MOGANSHAN, China — MARK KITTO is still here. But he is leaving soon, he swears. It will happen sometime this summer, he said, after a final road trip with his family to the outer reaches of the Chinese empire, where two decades ago as a British soldier he joined a 59-day expedition to cross the Taklamakan Desert.
中國莫干山——馬克·基多(Mark Kitto)還在這裡，但他發誓很快就離開。他說要在今年夏天走，走之前會和家人一起去中華帝國版圖最外沿做一次最後的公路旅行。 20年前，他作為英國士兵在那裡參加過一次橫穿塔克拉瑪干沙漠的為期59天的探險。
The furniture has already been removed from the home he rebuilt atop this bamboo-cloaked mountain three hours from Shanghai. And his Cantonese wife, Joanna Kitto, is handing day-to-day management of their restaurant and three atmospheric guesthouses to others.
莫干山距離上海有三個小時車程。他在這座遍布竹林的山頂重建的房子裡，家具已經搬走了。他的廣東妻子吳寧華(Joanna Kitto)正在將他們的餐館和三套別具特色客房的日常管理交接給別人。
Many foreigners in China think Mr. Kitto left the country last summer. But Mr. Kitto, 46, one of the better-known foreign entrepreneurs of his generation in China, is only now making good on the promise that he set forth in a provocative essay titled “You'll Never Be Chinese.” It was published in August in Prospect, a British literary magazine, and it was Mr. Kitto's farewell to a time when he made Shanghai and then Moganshan his adopted homes, all after being born Cornish , growing up in Wales, attending college in London and completing service in the Welsh Guards.
很多在華外國人以為基多去年夏天就已經離開了中國。但是，作為在他這代人中的比較著名的旅華外國企業家，今年46歲的基多現在才開始兌現他在《你永遠成不了中國人》(You'll Never Be Chinese)一文中做出的承諾。這篇文章是去年8月在英國文學雜誌《展望》(Prospect)上發表的，當時引發了極大的爭議。基多出生在康沃爾郡，在威爾士長大，後來到倫敦讀大學，並在威爾士衛隊(Welsh Guards)服完兵役。過去一段時間，他把上海和莫干山當成了自己的家，那篇文章也是對這段經歷的訣別書。5月份，馬克·基多從莫干山的家裡搬了出來。
Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
5月份，馬克·基多從莫干山的家裡搬了出來。
In the essay, he laid out why, after 16 years in this country, he would be heading back to his homeland. He wrote about the hardships of sustaining a business here, of a government that sacrifices the well-being of its people to stay in power and finally of very personal concerns over raising his two children, ages 8 and 10, in China.
他在文章中闡述了在中國生活16年後要回國的原因。他講述了在這裡經營生意的艱難，講述了這個政府為了繼續掌權而犧牲人民福祉，最後還寫到了個人對在中國養育分別是8歲和10歲的兩個孩子的擔心。
“I wanted China to be the place where I made a career and lived my life,” he wrote. “I have fallen out of love, woken from my China Dream.”
“我曾想把中國當成經營事業、過生活的地方，”他寫道。 “現在我從中國夢中醒來，已經失去了愛。”
The dream still looks rather attractive from the perch where Mr. Kitto recently had lunch with a couple of visitors — an outdoor table at a local restaurant with panoramic views of the valley. He pointed to a half-finished Buddhist temple below. Local officials were building it to attract tourist revenue, he said, even though no monks lived in the valley.
坐在基多最近和一些客人共進午餐的當地一家餐館的室外桌旁，能將山谷的風光盡收眼底。此時，他的這個夢看上去依然相當誘人。他指著下面修建了一半的寺廟說，當地官員修這座廟是為了吸引遊客創收，儘管山谷裡並沒有和尚居住。
But back to the essay: “After that article came out, there was quite a lot of reaction,” he said.
不過回到那篇文章，他說，“那篇文章發表以後，反響很大。”
Mr. Kitto's article became widely circulated among expatriates in China, forcing some to question the basic assumptions they had made in trying to build a life here. Others asked whether Mr. Kitto had been unrealistic in what he had expected from China. And what exactly did Mr. Kitto mean by saying “You'll never be Chinese?” What foreigner expected to become Chinese anyway?
