FT歷屆年度人物盤點 Person of the Year: Past winners

For 45 years, the world has been a strange and uneven place, if the FT’s choices of Person of the Year are anything to go by.

如果說英國《金融時報》年度人物(Person of the Year)的評選結果可以爲我們對這個世界的判斷提供一些參考的話，那麼可以說，這個世界45年來一直是一個奇怪的不平衡之地。

All but two of the 42 individuals chosen since 1970 — Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and Angela Merkel this year — have been men. The first holder of the title was Jean Rey, an unmemorable president of the European Commission. And it took 13 years for the world’s leading business publication to grant the title to a business figure — John Opel, chairman of IBM, whose tenure in fact marked the high point of the group’s dominance of computing.

1970年以來，英國《金融時報》評選出的42位年度人物中，除1987年的瑪格麗特鈠切爾(Margaret Thatcher)和今年的安格拉默克爾(Angela Merkel)這兩人以外，其餘全都是男性。首位年度人物得主是一位不太出名的歐盟委員會(European Commission)主席——讓雷伊(Jean Rey)。13年後，這家世界領先的商業刊物才又一次選出一位商界人士——時任IBM董事長的約翰攠楙爾(John Opel)。在奧佩爾任職時期，IBM對計算技術業的主導實際上達到了巔峯。

That said, the choices of the past four-and-a-half decades — made annually by FT writers and editors — do have a solid overall shape and logic.

儘管如此，過去45年的年度人物評選結果整體上的確有清晰的面貌和邏輯。年度人物每年由英國《金融時報》的記者和編輯選出。

The 1970s and 1980s were years of high international politics, dominated by globally recognised diplomats and politicians such as Henry Kissinger, Helmut Schmidt, Mitterrand and Thatcher herself. The FT may have missed Pope John Paul II, who earned a mention in 1979, when it was decided that no one deserved to be Person of the Decade. But 10 years later, it was impossible to argue with the judgment that Mikhail Gorbachev “towered over all others on the international stage” to take that title for the 1980s.

上世紀70年代和80年代是國際政治的風雲時代，其中唱主角的是亨利蘒魗格(Henry Kissinger)、赫爾穆特施密特(Helmut Schmidt)、弗朗索瓦密特朗( Mitterrand)以及撒切爾本人等享譽全球的外交官和政治家。英國《金融時報》可能漏掉了教皇約翰保羅二世(Pope John Paul II)，他在1979年曾獲得“十年人物”提名，不過那年的評委們最終認定無人有資格獲此殊榮。但是10年後，米哈伊爾戈爾巴喬夫(Mikhail Gorbachev)“擊敗國際舞臺上的其他所有人”，當選上世紀80年代的“十年人物”時，這個結果是無可爭議的。

Similarly, in the 1990s and early 2000s globalisation, relative political stability and economic growth made it impossible to ignore powerful business figures, from Bill Gates, via Rupert Murdoch, to Steve Jobs and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The list also nods to the emergence of ambitious economic powers in China (Deng Xiaoping, Jack Ma) and India (Lakshmi Mittal).

同樣，在上世紀90年代和2000年代初的全球化時期，政局相對穩定、經濟保持增長，讓人們無法忽視影響力巨大的商界人物。從比爾蓋茨(Bill Gates)、魯珀特默多克(Rupert Murdoch)，到史蒂夫吠布斯(Steve Jobs)以及谷歌(Google)的謝爾蓋布林(Sergey Brin)和拉里槧奇(Larry Page)，都曾當選英國《金融時報》的年度人物。當選名單中也沒有漏掉中國（鄧小平和馬雲）和印度（拉克希米猠呼爾(Lakshmi Mittal)）出現的抱負遠大的經濟人物。

Arguably, we went too soon with Tony Blair, George W Bush, even Barack Obama, all of whom were named man of the year early in their terms of office. An understandable and ever-present wariness about rewarding pure evil prevented Osama bin Laden being named in 2001. And the legacy of many of the business people in the list continues to be open to disruption.

託尼布萊爾(Tony Blair)、小布什(George W Bush)，乃至巴拉克攠巴馬(Barack Obama)或許都過早地當選了年度人物——他們都在任期初期就榮獲這一稱號。出於可以理解、並且始終存在的謹慎，奧薩馬本拉登(Osama bin Laden)這個純粹的惡魔沒有成爲2001年的年度人物。當選名單上不少商界人物的遺產仍容易被顛覆。

But given that this annual election is always hostage to later political, economic, corporate and personal misfortune, it is surprising how many of the choices still stand up to scrutiny.

不過還有不少當選人物至今當之無愧。鑑於後來的政治、經濟、企業和個人方面的事態發展難以預料，導致這種年度評選總是有其風險，這一點挺讓人意外的。

Take the coronation of John von Neumann as the FT’s Man of the Century in 1999. It was an unexpected choice. But, as the late Peter Martin wrote in his great portrait of the Budapest-born polymath, von Neumann “devoted himself with ferocious energy… to some of the central issues of the age”, such as mathematical theory, the atomic bomb, economics and the creation of the computer. Given the role technological advances, global conflicts and economic turmoil have played in shaping the 21st century world since, the selection actually looks rather prescient.

以1999年約翰馮諾伊曼(John von Neumann)當選英國《金融時報》“世紀人物”爲例。這當時是一個出乎人們意料的選擇。但是正如已故的彼得氠丁(Peter Martin)用精彩的文字所描述的那樣，這位出生於布達佩斯的博學家“以充沛的精力投身於……研究當代一些核心問題”，比如數學理論、原子彈、經濟學以及計算機的發明。鑑於自那以後技術進步、全球衝突以及經濟動盪在塑造21世紀世界中扮演的角色，那次的評選結果事實上看起來相當有先見之明。