At Taipei’s Ningxia Road Night Market on a cool evening last spring, the local food blogger known as Peray showed me his favorite stalls among hawkers selling food like milkfish, charred cuttlefish and sea snails. Like many of Asia’s markets, the Ningxia Road is a neon-lit cabinet of curiosities teeming with unimaginable marine life hauled from the surrounding sea. “Where’s the shark fin soup?” I asked, assuming nothing was off-limits. “That’s been banned here,” Peray said with a proud grin. “We love seafood in Taipei, but on an island you quickly understand the ocean’s limits.”
去年春天的一個涼夜，在臺北市寧夏路夜市，一個網名Peray的當地美食博主向我展示他最喜歡的攤鋪，這里的小販售賣各種食物，比如遮目魚、碳燒墨魚和海螺。和亞洲的很多市場一樣，寧夏路像個霓虹閃爍的陳列室，充滿從附近海域運來的各種不可思議的海鮮。“魚翅湯在哪里？”我問道。我以為這里沒有任何限制。“這里禁止銷售魚翅，”Peray自豪地笑道，“我們喜歡臺北的海鮮，但是在島上你很快就能理解海洋的限制。”
Asia’s environmental movement is often described as “on-again, off-again,” but in 2012, Taiwan was the first in Asia to ban shark-fin soup, a dish especially beloved by mainland Chinese. The ban, intended to curb the overfishing, led to Taiwan’s subsequent barring of marine mammal meat (seals, whales and dolphins), signaling a green era of pride that’s made profound island-wide changes. Recent years have seen stricter animal conservation efforts, new eco-parks, deeper recognition of indigenous cultures and a new high-speed rail system estimated to have significantly reduced automobile emissions since its 2007 opening and linking travelers to Taiwan’s rain forests, aquamarine mountain rivers and hot springs. The changes created a substantial spike in visitors — Taiwan saw a 26.7 percent increase in international tourist visits during the first half of 2014, making it the world’s largest tourism increase recorded in 2014, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
亞洲的環保行動經常被描述為“時斷時續”，但是2012年，臺灣在亞洲率先禁止銷售魚翅湯，它是中國大陸人特別喜歡的一種食物。這項禁令意在遏制過度捕撈，臺灣后來又禁止捕撈海洋哺乳動物（海豹、鯨魚和海豚），這標志著驕傲的綠色時代的到來，給整個島嶼帶來深刻變化。近些年，臺灣采取更嚴格的動物保護措施，新建生態公園，更重視本土文化，并興建了一條高速鐵路，據估計，從2007年這條高鐵線路開通起，汽車尾氣排放有了大量減少，游客可以乘坐它到達臺灣的雨林、碧綠山溪和溫泉。這些改變使游客人數迅速上漲——聯合國世界旅游組織稱，2014年上半年，臺灣的國際游客人次增長了26.7%，成為2014年游客人數增長最多的地區。
The expanding rail has brought more exposure to Taiwan’s biodiversity, and may have led to more serious animal conservation policies. A mass rapid transit link to Taoyuan Airport opens in 2015, followed by new high-speed connections to Miaoli, near Shei-Pa National Park, and Changhua and Yunlin — jumping off points to explore Taiwan’s wilderness. That wilderness is home to some of the world’s highest concentrations of butterfly and bird species. Populations of purple milkweed butterflies — one of 400 butterfly species on the island and once sold to black market dealers for its worth as a collectors’ item — have rebounded thanks to the rerouting of expressway trucks that cut across their ancestral migratory paths. In January, the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association sponsored an exhibit on the endangered Formosan bear, often overshadowed by China’s panda. And in May, Taiwan’s Forestry Bureau protected 300 square miles of shoreline for the critically endangered white dolphin. It was Taiwan’s first protected marine habitat and said to be the world’s first white dolphin reserve.
