英语散文:中国进入网络化时代

 

It is a narrow room, a meter and a half wide, decorated‘装饰；布置’with the awkward‘令人尴尬的；不合适的’minimalism‘抽象派艺术’, peeling‘剥落；脱落’white paint, tilting‘倾斜；翘起’buffet‘自助餐’tables, schoolroom chairs bolted‘用螺栓拴紧’together into haphazard‘杂乱的；随意的’couches‘沙发’.But the attraction here isn’t the decor‘装饰；布置’; it’s the machines: a beige‘米色的’Compaq Proliant 2500 computer and an off-white Dell Power edge, hooked‘钩进；钩住’into a refrigerator-size rack of network routers‘路由器（连接数个区域网络的中继装置）’and, from there, via a thumb-thick‘拇指粗的’black cable, to the infinite‘无限的；无边的’abundance‘丰富’of the Internet. Edward Zeng, the 35-year-old Chinese entrepreneur, can’t resist‘忍住；抵抗’a grin‘露齿的笑；咧嘴的笑’as he looks around the modest‘不太大的；适度的’but astonishing‘令人惊异的；令人吃惊的’room buried within a warren‘拥挤的地区；拥挤的房屋’of offices in the bunker-like hallways‘象地下室样的过道’under Beijing’s Capital Stadium. “Welcome to ground zero,” he says.

这是间狭小的屋子，1.5米宽，装饰着制作粗糙的抽象画，剥脱的白色涂料，倾斜的快餐店用桌，用铆钉固定在一起的教室用椅。但是这儿引起人们注意的不是它的装饰，而是机器：一台米色康柏Proliant 2500计算机和一台灰白色的德尔Power edge，联着一台冰箱大小的网络路由器，从那儿，通过一条拇指粗的黑色电缆线，进入广袤无边的因特网世界。指挥这个小小信息前哨的是35岁的中国企业家爱德华·曾，此刻，当他环视这个挤在北京首都体育馆脚下一排拥挤的办公室中简朴然而却令人振奋的小屋时，不禁咧嘴笑了。他说：“欢迎进入信息革命的中心。”

There is very little you cannot reach from Zeng’s tiny room. Zeng’s 1,000 Internet subscribers‘预定者；认购者’can dial into his computers from all over Beijing and connect nearly limitlessly‘无限地；没有边界地’to the electronic world. They can send e-mail, photos and news of China. And they can receive practically‘差不多；几乎’anything else.

在曾的小屋里你几乎没有得不到的东西。曾的1000位因特网用户可以从北京各个地方拨号进入他的计算机，联通几乎没有边界的电子世界。他们能够发送电子邮件、照片以及中国新闻。他们也能够收到任何其他东西。

At night, hundreds of Chinese who don’t own a PC crowd into‘蜂拥而入’Zeng’s six Internet Cafes, where Net time retails‘零售’for $3.6 an hour. It’s fast food for the information age.

夜幕降临时，数以百计没有自己的个人计算机的中国人就会拥到曾的6间“网络咖啡屋”中，这里的上网机收费为每小时3.6美元。这是信息时代的快餐。

This is China? That shows that Beijing has settled on‘确立；确定’a policy for the Net that is as bold as it is surprising. A rising generation of Western-educated‘接受西方教育的’officials is pressing‘催促；劝说’home the argument that the Net is the perfect vehicle to transport‘运送；运输’the Middle Kingdom into the 21st century. “The Chinese get the Net, O.K.?” says Sean Maloney, who ran Intel’s Asia-Pacific operations for three years. “China is going to be unrecognizable‘无法认出的；不能识别的’in five years. And a large part of that change is going to come through‘显露’the Internet and onto computer screens.”

这是中国吗？这表明北京已经选定了一种赞同网络的政策，这是一种既大胆又出人意料的举措。处于上升态势的一代受过西方教育的官员正在竭力使人们接受这种观念，即网络是将中央王国带入21世纪的最好交通工具。曾经为英特尔公司负责过3年亚太业务的肖恩·马洛尼说：“中国人上网了，对吗？5年后中国人会变得让你认不出来。这种变化的一大部分将通过因特网反映到计算机屏幕上。”

In January the Chinese government approved‘批准’a new series of laws designed‘设计；计划’to control how citizens connect to the Internet. But although the laws featured‘以……为特色’the usual restrictive‘约束的；限制性的’rhetoric‘辞令；言语’, they were clearly designed not to keep the Chinese off the Net but to get them online in an orderly way.

今年1月，中国政府批准了一系列旨在控制公民接通因特网的新法律，这些法律的初衷是控制公民与国际互联网相连。尽管法律条文中充满了具有限制特色的词语，但其目的显然不是不让中国人上网，而是使他们有秩序地上网。

The official curiosity‘好奇心’about the power of the Internet, have Beijing buzzing‘唧唧喳喳’these days. From dinner parties given by top officials at the Great Hall of the People to bull‘通过’sessions‘会议’among young technocrat‘技术专家官员’planners , the conversation has shifted from how to control the Net to how to exploit it. “The government is betting‘断定；确信’that PCs and the Net can help competitiveness,” says Thomas Lin, a Beijing-based product manager for Microsoft. “Now they want them on every desk.”