Expo Renews Focus On Shanghai's Foreign Side
The World's Fair that kicked off Friday night is designed to focus global attention on Shanghai -- but in doing so, it will largely reflect the outsize role foreigners have played in shaping China's most cosmopolitan city.
上周五晚上開幕的世博會,目的在于把世界的注意力吸引到上海。但在同時,世博會將在很大程度上讓人看到,在塑造這座國際化程度最高的中國城市的過程中,外國人所發(fā)揮的巨大作用。
President Hu Jintao opened the six-month Expo 2010 here with a riverside fireworks-and-armada extravaganza attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and others.
中國國家主席胡錦濤宣布為期六個月的中國2010年上海世博會開幕。開幕式上有江邊的焰火與艦船表演。法國總統(tǒng)薩科齊(Nicolas Sarkozy)等人出席了開幕式。
一位僧人上周五在觀看世博會開幕式上的焰火表演。 |
Aiming to match the prestige of past hosts such as Paris and Chicago, China is launching the first World's Fair hosted by a developing country and the biggest by expected visitors (70 million) and spending ($45 billion, rivaling its preparations for Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympic Games).
中國希望上海世博會達到和巴黎、芝加哥等歷屆世博會相當(dāng)?shù)乃?。這是世博會首次在發(fā)展中國家舉行,按預(yù)期游客人數(shù)(7,000萬)和資金支出(450億美元,與2008年北京奧運會的籌備相當(dāng))來看,也是最為盛大的一次世博會。
The focus will be on pavilions from more than 190 nations, spread on two sides of the Huangpu River, that include Britain's pin cushion-like light box, Japan's purple worm-shape tent and the U.S.'s $61 million movie theater styled like a catamaran.
人們的注意力將集中于190多個國家的展館。這些展館分布在黃浦江兩岸,其中包括形如針墊、又像個發(fā)光的盒子一樣的英國館,日本館“紫蠶島”,還有美國造價6,100萬美元的船形影院。
The pavilions mark the latest of more than a century of shifting international influence here. Shanghai's riverfront Bund zone includes Victor Sassoon's 1929 Cathay Hotel and, a few doors down, the 1925 Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp. building with its mosaic ceiling of Calcutta and Bangkok ports.
一個多世紀(jì)以來,上海接受的國際影響風(fēng)云變幻,而這些展館正是這種影響的最新標(biāo)志。在浦江之畔的外灘,有1929年建立、沙遜(Victor Sassoon)名下的華懋飯店(Cathay Hotel),不遠處是1925年建立的匯豐銀行(Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp.)大樓,其穹頂上鑲嵌著描繪加爾各答和曼谷港口景象的馬賽克壁畫。
A historical witness to China's full-circle journey -- from subject of Western influence to strident opponent to, now, international host -- is the English Renaissance-style building at No. 2 Bund. Built a century ago as the Shanghai Club, it was frequented by British colonial tycoons. A half-century ago, it was seen as a symbol of Western decadence.
外灘二號的英國文藝復(fù)興式建筑上??倳?Shanghai Club)見證著中國歷史的一個輪回:從屈從于西方的影響,到竭力反對,再到現(xiàn)在成為國際化的東道主。上??倳ǔ捎谝粋€世紀(jì)以前,曾是英國殖民大亨們頻繁光顧的場所。半個世紀(jì)以前,它被視為西方腐化的一個象征。
Now, it will be transformed into Hilton Hotel Corp.'s first Waldorf Astoria hotel in Asia.
現(xiàn)在,外灘二號將轉(zhuǎn)型成為希爾頓酒店集團(Hilton Hotel Corp.)在亞洲的第一家華爾道夫(Waldorf Astoria)酒店。
Built in 1910, the club and its hallmark 110-foot Long Bar hosted bankers and taipans. In 1941, the Japanese Navy commandeered it. With Japan's 1945 defeat, the club's battered elite returned to discover shortened legs on billiard tables.
上??倳ǔ捎?910年,110英尺長的標(biāo)志性長廊酒吧(Long Bar)接待過眾多銀行家和大班。1941年,日本海軍占領(lǐng)了這里。1945年日本戰(zhàn)敗后,歷經(jīng)劫難的精英們回到這里,發(fā)現(xiàn)臺球桌的桌腿都被鋸短了。
Communists, taking power in 1949, squeezed the club for liquor taxes that bankrupted it in 1954, according to 'Building Shanghai' by Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren.
據(jù)丹尼森(Edward Denison)、Guang Yu Ren所著《建筑上?!?Building Shanghai)所述,共產(chǎn)黨人1949年執(zhí)政后,向上??倳魇站贫?,后者因此于1954年破產(chǎn)。
Within two years it was the International Seamen's Club, with a Mao statue and a 'Workers of World Unite' banner in Chinese, English and Russian.
兩年后,這里成了國際海員俱樂部,樹立了一座毛澤東像,并掛上了“全世界無產(chǎn)者聯(lián)合起來”的中、英、俄文條幅。
In the 1960s Cultural Revolution, Maoist Red Guards chopped the bar to pieces amid a purge of Western influences.
60年代的文化大革命中,紅衛(wèi)兵為了清除西方影響,把里面的吧臺砍成了碎片。
In 1989, the bar area reopened as Shanghai's first Kentucky Fried Chicken.
1989年,酒吧區(qū)域重新開放,成為上海第一家肯德基。
Now, with heritage architecture gaining fresh acclaim ahead of Expo 2010, No. 2 Bund's government-owned landlord allowed the neglected building to be remodeled into a Waldorf Astoria.
在2010年上海世博會開幕前夕,歷史建筑重新受到歡迎。在這種情況下,外灘二號的國有房東同意把這座被人遺忘的建筑改成一家華爾道夫酒店。
Atlanta architect-developer John Portman & Associates -- a family firm led by John C. 'Jack' Portman III, who has been active in Shanghai since 1979 -- is adding a 260-room skyscraper annex. Hilton didn't respond to requests to comment.
美國亞特蘭大建筑師事務(wù)所-地產(chǎn)開發(fā)商John Portman & Associates將加建一座260個房間的高層建筑。這家事務(wù)所是一家家族企業(yè),負(fù)責(zé)人波特曼(John C. "Jack" Portman III)自1979年以來一直在上海活動。希爾頓集團沒有回應(yīng)置評請求。
Standing atop the club's Sicilian marble staircase that he first climbed in 1986, 61-year-old Mr. Portman marveled at the club's 'ornate' ballroom. The building, he said, is 'a microcosm of what Shanghai was all about.'
波特曼第一次爬上總會大樓里的西西里式大理石樓梯是在1986年,如今61歲的他再次站到樓梯上,深深地折服于這里“華美”的舞池。他說,這幢建筑是昔日上海的縮影。