纪录片《无家可归》打破关于西藏的浪漫想像

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——西藏农民赞塔（音译）的丈夫去世后，她按照当地习俗被迫搬去和婆家人同住。婆家阻止她儿子上学。所以她收拾行李搬到了北京，在那里得到了一位前世亲人的帮助。

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.

这就是《无家可归》(Nowhere to Call Home)的开头，它是北京的外国记者乔斯林·福特(Jocelyn Ford)拍摄的纪录片，该片本月正在MoMA展出。这部纪录片讲述了赞塔（和很多藏民一样，她的名字只有一个词）在北京和故乡的故事。在故乡，她要和公公对峙；而我们后来知道她“前世的亲人”就是福特女士，她打破了记者与采访对象之间的传统壁垒，和赞塔做了朋友。

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.

西方人有时会将西藏视为世外桃源，这部电影打破了这个浪漫印象，展示出这里有很多保守的传统，特别是对女人的歧视。它还令人震惊地描绘了赞塔和其他藏族人在中国汉人生活的地方遭遇赤裸裸的种族歧视。它展示出很多少数民族缺乏最基本的教育：赞塔的姐妹都是文盲，在市场上不会数散钱，不认识手机上的数字。但也许最令人意外的是福特悄悄在中国放映这部影片所引起的钦佩与不安：这样深刻的影片竟是一个外国人拍的。

"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?"

“这部电影让我们开始思考，我们怎么能这样对待这些人，”中国官方新闻机构新华社的记者石鹏说，“我们对他们的帮助够吗？”该片今年夏天曾在新华社放映。

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.

石鹏说他对藏族妇女面临的不公感到震惊。赞塔的公公粗暴专横，视她为自己的财产。赞塔的家人在村里受欺负，因为她家没有男孩，她父亲太老了，无力抗争。

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.

在中国流行文化中，西藏是汉族的全民度假胜地，被视作一片纯净的土地，西藏人通常被描述为和自然一样单纯，很像美洲原住民在美国成立之初被描绘的形象。不过，尽管旅游业繁荣，游客们却很少看到西藏日常生活的实际情况。

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岁的沈叶（音译）在北京的一个独立唱片公司工作，她说几年前她在西藏背包旅行了八个月。但是福特的电影在北京的一个小俱乐部的独立电影之夜放映时还是让她大开眼界。

"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."

“我在西藏住过，我都不知道这些，”沈说，“你只看到宣传。我从不了解他们的真实生活。”

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.

福特说她通过朋友安排影片在俱乐部、大使馆和工作场所放映，以估量观众的反应，以及在中国更大范围放映的可能性。她说自己的目标是在中国发起一场关于种族的讨论。这个问题在中国媒体上几乎完全看不到。

"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."

“很显然，人们没有思考这些问题的框架，”福特说，“我跟他们说美国从五六十年代就开始这种讨论了。它不容易，但你总得开始。”

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.

福特是一位资深电台记者，她在东京和北京为《市场》(Marketplace)等公共电台节目工作。但是大约从2008年起她开始用小型数码摄像机做试验。大约在2008年奥运会期间，她打算在北京扎根，她当时已经认识赞塔了，朋友们鼓励她拍摄这个外地人的生活。

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.

福特还陪赞塔返回故乡——阿坝州巴窝村（音译）。那里是最近藏民抗议汉人统治的自焚浪潮的中心——125名自焚者有三分之一来自那个地区。

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

不过这部纪录片完全没提这些政治问题。福特说这么做是故意的，是为了避免中国观众完全无法看到该片。

"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."

“我想让每个人都能理解它，”她说，“它说的是一个女人想让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."

石鹏说，赞塔的问题不是藏族或少数民族独有的：北京所有的外来人口在住屋问题上都面临歧视。另一位观众董军（音译）以前是某国营电台的记者，现在从事拍卖工作，他说，如果它是关于自焚的，“今天的中国人可能看不到它。”

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?

福特说，有时汉人问她他们能做什么。如果他们想改变当地的社会结构，那他们是不是在破坏藏族文化？

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

“我的回答是你必须跟藏族人交谈，开始一场对话，”她说，“我只是往那个方向迈出了临时性的一步。”

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.

她说自己的个人行动是做赞塔的顾问，这让赞塔认为她们两个前世是亲人。赞塔的工作就是在地铁站附近卖饰品和珠宝直至深夜，福特劝赞塔不要带孩子去工作，并温和地解释说，这是她儿子上课打瞌睡的原因。

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.

她陪赞塔回故乡，帮助缓解人们的顾虑，表明孩子在北京受教育不意味着抛弃自己的爷爷。

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.

澳大利亚拉筹伯大学的教授、种族事务专家詹姆斯·莱博尔德(James Leibold)今年访问中国时观看了这部电影，他说赞塔故乡的那些场景对西方观众来说尤其是个挑战。

"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.

“它挑战了西方社会非常普遍的成见——西藏的情况就是人民解放军镇压穿红袍的僧人，”莱博尔德说。

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?"

他说，但是对中国人来说，北京的场景可能最令他们感到不安。他补充说，“如果他们不欢迎赞塔——她搬到了北京，努力学习普通话，努力适应这里的生活——那么其他人呢？”

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.

资深女权主义者冯媛也看了这部纪录片，她说《无家可归》有一定的帮助，但是首先需要的是汉人改变态度。

"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."

“它能引发一场对话，但是对话需要的不只是一部好电影，”冯媛说，“它需要各个民族互相尊重，保持平等，目前我们缺乏这种环境。”