鬼泣4潘多拉:华西村，中国的村庄之最

作者：Jonathan Watts

    2011年10月6日周三 九点

The enormous 328m-tall tower at Huaxi dwarfs surrounding 15-storey pagaodas. Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features

华西村328米的高塔矮化了其周围的15层的塔楼。Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA/Rex Features

An incongruous new sight has risen up in the countryside of eastern China: a skyscraper taller than any building in London or Tokyo, topped by what looks very much like a giant, golden disco ball. The 328-metre supertower, which juts out of the Jiangsu plains like a trophy on an empty shelf, will be opened on Saturday by the village of Huaxi, a communist model community with a registered population of just 2,000 "farmers".

一个不和谐的新景象在中国的东部崛起：一个比伦敦和东京的任何楼都要高的摩天大楼，看起来如同一个巨大的金碧辉煌的舞厅一样，有种十分高级的感觉。这座328米的摩天大楼伸向了江苏的版图，就像架子上的战利品一样，它将由华西村，这个注册人口只有2000“农民”的共产主义模范村庄，于本周六对外开放。

Having been built up to the heavens during a period of global economic collapse, the megatower will be heralded as the latest symbol of China's extraordinary economic expansion. But this bizarre new addition to the landscape also speaks volumes about the land pressures, environmental stress, inequality and rash investment that threaten the country's long-term growth.

在这样一个经济困顿的时期建造这样一个直冲天堂的建筑，它将被看做是中国的杰出的经济扩张的新标志。但是这片土地上增加的新景象也在很大程度上说明了其土地所承受的压力，紧张的环境压力，以及威胁这个国家长久发展的不均衡的，轻率的经济投资。

The skyscraper will primarily be used as a gourmet dining hall and luxury hotel. Though many of those who live in its shadow earn less than £10 a day, there is no attempt to hide the wealth gap. From a gold leaf-covered reception to a 60th floor inlaid with genuine flakes of gold, the building exudes wealth and excess. Its proudest feature is a one-tonne, solid gold statue of an ox, said to be worth 300m yuan (£31m).

这座大楼将主要用于饭店和高档酒店。虽然许多在这里打工的人们一天只能挣到不到10英镑，毫无隐藏贫富差距方面的努力。从一片金叶覆盖的接待前台到一个60楼嵌入的真金片，这个建筑整个散发的都是富足和奢侈。它最引以为傲的特定就是他的一个重达一吨的金牛雕塑，据说价值300万人民币。

The mega-statistics do not stop there. With 826 bedrooms and dining facilities for 5,000 guests – including southern China's biggest banquet hall – there is almost enough space to accommodate and feed all of the original village residents at a single sitting.

对于奢侈的统计并不止于此。其中共有826个床位以及可供5000人同时用餐的餐饮设施——包括华南地区最大的一个宴会厅——这个很大的空间可容纳所有的本地村民并可为其提供独立的席位。

It is the brainchild of Wu Renbao, the driving force behind Huaxi's 40-year transition from a small village to a multibillion-dollar conglomerate with interests in steel, shipping, tobacco and textiles. By turns a communist dictator, capitalist entrepreneur and self-help guru, the 84-year-old is among China's most colourful characters. He is praised for turning Huaxi into one of the richest villages in China and enriching the original residents with annual shares, dividends and free overseas trips. He is also criticised for turning the community into a family fiefdom, in which workers get no holidays and his relatives get the best posts.

它是吴仁宝的杰作，华西村从一个小村庄到一个价值百亿美元盈利行业涉及到钢铁，航运，烟草以及纺织业的集团公司，他就是这转型背后的推动力。共产党的独裁者，资本企业家，自助的专家，这个84岁的老人有着丰富的性格角色。他因为将华西村变成了中国最富的村，而且年度份额分红，年终分红，免费海外参观，而使当地村民致富庄而备受表扬。他也受到了批评，说他将这个村庄变了一个自家的封地，在这里工作的工人没有假期而他的亲戚却得到了最好的岗位。

He has created a hierarchy largely determined by closeness to the Wu clan. Those from the original 2,000 Huaxi families are at the top of the pyramid. Next come the 35,000 residents from neighbouring villages that have been swallowed up by Huaxi's expansion. At the bottom are 20,000 newly arrived migrants, who provide labour for the factories on 12-hour shifts without weekend breaks. The monthly salaries of 3,000 yuan (£310) are better than average for low-skilled labour in China, but it is hardly a worker's paradise.

