家外之家 2021
Like many people, I came here to study the language. However, whenever people ask me why I started studying Chinese, I suddenly find myself unable to simply explain it. Chinese language was an easy way for me to divert my attention for a while when I was hospitalized. I was “the sick kid” ever since I turned 16, and as the nerd I have always been, I was genuinely worried about my brain getting mushy so I started studying the allegedly most complicated language in the world. I would spend most of my days on that hospital bed just reading, watching YouTube videos about science and languages, and you know, the occasional travel vlogs, but mostly just thinking about how beautiful life could be if I ever had the chance to travel around the world. Whenever I wasn’t in the hospital, I was enrolling in different language courses in my hometown, and my parents thought that since I couldn’t properly study a bachelors at the time, I might as well study Chinese at my university’s Confucius Institute.像許多人一樣，我來(lái)到中國(guó)是為了學(xué)習(xí)中文。然而，每當(dāng)人們問(wèn)我為什么學(xué)習(xí)中文時(shí)，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己無(wú)法用簡(jiǎn)單的言語(yǔ)解釋清楚。我住院的時(shí)候，我通過(guò)學(xué)習(xí)中文來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)移注意力。從 16 歲開(kāi)始，我就變得非常容易生病。而且我是“書(shū)呆子”，我真的很擔(dān)心我的大腦會(huì)變得不靈光，所以我就開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)這個(gè)傳說(shuō)中世界上最難的語(yǔ)言。我在醫(yī)院病床上的大部分時(shí)間都是在閱讀，看 YouTube 上關(guān)于科學(xué)和語(yǔ)言的視頻，偶爾也看旅行視頻。我當(dāng)時(shí)在想，如果我有機(jī)會(huì)環(huán)游世界，生活會(huì)是多么美好。每當(dāng)我不用住院的時(shí)候，我就報(bào)名參加不同的語(yǔ)言課程。我的父母覺(jué)得，既然我當(dāng)時(shí)不能好好地學(xué)習(xí)本科課程，不妨讓我在大學(xué)的孔子學(xué)院學(xué)習(xí)中文。
家外之家 2021
I never thought I would go to China, let alone live here for so long. In 2016, I was invited by Xi’an Jiao Tong University to study Chinese for a month in the winter semester. Luckily, at that time I had a friend who was in Xi’an and when I received the news in the summer, my friend there suggested to me that I should visit Xi’an to experience the city first hand. Of course I agreed and came here for the first time!? We travelled to other cities besides Xi’an, such as Changsha, Luoyang, and Zhengzhou. From the very first day, I felt like I fit even, I adored the food here and the climate was extremely suitable in my opinion. My Chinese friend was surprised because he had never seen a foreigner eat duck blood, 皮蛋, durian, 毛肚, hen’s paw, pig’s leg and so on. I was in China for five weeks and then came back home. After I went back to St. Petersburg, I felt like a foreigner in Russia because China felt more like home than my actual place of birth.
