中國的廁所革命 從馬桶開始大綱

From the outside it looks like an art gallery. But this is a gallery of toilets, brought to the residents of Shanghai by Roca, the Spanish bathroom people. It has loos disguised as stacks of books and conveniences that flush with grey water from the sink. The best seller is a sleek commode designed by a former Audi stylist, with a leather seat made by the people who supply BMW with motorcycle perches.
從外面看上去，這像是場藝術展，但實際上它是西班牙衛浴品牌樂家(Roca)爲上海市民帶來的一場衛浴展。其中有外形像一堆疊在一起的書本的馬桶，還有用洗手池中的污水沖水的一體式馬桶。最暢銷的是一款奢華時尚的馬桶，設計者爲前奧迪(Audi)設計師，它的真皮墊圈由寶馬(BMW)摩托車座椅供應商打造。

The best-selling colours? A striking deep red, viewed as lucky, and a deliciously understated champagne gold known as tuhaojin, or “nouveau riche gold”. Roca’s China manager says the tuhaojin toilet became popular after Apple launched a golden iPhone in China last year. “People apparently wanted a toilet like their iPhone,” he says.
最暢銷的顏色呢？是醒目的深紅色（象徵幸運），以及一種低調而悅目的香檳金色（即所謂的“土豪金”）。樂家中國的管理人員表示，蘋果(Apple)去年在華髮布金色iPhone後，土豪金馬桶就開始走紅了。他說：“看樣子人們想要一個跟他們的iPhone顏色一樣的馬桶。”

Nothing would be easier than to caricature China’s golden water closets as symbols of a civilisation in decline. But that’s not what I see in them. Because development is always, when it comes right down to it, about just such everyday intimacies: is the loo half a football field away or right next to the bedroom? Does it reek or sit there quietly conserving water? Does it open automatically, play music and let you trade stocks from the comfort of its heated surface? Proper pundits mutter darkly about rule of law and universal suffrage, shadow banking and debt defaults. But I prefer to tell a tale of toilets.
將中國的金色抽水馬桶譏諷爲文明衰落之象徵，是一件再容易不過的事情，但我卻不這麼看。因爲真正說起來，發展總是要落實到這類日常生活的舒適感受上：廁所是離臥室有半個足球場那麼遠，還是緊挨着臥室？是臭氣熏天，還是靜音又節水？能否自動翻蓋，播放音樂，讓你舒服地坐在加熱馬桶墊圈上炒股？真正的專家們嚴肅地討論着法治和普選、影子銀行和債務違約，我卻寧願講一個關於馬桶的故事。

When I first came to live in China in 2008, mainland loos said “developing country” loud and clear. On our first train journey, to the home town of my then eight-year-old adopted Chinese daughter Grace, the rail car’s potty ponged so much that we could not stomach our picnic.
2008年，我第一次來到中國內地生活時，內地的廁所響亮而清楚地宣告着自己“發展中國家”的身份。我們第一次乘火車去我的中國養女（當時8歲）格雷絲(Grace)的老家時，列車上的廁所臭到我們連盒飯都吃不下去。

But very soon all that began to change. The train loos stopped stinking. Prefabricated stainless steel commodes showed up on all newer rolling stock, complete with staff to sluice them down at regular intervals. The only odour on Chinese trains these days is freshly brewed coffee from the dining car.
但這一切很快就發生了改變。火車上的廁所不再臭氣熏天，所有比較新的列車上都裝了帶盥洗臺的預製不鏽鋼馬桶，列車員會定期沖刷。如今在中國的火車上，唯一的氣味就是餐車飄來的現煮咖啡味。

