老外在中國：我在中國的KFC過感恩節

In the late summer of 2004, days before I was to Move to Lianyungang, China, to teach English for a year, I spoke to an acquaintance who had spent a few years in the country.
2004年夏末，也就是在去中國連雲港任教一年英語的幾天前，我向一位在中國呆過幾年的朋友瞭解情況。

"Holidays are hard," he said. "But oddly, not so much Christmas. Christmas isn't that bad. It's Thanksgiving that's hard."
他說：“那裏假期很難熬，不過奇怪的是，聖誕節倒也還行，糟糕的是感恩節。”

At the time, surviving the holidays was the least of my worries. I was moving to a country where I didn't speak the language, understand the culture, or know the history, in order to do a job that I had never done and didn't know how to do. And not only that, I was going to a city—Lianyungang—that I hadn't even heard of, and could find no information about online.
當時，假期並不是最令我擔心的事情。我就要去中國了，可我根本不會講漢語，也不瞭解中國文化或歷史，而且我以前從沒教過英語，壓根兒不知道該怎麼做；不僅如此，我要去的那個叫連雲港的城市，連聽都沒聽過，網上也查不到相關信息！

Other than that, I was completely prepared.
除此之外，我算是準備就緒了。

Lianyungang, 300 miles or so north of Shanghai, is a port city of around 750,000 people and is famous in China for being the birthplace of the Monkey King, a literary hero from the 16th century novel Journey to the West. But in 2004, it looked like any other city in the country: full of tall, gray skyscrapers, neon signs, and belching taxis.
連雲港位於上海北面300英里左右，是一座擁有75萬人口的港口城市，作爲16世紀小說《西遊記》中“美猴王”的故鄉而名揚中國。但是，2004年的連雲港看上去卻截然不同：到處都充斥着灰濛濛的高樓、閃爍的霓虹燈和喧鬧的出租車。

Foreign residents in Lianyungang were few and far between. I was told that the first English teacher arrived in 2000 and when she—a middle-aged New Zealander with white hair—walked around, bicyclists sometimes slammed into parked cars. By the time I arrived four years later, there were about ten Western teachers in the city, but we still caused a minor frenzy when we ventured into a crowd of people.
在連雲港老外並不多見。我聽說這裏直到2000年纔有外教——那個滿頭銀髮的中年新西蘭女教師無論走到哪兒，都能招來不少注目。4年後我到連雲港，發現這裏統共有10個外教，而且我們走在人羣裏也會引起小小的騷動。

Usually, there were the "hellos": Young Chinese people would shout the word, accompanied by peals of laughter, as I walked in the city. Other people would tail me and ask for my phone number or address. Once, when walking through a university campus, I attracted a small mob of people who, wishing to practice their English, bombarded me with questions.
通常當我走在大街上時，年輕人會大笑着衝我喊一句“哈羅”；也有人會跟着我要電話號碼或地址。有次我在大學校園裏遇到一幫想練英語的學生，連珠炮似的問我一堆問題。

"Do you like Chinese food?" "Can you use chopsticks?"
“你喜歡中國菜嗎？” “你會用筷子嗎？”

Yes, and yes—we have them at home.
喜歡啊，會用筷子呢——我家裏就有。

"What is your favorite Chinese city?"
“你最喜歡中國的哪個城市？”

"Uh, Lianyungang." Except for a few hours in Beijing on the day I arrived, I hadn't been anywhere else.
“嗯，連雲港。”其實，除了剛到那天在北京停留過幾個小時，我還沒去過其他地方。

"Really?"
“真的嗎？”

Within a couple of months, the euphoria of being in China had worn off, and I found myself settling into a routine. During the day, there was work: I taught two hour-long classes of 15 and 16-year-olds, and, because I assigned no homework and rarely gave out tests, spent the afternoons either reading or making a halfhearted attempt to learn Chinese.
幾個月後，在中國生活的興奮感消退了，我發現自己安穩了下來。白天我要工作——給中學生上2個小時的英語課，因爲我不佈置作業，也很少安排考試，所以下午我就用來讀書或三心二意學點中文。

