把文革寫進童話的曹文軒 人性價值觀永不過時

BEIJING — Sunshine and playtime are not the hallmarks of Cao Wenxuan’s stories for children. Instead, there are mass starvation and displacement, flooding, plagues of locusts, and mental and physical disabilities.

北京——陽光和遊戲不是曹文軒兒童故事的標誌。相反，他的故事裏不乏饑荒、逃荒、洪水、蝗蟲災害，還有精神疾病和殘疾。

Yet Mr. Cao, 62, is among the most beloved writers in China. Last month, he became the first Chinese author to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award, regarded as the most distinguished international honor for children’s literature. He shared the prize, handed out every other year, with the German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner.

不過，62歲的曹文軒是中國最受喜愛的作家之一。上個月，他成爲首位獲得國際安徒生獎(Hans Christian Andersen Award)的中國作家。他與德國插畫家羅特勞特·蘇珊·貝爾納(Rotraut Susanne Berner)分享了這一獎項。該獎被認爲是最著名的國際兒童文學獎，每兩年頒發一次。

“Cao Wenxuan’s books don’t lie about the human condition,” the International Board on Books for Young People said in announcing the award. “They acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer.”

“曹文軒的書沒有掩飾人類的處境，”國際兒童讀物聯盟(International Board on Books for Young People)在公佈這一獎項時說，“它們承認，生活可能時有悲劇，兒童可能遭受苦難。”

At the core of Mr. Cao’s stories are his experiences growing up in the eastern coastal province of Jiangsu in the 1950s and ’60s, an era of social upheaval and political tumult throughout China.

曹文軒的故事的核心是20世紀五六十年代他在東部沿海省份江蘇長大的經歷。當時整個中國正經歷社會和政治動盪。

One recent morning in his spacious, book-lined apartment in the Haidian district here, he said his memories of those experiences continued to be his greatest asset.

前不久的一個上午，在他位於海淀區的擺滿書籍的寬敞公寓裏，曹文軒說，對那些經歷的記憶仍是他最大的財富。

“China has given us so many heartbreaking stories,” he said. “How can you avoid writing about them? I can’t sacrifice my life experience in order to make children happy.”

“中國發生了那麼多令人心碎的故事，”他說，“你怎麼能避而不寫呢？我不能爲了讓孩子們高興而犧牲自己的人生經歷。”

In his own childhood, he said, there was not much homegrown children’s literature. In China then, the concept of literature for children was relatively new, dating to the early 20th century, when translated stories by foreign children’s authors began to appear along with vernacular children’s works like the fairy tale “The Scarecrow” by Ye Shengtao and “Letters to Young Readers” by Bingxin.

他說，在自己的童年時期，沒有很多本土兒童文學。在當時的中國，兒童文學還是個相對較新的概念，只能追溯到20世紀初，當時外國兒童文學作品的譯本開始和本土兒童文學一起出現，後者包括葉聖陶的童話《稻草人》和冰心的《致小讀者》。

Through his father, an elementary school principal, Mr. Cao said, he read some of those stories, as well as Soviet children’s literature and Chinese modern literature. He says Lu Xun, a leading writer and social critic, had the greatest influence on him.

曹文軒說，多虧身爲小學校長的父親，他得以讀到這樣一些故事以及蘇聯兒童文學和中國現代文學。他說，魯迅對他的影響最大。魯迅是一位重要的作家和社會批評家。

As Mr. Cao approached adolescence, political tensions in China were escalating, culminating in the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. Schools were closed for several years.

曹文軒快要進入青春期時，中國的政治局勢越來越緊張，在1966年至1976年的文化大革命時期達到混亂巔峯。學校停課好幾年。

The young Mr. Cao traveled the country as part of the dachuanlian, a movement in which young activists were encouraged to meet and spread the message of revolution. But as the student groups known as the Red Guards rampaged, wreaking havoc on the lives of intellectuals, officials and others, Mr. Cao said he was one of many students who held back.

年幼的他參加大串聯，在全國各地旅行。但他說，隨着紅衛兵肆意破壞知識分子、官員以及其他人的生活，他和很多其他學生都停止了參與。

“I was only 12 or 13 at the time, so we didn’t do much,” he said. “We weren’t violent.”

“那時我只有十二三歲，所以我們基本沒幹什麼事，”他說，“我們並不暴力。”

“All we did was wear red armbands and write dazibao,” he added, referring to the “big-character posters” that spread political messages during the period.

“我們只是戴着紅袖章，寫大字報，”他補充道，在那個時期，“大字報”被用來傳播政治信息。

Before long, though, Mr. Cao returned to Jiangsu and resumed his classes. As part of the larger upheaval, some of the top Chinese language and literature teachers in nearby Suzhou and Wuxi had been sent to work at his rural school.

不過，不久之後，曹文軒返回江蘇，繼續上課。作爲更廣泛的社會動亂的一部分，附近蘇州和無錫的一些頂級中國語言文學教師被送往他所在的農村學校工作。

As a result, he said, “The Cultural Revolution years were the best education I received.”

結果，“在文革那些年，我受到了最好的教育”，他說。

Later, as the movement was winding down, he enrolled at Peking University, where he is now a professor of Chinese language and literature. He published his first short story for children in the late 1970s and has not stopped writing since. By his own count, his publications number more than 100 works: novels, academic texts, short stories, essay collections and picture books.