Closer to home, there was “Pipi Road”, the nickname we gave to the lane just next to our house, where dozens of Shanghai taxi drivers would every day choose to relieve themselves, after dining at one of the neighbourhood dumpling emporia. The stench nearly put me off moving there in the first place. In winter the wet patches froze and in summer they steamed.
我家附近有條“尿尿路”，這是我們給緊挨着我家的那條小巷起的綽號。每天都有幾十個上海出租車司機在附近餃子館用過餐後，到這條小巷裏解手。臭氣讓我一開始差點不想搬到那兒。冬天尿液在地上凍成一塊一塊，夏天空氣裏散發着尿騷味。

And then one morning, a spanking new government porta-potty turned up on Pipi Road. It was staffed from 5am to 10pm every day by a government sanitation worker charged with keeping it smelling like a Swiss meadow. Who said you need democracy to have responsive government? I can’t think of anything more responsive than putting a public convenience where it’s needed. Pipi Road has had to be rechristened.
後來在一天早晨，“尿尿路”上出現了一個嶄新的移動公廁。它配有專人打掃，每天從凌晨5點到晚上10點，一名環衛工人負責讓它聞起來總是像瑞士的草坪一樣芬芳。誰說要有民主纔能有積極響應民衆需求的政府？我想不出有什麼比在民衆需要的地方設立公廁，更能體現出政府積極響應民衆需求的了。“尿尿路”現在必須得改名了。

Even motorway service areas have done their bit for the toilet uprising. On a long bus journey back in 2011 I withdrew to a loo on one of eastern China’s newest superhighways, to find a room with one long ceramic trough for use by all females in need. But on a family road trip on the same motorway last month I found stalls with doors, and even loo roll. Travelling in China just isn’t what it used to be.
就連高速路服務區都完成了自己的廁所革命。2011年我經歷過一次長途汽車旅行，在中國東部的一條嶄新的高速公路的服務區，我下車去方便，結果發現廁所裏有一條長長的陶瓷槽，所有需要方便的女性都在那裏解決。但上個月我們全家自駕出行，就在同一條高速公路上，我發現服務區的廁所不但是單間，有門，甚至還有衛生紙。在中國出行已經跟過去完全不是一回事兒了。

Back at the Roca bathroom gallery, the marketing manager Guillem Pages Giralt says he’s seen big changes in how private customers buy water closets too: “Five years ago a customer would just come in and say ‘which is your most expensive toilet’.” That doesn’t happen any more, he says, though Chinese shoppers do like to lie down in Roca’s bathtubs or sit on its commodes for 20 minutes or so before buying, “to make sure it doesn’t hurt the back of their legs”. But the sheer fact that they have 20 minutes (and up to Rmb30,000, or $4,900) to spend making a loo purchase is good news in itself, surely. Only those who no longer worry about the necessities of life can take the time to worry about buying golden ones.
再回到樂家衛浴展的話題上，營銷經理吉列姆•帕赫斯•希拉爾特(Guillem Pages Giralt)表示，他也見證了個人客戶購買抽水馬桶的巨大變化：“五年前顧客只會走進來問，‘你們最貴的馬桶是哪個’。”他說，如今再也見不到這種事了，現在中國消費者倒是挺喜歡在購買之前，先在浴缸裏躺上個20分鐘，或者在馬桶上坐上個20分鐘之類的（“以確定他們的腿後面會不會硌到”）。當然，他們能騰出20分鐘（也能拿出最多3萬元人民幣，合4900元美金的錢）來購買馬桶，本身就是個好消息。只有那些無須再爲生活必需品操心的人，纔會花時間去操心購買金色馬桶的事。

So call me puerile, and unworthy of the pundit’s pen for pointing it out, but this is the stuff that revolutions are really made of. In my six-plus years in Shanghai, China has undergone an economic, social, cultural and technological transformation, in the water closet. A trifle, in the grand sweep of history. But it’s the trifles that count.
所以，說我幼稚也好，說此事不值得費筆墨書寫也罷，但這纔是革命的真正組成元素。我在上海生活了六年多，在抽水馬桶這件事上，中國經歷了一場經濟、社會、文化和技術的變革。在歷史的長河中，抽水馬桶只是件小事，但小事纔是重要的事。