Name :?Juan Miguel Ortega Quesada
姓名:劉君浩
Country of Origin :?Costa Rica
國籍:哥斯達黎加
Occupation :?PhD Candidate, East China Normal University, Shanghai
職業(yè):華東師范大學博士生
Years in China :?Six years in China 2014-2018, 2019-2021
在華居住時間:6年(2014-2018,2019-2021)
One would suppose that journeys have a beginning, a definite point of no return from which life inflects and your soles step into unknown paths bestowed with new adventures. Any beginning is arbitrary, choices in a storytelling plot. I, for instance, choose to mark the start of my journey to China one random afternoon at the office where I was working when I got a mail saying that I had been awarded a scholarship to do a master in anthropology at Xiamen University. After that moment, a series of unsuspected events took place, events that I now call my life, my Chinese life, my journey.
人們認為,旅行就是一個起點,沒有回頭路,從這里開始,生活發(fā)生改變,你即將踏上未知的旅程,開始全新的冒險。故事情節(jié)總是由一次不經(jīng)意的選擇而展開。比如,某天下午我在辦公室收到一封郵件,說我獲得了攻讀廈門大學人類學碩士的獎學金,從那一刻起,意味著我的中國之旅拉開帷幕,意想不到的事情接二連三地發(fā)生,這些事情我現(xiàn)在稱之為生活,我的中國生活,我的旅程。
I planned for nothing; I had no established intentions. I had no interest in Chinese history or culture or its booming economy for business’ sake. My knowledge of mandarin was null, an empty blank page. I came purely out of adventure, looking for other ways to explore life and to understand what I was capable of doing. I learnt Mandarin six months after arriving in China and this allowed me to take the courses for my masters, which were taught in Chinese. Everything in between arriving and today has happened in magic and unsuspected ways; the way life happens, I guess.
我沒有什么計劃,沒有既定的目標。我當時對中國的歷史文化以及蓬勃發(fā)展的經(jīng)濟沒有興趣,只是為了來學習。我一句普通話也不會講,完全是一張白紙。我來這兒純粹是出于冒險,探索新的生活方式,了解自己的能力。來到中國六個月后,我學會了普通話,開始學習用中文授課的碩士課程。來中國至今,所發(fā)生的一切都非常神奇,難以預料,我想這就是生活吧。
Xiamen was the first glance that I had of this place that now lies so close to my heart. In Xiamen, I had shocking, amazing, emotional, and quotidian experiences that let me become more connected to the Chinese way of living. This city has given me some of the most precious people in life; people with whom I was destined to meet and without whom I could not imagine this journey. I learnt to be conscious of my embodied difference every time I got children afraid of my long curly hair or my weird foreign face. I also experienced generosity from strangers in ways that I had not known before. I learnt to receive everything with joy, the scared gazing and the warm smiles because, in the end, everything has come together to constitute the mosaic of my understanding of what living in China means.
廈門這座城市,第一眼望去,就感覺離我的內(nèi)心如此貼近。在廈門,感受喜怒哀樂、日?,嵥?,這些經(jīng)歷都讓我更加適應中國的生活方式。這座城市贈予我生命中最寶貴的人,我注定要與他們相遇,沒有他們,這段旅程將變得難以想象。每當有孩子害怕我卷曲的長發(fā)或奇怪的外國面孔時,我都會意識到我們之間的確存在差異。陌生人還會對我慷慨相助,這是我之前沒有想到的。我學會樂觀地接受一切,不管是害怕的眼神還是溫暖的微笑,因為這一切最后都將匯集在一起,構(gòu)成一幅畫卷,讓我明白生活在中國的真正意義。
I remember one day; I was in a faraway rural area in Fujian doing fieldwork practice for my graduation. Walking around town, I got to a house where the door was opened. Some children were playing inside the threshold and I came closer to talk to them. One of the kids approached me and asked me in a very serious manner: “Are you a monkey?” I guess that my laughter startled him more than my looks and until now he still may think that he talked to a monkey.
