一名外交官的中国故事

And, as a diplomat, there was always the danger of politics putting a strain on professional and personal relationships. The worst case of this was the terrible accidental NATO bombardment of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999. It was a very difficult meeting a few days later when I had to go into the China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make formal apologies on behalf of my government, and had to listen to a lot of fierce and entirely understandable criticism. In the preceding days I had been besieged in the British Embassy for four days by stone-throwing demonstrators angered by NATO's dreadful mistake. While I sat in my office dodging missiles, I was delighted to receive a phone call from a young Chinese couple I had met a few days before. They expressed sympathy for my difficult situation, and said they hoped I wouldn't be prevented from appearing at the dinner to which they had invited me that evening!
身为一名外交人士，政治动荡常会影响工作和人际关系。最糟糕的一件事情是，1999年位于贝尔格莱德市的中国大使馆遭到北大西洋公约组织轰炸。事后数日，我代表英国政府到中国外交部致歉，我不得不面对许多完全合乎情理的激烈批评。在这之前，被北大西洋公约组织的暴行激怒的示威者向英国大使馆投掷石头，导致我被围困在大使馆四天之久。幸运的是，当我在办公室躲避石块时，我接到了不久前认识的一对年轻中国夫妇的电话，他们很同情我当时的境遇，并且希望我能如约参加当天晚上他们组织的晚宴。

It cannot be denied that living in faraway countries imposes strains on family life. Sadly, a lot of marriages fail in careers like diplomacy, and mine was one of them. I got very much involved in China, its people and its culture, which my wife did not do to any great extent, and gradually we discovered that we had been drifting apart. This is a fate which can be very difficult to avoid, as one can never tell in advance how a spouse will adapt to a strange environment.
不可否认，生活在遥远的国度会给家庭生活带来很大的压力。让人伤心的是，许多外交人士的婚姻以失败告终，我的婚姻也未能幸免。我深深地融入中国人民和中国文化之中，而我的妻子却不是这样的。逐渐，我们发现彼此日益疏离。这是命运，难以避免。因为此前我无法预知妻子适应陌生的生活环境的能力。

And so, in a development which is very common among expatriate men working in China, I acquired a new wife, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine from Chongqing. We are still experiencing the eternal ups and downs of a cross-cultural marriage; I love my fu-qi-fei-pian and she enjoys a full breakfast of sausages, bacon and beans at the weekend.
像很多在中国工作的外籍男人一样，我开始了另一段婚姻。我的妻子是一名来自重庆的中医。现在，我们仍然经历着跨文化婚姻的坎坷与甜蜜；我喜欢吃夫妻肺片，她也喜欢周末早餐里的香肠、培根和豆子。

Now I no longer work in China, but I have kept up a habit of visiting at least once a year, funds permitting. I still maintain a network of good Chinese friends, who are very important to me; some of them I have been close to for over twenty years. I never found it at all difficult to establish good friendships. In fact some of my Chinese friends are prepared to tell me secrets about themselves which they wouldn't tell to their Chinese friends! (Because a foreigner knowing your secrets doesn't make you lose face.)
现在我已不在中国工作，但只要财力允许，我每年仍然回到中国一次。我与许多中国朋友仍旧保持着联系，他们对我而言非常重要。我和其中一些人已经密切交往了20多年。和他们成为朋友不是什么难事。事实上我的许多中国朋友更愿意向我倾诉心里话，而不是向他的同胞朋友。（因为一个外国人知道你的秘密不会让你没面子。）

I have been there to support a young family when their son was born; I have acted as interpreter at a Sino-British wedding; and I have attended the funeral of a lovely girl who died tragically young. My friends and I know all each other's histories, and I find it very reassuring that, while the China I knew in 1989 has changed beyond recognition, the people have not.
在中国，我一直资助着一对年轻夫妇，那时他们的儿子刚出生。我曾在一个中英婚礼上担任翻译，我还曾参加一位可爱可惜英年早逝的女孩的葬礼。我和我的朋友们都熟知彼此的过去。可以肯定的是，虽然1989年后的中国已经变得无法识别，然而，那里的人们始终没有变。

Except in one respect. All my friends seem to have the most enormous children. The rapid improvement in nutrition in China over the last 30 years is really noticeable, especially in the north; medium-height parents are producing boys growing to 185-190 cm in height! It is quite alarming.
唯一改变的是，我的中国朋友们的孩子长得都很高大。在过去的30年里，中国人的营养状况迅速改善，特别是北方，中等个头夫妇的儿子身高可达1.85到1.9米，这简直太令人吃惊了。

I don't know whether I will ever live and work full-time in China again. I am in my fifties now, and as a long-term expatriate friend once said to me, China probably isn't the best place to grow old in. (If one does not benefit from a Chinese network of family relationships, that is.) What I would like is a little house in the countryside, perhaps somewhere in Sichuan near to my wife's family, in which I would live for five or six months a year writing books and journalism, and spend the rest of the year in Scotland, which has now become my home. But once China gets into your blood, you will never get it out again.
我不知是否还会回到中国全职工作和生活。如今我已年过五旬，一个和我一样在国外工作过的老友告诉我，中国不适合养老（如果在中国没有家人和亲戚的话，的确如此）。我希望在中国的乡间有个小院，最好就在我妻子四川老家那边。每年我在那里住上五、六个月，写写书、撰撰稿。其余的时间我呆在苏格兰，那里是我现在的家。没错儿，一旦中国融入你的血液，你就再也无法割舍。