我從未想過(guò)會(huì)來(lái)中國(guó)，更不用說(shuō)在這里生活這么久了。2016 年，西安交通大學(xué)邀請(qǐng)我在冬季學(xué)期學(xué)習(xí)一個(gè)月的中文。幸運(yùn)的是，當(dāng)時(shí)我有一個(gè)朋友在西安，我在夏天收到這個(gè)消息的時(shí)候，朋友就建議我應(yīng)該來(lái)西安看看，親身體驗(yàn)這個(gè)城市的風(fēng)采。我當(dāng)然答應(yīng)了，這是我第一次來(lái)到這里！除了西安，我們還去了其他城市，比如長(zhǎng)沙、洛陽(yáng)和鄭州。自打第一天起，我就覺(jué)得自己很適合住在這里，我很喜歡這里的食物，氣候也非常宜人。我的中國(guó)朋友很驚訝，因?yàn)樗麖膩?lái)沒(méi)有見(jiàn)過(guò)一個(gè)外國(guó)人吃鴨血、皮蛋、榴蓮、毛肚、雞爪、豬蹄等等。我在中國(guó)呆了五個(gè)星期，然后就回國(guó)了。回到圣彼得堡后，我覺(jué)得雖身在祖國(guó)，卻似在他鄉(xiāng)，因?yàn)橹袊?guó)比俄羅斯更像我的家鄉(xiāng)。
家外之家 2021
I planned most of my life, however China was never on my radar. Living and working in China was totally unplanned but incredibly fascinating and worthwhile in every sense.我會(huì)規(guī)劃人生，但是中國(guó)從來(lái)沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)在我的視線中。來(lái)中國(guó)工作生活是完全出于偶然，但這一切都值得且令人神往。
家外之家 2021
I’m writing this article while I have just started reading Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones.??寫(xiě)這篇文章時(shí)，我剛剛開(kāi)始讀彼得·海斯勒的《甲骨文》。
家外之家 2021
It all started when I was a student doing my masters in London. By accident, I got a part time job in the School of the Oriental and African studies so that sparked my curiosity in China. I thought that I should go and visit so as a student I decided to make a trip here. A bit later, when I was getting art residencies, an offer was made to me to come to Beijing to produce some art projects. I accepted this art residency position in 2009 in Beijing and my China journey officially began. Back then, Beijing was not the city that it is now. A couple years later, in 2011 to be exact, I was offered another residency in Xiamen and I can also say that this city was rather different back then. 故事要從我在倫敦讀碩士的時(shí)候講起。一個(gè)偶然的機(jī)會(huì)，我在東方和非洲研究學(xué)院得到了一份兼職工作，這激起了我對(duì)中國(guó)的好奇心。我想我應(yīng)該去看看，所以當(dāng)時(shí)還是學(xué)生的我決定到中國(guó)旅行。我開(kāi)始申請(qǐng)藝術(shù)家駐地項(xiàng)目，之后，便有人邀請(qǐng)我到北京開(kāi)展一些藝術(shù)項(xiàng)目。2009 年我獲得了北京的藝術(shù)家駐地權(quán)，我的中國(guó)之旅正式開(kāi)始。那時(shí)候，北京還不是現(xiàn)在這副模樣。幾年后，確切地說(shuō)，在2011年，我獲得了在廈門(mén)的藝術(shù)家駐地權(quán)。我也可以說(shuō)，和當(dāng)時(shí)相比，如今的廈門(mén)是截然不同的。
家外之家 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(rèn)為，旅行就是一個(gè)起點(diǎn)，沒(méi)有回頭路，從這里開(kāi)始，生活發(fā)生改變，你即將踏上未知的旅程，開(kāi)始全新的冒險(xiǎn)。故事情節(jié)總是由一次不經(jīng)意的選擇而展開(kāi)。比如，某天下午我在辦公室收到一封郵件，說(shuō)我獲得了攻讀廈門(mén)大學(xué)人類(lèi)學(xué)碩士的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，從那一刻起，意味著我的中國(guó)之旅拉開(kāi)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(chēng)之為生活，我的中國(guó)生活，我的旅程。
家外之家 2021
I always had a curiosity about living in China since my family is originally from The Guangdong Province, although it was not a priority of mine. My family left China in the early 1900s and only visited periodically so what I knew about the country were really old-fashioned and idealized stories that uncles, aunties and neighbors shared with me during family reunions and mahjong evenings. I studied in Cape Town and before coming to China I spent some time in Canada and Spain where I lead different research projects. My previous boss took up a contract to head up an innovation team in China. He spoke to me previously and I was offered a position to come work here while I was working as a visiting professor at the University of the Basque Country, in Bilbao. I came to visit Xiamen when I was offered the job and was deeply impressed. The city seemed pretty relaxed and laid back and it beat my expectations about a busy Chinese city.