一次從高跟鞋談到戀物癖的採訪
Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenesinsights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New YorkTimes. In this piece, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a Beijing-based Times correspondent,recounts a funny thing that happened on the way to her upcoming Sinospherecolumn on high heels.
“時報內情”專欄(Times Insider)爲讀者呈現《紐約時報》新聞、專題報道及評論的幕後故事。在本篇文章中，時報駐京記者狄雨霏(Didi Kirsten Tatlow)講述了她在爲“時報看中國”專欄(Sinosphere)撰寫一篇有關高跟鞋的文章期間，發生的一件趣事。
BEIJING —The name of thewebsite selling high heels was perhaps a little odd, in retrospect:.
北京——事後看來，那個賣高跟鞋的網站名字可能有些奇怪：中國高跟鞋俱樂部，網址。
Then again, not really. English-languagetranslations can be colorful in China. A banner reading “Welcome, foreignfiends!” greeted visitors at Kunming airport in the 1990s. I’ve often seen“fried crap,” instead of carp, on restaurant menus. Of course, the mistakes cutboth ways —what’s a Chinese person to make of the characters for “pease”tattooed onforeign flesh?
再一想，也不盡然。在中國，英文翻譯可能會五彩繽紛。在90年代，昆明機場一條歡迎遊客的橫幅上寫着“歡迎，外國鬼子!”（friends誤寫作fiends［魔鬼］——編注）。在餐廳的菜單上，我經常看到“fried crap”（紅燒大糞），而不是“carp”（鯉魚）。當然，這種錯誤雙方都會出現——中國人怎麼看外國人身上文的“pease”（豆）對應的漢字呢？
More important, I was facing a tight filingdeadline for the Sinosphere column I have written from China for six years now,and had no time to waste. I decided to do a piece about high heels.
更重要的是，我在中國寫了六年的“時報看中國”專欄的交稿期限馬上就要到了，我不能浪費時間。我決定寫一篇有關高跟鞋的文章。
For about three years, I had watched asheel height rose in the trendy Sanlitun district where the Times office issituated. Thin women with — usually — long hair tottered on heels about thelength and width of chopsticks on often uneven sidewalks, calf muscles clenchedin an effort to remain upright. Even a teacher at my daughter’skindergarten had worn them to work. Extreme heels —about eightinches high —were in.
在大約三年的時間裏，我看着時報辦公室所在的潮流地帶三里屯的鞋跟高度不斷增加。身材苗條的女士——通常——留着長髮，穿着鞋跟的高度和粗細都與筷子相當的高跟鞋，彆扭地走在常常不甚平整的人行道上。爲了保持姿態挺直，她們緊繃着小腿的肌肉。就連我女兒就讀的幼兒園裏，也有一位老師穿着這種鞋上班。恨天高——高約八英寸（約合20釐米）——正在流行。
There had also been a series of incidentsin Cannes, London and Tokyo over the last year in which women had been publiclyrebuked for wearing flats. Sure, wear high heels if you want, I thought — butwhy tell women we look ugly if we don’t?
過去一年裏，戛納、倫敦和東京出現過一系列公開指責女性穿平跟鞋的事件。我想，當然，想穿就穿吧——但爲什麼要對女性說，如果不穿高跟鞋，我們看上去就會很醜呢？
I rang the mobile number on the website;1,200 miles away in Guangzhou, in the south of China, a stranger called ChenYan answered. I explained what I wanted.
我撥打了網站上的那個手機號。在2000公里外的華南城市廣州，一個名叫陳研的陌生人接起了電話。我解釋了自己想了解的情況。
“I’m just the webmaster,”he said, cagily.
“我只是網站管理員，”他出言謹慎。
No problem, I said breezily. In truth, Ihad never been in the position of needing to conceptualize, report and write acolumn in so little time. China is rich pickings, journalistically, but acolumn of any kind needs solid reporting, a strong concept and reflective,writerly depth. In a too-busy week, I had mistimed things. Mild panic had setin.
沒事，我輕快地說。但實際上，我以前從未發生過需要在這麼短的時間內構思、報道並撰寫一篇專欄文章的事情。從記者的角度來說，中國素材豐富，但任何一篇專欄文章都需要可靠的報道、有說服力的概念和引人深思的寫作深度。在太過繁忙的一週裏，我沒能在正確的時間做該做的事。我感到輕微的恐慌襲來。
Did Mr. Chen have a number for the manageror anyone else who worked there? I asked. Or maybe he had some thoughtshimself? I want to write about extreme heels, I said.
陳研有經理或其他任何工作人員的電話嗎？我問。或者他自己有沒有什麼想法？我想寫寫恨天高，我說。
Mr. Chen took that, well, in stride.
好在陳研對此表現得頗爲從容。
“Actually, I also run the site. What exactly do you want to know?”he asked.
“其實我也負責網站運營。你到底想知道什麼？”他問道。
It sounded promising. Was urely an online business or also a store? What were the trends in high heelsin China? Was there discussion about whether they were healthy or safe to wear?When did women start wearing high heels again after the puritanical Mao Zedongera?
