雙語:上海世博欲驚豔亮相
【英文原文】
The World Expo that begins May 1 promises to be nothing less than a coming-out party for Shanghai, China's commercial and financial capital. Following the lead of Beijing for the Olympics, Shanghai, which has already changed so much in the past three decades, has staged a spare-no-expense makeover.
Early this month, the Expo site was a huge muddy field filled with workers, cranes, piles of building materials and heaps of construction debris. It was difficult to imagine that everything would be completed in time. China says 192 countries will come to this city of 19 million to participate in the six-month festival, drawing an estimated 70 million attendees. (The 12-month 1964-65 New York World's Fair drew more than 50 million.)
Still, tour packagers so far report very modest interest from Americans and Europeans, with rooms for the fair period easy to find even at the best hotels. 'People just don't know about the Expo, even many Chinese citizens,' says Terrence Ou, president of the Beijing-based Great Wall Adventure tour agency.
'If it were a different city hosting it, if it were of modest size, I might say' that any lack of enthusiasm was warranted, says Jose Villarreal, a San Antonio lawyer who is the U.S. commissioner general -- a sort of ambassador -- to the World Expo. 'The fact that it will be the biggest Expo ever, that so many Americans have always wanted to see China, that Shanghai is such a dynamic place -- all this makes it a reason to come.'
The massive $61 million U.S. pavilion at the Expo almost created a major diplomatic rift between the two countries. A congressional mandate from the 1990s forbids government funding for an Expo, and only a last-minute fund-raising effort by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton salvaged U.S. participation.
Construction, which began only last July, has been 'a horrific process because of our late start,' says Mr. Villarreal, who nevertheless promises an on-time debut. Keeping with the Expo's theme of 'better city, better life,' the U.S. pavilion will feature a high-tech show on a 70-foot-high screen telling the story of a child who moves a community to create an oasis on a dilapidated plot of land. Mr. Villarreal calls it '4-D. When it thunders you'll feel the vibration. When it rains you'll feel the mist.'
It's clear why the absence of a U.S. pavilion would have been such a slap in the face. China is footing the bill for 17 pavilions, many of which will house multiple countries, and building 42 others that it will rent to countries at a substantial loss. Only 42 nations, including the U.S., are financing their own pavilions.
Other countries are vying for attention with spectacle (Saudi Arabia's hanging garden, on the top deck of a suspended boat) and culture (Denmark will send the original 'Little Mermaid' statue from Copenhagen Harbor and France will ship works by Millet, Van Gogh and Rodin).
Expo organizers promise 20,000 events around Shanghai, ranging from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Cameroon National Song and Dance Troupe. Kids can see magic shows, puppet shows and shadow plays.
The Expo site stretches for a couple of miles along the Huangpu River in a formerly rundown industrial area, across the water from central Shanghai. While some of the pavilions are nearly finished, others are skeletons of steel beams. Incongruously, the trees had already been planted by late February, a necessity if they're going to grow leaves in the springtime. Two giant red-and-gold banners read in Chinese, 'Please be reassured; we will finish the task in time,' and (directed to workers), 'Hard work for 30 days and we will finish it.'
'The infrastructure and all the buildings built by China will be finished totally on time, I know that,' says Wu Siegfried Zhiqiang, an architecture professor and dean serving as the Expo's chief planner. The challenge, he says, lies with the 42 countries building their own pavilions.
No visitors are allowed in the buildings because of the construction work, but the exteriors range from breathtakingly innovative to dull, big boxes, albeit colorfully painted. China has again produced two beautiful buildings, a flying-saucer-shaped cultural center for performances and a China pavilion of horizontal and vertical red beams, with the dimensions of the building widening the higher up it goes. The theme inside will be China's urban development.
The conventional-looking U.S. pavilion won't produce any gasps, but that's not true of some of the other nations'. The British pavilion, displaying an encapsulated seed bank, centers on a building resembling a giant porcupine, made from 60,000 acrylic rods that quiver when they catch the wind, making the building look blurry. The modular slabs of the Italian pavilion, constructed of a material called transparent cement, will change appearance during the day as the material reflects the light. The walls of the Spanish pavilion, jutting out at all angles, are covered with wicker.