在中國(guó)生活是怎樣的，我一直充滿好奇。我的家人來(lái)自廣東省，但這并不是最重要的。我的家人在上世紀(jì)90年代初離開(kāi)中國(guó)，之后偶爾才回國(guó)，所以我對(duì)中國(guó)的了解還停留在過(guò)去，而且非常理想化，家庭團(tuán)聚和打麻將的時(shí)候，叔叔、阿姨和鄰居才會(huì)跟我講起中國(guó)。我在開(kāi)普敦學(xué)習(xí)，來(lái)中國(guó)之前，我曾在加拿大和西班牙度過(guò)了一段時(shí)間，在那里我主導(dǎo)各種研究項(xiàng)目。我以前的老板簽了一份合同，負(fù)責(zé)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)中國(guó)的一支創(chuàng)新團(tuán)隊(duì)。我在畢爾巴鄂的巴斯克大學(xué)擔(dān)任客座教授時(shí)，他找我談話，給我一份在廈門(mén)的工作機(jī)會(huì)。所以我就來(lái)到了廈門(mén)，這里給我留下了深刻的印象。這座城市似乎非常愜意悠閑，與我想象中中國(guó)都市繁忙的景象完全不同。
家外之家 2021
San Pedro is a small town in The Philippines and the fun fact is: Xiamen is represented by egrets and in San Pedro, our mascot is a chicken. There’s a huge statue of a chicken with an egg under it. When I left San Pedro, I was like the chicken and now I’ve evolved to become an egret.圣佩特羅是菲律賓的一個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)。有趣的是，廈門(mén)以白鷺為代表，而在圣佩德羅，我們的吉祥物是一只雞。有一座巨大的雕像，是一只雞，下面有一顆雞蛋。我離開(kāi)圣佩德羅時(shí)，我就像一只小雞，現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)進(jìn)化成一只白鷺了。
家外之家 2021
Do you want to hear my love-story with China? Okay! I was 22 years-old when I got a letter from the Embassy of China in Antananarivo. Antananarivo is the capital city of Madagascar, the country where I was born and raised. A country that I’d never left, not even once. This is how the house where I used to live looks like. Too old and out of date, isn’t it?
你想知道我和中國(guó)的“愛(ài)情故事”嗎？聽(tīng)我給您道來(lái)。22 歲那年，我收到中國(guó)駐塔那那利佛大使館的來(lái)信。塔那那利佛是馬達(dá)加斯加的首都，我在那里出生長(zhǎng)大。我從未出國(guó)，一次也沒(méi)有。我兒時(shí)住的房子是這樣的，太破舊了，對(duì)吧？
家外之家 2021
I can still remember watching a TV program on China and Chinese culture about 20 years ago when I was still very small. In the background, I heard melodious strains of Chinese music and I can still remember how the program featured key places of Chinese cultural interest and famous Chinese icons like The Great Wall. As I was just nine years old, this program formed such a deep impression in my mind that the longing to visit China one day was a longing that was present in my subconscious mind from that day onwards. I still remember 3 years ago; my editor called me into his room and asked me whether I would like to undertake a visit to China. He also added that the visit would last 10 months. I couldn’t believe what I heard. I was overjoyed. I could only mutter ‘yes sir’ because I was still suffering from the shock of having my childhood dream of going to China coming true.
我還記得大約 20 年前，那時(shí)候我還很小，看過(guò)一個(gè)電視節(jié)目，是關(guān)于中國(guó)和中國(guó)文化的，背景音樂(lè)是悠揚(yáng)的中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)音樂(lè)。我仍然記得這個(gè)節(jié)目介紹了中國(guó)的文化名勝和標(biāo)志性建筑，如長(zhǎng)城。那時(shí)我才 9 歲，但這個(gè)節(jié)目已經(jīng)在我腦海中留下了深刻的印象。有朝一日我要去中國(guó)，這種渴望，自那天起便成為我潛意識(shí)的一部分。我還記得 3 年前，編輯把我叫到他的房間，問(wèn)我是否愿意去中國(guó)。他還補(bǔ)充說(shuō)，這次旅程將持續(xù) 10 個(gè)月。我簡(jiǎn)直不敢相信我的耳朵，欣喜若狂。因?yàn)閮簳r(shí)的夢(mèng)想終于要成真了，我激動(dòng)得話都說(shuō)不出來(lái)，只能咕噥一聲“是的，我愿意”。
