用鏡頭尋找身份認同的新加坡攝影師

For years, Sim Chi Yin had felt unique, if out of place, within her family. Since starting out at Singapore’s The Straits Times in 2001, and later switching careers to become a full-time photographer, she never seemed to gain their approval.

多年來，沈綺穎(Sim Chi Yin)一直覺得自己是家中的異數，甚至有些不合時宜。自從2001年，她開始在新加坡的《海峽時報》做記者開始，直至後來改行成了全職攝影師，她似乎從未得到家人的認可。

“The fact that I go into gold mines or get myself into dangerous situations as a journalist, they think of that as, ‘Why do you want to do that to yourself? That’s just asking for trouble,’” she said. “I have a bit of a streak of activism and kind of a sense of social justice.”

“我做記者的時候，冒着危險到金礦去採訪，他們覺得，‘你爲什麼要這樣對待自己，這是自討苦吃，’”她說。“我只是有一些行動精神和一點社會正義感。”

To most in her profession this might sound noble. But it takes on the opposite meaning in an apolitical family such as her own.

對於大多數這個行業內的人來說，這種行爲堪稱高尚。但是對於不關心政治的家人來說——比如她的家人——這其中的意義完全相反。

And you can understand why.

其中的原因不難理解。

In 1949, her grandfather, Shen Huansheng, a school principal and chief editor for the leftist Ipoh Daily newspaper, became a “Communist martyr.” A monument in Gaoshang with the inscription, “The tomb of martyr Shen Huansheng” proves it. But Ms. Sim never knew about much of his life until seven or eight years ago, when her mother showed her a photograph of him with a twin-lens reflex camera. The sight of the mysterious photograph led Ms. Sim, who grew up in Singapore but lives in China, to start asking questions.

沈綺穎的祖父沈煥盛是一位學校校長，亦是左翼報紙《保怡日報》(Ipoh Daily)的主編，1949年，他成了“共產主義烈士”。在（中國廣東省）誥上村，有一塊紀念碑上刻着“烈士沈煥盛之墓”，可以證明這段歷史。但是沈綺穎對他的生平知之甚少，直到七八年前，她媽媽把他的一張手拿雙鏡頭照相機的照片給她看。這張神祕的照片指引着在新加坡長大的沈綺穎去追尋答案，如今她定居中國。

In 2011, her uncle handed her a yellow piece of paper with an address and phone number. She cold-called the number. On the other end of the line, her relatives in China answered.

2011年，叔父給了她一張泛黃的紙頁，上面有一個地址和一個電話。她撥了這個號碼，電話那頭是她的中國親戚們。

“Hi, I’m Shen Huansheng’s granddaughter,” she told them. “And they were like, ‘What? After 62 years, who are you? Are you, like, a cheat?’”

“嗨，我是沈煥盛的孫女，”她說。“他們說，‘什麼，這都是62年前的事了，你到底是誰，你是騙子吧？’”

But when they quizzed her about her father and his siblings, she passed the test and arranged a she arrived, members of the family “were bursting with stories” about her grandfather, who grew up in British Malaya but had gone back to support the “New China.” But in 1948, at the start of the Malayan Emergency, he was arrested, either for writing anticolonial editorials or for being suspected of helping secure funds for the Malayan Communist Party’s armed insurgency.

但他們問了她父親和父親的兄弟姊妹的事情，她通過了“測試”，於是去了中國訪問。一到那裏，家庭成員們給她“講了無數她祖父的故事”。他出生在英屬馬來亞，爲了支持“新中國”而回到中國。但是1948年，在馬來亞緊急狀態(Malayan Emergency)伊始，他因爲寫國反殖民主義的政論，或是被懷疑爲馬來亞共產黨武裝力量募集資金而遭到逮捕。

He was given two choices: stay a prisoner in Malaya or be deported to his ancestral village in China. He chose the latter, promising to settle there first and then send for his family.

當局給了他兩個選擇：在馬來亞坐牢，或是被逐回中國老家的村莊。他選擇了後者，承諾先過去定居，之後接來家人。

But first, he joined the local Chinese Communist guerrilla army unit, which in 1949 ran into the Kuomintang. He was imprisoned and later executed. His wife and five children, all still in Malaya, did not learn of his death for another two years.

但是他一到那裏，就加入了當地的中國共產黨游擊隊，1949年，這支部隊遇到了國民黨軍隊，他被俘後遭到處決。他的妻子與五個孩子依然留在馬來亞，兩年後才得知他的死訊。

Heartbroken, Ms. Sim’s grandmother banned the mention of her husband, China, or Communism in her home.

沈綺穎的祖母悲痛欲絕，從此在家中禁止提起她的丈夫、中國與共產主義。

Ms. Sim, a member of VII who freelances for The New York Times and others, launched “Roots” to retrace her grandfather’s past and explore her family’s connection to the wider diaspora.

沈綺穎是七圖片社(VII)的成員，併爲《紐約時報》等媒體兼職拍攝照片，她開展了“根”(Roots)這個項目，尋覓祖父的過去，探索自己的家族與更廣泛的移民社區的聯繫。

“To me, this search for my grandfather’s story is also about finding a sense of vindication of doing what I do and being the way I am,” she said.