Switzerland will offer visitors a cable-car ride onto a flowering meadow on the roof of its pavilion, while the Indian pavilion will be modeled after a 2,200-year-old Buddhist stupa and display the wisdom of the ancients.
Across the river, the landmark buildings of the waterfront Bund, dating back to the late 19th century as the center of foreign-owned businesses, have been elegantly restored and now house a variety of expensive boutiques and restaurants. The former British Consulate, built in 1873, will open for the Expo as an art center. The city is completely rebuilding the waterfront promenade. (Unfortunately, the wild building boom of the past 20 years, carpeting Shanghai with skyscrapers, destroyed much of the city's architectural heritage.) The Bund's iconic but deteriorating Peace Hotel is about to reopen after months of restoration. A new addition to the Bund, designed to look like a restored old building, is the elegant 235-room Peninsula Hotel.
There will be another way for Americans to stay: Shanghai residents who register with the city's tourism authority can legally take paying guests into their apartments, although the nightly charges and the procedure for making reservations haven't yet been set. Translators will be stationed at big apartment complexes. By Nov. 1, the events and crowds will all be over. Ironically, for an Expo that promotes the buildings' energy-saving features and emphasizes the concept of sustainability, almost the entire set of exhibits will be thrown away. The rules of the Paris-based Bureau of International Expositions, which govern World Expos, require that all of the pavilions be torn down. An Expo spokeswoman says that only five buildings will survive, including the cultural center. Mr. Villarreal shudders at the thought that the American pavilion, built with so much anguish, will eight months from now be reduced to a pile of debris. 'I hope we can disassemble the building and move it,' he says.
【中文譯文】
將於5月1日開幕的上海世界博覽會有望成爲上海首次在國際舞臺重大亮相的盛會。作爲中國的商業和金融之都，上海在近30年已發生了巨大的變化。而仿效北京爲奧運會所做的種種努力，上海也不惜工本，大興土木。
本月初，世博會場還是一個巨大的泥濘土地，到處是工人、起重機以及成堆的建築材料和大量的建築垃圾。當時很難相像一切能按時完工。中國稱192個國家將來到上海蔘加這個長達六個月的盛會，預計將吸引7,000萬名參會者。（1964年至1965年在紐約舉辦的世博會歷時一年，吸引了超過五千萬人。）上海目前共有1,900萬人。
