纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英羡慕泪水和启发中国人的台湾观选之旅

At the Taipei train station, a Chinese human rights activist named Cuicui watched with envy as six young Taiwanese politicians campaigned for the city’s legislative seats. A decade ago, they had been involved in parallel democratic protest movements — she in China, and the politicians on the opposite side of the Taiwan Strait.

在台北火车站，一位名叫翠翠（音）的中国人权活动人士羡慕地看着六位年轻的台湾政治人物正在竞选台北市议会席位。十年前，他们曾同时参与民主抗议活动——她在中国，而那六位台湾人则在台湾海峡的对岸。

“We came of age as activists around the same time. Now they’re running as legislators while my peers and I are in exile,” said Cuicui, who fled China for Southeast Asia last year over security concerns.

“我们是同时代的行动者。现在他们在选议员，我和同伴们却在流亡，”翠翠说，她在去年出于安全考虑从中国逃至东南亚。

Cuicui was one in a group of eight women I followed last week in Taiwan before the Jan. 13 election. Their tour was called “Details of a Democracy” and was put together by Annie Jieping Zhang, a mainland-born journalist who worked in Hong Kong for two decades before moving to Taiwan during the pandemic. Her goal is to help mainland Chinese see Taiwan’s election firsthand.

翠翠是1月13日的台湾大选前我在台湾跟踪报道一周的八名女性之一。她们的观选团名为“民主的细节”，由大陆出生的记者张洁平组织，她在香港工作了20年，疫情期间移居台湾。她的目标是帮助大陆人亲眼见证台湾的选举。

The women went to election rallies and talked to politicians and voters, as well as homeless people and other disadvantaged groups. They attended a stand-up comedy show by a man from China, now living in Taiwan, whose humor addressed topics that are taboo in his home country.

她们去了选举集会，与政客和选民交谈，还接触了无家可归者和其他弱势群体。她们看了一位来自中国大陆、现居台湾人士的脱口秀表演，幽默调侃了在他的祖国属于禁忌的话题。

It was an emotional trip filled with envy, admiration, tears and revelations.

这是一场饱含羡慕、钦佩、泪水和启发的动人之旅。

The group made several stops at sites that demonstrated the “White Terror” repression Taiwan went though between 1947 and 1987, when tens of thousands of people were imprisoned and at least 1,000 were executed after being accused of spying for China. They visited a former prison that had jailed political prisoners. For them, it was a history lesson in Taiwan’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy, a path they believe is increasingly unattainable in China.

观选团去了好几处展示台湾在1947年至1987年遭受“白色恐怖”镇压的地点，当时有数以万计人被监禁，至少1000人因被指是大陆匪谍而被处决。她们参观了一座曾关押政治犯的看守所。在她们看来，这是台湾从威权走向民主的历史教训，而这条路在中国已经越来越不现实了。

“Although it may seem like traveling backward in time for people in Taiwan, for us, it’s the present,” said Yamei, a Chinese journalist in her 20s now living outside China.

“虽然那个是对于台湾人来讲是逆时，可是对我们来讲其实就是现在，”20多岁、现居海外的中国记者雅梅（音）说。

Members of the group flew in from Japan, Southeast Asia and the United States — anywhere but China. Both China and Taiwan have made it harder for Chinese to visit the island as tensions between them have spiked over Beijing’s increasingly assertive claim on the island. They ranged in age from their 20s to their 70s. Some were activists like Cuicui, who left the country recently, while others were professionals and businesspeople who have lived abroad for years and are not necessarily political in their outlook.

观选团成员均来自日本、东南亚和美国，没有任何人居于中国。随着北京对台湾的主权主张日益强硬导致台海紧张加剧，中国和台湾都让中国人前往该岛变得更加困难。她们的年纪从20多岁到70多岁不等。其中有像翠翠这样最近才离开中国的活动人士，也有移居海外多年的职业和商业人士，不见得都是满脑子政治的人。

Angela Chen, a real estate agent in Portland, Ore., joined the tour to take her mother on a vacation. Ms. Chen is a naturalized U.S. citizen who identifies culturally as Chinese. The trip was eye opening, she said. She was shocked to learn how tragic and fierce Taiwan’s democratization process had been. Her father, like many Chinese parents, told her not to get involved in politics. Now she felt that everyone had to contribute to push a society forward.