記得有一天,為了畢業(yè)實踐,我在福建一個偏遠鄉(xiāng)村做實地考察。我在鎮(zhèn)上走了一圈,來到一棟房子前,門打開了。一群孩子在里面玩耍,我走近與他們交流。其中一個孩子走向我,非常認真地問我:“你是猴子嗎?”我哈哈大笑,笑聲可能比長相更讓他吃驚,直到現(xiàn)在他可能還認為當時他在和一只猴子說話。
That is how it has been for me in China: My presence, somehow disruptive, has adapted to give and receive the way people do it in different contexts: in the faraway town, in the city, at university, among friends and with strangers. I have been fortunate to see and feel the many versions of China that thrive and strive together. I have learnt to deal with notions of form over content. I have challenged my standpoints to get closer to my friends. I continue learning and sometimes on the bus I still will scare out a child or two. But then we smile at each other and the journey goes on.
這就是我在中國的故事。在某種程度上,我?guī)淼氖切┰S不平靜,不過,不管是在遙遠的城鎮(zhèn)、城市、大學,還是在朋友和陌生人之間,我已經(jīng)適應了人們在不同情況下的禮尚往來。我很幸運,能看到,并用心感受到不同視角下中國的繁榮發(fā)展。我也逐漸理解了形式大于內(nèi)容這一概念。我也調(diào)整了自己的立場,以與朋友拉近距離。我也不斷學習。在公交車上,有時我還是會嚇到一兩個孩子,但隨后我們給予彼此微笑,然后繼續(xù)我們的旅途。
Now I have been living in Shanghai for two years. But Xiamen will always be my city, the one where I built my first memories. Every time I go back, I have the feeling of coming back home. I feel that I know its corners: here we had that amazing picnic, there I walked around the lake at two in the morning. Here I love the way the trees grow and form a meshwork of roots and lianas. There I love to walk over the sea. Here I love the smell that comes out of the small windows at dinner time and disperses all over the narrow streets like an invitation to stay. There I love the messy and bizarre juxtaposition of places, people, sounds and smells. Corners and open spaces, I possess them and they possess me and will stay in the crooks of my heart forever.
現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)在上海生活了兩年,但廈門將永遠在我心中,因為它是我中國記憶的開始。每次我回去,我都有一種回家的感覺。我熟悉廈門的每個角落:我們在這里進行很棒的野餐,在那里凌晨兩點繞著湖邊散步。我喜歡這里樹木的生長方式,它們的根和藤形成的網(wǎng)狀結(jié)構(gòu)。我也喜歡在那的海邊行走。我喜歡這里晚飯時間從小窗里飄出的香味,彌漫在狹窄的街道上,就像在邀請我駐足回味。我也喜歡那的環(huán)境、人群、聲音和各種氣味交織在一起。各種角落和空曠地帶,我擁有它們,它們也擁有我,并將永遠停留在我的心坎里。
A little bit on his hometown:
介紹一下Juan Miguel的故鄉(xiāng):
I come from a very small town in Cartago, the City of Mist, in Costa Rica. My village lies on the slopes of one of the tallest mountains in the country. It is called Cerro de la Muerte (Death’s Mount) because it can get really cold and people died trying to crossing before roads were built. Despite its name, my town is not ominous at all, just a few houses scattered over prairies and forests with tempered weather all year long. That is why even with all my love for Xiamen I still cannot stand its weather; it is too hot for this body of mine.
我來自哥斯達黎加“霧都”卡塔戈的一個小鎮(zhèn)。我的村莊坐落在Cerro de la Muerte的山坡上,Cerro de la Muerte被稱為死亡之山,因為它有時會變得非常冷,而且在道路建成之前,人們試圖穿越這座山的時候,可能會付出生命的代價。雖然它被稱作“死亡之山”,但我的小鎮(zhèn)一點也不可怕,在草原和森林上零星散落幾間屋子,一年四季都是溫和的天氣。即使我如此熱愛廈門,我也無法忍受這的天氣,因為我總覺得太熱了。
作者:劉君浩 翻譯:潘澤彬
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