然而，旅行社方面顯示出迄今爲止歐美遊客對上海世博會的興趣不高，因此即便在上海最好的酒店人們也能輕易地找到世博會期間的空餘客房。總部位於北京的Great Wall Adventure旅行社總裁Terrence Ou說，人們只是不知道世博會，就連許多中國人也不知道。
女工們正在包餃子美國上海世博會總代表費樂友(Jose Villarreal)說，如果主辦地是另一座城市，如果規模沒有這麼盛大，我可能會說人們肯定會缺乏熱情。而事實上，這將是史上規模最大的世博會，並且這麼多美國人一直想親眼見一見中國，而上海又是如此充滿活力的地方，這一切便是吸引人們前來的理由。費樂友是美國德州聖安東尼奧市的一名律師，他所擔任的美國上海世博會總代表一職與大使的職能類似。
上海世博會美國館投資高達6,100萬美元。這座大型展館差一點給中美兩國的外交關係造成重大裂痕。上世紀90年代美國國會明令禁止政府爲世博會出資。美國國務卿希拉里•克林頓(Hillary Clinton)在最後一刻爲籌款所做的努力才使美國得以參加此次世博會。
費樂友說，美國館自去年7月開始動工建設。雖然動工較晚，但進展速度驚人。但他仍然保證將會按時開館。美國館將利用一個高70英尺的屏幕播放一場高科技演出，演出的主題與世博會的主題“城市，讓生活更美好”一致，講述一個孩子感動了一個社區，人們在荒廢的土地上打造一片綠洲的故事。費樂友稱之爲4-D演出。打雷時會感到振動，下雨時能感到水霧。
沒有美國館對美國而言將是一記響亮的耳光，這是一個顯而易見的問題。中國承擔了17個展館的建設費用，其中許多展館將容納多個國家。另外中國還建造了42個展館用於出租給另一些國家，價格之低將令其承受實質性的損失。包括美國在內僅有42個國家自行出資建造自己的展館。
其它國家的展館競相以奇特的造型和自己的文化吸引觀衆的目光。例如，沙特阿拉伯在其懸空的船形展館的頂部建造了一座空中花園，丹麥將把小美人魚雕塑的原作從哥本哈根運到上海，而法國將帶來米勒(Millet)、梵高(Van Gogh)和羅丹(Rodin)的作品。
世博會的組織者承諾將在上海各地舉辦兩萬場各類活動，從費城交響樂團(Philadelphia Orchestra)到喀麥隆國家歌舞團(Cameroon National Song and Dance Troupe)，內容多種多樣，還有供小孩子觀看的魔術表演、木偶劇和皮影戲。
世博園沿黃埔江綿延兩英里，園址曾經是一片工業區，江對面則是上海的中心城區。雖然一些展館已接近建成，但其他還只具備由鋼樑搭成的骨架。今年2月底種下的園區樹木顯得與此有些不夠協調，提早種樹是爲了春季時它們能長出葉子。兩條巨大的紅底金字橫幅上用中文寫着：保證按時完成任務；苦幹30天，完成建設任務。
身爲世博園首席設計師的建築學教授吳志強說，基礎設施和所有由中國興建的建築都將按時全部完工，我知道這一點。他說，難點在於自行建造本國展館的那42個國家能否按時完工。
由於尚在建設中，園區內的建築不允許入內參觀。但從外表看，這些建築有的新潁得令人震驚，但也有些不過是平淡乏味的大盒子，儘管被塗上了鮮豔的色彩。中國再一次拿出了兩座美輪美奐的建築，一座是供表演用的飛碟狀文化中心，一座是中國國家館，它由水平和垂直的紅色橫樑搭建起來，建築越往上越寬。館內的展示主題將是中國的城市發展。
外觀中規中距的美國館不會引來任何驚歎，不過其他一些國家的展館卻會讓人歎爲觀止。英國館展示的是一個封裝起來的種子庫，展館酷似一隻巨型豪豬，表面向外伸出六萬根亞克力棒，能隨風搖擺，使建築看起來亦真亦幻。意大利館的組合板是用“透明水泥”做成的，它能在一天中的不同時間隨材料對光線反射的不同而改變外觀。西班牙館的牆壁上覆滿了柳條，以不同的角度招展。
瑞士將向遊客提供通往瑞士館屋頂鮮花盛開的草坪的纜車服務。印度館將仿照一座有着2,200年曆史的佛塔建造而成，展示古人的智慧。
隔江而立的是外灘標誌性的建築羣。19世紀末，這裏曾是外國公司的中心區，如今這裏經過精心修復，是各種高級專營店和飯店的所在地。1873年建成的前英國領事館將在世博會期間作爲藝術中心對公衆開放。上海正在徹底重建外灘。（不幸的是，經過過去20年來瘋狂的建築潮，如今上海摩天大樓林立，大部分老建築都遭到了破壞。）外灘的標誌性建築、日漸損毀的和平飯店在經過了數月的翻修之後即將重新開業。外灘的一個新景是有着235間客房的、典雅的半島酒店，酒店是仿照翻修的古老建築設計的。
美國人在上海住宿的方法還有一個：在上海市旅遊局登記的上海市民可以合法地讓客人住到家裏，收取一定的費用，不過尚未出臺有關住宿費率和預訂程序的規定。大型公寓樓中將有翻譯人員提供服務。世博會到11月1日結束，遊客也會散去。具有諷刺意味的是，本屆世博會宣傳建築節能、強調可持續發展理念，然而其整套展覽設施幾乎都將被拆除掉。位於巴黎的國際展覽局(Bureau of International Expositions)是管理世博會的機構，它的規定要求所有的場館都必須拆除。世博會發言人說，只會留下包括文化中心在內的五座建築。想到花了那麼多心血建成的美國館在八個月後將化爲一堆廢墟，費樂友感到不寒而慄。他說，我們希望可以把美國館分解，然後搬到別的地方。
