探訪珠江上最後的中式木帆船工匠

PEARL RIVER DELTA, China — As Wong Kin-kao stands on the deck of the traditional Chinese wooden junk he is building in Shenwan, a cluster of fish ponds and factories in the Pearl River Delta of southern China, he shouts to be heard over the shriek of metalwork from steel ships that are being worked on nearby.

中國珠江三角洲——中國南方珠江三角洲的神灣是一個魚塘和工廠聚集的地方，爲了壓過附近鋼船上金屬加工的刺耳聲音，黃球叔站在這裏的一艘他正在建造的中國古老木製帆船的甲板上大聲喊着。

“It’s like a piece of art,” said Mr. Wong, a bronzed 54-year-old with stony hands and a quick grin, describing what he loves about the scimitar-shaped boats with the batwing sails that he so rarely gets to build.

“它就像一件藝術品，”54歲的黃球叔說起他喜歡這個形如彎刀、帆如蝙蝠翼的木船的什麼時說，他有着古銅色的健康皮膚、一雙堅硬有力的手和一個快樂的笑容。如今，他很少有機會造這種船。

A native of the delta region, Mr. Wong in 1982 swam for two hours from nearby Zhuhai, on China’s mainland, to what was then the Portuguese colony of Macau to escape China’s strict Communist government. Once there he set up an early incarnation of Yi Hap Shipyard, a builder of wooden junks, which symbolize the delta and the maritime culture that drove China’s early growth.

黃球叔在珠江三角洲土生土長，1982年，爲了逃脫中國共產黨政府的嚴格控制，他從附近的中國大陸的珠海遊了兩個小時來到了當時是葡萄牙殖民地的澳門。到澳門後不久，他成立了一個後來成爲義和船廠的造船廠，專門製造古老的木製帆船，那是珠江三角洲航海文化的象徵，曾驅動了中國的早期發展。

“Not many people are hand-making wooden junks anymore,” Mr. Wong said. “I wish more people would.”

“沒有多少人用手工製造這種木帆船了，”黃球叔說。“我希望能有更多的人來幹這個。”

Within the next few months, the junk, the Dai Cheung Po — also known as the Aqua Luna II — will unfurl its blood-red sails above its high stern and low bow and join its smaller sister, the Cheung Po Tsai, or the Aqua Luna I, already in Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong, to offer parties and dinners.

再有幾個月，“大張保”號木船（英文名Aqua Luna II）的血紅色的風帆將在其高船尾和低船頭上撐開，駛入香港的維多利亞港，她的姊妹號“張保仔”（英文名Aqua Luna I）已經在那裏提供乘船派對和晚宴服務。

It is one of a few of these traditional ships with sails being made by one of the last remaining junk builders in China.

這艘船是由中國最後的古帆船製造者建造的爲數不多的傳統帆船之一。

“The building tradition is more or less moribund,” said Stephen Davies, a former director of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

“造船的傳統或多或少已在走向滅亡，”香港海事博物館前館長戴偉思(Stephen Davies)說。

Yet the style remains traditional, “insofar as they are still doing what Grandpa did, and before him,” he said.

但樣子仍然是傳統的，“只要他們仍按照爺爺和爺爺以前的方法去做，”他說。

The new junk is made of Southeast Asian ironwood and teak and cost about $1.3 million to build. It was commissioned by a restaurant group in Hong Kong, which lies about 50 miles east of Shenwan on the edge of the delta where the river’s silty water turns ocean blue.

新的古帆船是用東南亞鐵木和柚木製造的，造價約爲130萬美元。這艘船是受香港一家餐飲集團委託製作的，該餐飲集團位於神灣以東約80公里的珠江三角洲邊緣，珠江混濁的河水在那裏流入藍色的海洋。

Also in Hong Kong is the Dukling, a classic, red-sailed junk that dates from 1955. It sank once and was recently refurbished. Since June, its owners have offered tours of Hong Kong’s waters, reflecting how junks today are used mostly for tourism and private parties.

