波特母校 霍格沃茲魔法學校現身中國

As one of his generation's best wizards, Harry Potter ended up enrolling in the prestigious HogwArts School. For those less magically gifted, China's Hebei province now has a fallback option.

作爲同代人中最好的魔法師之一，哈利・波特(Harry Potter) 就讀的是大名鼎鼎的霍格沃茲魔法學校(Hogwarts School)。對於那些魔法天賦不高的孩子，中國的河北省目前提供了一個備選學校。

Located in the industrial city of Shijiazhuang, the Hebei Academy of Fine Arts may not have games of Quidditch, talking paintings or classes in wand-waving. But its campus does have various castle-like qualities similar to the school at the heart of J.K. Rowling's hit 'Harry Potter' series--including tall turrets and a 100-meter bell tower--that have earned it the nickname 'Asia's Hogwarts.'

位於工業城市石家莊的河北美術學院(Hebei Academy of Fine Arts)或許沒有魁地奇球賽(Quidditch)、會說話的圖畫或學習使用魔杖的課程，但是它的校園裏有着各種各樣的城堡，與J.K.羅琳(J.K. Rowling)《哈利・波特》系列小說中的校園如出一轍，核心建築包括高聳的塔樓和100米高的鐘樓，由此贏得了亞洲霍格沃茲的稱號。

The school didn't return calls for comment.

該學院未予置評。

State broadcaster CCTV paid a recent visit to the campus and spoke to the principal, Zhen Zhongyi, who said that the campus's design was based merely on European Gothic architecture; that is, not intended to hew too closely to the realm of Harry Potter. The campus cost nearly 400 million yuan ($64 million), the broadcaster reported, and will enroll its first students this fall.

中央電視臺(CCTV)最近訪問了這個學院，並採訪了校長甄忠義。甄忠義說，校園設計僅僅是汲取了歐洲哥特式建築的風格；也就是說，並不想模仿哈利・波特書中的魔法學校。據CCTV報道，校園的建設耗資接近人民幣4億元(合6,400萬美元)，今年秋季即將迎來首批學生。

Like most other countries around the world, the Chinese love for the bespectacled Harry Potter is legion, and has sprouted a whole genre of fan fiction by turns amusing and strange, including 'Harry Potter and the Waterproof Pearl,' 'Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll' and ' Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students,' the last in which Chinese wizards fight Voldemort alongside Harry Potter. The book has also found an audience among Tibetan-language readers, following the efforts of one translator, who renamed the main character Harry Podder, which in Tibetan means 'brave.'

和世界大多數國家一樣，哈利波特在中國也有大批粉絲，他們還創作了一系列有趣古怪的粉絲作品，比如《哈利・波特與防水珍珠》(Harry Potter and the Waterproof Pearl)、《哈利・波特與瓷娃娃》(Harry Potter and the Porcelain Doll) 、《哈利・波特與中國留學生》(Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students)等等，最後這本小說講述了中國魔法師與哈利波特一同對抗伏地魔(Voldemort)的故事。這本書在西藏地區廣受歡迎，源於一位譯者將主人公的名字改爲Harry Podder，在藏語裏意爲勇敢。

So deeply has the novel penetrated Asia that earlier this year, even a diplomatic spat between China and Japan was littered with references to Ms. Rowling's series. The incident kicked off in January, when the Japanese ambassador to the U.K. penned an article declaring that China risks playing 'the role of Voldemort' in Asia, citing concerns about Chinese movements in the East China Sea. For his part, meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador to the U.K. retorted with his own fantasy allusion, saying that the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo--home to a number of war criminals but still regularly visited by Japanese officials, and more recently Justin Bieber--was 'a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul.'

這些小說早已深入亞洲讀者的內心，甚至今年早些時候中國和日本之間的一場外交爭端中也夾雜着羅琳作品的痕跡。事件始於1月份，日本駐英國大使發表文章，對中國在東中國海（中國稱東海）的舉動表示擔心，認爲中國有成爲亞洲“伏地魔”的風險。與此同時，中國駐英國大使反駁了上述言論，他表示，東京的靖國神社(Yasukuni Shrine)是藏匿日本這個國家靈魂最黑暗部分的魂器。靖國神社供奉着日本許多戰犯，但日本官員仍定期參拜，最近賈斯汀・比伯(Justin Bieber)也前往參觀。

No word yet on how tough the competition is to get into Hebei's Hogwarts-like campus. In the meantime, Chinese Internet users are lavishing their affections on another school, one in the U.S. that's free and whose acceptance rates rival Harvard's--which, coupled with an unusual pedagogy, they see as having its own kind of magic.

目前尚不清楚進入這所河北霍格沃茲學校的難度有多大。而中國網民更青睞另一所美國的學校，這所學校不僅免費入學，而且錄取率堪比哈佛大學(Harvard)，再加上不同尋常的教學方式，都使這所學校看上去魔力四射。