他近建立一个等级制度，大部分取决于与吴家关系的远近。那些来自这个2000人村子的原来的原住居民都处在这个金字塔的顶端。接下来才是邻村的35000居民，这个村子在华西村的发展势头之下被吞并。处在最底层的是20000新来的民工，他们为这里的工厂提供了劳动力，他们一天两班却没有周末。一月3000元的薪水比中国低技能工种的平均工资能好些，但是这绝不是工人们的天堂。

Wu is undoubtedly Huaxi's greatest draw. Coachloads of visitors – mostly cadres and retirees – turn up to listen to the 10.30am lecture he delivers every day in a village auditorium that has been decked out to resemble the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. His close connections to the central government ensure supportive policies – for example, planning permission to build a 72-storey skyscraper in an area where the next-biggest building in less than 20 floors tall. Wu says he looked to the mega-cities of the Middle East for inspiration. "This tower is my idea," the patriarch says in such a thick local accent that the interpreter needs an interpreter. "We learned from Dubai, but taking into account our domestic situation, we decided the height should be 328m. Why 328m? Because that is as tall as the highest building in Beijing." Chinese culture loads numbers with significance: 32 is associated with business and eight represents prosperity.

吴毫无疑问是华西村的最大的动力。前来参观学习的旅客，绝大多数都是干部和退休人员，这些人都会去听每天上午十点半的由吴在本村大会堂做的报告。这个会堂被布置的能跟北京的人民大会堂相聘美。吴跟中央政府密切的关系保证了政策性的支持——例如，在一个最高楼层去建设一个高达72层的高楼，这样的计划得到了许可。他说，他看到中东的那些摩天大楼都是充满了激情的。“建造这座塔是我的意思”，这位族长用如此浓重的当地口音说出来，以至于翻译也需要翻译。“我们学习迪拜，但是也考虑到我们国内的情况，我们觉得高度应该是328米。为什么是328米？因为它跟北京最高的建筑一样高”。中国文化赋予了数字很多内容：32指的是生意，8则代表了发财的意思。

As village officials also proudly note in the invitation to the opening ceremony: "There are 209 countries that lack such a tall building." That includes the UK. Even the Shard London Bridge – which will be the tallest building in the EU when it is completed next year – is 18m shorter than Huaxi's new village centre.

村子里的行政人员很自豪的拿出开业典礼的邀请：”世界上209个国家都没有这样的建筑."这其中包括英国。即使是夏德伦敦桥也比华西村的新中心矮了18米，而前者在明年竣工后将成为欧盟最高的建筑。

Even for those used to the speed and scale of change in China, this is astonishing. The last time I visited Huaxi in 2005, it was building a cluster of giant pagodas, which then appeared outlandishly large compared to everything else in the village. Today, those same pagodas barely register in comparison to the supertower beside them, which pulsates in all the colours of the rainbow when night falls.

即使对那些已经习惯了中国变化的速度和规模人，这都很让人吃惊。我最近一次采访华西村是在2005年，那时它正在建立一连串塔楼，完成后其跟村里的其他建筑相比是如此的怪异。现在，这些同样的塔楼与它旁边的超级高塔毫无可比性，夜幕降临的时候它会有规律的闪现出五颜六色的彩灯。

It is a tacky but impressive reminder of how far the village has come since the Mao era. That message is reinforced at the village museum, where old propaganda footage shows farmers breaking rocks, labouring in the fields and living in small, unfurnished homes. It is also evident in the small park, which preserves Wu's first factory, a whitewashed, single-storey building.

它是一个俗气的但引人注目，提醒我们从毛泽东时代以来这个村子走了有多远。这样的信息这个村子的博物馆中再次得到强化，这里老得宣传片段显示了农民们开山破石，在田里辛勤劳作但是却生活在一个又小又很一般的房子里。在这个保存了吴第一个工厂的小公园里，一个被粉刷成白色的独层房子很引人注意。

"We used to have a very difficult life. We lived in a thatched shed, ate bran and had nothing in our pockets," recalls Wu, whose message can be distilled to a drive for GDP growth. "I think it will never be wrong to expand the economy and make ordinary people rich. In our opinion, that is the priority."