基多的這篇文章被旅華外國人廣泛傳閱，迫使很多人對試圖在中國生活時所做的基本假設提出了疑問。另一些人則問道，基多過去對中國的期望是不是不切實際。基多說“你永遠成不了中國人”到底指的是什麼？有什麼外國人會指望自己能變成中國人嗎？
But Mr. Kitto seems to have been a harbinger. In the months afterward, other expatriates wrote essays about leaving China. The departures appear to have accelerated this year, as people who moved here around 2008, in the prelude to the Summer Olympics, cycle out. Foreigners also increasingly fear the pollution in northern China, among the worst in the world, and the shortcomings in water and food safety.
然而，基多的文章似乎的確是一個預警。之後的幾個月裡，其他一些旅華外國人也寫文章表示要離開中國。今年，隨著在2008年夏季奧運會前搬到中國來的外國人漸漸離開，外國人離開中國的步伐加快了。很多外國人還越來越擔心中國北方的污染，這裡的污染問題是世界最嚴重的，其次還有缺水和食品安全問題。
The exodus seems to be particularly pronounced among expatriates who, like Mr. Kitto, are immersed in the literary and journalistic scene. They have all prided themselves on being engaged with China in a much deeper way than your average corporate employee posted here by a multinational company. They are descendants of the kinds of foreigners that the historian Jonathan D. Spence wrote about in his first book, “To Change China”: students of the language, entrepreneurs, explorers.
這股離開中國的潮流，似乎在像基多這樣浸淫於文學和新聞圈子的外國人當中尤為明顯。他們都自詡比一般跨國公司派出的員工更了解中國。他們的前輩是歷史學家史景遷(Jonathan D. Spence)在他的第一本書《改變中國》(To Change China)中描述的那些人：學習語言的人、創業者和冒險家。
“I think Mark sees himself in the continuum of British adventurers in China,” said Harvey Thomlinson, a publisher in Hong Kong who owns the non-American rights to Mr. Kitto's memoir, “China Cuckoo.”
香港出版人哈維·托姆林森(Harvey Thomlinson)擁有基多的回憶錄《中國杜鵑》(China Cuckoo)在美國以外地區版權，他說，“我認為馬克在審視自己時，會認為自己是在延續英國冒險家在中國的脈絡。”
And Britons do have a colorful history here, whether adventurers like Sir Edmund Backhouse, who claimed to be an insider in the Qing imperial court and a lover of the Empress Dowager Cixi, or the missionaries who built stone villas atop Moganshan in the early 20th century . Each generation of foreigners has a different character, much of it dependent on the changes in China.
英國人在中國的歷史上的確有過濃墨重彩的一章。從自稱清廷的圈內人、慈禧太后情人的埃德蒙·巴恪思爵士(Sir Edmund Backhouse)這樣的冒險家，到20世紀初在莫干山頂修建別墅的傳教士，都是如此。每個年代的外國人都有不同的特點，其中大部分都取決於中國的變化。
“I think Beijing's entered a new stage in its development,” said Alex Pearson, a longtime British expatriate, bookstore owner and friend of Mr. Kitto who is also leaving China this summer. “You have a new kind of foreigner coming, and young Chinese with different goals. It's a different vibe than when I came here.”
長期居住在中國的英國人亞歷克斯·皮爾遜(Alex Pearson)是基多的朋友在中國擁有一家書店，也打算今年夏天離開中國。皮爾遜說，“我認為北京進入了一個新的發展階段。來了一批不同的外國人，中國年輕人的目標也不同。現在的氛圍和我來的時候很不一樣。”
MR. KITTO'S history here is well documented. He first embraced China while a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Then there was the crossing of the Taklamakan in 1993, in a camel caravan led by another British adventurer, Charles Blackmore. But Mr. Kitto is best known for publishing in the late 1990s and early 2000s an authorized expatriate magazine in three Chinese cities — unheard of for a foreigner. The profitable venture was seized by officials in 2004, he said, and Mr. Kitto retreated to Moganshan to start another China career.
基多在中國的經歷被很好地記錄了下來。他第一次來中國時還是倫敦大學(University of London)亞非學院(School of Oriental and African Studies)的學生。後來在1993年，他加入了另一個英國探險家查爾斯·布萊克莫爾(Charles Blackmore)率領的駝隊，穿越了塔克拉瑪干沙漠。但是基多最為人熟知的則是在20世紀90年代末和21世紀初，在中國的三座城市出版了一本得到批准的旅華外國人雜誌，這對外國人來說是聞所未聞的。他說，這樁利潤豐厚的生意在2004年被官員攫走，之後基多就隱居莫干山，開始了另一份在中國的事業。
Then Mr. Kitto wrote of leaving Moganshan in what he had intended to be his final column for Prospect. Officials in Zhejiang Province took it personally and started an inquiry. Mr. Kitto was in Shanghai en route to the United States when the police questioned his wife.