鐵路擴建更好地展示了臺灣的生物多樣性，或許也帶來了更嚴格的動物保護政策。與桃園機場銜接的捷運線路將于2015年開通，之后會開通與苗栗縣、彰化縣和云林縣相連的新高鐵。苗栗縣離雪霸國家公園不遠，云林縣是探索臺灣荒野的出發點。這片荒野里有世界上最密集的一些蝴蝶和鳥類聚居地。這里的紫斑蝶是臺灣島的400種蝴蝶之一，因其收藏價值曾被賣往黑市。高速公路曾切斷它們古老的遷徙路線，高速路改道后，這種蝴蝶的數量開始回升。臺灣黑熊經常被中國的大熊貓蓋過風頭。今年1月，臺灣黑熊保護協會主辦了一個關于瀕危臺灣黑熊的展覽。今年5月，臺灣林業局為嚴重瀕危的白海豚設立了300平方英里的海岸線保護區。它是臺灣的第一個海洋棲息保護地，據說是世界上第一個白海豚保護區。
Taiwan’s sovereignty is not recognized by China, which creates tension between the two countries. So as China’s pollution made headlines, Taiwan began making responsible environmental changes. When China marginalized its ethnic groups, Taiwan reintroduced indigenous Formosan languages to its schools. In April, atomic energy opponents in Taiwan halted the development of a nuclear plant, urging the president to call for a public referendum on energy, while China has 28 nuclear reactors under construction. When Beijing’s smog levels became hazardous, Taiwan announced a network of ecotourism routes peppered with green buildings like the solar-paneled Beitou Library, the Daan Forest Park metro station, with a sunken garden, and new eco-parks like Jou Jou, which opened in August to promote art and environmental protection.
中國不承認臺灣的主權，制造了兩國之間的緊張局勢。中國的污染問題頻頻成為頭條，臺灣卻開始了負責任的環保行動。中國在使少數民族邊緣化，而臺灣把本土臺灣話重新引入學校。今年4月，臺灣的原子能反對者阻止了一個核電站的開發，敦促總統對能源問題進行全民公決，而中國正在建設28個核反應堆。北京的霧霾水平已達危險級別，而臺灣公布了一個生態旅游路線網，里面散布著綠色建筑，比如使用太陽能的北投圖書館，帶有下沉花園的大安森林公園地鐵站，以及一些新的生態公園，比如今年8月開放的九九峰生態藝術園區。
It wasn’t that long ago that Taiwan’s lush green mountains were obscured by clouds of smog. “Back in 1991, I saw Taiwan’s interior mountains once or twice a year,” said Steven Crook, a longtime British expatriate and author of the Taiwan Bradt Travel Guide. “Now I see them dozens of times each year. Air quality improved thanks to N.G.O.s like Society of Wilderness and Wild at Heart that educated people, preserved locations, and continue to ensure that government and corporations don’t get away with nonsense.”
不久之前，臺灣的蔥翠群山也籠罩在煙霧之下。“1991年，我每年只能看到一兩次臺灣的內陸山脈，”史蒂文·克魯克(Steven Crook)說。他是長期定居臺灣的一位英國僑民，是《布拉特臺灣旅游指南》(Taiwan Bradt Travel Guide)的作者。“現在，我每年能看到幾十次。空氣質量的改善得益于荒野保護協會和臺灣蠻野心足生態協會等非政府組織，它們教育民眾，保護棲息地，不斷努力確保政府和公司的胡作非為受到處罰。”
At the root of Taiwan’s environmental movement are its indigenous cultures. Wulai, a mountain township and a protected water reservation area 25 minutes from Taipei by taxi, is known for its mountainous hot springs, river-tracing excursions, a combination of hiking, climbing and swimming up the turquoise Nanshih River, and the 8,000-year-old aboriginal Atayal community whose lifestyle is being touted as a more carbon-efficient model. Taiya Popo, a restaurant on Wulai’s main drag, serves traditional Atayal cuisine, much of it vegetable-based like pumpkin dumplings, rice-stuffed bamboo and stir-fried fern. To capture a growing eco-travel niche, the Volando Spa & Resort recently started aboriginal-inspired performances pieces like Miling’an, a musical fire ceremony and elaborate drumming rituals embedded with aboriginal conservation messages.
臺灣的環保運動起源于本土文化。離臺北25分鐘車程的烏來鄉是個水資源保護區，以山間溫泉和沿河遠足聞名，既可遠足、攀登，也可沿碧綠的南勢溪游泳。這里的土著泰雅族有8000年歷史，他們的生活方式被奉為更加低碳的模式。烏來鄉主道上的泰雅婆婆美食店供應泰雅傳統美食，大多是蔬菜，比如南瓜餃子、竹筒飯和炒蕨菜。為了迎合不斷增長的生態旅游市場，馥蘭朵度假酒店最近推出土著表演節目，比如火光閃動的音樂劇《米靈岸》，里面有精心編排的擊鼓儀式，傳達出土著保護的信息。
“The biggest shift is with the attitude of Taiwanese people,” Mr. Crook said. “The countryside is no longer seen as backwards and boring, but rather a place where people can relax, exercise, learn about ecology and better understand what makes Taiwan Taiwan.”
“最大的變化是臺灣人的態度，”克魯克說，“鄉村不再被認為是落后、無趣的，而被視為可以放松、鍛煉、了解生態、更好地理解臺灣特色的地方。”
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