亞裔名廚黃頤銘的多面人生 毒舌+嘻哈+寫作

A few years ago, after Eddie Huang submitted the manuscript of his memoir “Fresh Off the Boat,” which made ample use of footnotes, his editor, Chris Jackson, asked him if he’d read fellow footnoter Junot Díaz. He had not.

幾年前，黃頤銘(Eddie Huang)交出了自己的回憶錄《初來乍到》(Fresh Off the Boat)的草稿，裏面有大量腳註，他的編輯克里斯·傑克遜(Chris Jackson)問他是不是讀過另一位愛加腳註的作家朱諾·迪亞斯(Junot Díaz)的書，黃頤銘説沒有。

“I have real gaps in my literary history,” Mr. Huang said recently, with his signature blend of self-deprecation and upstart bravado. “Number 1, I’m Chinese, and Number 2, I’m from Orlando. So help me, fam!”

“我的閲讀史中確實有很多空白，”黃頤銘在不久前説道，這種自我貶低加自命不凡的逞強是他的標誌，“首先，我是華裔；其次，我來自奧蘭多。所以拜託了，朋友！”

He began Mr. Díaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” but stopped after 100 pages, wowed and flummoxed: “I didn’t want to steal his moves.” He didn’t return to it until he had completed the first draft of his new memoir, “Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China” (Spiegel & Grau), which will be released on Tuesday.

於是他讀了迪亞斯的《奧斯卡·瓦奧奇妙而短暫的一生》(The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)，但是看了100頁就不敢往下看了，他感到驚歎、困惑：“我根本沒想過偷他的點子。”後來他沒有再看這本書，直到寫完最新回憶錄《雙杯的愛：追溯家庭、食物與中國的傷心事（Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China，Spiegel & Grau出版社）的初稿，這本書將於週二出版發行。

“I was chasing him through the last eight revisions, asking myself, ‘Does this give you feelings on that level that “Oscar Wao” gave you?’” Mr. Huang said. “I got as close as I could.”

“在最後的八次修改過程中，我一直都在追趕他的腳步，我問自己：‘這一段能讓你產生像讀《奧斯卡·瓦奧》時同樣的感覺嗎’？”黃頤銘説。“我已經儘可能地去貼近了。”

It was coming up on midnight in Chelsea when he said this, and he was wearing a jubilantly loud J. W. Anderson coat with fat horizontal stripes in varying shades of brown. It was cold out, and a few feet away was the Gilded Lily, the club where he was about to host a party with the fashion designer Maxwell Osborne, of the au courant duo Public School.

他在切爾西説這番話的時候，時間已經將近午夜，他穿着一件鮮豔喜慶的J·W·安德森(J. W. Anderson)牌外套，寬寬的棕色橫條紋呈現深淺不一的色調。外面的天氣很冷，幾英尺外便是“鍍金百合”(Gilded Lily)，他即將在這家夜店和“公立學校”(Public School)品牌目前的雙人設計師之一——馬克斯韋爾·奧斯本(Maxwell Osborne)合作主持派對。

But before that, one last point. “People always want to compare me to Tony,” Mr. Huang added, referring to Anthony Bourdain, the modern prototype of chef turned acidic social commentator. “But I never read ‘Kitchen Confidential.’ I read ‘Oscar Wao.’”

但在此之前還有最後一件事。“人們都想拿我和託尼相比，”黃頤銘説，他指的是安東尼·波登(Anthony Bourdain)，後者是從廚師轉型為辛辣社評家的現代原型。“但是我從來沒讀過他的《廚房祕辛》(Kitchen Confidential)，我讀的是《奧斯卡·瓦奧》。”

Food is, as ever, a Trojan horse for Mr. Huang, who in the past five years has parlayed fame (and a little bit of infamy) as a chef into a career of pining, bomb-tossing and taunting — sometimes good-naturedly, sometimes bad-naturedly, sometimes both.

美食對於黃頤銘來説猶如特洛伊木馬，過去五年來，身為廚師的他開始打入評論界，對他人冷嘲熱諷、猛烈抨擊和奚落，有時候是善意的，有時是惡意的，有時二者兼有，從而漸漸為自己贏得了名聲（以及一點惡名）。

In addition to his two memoirs (his first was turned into an ABC sitcom), he’s given a memorable TED talk (then had his TED fellowship rescinded over disagreements with the foundation); written the occasional scathing takedown article; been featured in a Sprite commercial; and hosted an Internet show about global food culture, which has morphed into the television show “Huang’s World,” on Viceland.

除了兩本回憶錄（他的第一部回憶錄被ABC台拍成了情景喜劇），他還做過兩次令人難忘的TED演講（然後他因為與TED基金會不合，被取消了TED夥伴資格）；寫過那篇夾雜着尖刻抨擊的文章；拍過雪碧廣告；主持過一次全球美食文化網絡秀，之後這個節目被搬上電視，變成了Viceland台的節目《黃的世界》(Huang’s World)。

Throughout, hip-hop has been his framework and organizing narrative. On the difference between his first memoir and the new one: “‘Fresh Off the Boat’ is a mixtape — the Cam’ron mixtape before ‘Purple Haze’; ‘Double Cup Love’ is the album. I smoothed things out, I mixed it, I was surgical about it.”