“對於我來說，尋訪祖父的故事也意味着爲自己所做的事與自己所成爲的人尋找意義，”她說。

She will continue her project with funding from the Asia Society’s ChinaFile. But, for now, fifteen of her photographs are included in a zine as part of a group project called “TwentyFifteen” — “Twenty” because there are 20 photographers and “Fifteen” because each zine contains 15 photographs. Launched by Singaporean photographers, the publications have been released one at a time over the past two years, in honor of Singapore’s 50th anniversary. All of the staff worked on the project for free.

她的項目得到了亞洲協會(Asia Society)的“中參館”(ChinaFile)資金贊助，將會繼續進行。不過目前，其中的15張照片已經被收錄於一份雜誌之中，這份雜誌屬於一個名爲“TwentyFifteen”(20-15)的項目，“20”的意思是有20位攝影師參加，“15”的意思是每份雜誌收錄15張照片。這個項目由新加坡攝影師們發起，是爲了紀念新加坡建國50週年，過去二年裏，以每期推出一個人的方式發行。所有人都是免費爲該項目工作。

Ms. Sim’s zine launched on September 5th.

沈綺穎的專刊將於9月5日發行。

“Over the last few years there have been a lot of Singaporean photographers who are doing quite well regionally as well as globally,” said Tay Kay Chin, who spearheaded “TwentyFifteen” along with Darren Soh. “And I thought the time is right for Singaporeans to photograph something close to their heart and share it with the rest of the world.”

“在過去幾年裏，很多新加坡攝影師在國內外都有出色的成績，”攝影師鄭家進(Tay Kay Chin)說，他和達倫·蘇(Darren Soh)是“TwentyFifteen”的領軍人物。“我覺得現在新加坡人應該多拍貼近自己心靈的東西，與全世界分享。”

Chow Chee Yong, who lives and teaches photography in Singapore, is one of the contributors. His “Senseless Spaces,” focuses on the evolution of buildings and landscapes in Singapore.

趙志勇（Chow Chee Yong，音譯）現居新加坡，教授攝影，也是該項目的供稿人之一，他的作品“無意義的空間”(Senseless Spaces)關注新加坡建築與景觀的進化。

“I always enjoy shooting architecture and landscapes,” he said. “As such, I started noticing bits and pieces of buildings or spaces that have reconstructed, such that it looks kind of ridiculous.”

“我一直喜歡拍建築和景觀，”他說。“因此，我開始關注經過重建的建築或空間上的細節，這樣的東西看上去有些荒謬。”

One of the first spaces he shot was of a building with three steps, leading into a wall with no door, but several circular windows. “This is a common space where many people passed by,” he said. “However, to me, it just did not make sense. I started questioning, ‘Why are there steps? But, it does not lead to a door.’ As you can see, it is just basically senseless.”Bernice Wong, who submitted part of “School of Hard Knocks” for the zine released in March, looked at Singapore’s “urban poverty” through Mel, a single mother of seven.

他拍攝的第一批空間之一，是一座有三個臺階的建築，臺階通往一座沒有門，只有幾扇圓形窗子的牆壁。“這是一個普通的空間，每天有很多人從這裏經過，”他說。“但是我卻覺得荒謬。我開始發問，‘爲什麼會有這些臺階？它們並不通往一扇門。’你可以看到，這是完全沒有意義的。”伯妮絲·王(Bernice Wong，音譯)爲雜誌帶來了“沉重打擊的學校”(School of Hard Knocks)，它是通過梅(Mel)，一位七個孩子的單親媽媽的視角觀察新加坡的“城市貧民區”。

“The impression that people have of Singapore is that of a first-world country, a very clean and green society, with little social ills,” she said. “But the fact is that like all developed countries, we have our fair share of social problems and a huge income inequality gap.”

“人們覺得新加坡是第一世界國家，是清潔的綠色社區，社會問題不多，”她說。“但事實是，和所有發達國家一樣，我們也存在着大量社會問題，以及嚴重的收入不平衡現象。”

“The Land of My Heart” is the work of John Clang, a contemporary artist from Singapore now living in New York. In the ninth zine, issued last October, his work explores elements of time: the past conceptualized by text over image, the present shown through urban landscapes “in flux,” and the “constant” represented by “the Singapore Girl,” which he says has “always been the icon for Singapore.”

汪春龍(John Clang) 是一位新加坡當代藝術家，現居紐約，他爲去年十月發行的第九期雜誌提供了“我的心靈國土”(The Land of My Heart)這組作品。他的探索時間的成分：被圖像的文字解說所定義的過去，以及通過都市景觀的“流動”而呈現出來的現在；還有“新加坡女孩”(the Singapore Girl)這組作品中所反映出來的“常態”，他說，女孩們“一直都是新加坡的符號”。

One of his images shows a sculpture in front of a stark white building with three “Singapore Girls” surrounding it. Over one white row of balconies he wrote, “NO, SINGAPORE IS NOT CHINA.”

他的一幅照片是一棟純白建築前面的一座雕塑，有三個“新加坡女孩”圍繞在它周圍。在一排白色的陽臺上，他寫道，“不，新加坡不是中國。”

“We are constantly insecure about our identity,” said Mr. Clang. “It’s time we show the world who we are, and not what we have.”

“我們經常對自己的身份懷有不安全感，”汪春龍說。“現在我們應該向世界展現我們是誰，而不是我們擁有什麼。”