紀錄片《無家可歸》打破關於西藏的浪漫想像

When the Tibetan farmer Zanta's husband died, she was forced by local custom to move in with her in-laws, who forbade her son to attend school. Instead, she packed up and moved to Beijing, where she was helped by a relative from another lifetime.

北京——西藏農民贊塔（音譯）的丈夫去世後，她按照當地習俗被迫搬去和婆家人同住。婆家阻止她兒子上學。所以她收拾行李搬到了北京，在那裏得到了一位前世親人的幫助。

That is the beginning of "Nowhere to Call Home," a documentary by a foreign correspondent in Beijing, Jocelyn Ford, showing at the Museum of Modern Art this month. The film follows Zanta (who, like many Tibetans, goes by one name) here and in her hometown, where she confronts her father-in-law. Along the way, it becomes clear that the relative from another lifetime is Ms. Ford, who breaks the traditional wall between journalist and subject by becoming a friend.

這就是《無家可歸》(Nowhere to Call Home)的開頭，它是北京的外國記者喬斯林·福特(Jocelyn Ford)拍攝的紀錄片，該片本月正在MoMA展出。這部紀錄片講述了贊塔（和很多藏民一樣，她的名字只有一個詞）在北京和故鄉的故事。在故鄉，她要和公公對峙；而我們後來知道她“前世的親人”就是福特女士，她打破了記者與採訪對象之間的傳統壁壘，和贊塔做了朋友。

The film breaks down the sometimes romantic Shangri-La view that Westerners have of Tibet, showing it to be a place with many hidebound traditions, especially discrimination against women. It also offers a shocking portrait of the outright racism that Zanta and other Tibetans face in Chinese parts of the country. And it shows how many members of minorities lack even basic education: Zanta's sisters are illiterate, unable to count their change in the market or recognize the numbers on a cellphone. But maybe most surprising is that Ms. Ford has been quietly showing the film in China itself, eliciting admiration and unease that such a penetrating film was made by a foreigner.

西方人有時會將西藏視爲世外桃源，這部電影打破了這個浪漫印象，展示出這裏有很多保守的傳統，特別是對女人的歧視。它還令人震驚地描繪了贊塔和其他藏族人在中國漢人生活的地方遭遇赤裸裸的種族歧視。它展示出很多少數民族缺乏最基本的教育：贊塔的姐妹都是文盲，在市場上不會數零錢，不認識手機上的數字。但也許最令人意外的是福特悄悄在中國放映這部影片所引起的欽佩與不安：這樣深刻的影片竟是一個外國人拍的。

"This film makes us question how we deal with people like this," said Shi Peng, a reporter at the government news agency, Xinhua, where a screening was arranged this summer. "Do we help them enough?"

“這部電影讓我們開始思考，我們怎麼能這樣對待這些人，”中國官方新聞機構新華社的記者石鵬說，“我們對他們的幫助夠嗎？”該片今年夏天曾在新華社放映。

Mr. Shi said he was stunned by the inequality Tibetan women face. Zanta's father-in-law is a violent tyrant, who treats her like his property. Zanta's family is bullied in the village, because there are no sons, and her father is too old to fight.

石鵬說他對藏族婦女面臨的不公感到震驚。贊塔的公公粗暴專橫，視她爲自己的財產。贊塔的家人在村裏受欺負，因爲她家沒有男孩，她父親太老了，無力抗爭。

In Chinese popular culture, Tibet, a population vacation destination for ethnic (or Han) Chinese, is seen as unspoiled, and Tibetans are often portrayed as simple people at one with nature, much as Native Americans were depicted in earlier decades in the United States. Despite the booming tourism, however, visitors rarely see the reality of daily life in Tibet.

在中國流行文化中，西藏是漢族的全民度假勝地，被視作一片純淨的土地，西藏人通常被描述爲和自然一樣單純，很像美洲原住民在美國成立之初被描繪的形象。不過，儘管旅遊業繁榮，遊客們卻很少看到西藏日常生活的實際情況。

Shen Ye, a 30-year-old who works at an independent record label in Beijing, said that a few years ago she spent eight months backpacking through Tibet. But a screening of Ms. Ford's movie at a small club's independent movie night here proved eye-opening.

30歲的沈葉（音譯）在北京的一個獨立唱片公司工作，她說幾年前她在西藏揹包旅行了八個月。但是福特的電影在北京的一個小俱樂部的獨立電影之夜放映時還是讓她大開眼界。

"I lived in Tibet and didn't know about it," Ms. Shen said. "You just see propaganda. I never knew what their real lives were like."

“我在西藏住過，我都不知道這些，”沈說，“你只看到宣傳。我從不瞭解他們的真實生活。”

Ms. Ford said she had been arranging screenings at clubs, embassies and workplaces through friends to try to gauge audience reaction and prospects for releasing the film more widely in China. Her goal, she said, is to start a discussion about race in China, something almost completely absent in the Chinese media.

福特說她通過朋友安排影片在俱樂部、大使館和工作場所放映，以估量觀衆的反應，以及在中國更大範圍放映的可能性。她說自己的目標是在中國發起一場關於種族的討論。這個問題在中國媒體上幾乎完全看不到。

"It's clear people don't have a framework to think about these issues," Ms. Ford said. "I've told them that in the United States, we began having this sort of discussion in the '50s and '60s, and it's not easy, but you start somewhere."

