你做了多少研究？尤其是對水晶棺那篇故事？

The more I worked on it, the more it became like a Hollywood film 'based on a true story.' I started with some oral histories from three glassworkers who were involved in the project that were in places contradictory. They were all speaking in that super-red hero-of-the-revolution language and were very proud of the work they had done.

Jennie Yabroff利文斯在寫這個故事時，我越寫越覺得它成了一部“根據真實事件改編”的好萊塢電影。一開始，我從當時參與制作水晶棺的工人那裏瞭解了一些口頭歷史，但他們的講述存在前後矛盾的地方。這些工人說話的語氣都是“又紅又專”，對自己所做的工作特別自豪。

I read about the embalming process Mao went through. I read old patents and applications from the '30s. I worked on it for about a year and half, and about eight months in, when I thought I had it down, the Shanghai government released some top-secret information about Shanghai factories' work on the coffin, which no one had ever referenced before. When that turned up, I just tried to make it all work together while keeping the essential center of the story factual. All the research contradicted itself at every turn.

我閱讀了一些對毛澤東遺體做防腐處理的資料，還閱讀了上世紀三十年代的專利及申請材料。研究進行了大約一年半的時間，大約到了第八個月的時候，我想可以開始動手寫了，這時上海市政府公佈了製作水晶棺的上海工廠的一些絕密信息，以前從來沒有人提到過這些信息。在相關信息公佈後，我要做的就是把這些材料組織起來，同時確保故事的中心內容符合真實情況。在每個階段的研究工作都會出現前後矛盾的問題。

Did writing a fictional account of a real event like this give you a sort of creative license?

像這樣通過小說的方式來描述一個真實的事件，你能否獲得創作自由？

I was concerned with the first few stories I wrote that I would get facts wrong and all the China hands would come after me. The story about the sarcophagus was researched very heavily--to a point. I couldn't figure out how they built this coffin in 10 months. I was studying chemistry and physics, and I came within an inch of calling up the Corning glass company to ask them to get a curator or someone who probably could've told me in five minutes how they did it. But ultimately I didn't. You can do too much research when you're writing fiction. You need to retain the ability to go off in a wild direction.

當我開始寫前幾個故事的時候我擔心會弄錯事實，害怕到時候會遭到全中國的指責。從某種角度來說，我對水晶棺的故事進行了大量的研究。我理解不了他們如何能在10個月之內完工。我研究了化學和物理，甚至差點給康寧(Corning)玻璃公司打電話，讓他們找個人，用5分鐘的時間告訴我他們是怎麼做的。但最後我沒有打。在寫小說的時候你可能會做太多的研究。你需要留出自由想象的空間。

Most of the stories are written from a Chinese perspective. Was that difficult?

大部分的故事都是從中國人的角度寫的，這是否有一定難度？

The essential humanity of human beings translates pretty well. But I was sitting there writing with an idiom dictionary and two Chinese dictionaries. I would write a sentence and then spend two hours researching whether that character really would've said that. For example, I couldn't have them say 'ohmigod' because a Chinese person just wouldn't say that.

人類最根本的人性是互通的。但我寫作的時候旁邊一定會擺着一部成語字典和兩部中文字典。有時候寫出一個句子後我會花上兩個小時來研究那個人物會不會真的說出那樣的話。例如，我不能讓故事中的人物說“哦我的上帝啊”，因爲中國人不會這麼說。

Were you worried about making mistakes?

你是否擔心犯錯誤？

I could always completely get it wrong. I gave a reading in D.C. last week and had a person in the front row, a mainland Chinese person, who gave me 10 minutes of criticism. But the risk is part of what kept it interesting.

很多時候我可能會完全弄錯。上週我在華盛頓舉行了一次閱讀會，有一位來自中國大陸的人坐在前排，之後這個人批評了我10分鐘。但風險也是讓這件事情有意思的一個方面。

Some of your stories deal with sensitive issues, like Uighur-Han relations. Why did you choose to focus on such subjects?

你寫的一些故事裏帶有敏感性話題，比如維吾爾族和漢族的關係。你爲什麼要着重描寫此類主題？

I wrote that story at least six years ago and it's the only story I wrote out of a kind of politically motivated anger. The difference between writing a position paper, or an editorial or piece of fiction is that I hope this story makes to some degree clear that institutionalized violence destroys everything, not just the people who are victims. It also destroys the people who are committing the acts of violence. The denigration goes all the way around. As opposed to saying, look at what the [police are] doing, aren't they horrible, I hope there was at least a subtle nod that this situation is bad for everyone.

我寫那個故事的時候至少是六年前了，這是我唯一一篇取材於因政治引發的憤怒的作品。無論是寫一份意見書、一篇社論還是小說，區別就在於我希望這個故事能在一定程度上表明，制度化的暴力將引發全方位大面積的破壞，摧毀的不僅僅是受害者。它還摧毀了那些幹出暴力事件的人。各方互相詆譭。我不想說，看那些警察都做了些什麼，他們就不殘暴嗎，我更希望人們能夠稍微認同我的觀點，那就是這種情況對誰都不是好事。

Will your book be translated into Chinese?

你的書會翻譯成中文嗎？

I would love to see it translated, but I'm not sure. I hope there's something that would be moving to a Chinese reader but am curious whether it's a little too simple on the surface. It wouldn't be surprising for someone living in Beijing to read about forced donations, but I hope the human element would translate.

如果能翻譯成中文當然最好，但我不確定。我希望書中的一些內容能夠被中國讀者所接收，但我也很好奇對於這些讀者來說，這本書表面看來是不是太膚淺。那些居住在北京的讀者讀到強制捐款事件時一定覺得這沒什麼好奇怪的，但我希望文字之下的人性因素能得到共鳴。

What's up next?

你的下一部作品是什麼？

I'm currently working on a novel set in New York in the late '70s. I thought it would be nice to not have to fact check everything since I'm writing about the U.S., but it turns out that's just the way I write. I use research as a way to build the world.

我在寫一部小說，發生在70年代末的紐約。我曾經認爲，因爲是在寫美國，就不用去核查所有的事實了，那該多好啊，但事實證明，這就是我寫作的方式。我把研究調查作爲構建世界的一種方式。