吴回忆道：”我们过去过的是很艰苦的生活。我们住在茅屋下，吃的是糠麸，口袋没钱“，其言下之意就是促进GDP的增长。”我认为发展经济永远也不会错，让老百姓富裕。在我看来这是应该首先考虑的事情。“

This approach has worked for decades and never more so than during the past seven years, when Huaxi's sales have increased fivefold. But the skyscraper is a towering indicator that business as usual is no longer working. The 3.5bn yuan (£360m) investment is designed to attract tourists and new business to Huaxi as it attempts the leap from dirty industrial centre to an ecologically friendly service sector economy.

这样的想法已经奏效了几十年了，而过过去的7年中其效果尤其明显，这期间华西村的生意规模翻了五番。但是高楼大厦标示着生意不如以往了。这次3.5亿元的投资旨在为华西村吸引游客和新的商业机会，于此同时它也正从一个很脏的工业中心跳变成一个生态友好型的服务性经济。

In making the transition from third-world village to first-world skyscraper, Huaxi is in many ways a microcosm of China. But the next step will be harder as it tries to cope with the declining competitiveness of its core industry, the inflated cost of land and worries about the environment. In this case, an even wider comparison can be drawn: like the global economy, Huaxi may be bumping up against limits to growth.

在从第三世界的村庄向第一世界的高楼大厦国度的转变中，华西村在许多方面就是一个小型的中国。但是接下来的步伐将会比较困难，因为它在面对着其核心工业竞争力的下降，以及贬值的土地资源还有来自对环境的考虑。在这种情况下，可以做一个更为广泛的比较：和全球经济一样，华西村也许面临其增长瓶颈。

A solid-gold statue of an ox in the tower at Huaxi. Photograph: Jonathan Watts for the Guardian

华西村的一尊真金牛雕。摄影：Jonathan Watts

Until recently, the village earned half of its income from the iron and steel industry. But today, this has fallen to less than a third. This collapse is due to rising material costs, the expansion of rival firms and falling demand both overseas and in China. "This is the worst situation I have experienced," says Yang Yongchang, who has been general manager of the Jiangyin Huaxi Iron and Steel Company for eight years. "It will get worse in the future. People in this industry are panicking." He says Huaxi is planning to move the factory so it can reinvent itself as a tourist resort and commodities-trading hub. "We're trying to build an ecological village that looks like a forest garden," he says.

长久以来，这个村子的收入的一半都来自钢铁产业。但是现在这个行业的收益已经降到了不足三分之一。这样的狂跌则是由于原材料价格上涨，对手公司的扩张，以及国内外需求的下降。杨永昌（音译），做了华西村江阴华西钢铁公司的总经理8年，他说：”我们从来没有碰到这种情况。以后这种情况将会变的更糟。这个行业的人们都慌了。“他说华西村正在计划搬场，这样就能重新将其开发为旅游观光地和商品交易所。他说：”我们正在努力建造一个生态型的村庄，看起来就像一个森林花园那样的。“

The costs of fast, dirty, old-style economic growth can no longer be ignored. Wu Yunfang, the head of environmental affairs in the local communist party, says the village has recently shut down five chemical and textile factories that once used to discharge pollutants into the local Changjiagang river. She estimates the value of the lost production at 150m yuan (£15m), which adds up to a significant environment bill along with the 350m yuan (£36m) spent on emissions scrubbing and wastewater treatment.

消耗速度快，脏的旧的经济增长已经不能忽视了。吴云芳（音译）是当地负责环境事务的共产党员，说道，这个村子醉江南关了五所化工厂和纺织厂，它们都曾经一度向当地的长江中排放污染物。她估算损失的产值越有1.5亿元，跟用于处理排污之力和废水处理的3.5亿元一起促成一个庞大的环境单。

Territorial expansion is also becoming more expensive. In the past two decades, Huaxi swallowed 12 neighbouring villages as its industry and influence sprawled outwards. It is not officially a merger. The official terminology is that the villages are "united under Huaxi", but the reality is far more like a corporate takeover. Huaxi paid an annual fee to the surrounding villages and in return it gained control of economic management, land use decisions, labour issues and political appointments.

