第一部分

编者按：本文作者Alan Paul是《吉他世界》(Guitar World)的高级编辑，同时也为美国篮球杂志《灌篮》(Slam)撰写文章。

An Expat's Exotica

I always understood that living in Beijing seemed pretty wild to most people back in the U.S. On visits home I had to make a conscious decision whether to exaggerate or downplay the exoticism.

我知道，绝大多数美国人觉得住在北京好像很刺激。回到美国后，我得有意识地做个决定，对在北京生活的这段日子，是说得夸张一点好呢，还是平淡一点好。

The truth is that in a big, rapidly developing Chinese city like Beijing or Shanghai it is possible to live a fairly cushy, Western-style life if you so choose. I was intrigued by expats living further off the beaten path.

真相是，在北京或上海这种快速发展的大城市里，只要你愿意，可以过上西方的那种舒适生活。然而，有些来中国的老外不落俗套的生活方式让我很感兴趣。

During my travels, I looked for little pockets of foreigners settling in China's remote corners. In Wuhan, the capital of the central province of Hubei, I met Janie Corum and her husband Ralph, who have lived there for about six years. Ms. Corum estimates there are about 400 Americans and 4,000 resident foreigners in the city of 8.3 million, a ratio she finds attractive.

在中国各地旅行时，我喜欢去这个国家偏远角落的一些老外小圈子探寻一下。在湖北的省会城市武汉，我遇到詹妮•克伦姆(Janie Corum)和她的丈夫拉尔夫(Ralph)，两人已经在那里生活了六年左右。詹妮估计，在武汉这个人口830万的城市里，约有400个美国人和4,000个常驻外国人，这么小的占比对她来说很有吸引力。

'I wanted to be some place where there is a smaller foreign community because we really wanted to understand the local culture and have Chinese friends,' says Ms. Corum, 58. 'In Beijing or Shanghai it would be too easy to be with expats all the time.'

“我希望住在一个外国人群体较小的地方，因为我们真的想了解当地的文化，和中国人交朋友。”58岁的詹妮说，“而在北京和上海，很容易整天跟来中国的外国人混在一起。”

They had long wanted to live overseas and finally moved to Taiwan and began studying Chinese nine years ago, with a plan to eventually move to mainland China.

克伦姆夫妇一直都想在美国之外的地方生活，九年前终于迁往台湾，在那里开始学习中文，并计划最终搬到中国大陆居住。

第二部分

'We began coming to China for service projects in 1993 and always wanted to return longer term,' says Ms. Corum. 'When we got to Wuhan, we felt strongly it was the right place.'

“我们俩从1993年开始就来中国做一些服务项目，一直想在这里住久一点。”詹妮说，“到武汉后，我们有一种强烈的感觉：这里就是适合我们生活的地方。”

They have seen a lot of changes in Wuhan, where they don't stand out as much as they once did; six years ago they were stared at everywhere they went, which is no longer the case. There was a near total absence of imported products and English signs, both of which are now more common. Yet they have always felt welcome.

他们感受到武汉这些年来的许多变化。现在，他们不再像以前那样成为众人瞩目的焦点。六年前，两人去任何地方，都会引起当地人的关注，但现在人们已经对老外熟视无睹。以前，进口食品和英语路标在武汉几乎没有，现在变得常见多了。不过，他们还是一如既往地感受到当地人的热情和好客。

'Many locals, especially students, love to practice speaking English with us and parents often encourage their children and grandchildren to do so. Also, because we are older the locals have usually treated us with great respect.'

“很多当地人，尤其是学生，很喜欢跟我们说话，练习英语。中国小孩的父母和长辈们往往鼓励他们和老外说话。另外，因为我们年纪大一点，当地人通常都很尊重我们。”

Ms. Corum is the chairman of the newly opened Central China Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce. She says the group is pioneering the vast region for American businesses, striving to create a more comfortable environment. More foreign businesses will be coming to China's more remote corners, she notes, and she believes she is helping to pave the way.