總的來説，嘻哈樂是他的整體構架，以及組織敍事的方式。他談起自己兩本回憶錄之間的不同：“上一本《初來乍到》猶如混錄磁帶——錄的都是Cam’ron在推出《紫霧》(Purple Haze)之前唱的歌；而《雙杯的愛》則已成為一張正式專輯。我把事情整理好，混在一起，再給它來個手術。”

On the bridge-burning article he wrote for New York Magazine about how ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” sanitized his childhood: “That’s Kendrick, ‘Control.’ Me just beefing.”

在他給《紐約雜誌》(New York Magazine)寫的那篇關於ABC台的電視劇《初來乍到》的評論裏，他毫不留情面地批評這部劇美化了自己的童年：“就像是肯德里克(Kendrick)的《控制》(Control)，我只是在抱怨。”

And on the relatively fallow period between his two books and his public falling out with ABC: “I feel like Future right now after ‘Pluto’ — people definitely left me for dead.”

他如此形容這兩本書之間相對的蟄伏期，以及他與ABC台公開鬧翻：“我覺得自己就像推出《普魯託》(Pluto)這張專輯之後的歌手Future——人們肯定只等着我死。”

In “Double Cup Love,” Mr. Huang, 34, who was born in Falls Church, Va., near Washington, to Taiwanese immigrants, and raised in Orlando, Fla., details his parallel quests for acceptance: by China, and by a woman he fell for and eventually proposed to. “I don’t think I was ever able to be as close with someone as I was with her, and I don’t think I was ever as able to be comfortable with being Chinese as I was with Chengdu,” he said.

黃頤銘現年34歲，出生於華盛頓附近弗吉尼亞州福爾斯徹奇(Falls Church)的一個台灣移民家庭，在佛羅里達州的奧蘭多長大；在《雙杯的愛》中，他詳盡地敍述了自己尋求接受的兩條平行線索：期望被中國認同的過程，以及期待心愛的女人接受自己的過程，最後他向她求婚了。“我覺得同她在一起比同任何人在一起都親密；我也覺得自己只有在成都才能輕鬆自在地當箇中國人，”他説。

Exclusion is a continuing theme of Mr. Huang’s work, and he often finds himself at odds, he said, with Asian-Americans who feel his story isn’t appropriately representative. “A lot of people are trying to actively contain my voice, like, ‘He doesn’t speak for us,’ and I’m like, ‘I won’t argue with you.’” Often, he said, he speaks at colleges where the main question he’s asked is, in essence, “How did you learn to love yourself?”

“排斥”是黃頤銘書中一直延續的主題，他説，他經常覺得自己和他人格格不入，亞裔美國人覺得他的故事不具有代表性。“很多人努力試圖遏制我的聲音，比如，‘他沒有為我們説話’，我説，‘我才不跟你們吵呢。’”他説，他在大學裏演講時，最常被問到的問題本質上其實就是，“你是怎麼學會愛你自己的？”

Mr. Huang’s writing is wry and zippy; he regards the world with an understanding of its absurdities and injustices and with a willingness to be surprised. The dark edge of “Fresh Off the Boat” is mostly gone in the new book, replaced with an acceptance of calm in his life.

黃頤銘的文風熱情而充滿諷刺；他了解這個世界的荒誕與不公，同時又願意得到驚喜。《初來乍到》中陰暗的鋒芒在新書中幾乎消失了，代之以對平靜人生的接受。

“Double Cup Love” was originally proposed as a book in which Mr. Huang would travel to China to try cooking for locals, but it turned into a memoir about love. Neither of his books is really about food — “it’s all window dressing,” he said.

《雙杯的愛》原本的計劃是讓黃頤銘去中國旅行，寫一寫為當地人烹飪的故事，結果卻成了一本關於愛的回憶錄。他的兩本書其實全都不是關於美食的——“那只是櫥窗的裝飾物而已，”他説。

He added: “When you live in a place where you are not the dominant culture, you have to play fools against themselves. You’re going to assume I can kung fu, you’re going to assume I can cook food, and I’m going to play this against you.”

他補充説：“如果在你生活的地方里，你自己的文化並不是支配文化，你就得靠裝傻來對抗他們。你得假裝自己會功夫，你得假裝自己能烹飪美食，我就靠這個來對抗你們。”

Still, even if food is only the costume, it occupies a central role in Mr. Huang’s life. Before the party at the Gilded Lily, Mr. Huang had begun his evening cooking a private dinner for a music lawyer and some associates, including Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) and the songwriter-producer Emile Haynie. After that, it was on to Sushi Yasuda in Midtown, for a seat at the counter and some fawning over the omakase, with running commentary after he popped each piece into his mouth with his hands.

