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2017年12月的第一个周六,清晨,浅浅的阳光笼罩着山城,晨雾还没消散。
James起了个大早,吃了早饭,匆匆赶往重庆北站。忙碌了一周,他买好了去万州的高铁票,犒劳自己去吃万州烤鱼,然后再到云阳玩玩。
这个37岁的美国人,言谈间时不时会蹦出一两个成语。他管这样的生活叫“安居乐业”,说这和英语中的“work hard, play hard”(意为“努力工作,尽情玩耍”)“异曲同工”。
On the first Saturday of December, 2017, the morning sunshine shed its light over the mountain city while the mist was still lingering.
After a busy week, James decided to treat himself a railway trip to Wanzhou District to enjoy Wanzhou grilled fish and then to Yunyang County for a short travel.
In our conversation a couple of Chinese idioms keep popping out from this 37-year-old American man’s mouth every now and then. He used an idiom for the conclusion of his life here, similar to the expression“work hard, play hard” in English.
James毕业于美国乔治城大学。
2004年,他和爸爸、弟弟第一次来到中国香港,为了多了解中国文化,两年后,他去到清华大学攻读MBA。毕业后,辗转来到了重庆,在一家金融机构任战略业务合作总监。一晃就是三年。
“白天工作很忙,下班了就是属于我自己的时间。”James身上有着满满的活力,他把在重庆的生活安排得满满当当,几乎所有业余时间都在探索中国文化,探索重庆。中国的成语是他的一条线索,引着他发掘未知。
James觉得成语很有趣,从一个成语中,他不仅能够了解到中国的文化,还能知道不同文化间的差异。“比如‘班门弄斧’,汉语意思是在行家面前卖弄本领,实际上是中国人一种自谦的说法。但是,在西方文化里,这个说法是没有的。这对我来说是一个很新的体验。”
“人杰地灵”是他想到的第一个词,用来形容重庆。来到重庆后,James一直用脚步丈量着这座城市。“我觉得来重庆最大的改变就是学会了享受山城生活。”他说自己是“乐此不疲”,并且“乐在其中”。
星期六早上,他会去区县,了解当地风土人情。他去过酉阳龚滩古镇,看过乌江天险,领略过山、水与建筑融为一体的景象,品尝土家族特有的乌江鱼;夏天,他会去涪陵,在雨台山看满塘盛开的菖蒲花……
James还能辨别不同地域间食物的差别。“虽然都是在重庆,但是每个地方的食物都会差异的。比如鱼,万州烤鱼会烤得特别入味,奉节的烤鱼会在里面加很多蔬菜,而三溪口豆腐鱼的肉质比前面两种酥软细嫩很多。”
James graduated from Georgetown University.
In 2004, he went to Hong Kong, China for the first time with his father and younger brother. Two years later, he attended Tsinghua University for MBA in order to get more about Chinese culture. After graduation, he came to Chongqing, worked here in a financial institution as the director of strategic business cooperation. It has been three years now.
“It’s quite busy at work by day, but after all this I got my own time.” James keeps a full life schedule in Chongqing and spends almost all his spare time in exploring Chinese culture and this mountain city. Chinese idiom is a clue for him in the exploration.
He deems that Chinese idioms are very interesting since from them he can know more about Chinese culture and differences among different cultures. “For example, ‘ 班 门 弄 斧 ’ means showing off one’s proficiency with the axe before Lu Ban, and in fact Chinese people often say it about themselves to show their modesty. But there is no such expression in Western culture, so it is brand new for me.”
“人杰地灵”is the first phrase he came up with to describe Chongqing with picturesque place and talented people. After settling here, James tries to go every corner of this city. “I think the greatest change happened to me after I came here is that I finally learned to enjoy living in a mountain city.”He even adopted two Chinese idioms to show how happy he is for the life here.
On Saturday morning he would go to the countryside to savor the local landscape and customs. He has been to Gongtan Ancient Town in Youyang County, experienced the thrilling rapids of Wujiang River and enjoyed the scenery of mountains,waters and building all together as well as Tujia nationality’s special Wujiang fish there. In summer days he would head for Fuling to appreciate the iris full bloomed in the pond at Yutai Mountain.
James can even tell the differences among dishes from different regions. “Take fish for example,Wanzhou’s grilled fish is more salted, Fengjie’s is added with plenty of vegetables, and Sanxikou’s is more tender and softer than the former two.”
对于美食,James说自己是有“雄心壮志”的。他想成为做重庆菜做得最好吃的美国人。他曾经做过宫保鸡丁,把食材买回来,在厨房里忙活了一个小时,结果味道比餐馆里的差很多。遭到现实“攻击”,James决定报个烹饪班,“认真学一下怎么做重庆菜。”
比起做菜,James学习中文更加努力,他知道必须“脚踏实地”才能有所成。
他在手机上下载了“财新周刊”,“每天吃午饭的时候我会看里面的文章,当遇到不认识的,就会在手机上积累下来。”现在,他的手机里软件里,已经记录了3000个中文词组和成语,每个字旁边标注上繁体字和拼音。每周一到周三晚上,他都要上两节汉语课,学古文、成语故事。
“我觉得很有意思,有的成语有几百年、甚至上千年的历史,却依然适用于现在的工作和生活,比如‘塞翁失马焉知非福’。所以,我对汉语的学习要精益求精。”James的讶异中杂糅着他“小小的”计划。
正因此,James很注重区分汉字的声调。“同一个汉字,不同声调代表着不同的意思,比如‘重庆’的‘重’字,二声和四声代表的意思是不一样的,所以我要认真区别他们的发音。”尽管不能手写汉字,James已经学着靠拼音拼读了,交谈中发现,他的发音很标准。他笑着说,“汉语真的博大精深,我还要学习,努力提高汉语水平。”
James is pretty ambitious about cooking,aspiring to be the best American cook of Chongqing cuisine. He once tried Kung Pao chicken, but after an hour’s work in kitchen, it turned out to be not as tasty as the restaurants’. The blow urged him to attend a cooking class so as to “systematically learn how to cook Chongqing cuisine”.
