Han Suyin's China

韓素音筆下的中國

China: her size roughly that of Canada or the United States. Her population one billion one hundred million, 22 per cent of the planet's human beings.

中國面積大致相當于加拿大或美國，人口11億，占全球人口的22%.

China: very young, 60 per cent of the Chinese under 25 years of age. Very old, millennia of accumulated and still potent history, pride of remembered greatness motivating her march towards the new technological era which is changing the world, and changing her.

中國非常年輕，60%的中國人年齡在25歲以下。中國又非常古老，具有數千年累積起來、現仍具有強大影響的歷史，對往昔文明鼎盛的自豪激勵著她邁步走向新技術時代。這個時代正在改變世界，改變中國。

China: her history not unitary, but made up of many histories; as she is made up of many different peoples, altogether 56 nations. Yet she is a oneness, coherent, whole. THE GREAT WITHIN.

中國的歷史并不是一部單一的歷史，而是由許多部歷史組成，因為中國是由許多不同的民族組成的——總共有56個民族。然而她卻是一個緊密完整的統一體。真是一個偉大的、自成一統的國家。

There is a China of the plains, easily travelled, a tourist delight. Here are the wealthiest, the most advanced metropolises: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou...fertile alluviallowlands which seem vast, yet are less than 15 per cent of her total territory. And China's arable, cultivable acres make up only seven per cent of the world's total acreage. On this she feeds almost a quarter of the world's people. A prodigious achievement!

中國的一部分地區是平原，旅行便利，為游覽勝地。這里有最富庶、最先進的大都市：北京、天津、上海、南京、廣州……肥沃的沖積平原似乎廣闊無邊，而實際還不到總領土的15%。中國的耕地面積只占世界耕地總面積的7%。她憑這么少的耕地卻養活幾乎占世界人口四分之一的人，真是一個了不起的成就！

This China of the plains stretches from Manchuria to Hong Kong; most of it lies eastwards, with easy access to the ocean. Here both urban and rural areas have greatly profited from the recent economic reforms. Most of the foreign investments, the special economic zones, the new industrial plants,are sited here. Here are the skills, the manpower, the markets, the communication network. Most of the universities are also here, and more than 80 percent of the population. Prosperity is evident-over 60 per cent of new houses in the villages, over 20 per cent of families with television installed in the last ten years, large new apartment houses for urban dwellers, modem hotels...

中國平原地區從滿洲里一直延伸到香港，多半位于東部，臨近海洋。新近的經濟改革使這里城鄉地區都受惠匪淺。多數外資企業、經濟特區、新興工廠都在這一地區。這里擁有先進的技術、充足的人力、廣大的市場和發達的交通網絡。多數大學也在這里，還有這個國家。80%以上的人口。繁榮景象是顯而易見的——農村60%以上的房屋是新建的，20%以上的家庭在過去十年中添置了電視機，城市居民住上了寬敞的新公寓，還有現代化的旅館……

But there is the other China, 85 per cent of the total surface of the land. This China is not easily visited, for communication is still a problem. It stretches in an immense bow fiom North to South, and in it live, besides the "typical" Chinese, who call themselves the Hans, fifty-odd other races or ethnic groups called "national minorities". These hark back to China's very beginning. With them the Hans both warred and traded; co-existed, intermarried ostracized, for nearly 5,000 years.

但是中國還有另外一部分，占國土總面積的85%。中國的這一部分出入不便，因為交通仍然是一個問題。它由北向南伸展，構成一個巨大的弓形，其中除了自稱漢族的“典型”中國人之外，還居住著另外五十幾個民族或種族，稱為“少數民族”。這些少數民族早在中國形成之初就已存在。將近5，000年間，漢族和少數民族既有戰爭又有貿易，或與之共存，或與之通婚，或相互排斥。

This other China has many mountain ranges, thousand kilometre long chains stretching from west to east dividing the land into enclosed plateaus and basins whose rivers never reach any sea. It has many deserts; more than a million square kilometres of deserts-almost 15 per cent of her total area of nine million six hundred thousand square kilometres. It has immense grasslands and steppes, oases and salt lakes, jungles and troughs lower than the Dead Seam Palestine.

中國的這一部分有許多山脈，一座又一座綿亙千里，由西向東伸展，把土地分隔成一個個山巒環抱的高原和盆地，其中河流一向不通大海。這里有許多沙漠，沙漠面積有一百多萬平方公里——幾乎占國土總面積960萬平方公里的15%。還有一望無際的草地和大草原，有綠洲和鹽湖，有叢林和比巴勒斯坦死海還低的地槽。

This China we must lcnow in order really to know China. It is this conglomerate of many nations, mosaic of peoples, languages and customs, which shaped Chinese culture as we know it today and it is in developing and modernising this area that her future lies.

我們要真正了解中國，就必須了解中國的這一地區。正是這個不同民族、語言、風俗薈萃的多民族聚集體，才形成了今天我們所知道的中國文化。中國的未來就在于這一地區的發展和現代化。

North, Northwest, Southwest...for administraave purposes, this other China,nearly seven million out of the nearly ten million square kilometres of the land,is conveniently divided into regions, each one holding several provinces. I have walked, ridden,jeeped, explored this China several times in the course of the last three decades. I have leamt the local names of mountains, rivers,deserts; for everything here has two names, the Han Chinese name, and the name (or names) given by the national minorities which inhabit the area.

中國的這一地區在將近1，000萬平方公里的國土中占了近700萬平方公里，為了行政管理方便劃分為華北、西北、西南……等幾個區域，每個區域各擁有若干省份。在過去30年中，我曾數次徒步、騎馬或乘吉普車考察過中國的這個地區。我學到了不少山脈、河流、沙漠的本地名稱，因為這里所有的東西都有兩個名稱，一個是漢名，，另一個是居住在當地的少數民族給起的名稱。

Mountains: the majestic Altai, whence came thudding on thick-legged Mongol ponies so many nomad hordes. The Bogden or Heaven's mountain, sitting in vast skirts of their own crumbled stone. From their slopes flow streams feeding the oases strung along the rim of inland deserts. The Kunlun and the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Himalayas-here Mount Everest is iknown as Chomolungma.

山脈：有巍峨的阿爾泰山，當初不知有多少游牧部落在那邊登上腿腳粗壯的蒙古馬，轟隆隆一路奔來；有博格多山，又稱天山，坐落在山崩地裂造成的廣闊地段，從山坡上淌下條條溪流，源源注入內地沙漠邊緣上的一連串綠洲之中；還有昆侖山脈和喀喇昆侖山脈、帕米承山脈和喜馬拉雅山脈——這里把埃非爾士峰叫做珠穆朗瑪峰。

Deserts: the stone deserts of the Gobi and the Ordos, the Tanguli and Kurban Tungu and the dreadful Taklamakan.

沙漠：有戈壁灘和鄂爾多斯沙石灘，有騰格里沙漠和古爾班通古特沙漠，還有那令人生畏的塔克拉瑪干沙漠。

Plateaus and basins: Dzungaria and Tarim and Tsaidam, and the Roof of the World, the immense plateau of Tibet.

高原和盆地：有準噶爾盆地和塔里木盆地，有柴達木盆地，還有“世界屋脊”——遼闊的西藏高原。

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