華裔女記者放棄優渥生活拍攝中國

Sim Chi Yin had a cushy expat life in Beijing working as a reporter for The Singapore Straits Times, writing long feature stories and sometimes taking photos. The company paid for her education at the London School of Economics in exchange for eight years of employment. She had health insurance, a pension and job security.

作爲新加坡《海峽時報》(The Straits Times)記者，沈綺穎(Sim Chi Yin)在北京過着愜意的異國生活，寫寫長篇特寫，偶爾拍拍照片。《海峽時報》爲她支付了倫敦政治經濟學院(London School of Economics)的學費，作爲交換條件，她必須爲公司工作八年。她擁有醫療保險、養老金和失業保險。

So why did she walk away from that after nine years?

那麼，她爲何要在九年後離開？

“I wanted to be a photographer but the editors at The Straits Times said I was overqualified,” she recalled. “Almost every year I asked to be assigned to the photo desk but they didn’t take visual journalism seriously.”

“我想作攝影師，但是《海峽時報》的編輯說那是大材小用，”她回憶道。“我幾乎每年都會要求擔任攝影記者，但他們並不重視視覺報道。”

Ms. Sim — an ethnic-Chinese, middle-class child from Singapore whose family had risen from humble roots — had wanted to be a photographer since she was a teenager. So as grateful as she was to her newspaper, she took a gamble on photography.

沈綺穎——一個來自新加坡華裔中產家庭的孩子，她的家庭屬於白手起家——從少年時代開始就希望成爲一名攝影師。所以，雖然對她所在的報紙心懷感激，她還是選擇在攝影方面孤注一擲。

Her decision, which meant slashing her expenses and moving to a smaller apartment, has paid off: Last month she joined the cooperative photo agency VII as an interim member, after being mentored for the past three years by Marcus Bleasdale as part of VII’s mentorship program.“Most importantly, she is great photographer, a great journalist and a really good person who is dedicated to issue oriented storytelling,” said Ed Kashi, who is on VII’s board.

做出這個決定意味着她需要削減開支，搬到一個面積較小的公寓，但這一切都值得：上個月，她作爲臨時成員加入合作性圖片社VII。過去三年，她一直在馬庫斯·布里斯戴爾(Marcus Bleasdale)的指導下學習，屬於VII導師項目的一部分。VII董事埃德·卡希(Ed Kashi)說，“最重要的是，她是一個了不起的攝影師，了不起的記者，一個非常好的人，專注於爭議性敘事。”

He also acknowledged that VII, like Magnum and other cooperative agencies, have had too few women and people of color as members and that Ms. Sim’s background is a welcome change. Ms. Sim, who has freelanced for The New York Times, Time Magazine and the New Yorker, speaks fluent Mandarin.

他也承認，和馬格南(Magnum)等許多合作性的圖片社一樣，VII的女性和有色人種成員太少，沈綺穎的背景是一個大家樂於見到的改變。沈綺穎曾爲《紐約時報》、《時代》週刊(Time magazine)和《紐約客》(New Yorker)兼職攝影，普通話說得很流利。

The interim membership is like a two-year trial marriage for both sides, during which Ms. Sim wants to organize group projects and expand the agency’s presence in Asia.

對於雙方而言，這個臨時的成員身份就像是兩年的試婚。這段時間，沈綺穎希望能組織一些羣體項目，擴大機構在亞洲的影響力。

Chi Yin Sim grew up in Singapore in an ethnic Chinese family that had lived overseas for three generations and almost never spoke of the past. As a teenager she devoted herself to being “a useful person”, working with disabled people and volunteering as a Salvation Army Christmas bell-ringer at shopping malls.

沈綺穎在新加坡的一個華裔家庭中長大。這個家族的前三代人一直在海外居住，他們幾乎從不提過去。少年時代，她認爲自己應該成爲“一個有用的人”，她幫助殘疾人，自願在聖誕節去購物中心當救世軍搖鈴人。

Her parents were not interested in politics or civic engagement. Ms. Sim always felt that her parents didn’t understand or approve of her interest in social issues, activism and eventually journalism.

她的父母對政治和公民參與並不感興趣。沈綺穎總感覺，父母既不理解也不支持她對社會事務、行動主義乃至新聞報道的興趣。

But she did not fully understand their disapproval at first.

但是最初她並不完全理解他們的反對。

After receiving a masters in Chinese history she delved into her family’s past, especially curious about her grandfather, whom no one ever spoke of. Her mother showed her a photo of a man with a box camera slung around his the next eight years she discovered he had been a school principal, businessman and eventually the editor of a leftist newspaper in Malaya. She learned that he had been active in Malaya’s Chinese community and was arrested and tortured by Japanese occupying forces during World War II. When the British returned, he wrote anti-colonial editorials, which led to his arrest. Given the choice of staying in jail or being deported, he left to his ancestral village in Guangdong province, leaving his family behind temporarily.

在獲得了一箇中國曆史碩士學位後，她開始研究家族的過去，她對從未有人提起的祖父尤其感興趣。母親給她看了一張照片，上面的男子脖子上掛着一部箱式相機。在接下來的八年時間裏，她發現祖父曾是一位校長、商人，而且後來還成爲了馬來亞左翼報刊的編輯。她得知，他曾經在馬來亞的華人社區活動，後來在二戰期間，又遭到了日本侵略勢力的逮捕和折磨。當英國人回來時，他寫了一些反殖民主義的社論文章，並因此遭到逮捕。在入獄和被驅逐之間，他選擇了返回自己位於廣東省的祖祖輩輩居住的村落，暫時離開家人。

Ms. Sim only learned this hidden family history in full when she visited her relatives in Gaoshang, a farming village in China, in 2011. Her grandfather is revered as a martyr for the revolution: a six-foot tall obelisk marks his burial place. A month after arriving he joined the Chinese Communist Party guerrillas, he was captured by Nationalist forces and was executed shortly before the Communist victory.

沈綺穎是2011年前往廣東誥上村拜訪親屬時才完全瞭解這段被隱藏的家族歷史的。她的祖父是一位革命烈士：他的墓地前聳立着一座六英尺（約合2米）高的石碑。抵達一個月後，他便加入了中國共產黨游擊隊，然後被國民黨抓住，並且在共產黨勝利之前不久被處決。

Ms. Sim often wonders what her grandfather would think of the “New China” he fought for. She is “sure that he would be disappointed” with a lot of aspects of it. But she also suspects he would have approved of her interests in journalism and social issues, as she tries to do what she can “to be useful.”

沈綺穎經常思考，祖父究竟會如何看待他爲之奮鬥的“新中國”。她“肯定他會”對它的很多方面“感到失望”。但是她還認爲，祖父肯定會支持她對新聞和社會事務的興趣，因爲她試圖做一些“有用的事”。

“It’s an enormous place with enormous problems,” she said. “But I have come to really care about China and it’s people. After all, it’s the place where my grandfather died for.”

“這個地方很大，問題很多，”她說。“但是我現在真的很關心中國和中國人民。畢竟，我的祖父就是爲這裏而死的。”