聽上去有希望。只是一家網店，還是說也有實體店？中國高跟鞋的流行趨勢是什麼？是否有過關於穿高跟鞋的健康或安全問題的討論？省吃儉用的毛澤東時代結束後，中國的女性是從什麼時候又開始穿高跟鞋的？
“I remember my mother —I must have been about 6 —when she started towear heels,”he said. “I was born in 1980.”
“我記得我母親——大概是在我6歲的時候——開始穿高跟鞋，”他說。“我是1980年出生的。”
He was helpful but seemed distracted. I hadto ask some questions twice.
他想幫忙，但似乎不太專心。有些問題我不得不說兩遍。
Suddenly he said, “Actually,your questions are a bit stupid.”
突然他說，“其實你的問題有點傻。”
That was startling, but journalists areoften obliged to ask seemingly naïve questions to elicit explanations or pointsof view, so I, too, took the conversation in stride. Why, I asked?
這話令我吃驚，但記者通常不得不問一些看上去很幼稚的問題，以便引出相關解釋或觀點。於是，我對這場交談的態度也變得從容起來。爲什麼，我問他。
“Don’t worry!” he continued. “That doesn’tmean you won’t do a good job with your story. We have a saying in Chinese:‘Stupid birds fly high.’ It means that people who know they are stupid often dobetter than clever people because they try harder,”heexplained.
“不要擔心！”他接着說。“這不代表你做不好這篇報道。中國有句老話叫‘笨鳥先飛’，意思是說知道自己不夠聰明的人往往比聰明人做得更好，因爲他們更努力，”他解釋說。
He was getting a bit ... personal, l, always keen to learn a new phrase, I asked him how it was written andmade a note of it. (In Chinese: 笨鳥飛高, benniao feigao.)
不知爲何，他的話有點……針對個人。不過，總是熱衷學習新詞彙的我繼續問他這個詞怎麼寫，並記了下來。
I asked for facts. Did he have any figuresfor how much high heels sold on his website, and what proportion of that waskitten, high and extreme high heels?
我還問了一些事實性的東西。比如，他是否有關於網站高跟鞋銷量的數據，其中低跟、高跟和超高跟的比例是怎樣？
“Look,” he said, “I feel I ought to tellyou, we’re actually a fetish club. We set up in 2002 and we’re the first one inChina. Because of Chinese law we can’t openly advocate fetishism. We depend onselling high heels to fund our activities.”
“哎呀，”他說。“我得跟你說，這其實是一家戀物癖俱樂部。它成立於2002年，是中國第一家。因爲中國的法規限制，我們不能公開倡導戀物癖。我們靠賣高跟鞋爲活動提供資金。”
“Actually our members are mostly male,”he added. “We have veryfew female members, but we do sell high heels as well. You’re, ah,welcome to stay in touch.”
“實際上我們的會員大多是男性，”他還說。“女性會員非常少，不過我們的確賣高跟鞋。啊，歡迎你跟我們保持聯繫。”
We parted on the best of terms. I wroteabout something else that week: a smart idea to give subsidies for outdoor workin hot weather, as the world warms up. Not so much #highheelgate as#globalwarming. But I persisted with the heels topic, and that column is due torun on Aug. 11.
我們在友好的氣氛下告別。那一週我寫了別的內容：在全球氣溫升高的情況下，有一個給在炎熱天氣裏做戶外工作的人提供補貼的聰明點子。離#高跟鞋門#有點遠，更接近#全球變暖#之類的話題。不過，我還在繼續做高跟鞋這個選題，相應的專欄文章會在8月11日發表。
As for Mr. Chen, he says he thinks heelsare a reflection of materialism, first and foremost, and wasn’t much interestedin the semiotics of it all, delightfully explored by Elizabeth Semmelhack, thesenior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum (and, interestingly, the author of abook about the history of men wearing high heels), in a piece published in TheTimes in May 2015 titled “Shoes That Put Women in Their Place.”
陳研表示，他認爲高跟鞋首先是物質主義的一種表現，不過他對其中的符號學意義沒有太大興趣。那是巴塔鞋履博物館(Bata Shoe Museum)資深策展人伊麗莎白·塞梅爾哈克(Elizabeth Semmelhack)感興趣的話題，曾在她於2015年5月發表在《紐約時報》上的一篇名爲《高跟鞋爲何成了女性專屬？》(Shoes That Put Women in Their Place)的文章中興致勃勃地進行了探討（有意思的是，她還寫了一本有關男性穿高跟鞋歷史的書）。
“Chinese people’s incomes are rising, and their requirements for heels are risingalong with a materialistic spirit,”Mr. Chen said.
“中國人收入在增加，對高跟鞋的需求也隨物質精神的增強在增長，”陳研說。
“When you wear high heels, you can’t go for a stroll,”hecontinued, using the Chinese term “sanbu,”consideredan essential part of healthy living here. “You need a car. Whenyou don’t have a car, you can’t wear high heels.”
“穿着高跟鞋，你是沒法散步的，”他繼續說。這種活動在中國被認爲是健康生活的一個重要部分。“你需要有輛車。如果沒有車，就沒法穿高跟鞋。”
That doesn’t stop the womentottering on Sanlitun’s sidewalks, but I’m not going to judge them for that.#thethingsyougetintoasajournalist.
這並不妨礙三里屯人行道上的女人們穿着高跟鞋彆扭地走路，不過我不會以此指摘別人。#當記者會陷入的事#。