地域的扩张的代价也变得昂贵起来。在过去的20年间，华西村吞并了12个邻村作为他的工业基地并且其影响蔓延。它不是官方意义上的企业。官方的术语是将这个村子称为：”华西联合“，但是现实是它比一个公司还要公司。华西村每年向周围的村子支付费用，而反过来，它获得对其的经济支配权，土地使用权，劳动力问题以及政治任命。

The loss of independence is worthwhile, according to Zhang Zhongxian, the former head of Xixiang village, who is now working for Huaxi's labour federation. Since his community was subsumed by Huaxi in 2002, Zhang estimates that average annual incomes have more than tripled, welfare for the elderly and disabled has improved and homes and roads have been upgraded. "In five to 10 years, we will be where Huaxi is now," Zhang says. "Many other villagers want to join. Even some from other provinces."

这样丧失独立的代价是值得的，张忠贤（音译）如是说，他是西香村（音译）的前任村长，现在为华西村的劳工联盟工作。自从他的村子2002年被归入华西村地域之后，张估计年平均收入增加了三倍多，老人和残疾的福利得到改善，而且房子和路都得到了改善。张说：”在5到10年内，我们将赶上华西村现在的景象，许多的其他的村名都想加入，甚至有来自外省的。“

But land costs have risen dramatically. Huaxi's village chief, Wu Xie'en – the son of Wu Renbao – said this was a major factor in the decision to build the tower, which has been dubbed "a village in the air". "With the completion of this building, we can save a vast expanse of land. In China, the trend now is to build tall because the more the economy develops, the more space is needed. Where is the space for China in the future? We must look to the sky." The party secretary says he wants to turn the "city village" of Huaxi into a Shangri-la. "My father made people rich. Now I want to make them healthy and happy," he says.

但是土地的代价升的很快。华西村的村长，吴谢恩---吴仁宝的儿子，说道,这是建造这个塔的主要决策因素，这样一来就如同在空中又复制一个村子。随着这栋高楼的完工，我们节约了大块的土地。在中国，建造高楼成了趋势，因为经济越发展，就需要更多的空间。但是中国未来的空间在哪里呢？我们必须朝上天上看。”党委书记说，他想将华西村这样的的“城村”变成人间乐园。他说：“我爹让人们都富了，现在我想让他们健康快乐。”

The tower seems an odd way to do this. But the Wus argue that they have succeeded over the years by anticipating changes in the economic wind and gambling big on the outcome. They are trying again this time. Just in case, the outside world fails to notice, Huaxi has invited the international media to the village's 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday, when its skyscraper will be officially unveiled. To give visitors a better view, villagers have started a helicopter business – a first step in a planned expansion into commercial aviation and high-end tourism.

If anywhere in China can find new areas of economic expansion it is Huaxi. But even with the political connections and business nous, it is hard to imagine that the village will reinvent itself as a tourist centre – particularly given the advanced age of the retired party secretary who is its main attraction.

如果中国的其他地方能找到经济发展的新地方的话，它就是华西村。但是即使拥有与政治资本和商业经验，我们也很难想象这座村庄能重新将自己打造成一个旅游中心——特别是已经退休的党委书记年纪大了，而他是关键性的人物。

But Huaxi has proved its doubters wrong in the past. Ahead of the opening of their new skyscraper, the mood on the streets was optimistic. In the evening, locals, neighbours and migrants gather to dance on the village square, a huge expanse of concrete between 15-storey pagodas that pulsate pink, blue, green and yellow. One migrant labourer from the steel factory, who declined to give his name, said the tower would help the economy and create new opportunities. "Nobody would invest so much money in something that wasn't sure to be a success, right?"

但是华西村在过去的日子里应经证明了对它持怀疑态度的人时错误的。在他们开放他们新的摩天大楼前夕，街上的气氛很乐观。傍晚时分，村里人，邻村人以及民工们在村里的广场上一起跳舞，这是一个位于15层高的，闪烁着五颜六色霓虹灯的塔楼群间的巨大的水泥广场。一位来自钢铁厂的民工，他不愿透露他的姓名，说道，这个新的高塔将会对经济有所帮助，创造新的就业机会。“没有谁会给自己也没有把握能成功的东西砸这么多的钱吧，对不对？”