然而，就算美食只是一種道具，它仍然在黃頤銘的生活裏扮演了核心角色。在“鍍金百合”的派對之前，黃頤銘還在一傢俬廚烹製晚餐，出席的是一位音樂界的律師和他的若干朋友，包括“佛羅倫斯與機器”(Florence and the Machine)樂隊的佛羅倫斯·韋爾奇(Florence Welch)，以及作曲家兼製作人艾米麗·海尼(Emile Haynie)。後來，在中城的安田壽司(Sushi Yasuda)，他坐在櫃枱前的座位上，奉承了幾句面前的主廚定製菜，用手把一樣樣事物塞進嘴裏，就開始滔滔不絕地高談闊論起來。

In between the kinmedai and the cherrystone clam, he remembered how Dena, the woman at the center of his new book, comforted him early in their relationship during a bumpy time in the bedroom. “I was soft as a piece of kinmedai,” he said. “She was like: ‘It’s all right. We’re going to fix you,’ and my heart literally dropped.”

在鯛魚和小圓蛤蜊這兩道菜之間，他回憶新書中的女主角蒂娜(Dena)在兩人之間的關係剛開始進入困難期的時候，在卧室裏安慰他。“我就像鯛魚片一樣軟塌塌的，”他説。“她説：‘沒問題，我們能治好你，’我的心一下就放下來了。”

But the relationship ended after Mr. Huang wrote the first draft, giving the book an uncomfortable coda — an elaborate story of love and self-discovery that ends with the cruel realization that love isn’t always eternal.

但是黃頤銘寫完初稿之後，兩人的關係告終了，也為這本書畫上了一個令人不快的句號，一個關於愛與自我發現的精巧故事，卻以一個殘酷的認識告終：並非所有愛情都能永恆。

Mr. Huang began writing during high school as a reaction to hearing other students disparage hip-hop. It was “a call to arms,” he said. “I decided I’ll write about anything unfair.” Righting injustices remains a crux of his work: He devoted much of a recent “Huang’s World” episode about Jamaica to the “new colonialism” caused by that nation’s crippling debt, and said that he hoped to go to Kenya to learn more about one organization’s attempt to support a universal baseline income — a policy he described as “reparations for those who don’t fit in.”

黃頤銘從上高中就開始寫作，是因為聽到其他同學貶低嘻哈樂，他想對此作出迴應。那是“戰鬥的呼喚，”他説。“我決定寫下一切不公平的事情。”對不公的矯正成了他作品的核心：在《黃的世界》最近一集裏，他用大部分篇幅談及牙買加由嚴重債務導致的“新殖民主義”，還説自己希望到肯尼亞去，研究某個組織為幫助最低收入人羣所做的工作，他説那是一種“對無法適應的人所做的賠償”。

Even though Mr. Huang has rabbis who’ve smoothed his path toward the mainstream — his editor, Mr. Jackson; Shane Smith of Vice; Michael Lombardo, HBO’s president of programming, who is stepping down — the defining throughline of his public life has, until now, been a tug of war with authority.

在進軍主流世界的道路上，黃頤銘有不少導師——他的編輯傑克遜、Vice的沙恩·史密斯(Shane Smith)，以及HBO退休的節目總監邁克爾·隆巴爾多(Michael Lombardo)，但是，迄今為止，他的公眾生活的主線仍然是與權威進行鬥爭。

But lately he’s been wondering if his bomb-throwing days are coming to an end. “I’m not as much of an outsider now,” he conceded. “People can make money off of me — I’m a proven commodity.”

但是後來他也在思考，自己猛烈抨擊他人的日子是不是已經走到盡頭了呢。“我現在已經不完全是一個局外人了，”他同意。“人們可以靠我賺錢了——我已經成了一件得到認證的商品。”

He’s also putting less of himself on the line, beginning to trade ax-grinding and self-revealing memoir for fiction and screenplays.

與此同時，他不再讓自己去冒更多風險，不再去寫鋒芒畢露、袒露自我的回憶錄，而是創作小説和劇本。

A seat at the table has its costs, though, and Mr. Huang is trying to remain awake to them, remaining vigilant about falling “in love with the seat and not what you’re saying.”

但是，要在任何領域內佔據一席之地都是需要代價的，黃頤銘儘量對此保持清醒，警惕不要“愛上那個位置本身，而不在乎你在説什麼”。

For now, though, he’s open to the options being thrown his way. “I’m able to say, ‘This is what I want, this is what it’s worth to me, how much is it worth to you?’ If the value ever doesn’t match, I’m back to selling things off the truck, and I’m O.K. with that.”

不過，他還是對任何可能發生的事情保持開放心態。“我還可以對自己説，‘這是我想要的，這對我來説是值得的，這對你來説值得嗎？’如果價值觀對不上，就算讓我回去開卡車賣東西也沒問題。”