後來，文革漸漸平息，他被北京大學錄取。現在，他是該校的中國語言文學教授。他在20世紀70年代末發表了自己的第一個短篇童話，之後從未停止寫作。據他自己估算，他共出版了100多部作品，包括小說、學術文章、短篇故事、文集和圖畫書。

The chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution form the backdrop for many of his stories. His 2005 book “Bronze and Sunflower,” for example, concerns the friendship of a girl, Sunflower, who follows her father from the city to the countryside, where he has been sent to do hard labor, and Bronze, a boy unable to speak whose parents are impoverished villagers.

文革那個動亂的年代是他很多故事的背景。比如，他2005年的作品《青銅葵花》講述了女孩葵花和男孩青銅之間的友誼。葵花跟隨被勞教的父親從城市來到農村，青銅不會說話，父母都是貧窮的村民。

“The children went to school as usual, and read their books as usual, but the beautiful rise and fall of their voices as they read out loud got weaker and weaker until they were no longer capable of reading aloud,” reads one passage in the English translation by Helen Wang. “People were worried. They were sweating with anxiety. When the hunger was at its worst, they thought about gnawing on stones.”

書中有這樣一段話：“孩子們照樣上學，照樣讀書。但朗朗的、此起彼伏的、充滿生機的讀書聲，已經大大減弱了。孩子們想將課文讀響，但卻就是讀不響。瘦瘦的肚子，使不上勁，讓人很着急，一着急，還出虛汗。餓到最厲害時，想啃石頭。”

Mr. Cao insists that the Cultural Revolution is “merely a setting, not the main subject” of his books. Still, some say his straightforward descriptions of life then are needed now more than ever. In schools today, children are taught only officially approved versions of what, for many of their parents and grandparents, was an intensely formative and frequently traumatic time.

曹文軒堅稱，文革“只是”他的書的“背景”，不是“主題”。不過，有人說，他對生活的直白描述比以往任何時候都更有必要。如今在學校裏，關於文革，孩子們只能聽到官方批准的描述。但是對大部分父母和祖父母來說，那是重要的人生轉折點，是一個充滿創傷的年代。

“So much history from that period has been distorted, which is why it’s important for children to know about the past,” said Wu Qing, a retired professor in Beijing who was a jury member selecting the Andersen award. “Cao writes about this period with humanity, and he doesn’t include any political slogans. He writes from his own experience.”

“那個時期的很多歷史被歪曲了，所以孩子們瞭解過去的真實情況很重要，”國際安徒生獎評委、北京退休教授吳青說，“曹文軒從人性角度描繪那個時期。他沒有提到任何政治口號。他從自己的經歷出發去創作。”

Today, children’s literature is a large and extremely profitable industry in China. Mr. Cao and other prominent children’s authors, like Yang Hongying and Shen Shixi, have benefited from the rapid expansion of the middle class and a growing obsession with children’s education.

如今在中國，兒童文學是一個非常有利可圖的大產業。曹文軒和其他著名兒童文學作家，比如楊紅櫻和沈石溪，受益於中產階級的迅速膨脹以及對兒童教育越來越強烈的癡迷。

Mr. Cao’s novel “The Grass House,” for example, is estimated to have sold over 10 million copies in China. Four of the top 10 richest Chinese authors last year wrote literature for children or young people, according to the newspaper China Daily.

比如，曹文軒的小說《草房子》估計在中國售出逾1000萬冊。據《中國日報》稱，去年中國最富有的十位作家中有四位是兒童文學或青少年文學作家。

Although Mr. Cao has won several important prizes at home, his work has not been without controversy. Among other things, he has been criticized for promoting outdated gender stereotypes: Boys in his stories are often bigger and stronger, and girls are weaker and more prone to tears.

雖然在中國獲得了幾項重要獎項，但曹文軒的作品並不是沒有引起爭議。比如，有人批評他宣揚過時的模式化性別觀念：在他的故事中，男孩往往更高、更強壯，女孩往往更柔弱，更愛哭。

Mr. Cao was quick to dismiss the criticism. “It’s the same in Western children’s literature,” he said.

他很快反駁了這種批評。“西方兒童文學也是這樣，”他說。

But as he has grown older and more experienced, he said, he has become firmer in his belief that, above all, children’s literature should provide “a good foundation for humanity and a correct and accurate moral outlook.”

不過，隨着年紀增長，閱歷更豐富，他更加堅信，兒童文學首先應該“爲人性和正確的道德觀打好基礎”。

That is why, he said, he will continue to write about growing up in China during the Mao years, even if that time feels far away to many children.

他說，所以他將繼續講述關於在毛澤東時代的中國長大的經歷，儘管那個年代似乎離很多孩子非常遙遠。

“The world is always changing,” he said. “Fashion trends change from day to day, but the fact of people wearing clothes doesn’t change.”

“世界永遠在變，”他說，“時裝潮流天天在變，但人要穿衣服這個事實不會變。”

“That’s what I’m interested in, the continuity,” he added. “It doesn’t matter what the setting is; universal values and humanity always show through.”

“我所感興趣的是那種持續性，”他還說，“背景不重要；普遍的價值觀和人性永不過時。”