“很顯然，人們沒有思考這些問題的框架，”福特說，“我跟他們說美國從五六十年代就開始這種討論了。它不容易，但你總得開始。”

A veteran radio journalist, Ms. Ford worked in Tokyo and Beijing for public radio programs like "Marketplace." But around 2008, she began to experiment with small digital cameras. She already knew Zanta, and friends encouraged her to film the migrant's life as she sought a foothold in the capital around the 2008 Olympics.

福特是一位資深電臺記者，她在東京和北京爲《市場》(Marketplace)等公共電臺節目工作。但是大約從2008年起她開始用小型數碼攝像機做試驗。大約在2008年奧運會期間，她打算在北京紮根，她當時已經認識贊塔了，朋友們鼓勵她拍攝這個外地人的生活。

Ms. Ford also accompanied Zanta back to her hometown, the hamlet of Barwo in the prefecture Aba. This is the epicenter of the recent wave of self-immolations among Tibetans protesting Chinese rule, with about a third of the 125 deaths from that region.

福特還陪贊塔返回故鄉——阿壩州巴窩村（音譯）。那裏是最近藏民抗議漢人統治的自焚浪潮的中心——125名自焚者有三分之一來自那個地區。

Such political concerns, however are absent from the movie — purposefully, Ms. Ford said, for fear of completely alienating Chinese viewers.

不過這部紀錄片完全沒提這些政治問題。福特說這麼做是故意的，是爲了避免中國觀衆完全無法看到該片。

"I wanted to make this something that everyone can understand," she said. "It's about a woman trying to get an education for her child."

“我想讓每個人都能理解它，”她說，“它說的是一個女人想讓自己的孩子接受教育。”

Mr. Shi said Zanta's problems weren't unique to Tibetans or minorities; all migrants in Beijing face discrimination in housing. Another viewer, Dong Jun, a former journalist with state-run radio who now conducts auctions, said if it were about the self-immolations, "today's Chinese might not be able to face it."

石鵬說，贊塔的問題不是藏族或少數民族獨有的：北京所有的外來人口在住房問題上都面臨歧視。另一位觀衆董軍（音譯）以前是某國營電臺的記者，現在從事拍賣工作，他說，如果它是關於自焚的，“今天的中國人可能看不到它。”

Ms. Ford said she was sometimes asked by Chinese what they can do. If they try to change local social structures, are they destroying Tibetan culture?

福特說，有時漢人問她他們能做什麼。如果他們想改變當地的社會結構，那他們是不是在破壞藏族文化？

"My answer was that you have to talk to Tibetans, start a conversation," she said. "I'm a temporary step in that direction."

“我的回答是你必須跟藏族人交談，開始一場對話，”她說，“我只是往那個方向邁出了臨時性的一步。”

She said her personal answer was to act as Zanta's adviser, leading the Tibetan to conclude that the two had been related in a previous lifetime. Ms. Ford discouraged Zanta from bringing her child to work, which involved selling trinkets and jewelry near a subway stop until midnight, gently explaining that this was why the boy was falling asleep in school.

她說自己的個人行動是做贊塔的顧問，這讓贊塔認爲她們兩個前世是親人。贊塔的工作就是在地鐵站附近賣飾品和珠寶直至深夜，福特勸贊塔不要帶孩子去工作，並溫和地解釋說，這是她兒子上課打瞌睡的原因。

And she went back with Zanta to her hometown and helped allay concerns that the boy's education in Beijing wouldn't mean abandoning his grandfather.

她陪贊塔回故鄉，幫助緩解人們的顧慮，表明孩子在北京受教育不意味着拋棄自己的爺爺。

It is especially these scenes in Zanta's hometown that are a challenge for Western audiences, said James Leibold, a professor and ethnic affairs expert at La Trobe University in Australia, who saw the film this year while visiting China.

澳大利亞拉籌伯大學的教授、種族事務專家詹姆斯·萊博爾德(James Leibold)今年訪問中國時觀看了這部電影，他說贊塔故鄉的那些場景對西方觀衆來說尤其是個挑戰。

"It challenges that stereotype that is so common in the West that Tibet is just about a P.L.A. soldier cracking down on a saffron-robed monk," Mr. Leibold said, referring to the People's Liberation Army.

“它挑戰了西方社會非常普遍的成見——西藏的情況就是人民解放軍鎮壓穿紅袍的僧人，”萊博爾德說。

But for Chinese, the scenes in Beijing might be most disturbing, he said, adding, "If they can't embrace Zanta, who's moved to Beijing, tried to learn Mandarin, tried to fit in, then what about others?"

他說，但是對中國人來說，北京的場景可能最令他們感到不安。他補充說，“如果他們不歡迎贊塔——她搬到了北京，努力學習普通話，努力適應這裏的生活——那麼其他人呢？”

Feng Yuan, a longtime women's rights advocate who has seen the film, said "Nowhere to Call Home" can help, but it requires a change in Chinese attitudes first.

資深女權主義者馮媛也看了這部紀錄片，她說《無家可歸》有一定的幫助，但是首先需要的是漢人改變態度。

"It can start a dialogue, but a dialogue needs more than a good film," Ms. Feng said. "It needs a sense of respect and equality between minorities, and right now these conditions are lacking."

“它能引發一場對話，但是對話需要的不只是一部好電影，”馮媛說，“它需要各個民族互相尊重，保持平等，目前我們缺乏這種環境。”