俄勒冈州波特兰市的房地产经纪人安吉拉·陈（音）参团是为了带母亲来度假。她已归化为美国公民，但在文化上认同自己是中国人。她说，这场旅行令她大开眼界。看到台湾民主化进程中的惨烈历史，她深受震动。与许多中国家长一样，她的父亲叫她不要掺合政治。但现在，她认为每个人都必须为推动社会进步出上自己的一份力。

Until a decade ago, visiting Taiwan to witness its elections was a popular activity for mainland Chinese who were interested in exploring the possibilities of democratization.

直到十年前，到台湾见证选举，对有兴趣探索民主化可能性的大陆人来说可能还很受欢迎。

It’s easy to see why. Most Taiwanese speak Mandarin and share a cultural heritage with China as Han Chinese. As mainlanders searched for an alternative Chinese society, they naturally turned to Taiwan for answers.

这种现象是很好理解的。大多数台湾人都讲国语，并与中国享有共同的汉文化传承。当大陆人想要探索中国社会的另一种可能性，他们自然而然会从台湾寻找答案。

I traveled to Taiwan in 2012 to report about such a group, which had more than a dozen top Chinese intellectuals, entrepreneurs and investors. At the time, debates about the pros and cons of democracy, republicanism and constitutionalism were common on Chinese social media.

2012年，我曾前往台湾报道这样一个群体，他们由十几位中国顶尖知识分子、企业家和投资人组成。当时，关于民主、共和与宪政的讨论在中国社交媒体上比比皆是。

Opinion leaders were asking whether China would ever have a leader like Chiang Ching-kuo, the Taiwanese president who gradually shifted away from the dictatorial rule of his father, Chiang Kai-shek, in the 1980s.

意见领袖们都想知道，中国是否会出现一个类似于蒋经国的领导人，他在上世纪80年代担任台湾总统期间逐渐变革了其父蒋介石的专制统治。

That seems like a lifetime ago. Soon after that, Xi Jinping took over as China’s leader, and he has moved the country in the opposite direction. Civil society has been pushed underground and discussions about democracy forbidden.

如今回望恍如隔世。那之后不久，习近平成为中国领导人，让国家走上了相反的方向。公民社会被迫转入地下，关于民主的讨论成了禁忌。

Last week’s group visited Taiwan under very different circumstances. Most of them wanted to remain anonymous, agreeing to talk to me only if I identified them by their first name, because merely cheering Taiwan’s democracy is politically sensitive.

而这个观选团来台的背景也大不相同了。他们大多希望在与我的谈话中隐去姓氏，因为哪怕只是为台湾的民主欢呼都可能犯了政治上的禁忌。

At Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park, the former prison, it was easy for the group to picture how people had spent their time in crowded, humid and shabby cells and washed their clothes in toilets.

在原为看守所的白色恐怖景美纪念园区，她们不难想象这里的人曾如何在拥挤潮湿的破旧牢房中度日，并在厕所里清洗衣物。

“Many people thought that Taiwan’s democracy fell from the sky,” Antonio Chiang, a former journalist, dissident and adviser to the departing president, Tsai Ing-wen, told the group over lunch after their visit to the jail site. “It was the result of many people’s efforts,” he said.

“很多人以为台湾民主是自己掉下来的，”江春男在观选团结束看守所遗址行程后的午宴上对她们说。他曾是一名记者和异见人士，还做过将要离任的蔡英文总统的顾问。“其实是很多人的努力，”他说。

Mr. Chiang added, “It will be a very long time before China becomes a democracy.”

江春男还表示，“中国民主遥遥无期。”

Everyone knew that was true. Still, it was deflating for them to hear. But their despair didn’t last long.

虽然都知道他说的是事实，听到这话她们还是很泄气。但这种绝望并没有持续太久。

They heard from the daughter of Cheng Nan-jung, a publisher and pro-democracy activist who set himself on fire to protest the lack of freedom of speech in 1989. At the site of his self-immolation, her comments resonated with the visiting Chinese: “The predicament of a country can only be resolved by the people of that country themselves.”