香港還有一艘名叫“鴨靈”(Dukling)的紅帆古典帆船，這艘船是1955年造的。它曾沉沒過一次，最近重新清理裝修過。自去年6月起，船主已用其爲遊客提供香港灣遊覽服務，反映瞭如今這種帆船主要作爲旅遊和私人聚會場所的用途。

They are three of only a handful of junks that remain in the delta, replaced long ago by stouter wooden fishing vessels without sails, speedboats and huge container ships.

它們是仍留在珠江三角洲的少數幾艘帆船中的三艘，木製帆船在很久以前就被更結實的沒有帆的木製漁船、快艇和巨大的集裝箱船取代了。

The 19th-century pirate Cheung Po Tsai, or Cheung Po “the Kid,” who crisscrossed the delta pillaging and later joined the Qing dynasty imperial navy, sailed a ship that looked similar to his namesakes, though its sails may have been a yellow woven bamboo, not red. The red color is largely a flourish, Mr. Davies said.

十九世紀的海盜張保仔曾在珠江三角洲出沒打劫，後來他加入了大清帝國的海軍，他駕駛的帆船看起來與用他名字命名的帆船差不多，雖然他的風帆可能是用竹子編織的，是黃色、而不是紅色的。戴偉思說，紅色船帆在很大程度上是一種誇張。

The life of the delta is partly interlaced because of junks, which were once numerous with their fanlike silhouettes, trading down into Southeast Asia and up the coast of China.

三角洲的生活由於這種帆船而部分地交織起來，這種帆船的扇形輪廓曾在這個水域很常見，它們是中國與東南亞和中國海岸貿易的主力。

The junk — the word’s origins are murky, with Chinese, Malay and Portuguese cited as influences — may have assumed its iconic, curved hull and sails about 1,000 years ago, during the Song dynasty, though written records are scarce.

這種船在英文叫junk，該詞的來源不詳，據說有來自中文、馬來語和葡萄牙語的影響，這種帆船可能在大約一千年前的宋代，就已經有了其標誌性的彎曲船身和風帆，雖然來自那時的文字記載很少。

Captivated by the junk’s beauty, David Yeo, the founder and owner of Aqua Restaurant Group, commissioned a Hong Kong master boat builder, Au Wai, to conceptualize and direct the construction of the Aqua Lunas and to work with Mr. Wong in Shenwan. The first was launched in 2006, and unlike junks of the past, both are motor-powered, and their sails are decorative.

Aqua餐飲集團的創始人和所有者David Yeo被這種帆船的優美形狀迷住，他委託香港造船高手Au Wai爲“大張保”和“張保仔”做概念設計，並指導它們的建造，建造工作是與神灣的黃球叔合作進行的。“張保仔”是2006年建成下水的，它們與過去的帆船不同，都是電動的，它們的風帆只是裝飾而已。

“He has made more commercial junk boats than anyone else in Hong Kong. He is a master of a true art form,” Mr. Yeo said in an email. “An art form that is sadly dying out in Hong Kong today.”

“他造的商業帆船比香港的任何人都多。他是一種真正藝術形式的高手，”Yeo先生在一封電子郵件中說。“這種藝術形式正可悲地在香港消失。”

Mr. Au’s life reflects the sweep of delta geography. He is unsure where he was born but knows his father was from Guangdong Province in China, through which the Pearl River runs.

Au先生的生活反映了三角洲的地理。他不知道自己在哪裏出生，但知道他的父親來自中國廣東省的珠江流域。

Known as Ah Sin — the honorific and name translate as Dear Magician, for his talent — Mr. Au, 85, grew up poor in Hong Kong.

85歲的Au先生在香港的貧困中長大，因爲他的才華，人們稱他爲阿辛，這是一個榮譽稱呼，大致譯爲親愛的魔術師。

In his boatyard on Hong Kong Island, in the eastern district of Shau Kei Wan, he points to photographs of wooden ships of all kinds that he has built since being apprenticed to an uncle at the age of 13: simple “walla-walla” motorboats and corporate junks that carry some design elements of the traditional junk but without sails.