詹妮是刚成立的中美商会华中分会(Central China Chapter of the American Chamber of Commerce)的主席，她说该组织正在推动该区域的中美商业合作，力求创造一个更良好的投资环境。她表示，越来越多的外资企业将去中国内地发展，她相信自己从事的工作有助于为此奠定一个良好的基础。

第三部分

Another expat who is both settling roots deep in China's interior while establishing a bit of an American foothold is Noah Krieg, an earnest young American running a coffee shop called the Fifth Tone in Changsha, Hunan.

另一个热忱的美国年轻人诺阿.克里格(Noah Krieg)也在中国扎下了根，同时他还打造了一个有点美国风格的立足点，在湖南长沙开了一家名叫“第五音”(Fifth Tone)的咖啡馆。

Amongst the 68.5-million Hunanese there are only about 4,000 resident foreigners. Mr. Krieg, like some other Americans I met there, arrived as an English teacher.

在人口6850万的湖南省，只有4,000名常驻外国人。克里格与我遇到的其他一些美国人一样，最早是来当英语老师的。

'I wanted an American style coffee shop because there wasn't anything like it and I really thought that a lot of Chinese [college] students would enjoy the opportunity to hang out and interact in a relaxed manner,' says Mr. Krieg. 'And I wanted a place that could serve as a platform for cross culture conversation.'

“我想开一家美式风格的咖啡馆，因为这还是个空白，我觉得很多中国大学生会喜欢在这种轻松的环境下休闲和交友。”克里格说，“希望这里能成为多文化交流的一个平台。”

To that end, every Tuesday night, the shop hosts English corners, where Chinese students can hone their language skills, guided by English teachers. The roles are reversed for the following evening's Chinese corners.

出于这一目的，咖啡馆每周二晚上都会组织一个英语角，中国学生可以来这里，在英语老师的指导下练习会话技巧；而周三晚上的汉语角则由中国人来指导老外如何说汉语。

'There are a lot of students here who are anxious to speak better English and just have opportunities to interact with foreigners and we provide the setting to do that,' says Mr. Krieg.

“这里有很多学生希望自己的英语能说得更好，能有机会与外国人交流，而我们提供了这种环境。”克里格说道。

Jeff Crosby has experienced both sides of the expat equation, originally moving to Kunming, the capital of the Southwestern province of Yunnan, to study Chinese in a university program. He stayed there for six years, moved to Beijing for two and half years and is now back in Kunming. He says that each place has helped him acquire the skill he needed to start his own business translating documents to and from Chinese and managing artists and musicians.

杰夫•克罗斯比(Jeff Crosby)有过在中国学习和工作的双重体验。起初，他来到云南昆明的一所大学学中文，在那里生活了六年，后来去北京呆了两年半，现在又回到昆明。他说每个地方都让自己积累起创业所需的技能，他的公司涉及中外文互译以及为艺术家和音乐家安排来华演出。

第四部分

'Starting out in Kunming forced me to learn how to navigate Chinese society for myself much more deeply and quickly than I probably could have managed in Beijing,' says Mr. Crosby, who writes the South of the Clouds blog. 'There is such a critical mass of foreigners in Beijing, and there are so many bilingual Chinese, that a lot of people get by without having to take a plunge into the local society. Also the lack of available talent in Kunming allowed me to punch above my weight class, because you had these highly talented people who desperately needed someone who spoke native English to help them do things like setting up a Web site or moderating business negotiations.'