之後，基多寫下了要離開莫干山的文章。他本來打算以這篇文章作為在《展望》雜誌上的最後一篇專欄文章，但浙江省的官員認為文章是在針對他們，於是開展了調查。警察盤問他妻子時，基多正經過上海前往美國。
“She was exploding; she was screaming on the phone: 'What have you gone and done now? I've got the police calling me,'” he said. “She's Cantonese. She does get excited.”
他說，“她簡直氣瘋了，在電話里大喊：'你去哪兒了，乾了什麼？警察來找我了。'她是廣東人。確實容易激動。”
By the time Mr. Kitto returned a week later, things had calmed down, but the local officials were still determined to find out why he wanted to leave, he said. In part, they were following orders from provincial officials who had apparently become concerned about the potential impact of Mr. Kitto's essay on foreign investment.
一周之後基多回來時，事情已經平息。但他說，當地官員還是決心要搞清楚他離開的原因。部分原因是他們接到了省級官員的命令，他們顯然是在擔心基多的文章可能會給外商投資造成影響。
TO a degree, Mr. Kitto's disenchantment did arise from business regulations. Mr. Kitto said one of his gripes was that you could never truly build a long-term business here without the fear that officials could take it from you at any time. Mr . Kitto and his wife, for instance, can never legally own the land on which their Moganshan homes stand.
從某種程度上來說，基多離開的確是由商業法規引發的。基多說，自己不滿的一件事是，在中國長期做生意，隨時都要擔心官員會把生意奪走。比如，基多和他的妻子從未合法地擁有過他們在莫干山房子下的土地。
But there were more fundamental issues. “Modern day mainland Chinese society is focused on one object: money and the acquisition thereof,” Mr. Kitto wrote. In another section, he wrote, “The government is so scared of the people it prefers not to lead them,” and “the Party only steps to the fore where its power or personal wealth is under direct threat.”
但是，還有一些更根本的問題。基多寫道，“現代中國大陸社會只關註一個目標：金錢和獲取金錢。”他還在另一部分寫道，“政府十分害怕人民，所以寧願不去引領他們，”而且“共產黨只有在自己的權力或者個人財產受到直接威脅時才會介入乾涉。”
The overriding reason Mr. Kitto offered for his departure was to give his children “a decent education,” away from the test-oriented curriculums of Chinese schools and their propagandistic history lessons.
基多對自己離開給出的最重要的理由是，要給孩子們提供“良好的教育”，脫離中國學校里以考試為目的的課程，以及充滿宣傳色彩的歷史課。
Mr. Kitto said he stood by the essay, no matter the controversies, and had mapped out his re-entry to England. The family plans to live in a cottage that Mr. Kitto's father owned in a rural area of Norfolk that is now popular with vacationers.
基多說他不在意引發的爭議，堅持自己在文章中闡述的立場，他已經做好了重回英格蘭的準備。他和家人會搬到他父親在諾福克郡鄉間的一棟房屋居住，現在那裡已經成了度假者經常光臨的地方。
In some ways, he said, the place is like Moganshan. “It is very beautiful. It's quiet except for weekends in the summer,” Mr. Kitto said. And from there, Mr. Kitto hopes to do marketing for local businesses and to edit English translations of Chinese books, as he recently did with “The Civil Servant's Notebook” by Wang Xiaofang, published by Penguin.
他說，從某些方面來看那里和莫干山很像。他說，“很漂亮。除了夏季的周末之外，很安靜。”基多希望在那里為當地的公司做市場營銷，並編輯中文書的英譯本，最近他就編輯了王曉方所著的《公務員筆記》一書的英譯本，該書英譯本由企鵝出版社(Penguin)出版。
Mr. Kitto said that his wife would continue to oversee the business in Moganshan, and that the family would travel back on occasion — at least for as long as the Moganshan homes stay in their hands.
基多稱，他妻子會繼續打理莫干山的生意，他們全家會時常回來，至少在莫干山的房子還歸他們所有的時候。
“One of my main points was: Look at the history of foreigners in China,” he said. “The only foreigners who have made a fortune in China are the traders. Buy and sell. It's what the Chinese do, too. Everything's short term.”
他說，“我的一個主要觀點是：看一看外國人在中國的歷史，唯一在中國發財的外國人是商人，做買賣的。中國人也在這麼做，所有事都是短期的。”
Copyright © 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
黃安偉(Edward Wong)是《紐約時報》駐京記者。
翻譯：張亮亮
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