在他位於港島東部筲箕灣的船廠，他指着各種各樣木製船的照片給記者看，這些都是自從他13歲給一個叔叔當學徒以來造的：有簡單的“walla-walla”號摩托艇，也有爲公司造的帶有某些設計元素、但沒有風帆的傳統木帆船。

Beyond the wood shavings, the harbor glitters in the sun. Fishing boats draw up outside to deliver their catch to the next-door Shau Kei Wan wholesale fish market.

從木刨花堆遠望，海港在陽光下閃閃發光。漁船停靠在筲箕灣附近的魚類批發市場外，把打撈來的東西卸下來。

“I was very naughty as a boy, and no one could control me,” Mr. Au said in Cantonese, the local language. Barely a teenager, he sold fish on the streets.

“我是一個非常調皮的男孩，沒有人能管住我，”Au先生用當地的粵語說。剛剛十幾歲時，他就開始在街上賣魚。

“I did what I wanted. So my family said, ‘You should look for a special skill,’” he said. “An uncle was the owner of a shipyard and also a member of the ship association.”

“我只做了我想要做的。所以我的家人說，‘你應該學一種手藝，’”他說。“有個叔叔是造船廠的業主，也是船舶協會的成員。”

His son, Au Sai Kit, works with him, but because his son has no children, the family tradition will probably end there.

他的兒子Au Sai Kit和他一起工作，但由於兒子沒有孩子，他家的傳統可能將不再傳下去。

Hardly anyone in Hong Kong is willing to do manual labor, the elder Mr. Au said, so he has to look to places like Shenwan, where he and his son travel regularly to confer with Mr. Wong and his team of workers.

Au老先生說，香港幾乎沒有人願意幹體力活兒，所以他不得不到像神灣那樣的地方去找人，他和他的兒子定期到神灣與黃球叔和他的工人們交流。

Building a luxury junk is a labor of love, Mr. Au said.

Au先生說，造一艘豪華木帆船是一種心甘情願做的勞動。

“We take the wood piece by piece, fit them together in a curve, measure each piece and cut it,” he said. Copper nails are used to hammer the hull together. No other metal or artificial materials are used.

“我們把木料一塊一塊地按照曲線拼接起來，每塊都是單獨測量、單獨切割出來的，”他說。船體是用銅釘釘在一起的。不使用其他金屬或人造材料。

It takes about a year to build a traditional junk, Mr. Wong said.

黃球叔說，造一艘古帆船需要大約一年的時間。

Once junks were made from camphor wood and pine from next-door Fujian Province, said Mr. Davies, the former museum director.

曾任博物館館長的戴偉思說，以前，木帆船是用來自廣東鄰省福建省的樟木和松木製造的。

“They were simple to build. That was the genius of the hull design,” he said.

“它們很容易造。這是這種船身設計的獨到之處，”他說。

But they had flaws.

但它們也有缺點。

“The hull is only joined together by nails, so you can’t have one high sail. You need low-stress rigging,” he said. “They had to keep adding sails to make the junk sail in a straight line.”

“由於船身只是用釘子釘在一起的，所以你不能用高帆。你需要用低拉力的索具，”他說。“他們不得不添加風帆，這樣才能使帆船直線行駛。”

The idea of a Chinese junk has been romanticized, Mr. Davies said.

戴偉思說，有關中國古老帆船的東西已被浪漫化了。

“Junks were brutally hard work. The grunt work — it took 14 members of crew to work the sails. It was pure sweat,” he said.

“木帆船上的工作非常辛苦。需要14名船員來操作風帆，那是力氣活。純脆是流大汗的工作，”他說。

But Mr. Davies concedes that the traditional Chinese junk remains iconic.

不過戴偉思承認，中國傳統木帆船的樣子是標誌性的。

“That sweep down to the bow, the fan in profile, with the masts that create this beautiful arc along the top. The fully battened, standing rigging. There is just a beautiful harmony in looking at it,” he said.

“那種高船尾低船頭的形狀，那種扇形的輪廓，還有頂端形成一條美麗弧線的桅杆。所有的船艙門都關上、牽拉船桅和風帆的繩索拉直的樣子。看着它真是一種美麗和諧的感覺，”他說。