“在昆明生活让我学会如何在中国社会中摸爬滚打，如果一开始就去北京，感受可能没那么深，学习的速度也没那么快。”克罗斯比在自己的博客South of the Clouds(云之南)上写道，“北京的外国人那么多，会说英语的中国人也很多，所以许多老外不需要融入当地生活就能过得轻松自在。而昆明的双语人才缺乏，令我得以发挥自身优势，因为很多人特别需要来自英语国家的人帮他们建英文网站或在商业谈判中做翻译。”

'Once I had that grounding, however, I really benefitted from spending more time in Beijing, which woke me up to a lot of new possibilities, and sparked greater enthusiasm and ambition in me. The danger of a place like Kunming, where it is cheap and comfy, is that it is easy to grow complacent. A lot of people fall into the 'expat trap,' where you leverage your advantages as a foreigner to get by with as little work as possible, and find yourself utterly unemployable back home. '

“经历在昆明的生活后，我觉得在北京的日子也让我获益良多，因为那里激发了我很多新的想法，让我变得更富激情和斗志。昆明这样的地方生活成本很低，也很舒适，但危险之处在于容易让人安于现状。许多人都陷入一个‘老外陷阱’之中，以自己是外国人为借口，什么也不做，结果发现回国后根本找不到工作。”

Of course, there are expats living off the beaten path all over the world. Many of them can be found blogging away on www.expat-blog.com, a clearinghouse for expat writing. I often enjoy poking around to see who is writing what from where.

当然，在异国发展的人有很多，其中不少人都在www.expat-blog.com写博客，这是一个聚集全球外派人员的网上社区。我经常上去逛逛，看看谁又在哪个地方写了些什么。

It was there that I found Geoff Roberts, one of the hearty souls who have become veritable specialists at living in exotic locales. A headhunter recruited Mr. Roberts to work as a Corrosion Engineer for an oil company in Tripoli, Libya, where he relocated in February. The Welshman has previously worked in Kazakhstan, Yemen and Iran, as well as throughout Europe.

在那里，我认识了乔夫•罗伯斯(Geoff Roberts)，他是一个很真诚的人，去过许多遥远的国度，是个在异国他乡生活的专家。有家猎头公司介绍罗伯斯去利比亚首都的黎波里的一家石油公司当防腐材料工程师，他2009年2月前往那里。这个威尔士男人以前还在哈萨克斯坦、也门、伊朗和欧洲各地工作过。

He says that he was about to decline the offer when his wife pushed him to accept; she longed for another adventure, months after repatriating from Kazakhstan back to Wales. Despite some trepidation, he has found Libya to be a surprisingly relaxed, optimistic place and Libyans easier to befriend than he had anticipated.

罗伯斯说他本来想拒绝这份工作，但妻子坚持让他接受，因为她从哈萨克斯坦回威尔士好几个月了，渴望新的冒险经历。虽然利比亚的局势有些动荡，但他发现这个地方的生活节奏很轻松，利比亚人也很乐观，比他想象的更好接触和交往。

'They are really happy to see Western faces again, after all the years of sanctions,' he says. 'Where I live we have a surprising melting pot of people from all nationalities and we all get along quite well. As a guy who enjoys a beer, it can tough living someplace where it is rather hard to get one, however.'

“经过这么多年的国际制裁后，他们真的很高兴又看到西方人的面孔。” 罗伯斯说，“让我惊奇的是，我住的地方简直是个种族大熔炉，什么国家的人都有，大家相处都很愉快。不过，作为一个喜欢喝啤酒的人，在利比亚这个很难找到啤酒的地方生活，还是有些不太习惯。”

After living in places with various privations, due to either oppressive governments or lack of economic opportunity, for years, Mr. Roberts has also been surprised by Libya's relative open nature.

在许多贫困国家─－无论贫困是由于政府压迫还是缺乏经济发展机会─－生活多年后，利比亚相对开放的环境也让罗伯斯感到惊讶。

'It is very free out here -- no internet sites are blocked and you get access to all the Satellite TV channels,' says Mr. Roberts. 'In fact I feel far more monitored with all the CCTV cameras back in the UK.'

“这里感觉很自由，互联网不受限制，也能看到所有的卫星电视频道，”罗伯斯说，“事实上，我觉得英国的公共监控系统让人感觉更压抑。”

You never know where you might feel most free to be yourself.

你永远都不会知道，哪里的生活会让自己觉得最无拘无束。