本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第10期，China版块。

Hong Kong and the mainland

A film abhorrent to the Communist Party has proved a hit in the territory

Mar 5th 2016 | HONG KONG

“THE reason why Hong Kong does not have democracy is because no one has died yet,” says a student in the former British colony who thinks it worth shedding blood[1] to win freedom. Fellow supporters of the territory’s independence from China rampage through the streets; a protester self-immolates outside the British consulate[领事;领事馆]. The government in Beijing sends tanks to crush the revolt[反抗;叛乱].

······

[1]流血;屠杀

▷rampage [ræm'peɪdʒ]

to go through an  making a lot of  and  横冲直撞；撒野The  rampaged through the ,  and setting  to .示威者们横冲直撞穿过城镇，沿途砸坏窗户、烧毁车辆。Several  were  by rampaging .好几个村子被狂暴撒野的士兵捣毁。

▷immolate ['ɪməleɪt]

to  yourself or someone , or to  something, usually by , in a  

（通常指通过焚烧）将…作为祭品杀死（或毁灭）

······

Such a calamity[灾难;不幸事件] is unlikely in 2016. But could it happen in Hong Kong within the next decade? That is the question posed by “Ten Years”, a popular local film that has infuriated[激怒] mainland officials.

······

When China took Hong Kong back from Britain in 1997, it agreed to give it a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years. Each of the film’s five vignettes[小片断] portrays a dystopia[糟透的社会;非理想化的地方] in which China*, explicitly[明确地;明白地] or covertly[秘密地;偷偷摸摸地], has taken control much sooner. Released on December 17th in just one cinema, the film went on to play to packed theatres across the territory until its run ended in February. In some cinemas it outsold “Star Wars”, another film about a big, repressive state. On March 10th the film’s overseas premiere[初次的演出;女主角] will take place in Japan.

······

“Ten Years” has appealed to those concerned about China’s efforts to stifle the development of democracy in the territory and to restrict freedom of speech. Anxieties have been fuelled recently by the disappearance of five men who sold gossipy[闲谈式的,多闲话的;充满流言蜚语的(或内幕新闻、小道消息)的] books about China’s leaders.

······

*电影《十年》

《十年》短片计划，五位香港新导演郭臻、黄飞鹏、欧文 杰、周冠威和伍嘉良忽发奇想，《浮瓜》、《冬蝉》、《方言》、 《自焚者》和《本地蛋》各自拍出他们想像中在十年后会发生的故事。当本地的新闻自由和言论自由正在恶化，广东话的生 存空间比农业发展更快离我们而去。当下香港的危机、分化逐步加深，形势已经非常紧迫，亡羊补牢到底晚不晚？还是已无可补救，为时已晚？——百度百科

*去年12月17日在百老汇电影中心独家上映，由5段独立短片组成的香港电影《十年》，上映以来常被指是香港社会的“预言书”，但因内容敏感而被内地官媒《环球时报》狠批是完全荒诞、宣扬绝望的“思想病毒”。

▷stifle ['staɪf(ə)l]

to ( to) be  to  because you have no 

（使）窒息，（使）喘不上气He is said to have stifled his  with a .据说他用枕头闷死了受害人。We  stifled in the  of the .城里热得快让我们透不过气来了。

······

At the end of February a Hong Kong-based television channel aired interviews with the men. It said four of them were in custody[1] on the mainland for illegally selling books there. One of them, Lee Bo, said he was helping the mainland police as a witness. Mr Lee’s case has aroused particular interest because he disappeared from Hong Kong itself; the others were visiting the mainland or Thailand when they went missing. In the interview, Mr Lee denied he had been kidnapped by Chinese agents and said he remained “free” on the mainland. But suspicions persist that China has been putting pressure on him to stop publishing scurrilous works.

······

[1]被拘留

▷scurrilous [ɪ'klɪps]

  or   which is  to someone's 

诋毁的，诽谤的a scurrilous //诋毁的话／攻击／文章

······

Such worries have encouraged the recent rise of a “localist” movement, whose followers emphasise Hong Kong’s separateness from the mainland. On February 8th young localists clashed with police in the city’s worst violence since the 1960s. In a by-election[1] for the legislature on February 28th, a localist candidate charged by police with taking part in the riot[暴乱;放纵;蔓延] took 15% of the vote. “Ten Years” refers to the movement in its depiction[描写,叙述] of Sam (played by Liu Kai-Chi, pictured), a fictional shopkeeper who is attacked by pro-Communist fanatics[狂热者;盲信者] for calling his eggs “local”.

······

[1](尤指英国下议院的)补缺选举，特别选举[亦作 bye-election]

······

China has made its displeasure clear. A newspaper in Beijing called the film “ideological[思想的;意识形态的] poison”. Mainland broadcasters have dropped plans to air the Hong Kong Film Awards on April 3rd, the territory’s equivalent of the Oscars (“Ten Years” has been nominated for best picture).

······

Hong Kong’s financial secretary, John Tsang, has been trying a more conciliatory[安抚的;调和的;调停的] approach to localist sentiment. In his budget speech on February 24th, he described films made in the Cantonese dialect[1] (“Ten Years” is one such, though he did not mention it) as a “key component of the local culture”. He announced a doubling to HK$500,000 ($64,300) of the government’s subsidy[补贴;津贴;补助金] for each Cantonese film promoted on the mainland, where films use the Mandarin dialect. Not everyone was impressed. One of the directors of “Ten Years” said the government would support only films that could pass China’s strict censorship laws[2]. “Ten Years” would stand no chance[3].

······

[1]粤语

[2]严格的审查制度

[3]没有希望;没有可能

······

以上言论不代表本人立场。

摘自《经济学人》杂志，仅外语学习之用。

回复“eco”查看《经济学人》系列学习笔记。

查看文章来源请点击下方的“阅读原文”。