Compared with cooking, James makes more efforts in learning Chinese, knowing that only to be down-to-earth can he make achievements.
He downloaded Caixin Weekly (an App providing financial and business news) on the phone.“I always read the articles on the App at lunch time and take notes on the phone when encountering new words.” Up to now, there have been 3,000 Chinese phrases and idioms recorded on his phone,and each word is marked with the traditional Chinese character and Chinese pinyin. He takes two Chinese lessons from every Sunday to Wednesday.
“It’s very interesting. Some of them boast a long history of hundreds and even thousands of years and still applicable to today’s work and life, such as the idiom ‘misfortune might be a blessing in disguise’. So I should keep improving my study.”Besides his amazement at Chinese language’s magic, he got a plan for this.
To this end, James pays great attention to the difference among tones in Chinese pronunciation.“For a same Chinese character, different tones represent different meanings. For example,Chongqing’s ‘Chong’ in Chinese has different meanings when pronounced in the first tone and the fourth tone. I have to be very careful.” Though still cannot write, he has learned to spell Chinese words via pinyin and from our conversation his pronunciation is pretty good. “Chinese is really an extensive and profound language, and I got to keep learning for improvement,” said him, laughing.
不懈的语言学习和美食探索,James渐渐体会到了什么叫入乡随俗。
刚来重庆时,他的第一顿午餐吃的“大队长”火锅,那时对辣椒还不感冒,现在早已不在话下。他过去很少吃羊肉,发现重庆人冬天喜欢吃羊肉,也渐渐喜欢上了羊肉。他曾在上海工作,那时喜欢吃汉堡和台湾菜。现在再去上海,他最喜欢吃的变成了生煎和苏州羊杂面。
临近春节,他在汉语课上得知中国人有过年贴年画的习俗。“贴在门上的年画,代表了一个家庭对未来一年生活的美好向往。以前也看到过中国人的家门上会贴年画,但不知道这从唐宋就开始流行了,有这么悠久的历史。”James满脸惊讶和喜悦,今年,他打算在自己家门上也贴一幅年画,祝福来年好运。
让James欣喜的,除了融入这里的生活,还有这座城市更加国际化的发展。
他清楚地记得,三年前,他第一次去奉节看天坑,要坐五个小时火车到万州,再转车到奉节,“现在去万州,坐高铁只需不到两小时。”
James 还能举出很多例子。“2014年6月,苹果手机在观音桥开了第一家直营零售店,这之前,只有北京、上海、广东和成都才有……2015年5月底,重庆可以直飞泰国甲米岛了。”……
更让他激动的是,这个春节回家,他再也不用转机了。2017年10月,重庆开通了直飞纽约的航线,他已经订好了回家的票。“虽然我是一个外国人,但我属于重庆,想让重庆更好。”
The ceaseless language learning and delicacy exploration let James come to know what is exactly“When in Rome do as the Romans do”.
When he was new around Chongqing, the first lunch here is at Chongqing Captain Hot Pot.He was not that into pepper then, but now it is a totally different story, and mutton, too, when he finds out that local people like it in winter days.When he worked in Shanghai, his favorite food were hamburgers and Taiwan cuisine, and now it turned into pan-fried pork buns and Suzhou mutton offal noodle if he goes there.
The Spring Festival is approaching now, and he learned that Chinese people have the custom of pasting New Year Prints. “The paintings pasted on the door signify a family’s yearning for a better life in the future year. I used to see Chinese people do this, but had no idea this custom originated from Tang and Song dynasties (618-1127 CE) and had such a long history.” In full amazement and joy, he told us he was going to put up New Year Prints this year,wishing for a lucky following year.
What delights James, in addition to fitting in here, is that this city is getting more and more international.
He remembers clearly that three years ago he had to take a five-hour train journey to Wanzhou and then transferred to Fengjie for the view of Tiankeng Land Slot there. “Now it only takes less than two hours by high-speed train to Wanzhou.”
James can name multiple other examples for this city’s development. “In June, 2014 Apple Inc. opened the first retail store at Guanyinqiao.Before this, only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Chengdu had the stores. And by the end of May in 2015, there was a direct flight to Thailand’s Krabi Island…”
Above all, a more exciting news is that he does not have to transfer anymore when going back home this Spring Festival. In October, 2017, Chongqing launched a non-stop flight to New York. He already booked a ticket of it. “I’m a foreigner, but I feel that I also belong to Chongqing and I want to see this city get better and better.”