她们聆听了郑南榕之女的发言，郑南榕曾是一名出版商和民主活动家，在1989年为抗议缺乏言论自由自焚身亡。在当年自焚事件的现场，他的女儿的发言得到了来访中国人的共鸣：“一个国家的困境只有那个国家的人民自己去解决。”

Then they went to the stand-up show by the comic, who was from Xinjiang, the western Chinese region where more than one million Muslims were sent to re-education centers. Everyone cried. It was both heartbreaking and cathartic for them to hear someone using words, such as “Uyghurs,” “re-education camps” and “lockdowns,” that are considered too sensitive to be discussed at a public venue in China.

此后，她们去看了一位新疆喜剧演员的脱口秀表演，在这片中国西部地区，有超过100万穆斯林被送往再教育中心。所有人都看哭了。“维吾尔人”、“再教育营”和“封锁”等词语让她们在痛心之余也感到了一种宣泄释放，因为这些词被中国视为过于敏感，不能在公共空间讨论。

“If everyone does what they can, does it well and with a little more courage, our society will become better,” said the comic, who asked not to be named.

“每个人都把自己可以做到的做好，多一点点勇气，我们的社会一定会更好，”那位不愿透露姓名的喜剧演员说。

For the group, the most empowering part of the tour was to witness the citizens organizing themselves and casting their votes. As the visitors gathered at the island’s presidential palace, Yamei, the journalist, was surprised that its entrance was painted peachy pink.

对这群人来说，这次旅行最鼓舞人心的部分是亲眼目睹公民们组织起来投票。当参观者们聚集在岛上的总统府时，记者雅梅惊讶地发现，总统府的入口被漆成了桃红色。

“It was not an institution surrounded by absolute solemnity or high walls that would intimidate you,” she said. The contrast with Zhongnanhai, the compound for China’s top leaders in Beijing, “was quite striking.”

“这不是一个被绝对的威严和高墙包围的府衙，不会吓到你，”她说，这和中国最高领导人在北京的住地中南海“形成鲜明对比”。

After watching a documentary about bar hostesses who had organized a union, they learned that the women had drafted legislation to protect their rights. That would be unimaginable for anyone in China.

在看了一部关于酒吧女招待组织工会的纪录片后，他们了解到，这些女性起草了保护自己权利的立法。这对任何中国人来说都是难以想象的。

While homeless people are largely invisible in Chinese cities — because the authorities won’t allow them to be visible — the group learned that many organizations in Taiwan provide homeless people with meals, places to shower and other support.

在中国的城市里，无家可归者基本上是看不到的——因为当局不允许他们露面——但这群人了解到，台湾的许多组织为无家可归者提供食物、洗澡的地方和其他支持。

At election rallies, they saw voters — young and old, and parents with strollers — pack squares and stadiums to listen to candidates make their pitches.

在选举集会上，他们看到选民们——有老有少，还有推着婴儿车的父母们——聚集在广场和体育场，聆听候选人的竞选演说。

In the days before the election, they had heard from many Taiwanese who had still not decided which of the three presidential candidates they would vote for. Yet, the turnout on Taiwan’s Election Day was 72 percent, higher than the 66 percent that came out in the U.S. presidential election in 2020, the highest turnout in an American vote since 1900.

在选举前的几天，他们听到许多台湾人说，他们还没有决定投票给三位总统候选人中的哪一位。然而，台湾选举日的投票率为72%，高于2020年美国总统大选的66%，而那已经是自1900年以来美国投票率最高的一次。

The candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Lai Ching-te, won with 40 percent of the vote — not a satisfying outcome even for some of the party’s supporters. But still the people chose who would be their leader.

执政党民进党候选人赖清德以40%的得票率胜出——即使对该党的一些支持者来说，这也不是一个令人满意的结果。但这仍然是由人民选择谁将成为他们的领袖。

At a rally in the southern city of Tainan, amid the sounds of drums, gongs and fireworks, Lin Lizhen, the owner of a jewelry store, told the tour group proudly, “This is democracy.”

在台湾南部城市台南的一次集会上，锣鼓和烟花声中，一家珠宝店的老板林丽珍（音）自豪地对观选团说，“这就是民主。”

Then she said: “I know the mainlanders like freedom, too. They just don’t have the power to fight back.”

然后她说：“我知道大陆人也爱自由，他们只是没有力量反抗。”