At night, after dinner at my school's canteen, I'd walk to a store down the street and buy a pirated DVD, which usually cost about 50 cents. The quality of the copies were variable—sometimes, they were filmed with a camcorder inside a cinema, which worked okay until someone stood up in front—but watching them kept me from having to deal with my Chinese reality. I was desperately homesick. "Just get through this year," I told myself. "Then you can leave."
晚上在學校食堂吃完飯後，我就上街買盜版碟片看，這些碟片都很便宜。當然，盜版碟的質量也參差不齊——有的是用照相機攝像頭在電影院拍的，前面要是沒人站起來的話，也還能湊合着看。反正，看碟片好歹能讓我逃避在中國的現實問題。我想家想得要命，一直跟自己說：“只要熬過這一年，你就能回家了。”When Thanksgiving came around, I decided it'd be easiest if I just ignored it. In China, this isn't difficult; unlike Christmas, which many Chinese people commemorate with decorations, music, and festivities, Thanksgiving slips past unnoticed—it's just another Thursday.
快到感恩節時，我告訴自己：只要不去想它就沒啥大不了的。反正身在中國，這沒什麼。又不像聖誕節，中國人還會搞點裝飾、音樂和活動以示慶祝。這裏感恩節就像某個尋常的星期四，會悄無聲息滑過。

And so it was. I walked to school, taught my classes, did some lesson planning, and came home. But as I sat on my sofa, watching the next film from the James Bond box set I bought for $12 at a local shop, I felt a sense of shame. What was I doing? It was Thanksgiving, damn it. I needed to have a proper Thanksgiving dinner.
事實也確實這樣。我去學校上課、備課，然後回家。可當我坐在沙發上準備看一部花12美元在當地商店買的詹姆斯•邦德影片時，突然感到一陣羞愧：我這是在幹嘛呀？今天是感恩節，靠！我怎麼也得吃頓像樣的感恩節晚餐吧。

There was only one problem. In Lianyungang, as in most small Chinese cities, there's no turkey. Or cranberry sauce. Or stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie, or anything else. In fact, in the entire city of 700,000 people, there was exactly one restaurant whose food even resembled, at a distance, Thanksgiving fare.
可麻煩是，跟其他中國小城市一樣，在連雲港根本買不到火雞、紅莓醬、餡料、洋芋、南瓜餡餅或其他食材。事實上，在這座70萬人口的城市，確實也有一家賣類似食物的餐廳，並且還有感恩節特惠。

Kentucky Fried Chicken.
那就是——肯德基。

And so that's where I headed.
好吧，那就去肯德基。

Lianyungang's one KFC was located near my school, but until then I had refused, in an effort to preserve a degree of cultural authenticity, to go in. But on Thanksgiving, after I waved hello to Colonel Sanders and walked through the front door, what I found was a revelation. Unlike any of the other restaurants I had been to in town, KFC had clean floors, a functional public bathroom, and central heat. Its patrons were smartly dressed young professionals. Several people, I noticed, were even there on dates. The line behind the cash register was orderly, and within minutes of my arrival I found myself in possession of a bucket of crispy fried chicken, a tub of mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and a dubious-looking "dinner wrap" I selected from the menu.
我的學校附近就有一家肯德基連雲港分店，但爲了保留文化真實感，之前我一直沒進去過。感恩節這天，我衝着桑德斯上校打聲招呼，走進門去，頓時眼前一亮：完全不同於我去過的城裏其他餐廳，肯德基的地板鋥亮、盥洗室乾淨、暖氣充足。這裏的顧客都是穿着得體的上班族。我發現，有些人甚至在這裏約會。收銀臺前的排隊也井然有序，不一會兒就輪到了我：眼前是我點的一桶香酥炸雞、土豆泥、玉米和一份差不多的套餐。

I pinched myself. Was this China?
我掐了掐自己：這是在中國嗎？

I sat down and tore into my food. Every last bite was delicious. About halfway through the meal, I felt the familiar wave of nausea—tinged with self-loathing— I recognized from a lifetime of eating fast food. But I didn't care. It was Thanksgiving, and I wanted my food coma.
我坐下來大快朵頤，真是美味無比啊！吃到一半的時候，我卻感到一陣反胃伴着自責涌上心頭——平生第一次吃了快餐。好吧，管它呢！今天是感恩節，我只想美美撮一頓！

As I left, walking to a busy street to look for a cab, I heard footsteps and turned around: A young man wearing a suit had followed me from the restaurant and wanted to tell me something. Oh God. What did he want?
當我離開並走到繁忙大街上等出租時，突然聽到後面有腳步聲，轉身一看：是個穿西裝的年輕人從餐廳跟着我出來，好像有什麼話要說。天哪，他想幹嘛？

"Happy Thanksgiving!" he said. "I hope you have a good day."
“感恩節快樂！祝你今天好心情！”他說。

With that, he turned around and ran off. And my first Thanksgiving in China—there would be five more—was complete. More complete than I would have imagined it being in Lianyungang, anyway.
說完後，他掉頭跑開了。這就是我在中國的第一個感恩節，相當完滿，絕對比我想象中的連雲港感恩節來得美好。而且，我決定後五年也在中國過了！