| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| It was supposed to be an opportunity for music students at the University of Michigan to learn about the process of adapting a classic literary text into an opera from one of the music school’s most celebrated professors, the composer Bright Sheng. | 对密歇根大学(University of Michigan)学习音乐的学生来说，听该校音乐学院最著名的教授之一、作曲家盛宗亮讲授将经典文学剧本改编成歌剧的过程，原本是一次难得的机会。 |
| But at the first class meeting of this fall’s undergraduate composition seminar, when Professor Sheng hit play on the 1965 film of Shakespeare’s “Othello” starring Laurence Olivier, it quickly became a lesson in something else entirely. | 但在今年秋季给本科生开的作曲研讨课的第一节课上，盛宗亮按下播放钮，给学生们播放1965年的电影、由劳伦斯·奥利维尔(Laurence Olivier)主演的莎士比亚剧《奥赛罗》(Othello)后，这门课很快变成了一件完全不同的东西。 |
| Students said they sat in stunned silence as Olivier appeared onscreen in thickly painted blackface makeup. Even before class ended 90 minutes later, group chat messages were flying, along with at least one email of complaint to the department reporting that many students were “incredibly offended both by this video and by the lack of explanation as to why this was selected for our class.” | 学生们说，当奥利维尔涂着厚厚黑油彩的脸出现在屏幕上时，他们被惊得哑口无言。早在这节90分钟的课结束之前，群聊中已短信横飞，至少有一人向系里发了投诉电子邮件，称许多学生“对这个录像以及教授不解释选择播放它的理由感到极为不舒服”。 |
| Within hours, Professor Sheng had sent a terse email issuing the first of what would be two apologies. Then, after weeks of emails, open letters and canceled classes, it was announced on Oct. 1 that Professor Sheng — a two-time Pulitzer finalist and winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant — was voluntarily stepping back from the class entirely, in order to allow for a “positive learning environment.” | 不出几个小时，盛宗亮发了一封简短的道歉电子邮件，后来他再次表示道歉。随后的几周里，在多次撰写了电子邮件和公开信，以及几节课被取消后，校方于10月1日宣布，盛宗亮（曾两次进入普利策奖终选名单、得过麦克阿瑟“天才”奖）将自愿停授这门课，以便让学生有一个“积极的学习环境”。 |
| The incident might have remained just the latest flash point at a music program that has been roiled in recent years by a series of charges of misconduct by star professors. But a day before Professor Sheng stepped down, a long, scathing Medium post by a student in the class rippled across Twitter before getting picked up in Newsweek, Fox News, The Daily Mail and beyond, entangling one of the nation’s leading music schools in the supercharged national debate over race, academic freedom and free speech. | 这个事件也许可以保持在这样一个层面——它不过是一所音乐学院面临的一个最新引爆点；近年来，该学院因一系列对明星教授的不当行为指控，已经陷入了动荡不安。但在盛宗亮主动停课的一天前，一名选了这门课的学生在Medium上发了一篇措辞严厉的长文，文章在Twitter上被大量转发后，继续在《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)、福克斯新闻(Fox News)、《每日邮报》(The Daily Mail)及其他媒体上发酵，让一所全美顶尖的音乐学院卷入了关于种族、学术自由和言论自由的异常激烈的全国辩论。 |
| To some observers, it’s a case of campus “cancel culture” run amok, with overzealous students refusing to accept an apology — with the added twist that the Chinese-born Professor Sheng was a survivor of the Cultural Revolution, during which the Red Guards had seized the family piano. | 在一些观察者看来，这是校园“取消文化”泛滥的一个例子，除了激情过高的学生拒绝接受道歉外，还附带一个意外的波折——中国出生的盛宗亮是文化大革命的幸存者，他家的钢琴在“文革”中被红卫兵抄走。 |
| To others, the incident is symbolic of an arrogant academic and artistic old guard and of the deeply embedded anti-Black racism in classical music, a field that has been slow to abandon performance traditions featuring blackface and other racialized makeup. | 在其他人眼里，这个事件是傲慢的学术和艺术卫道士的象征，也象征了古典音乐中根深蒂固的针对黑人的种族主义，古典音乐界在放弃涂黑脸和其他种族化化妆的表演传统上一直行动缓慢。 |
| In an email to The New York Times, Professor Sheng, 66, reiterated his apology. “From the bottom of my heart, I would like to say that I am terribly sorry,” he said. | 在给《纽约时报》的一封电子邮件中，现年66岁的盛宗亮重申了他的道歉。“我诚心诚意地说，我非常抱歉，”他写道。 |
| “Of course, facing criticism for my misjudgment as a professor here is nothing like the experience that many Chinese professors faced during the Cultural Revolution,” he wrote. “But it feels uncomfortable that we live in an era where people can attempt to destroy the career and reputation of others with public denunciation. I am not too old to learn, and this mistake has taught me much.” | “当然，我在这件事上作为教授判断失误而面临批评，与许多中国教授在文化大革命中面对的经历完全不同，”他写道。“但让人感到不安的是，我们生活在一个有人可以试图通过公开谴责来毁掉别人的事业和名誉的时代。我还没老到不能学习的程度，这个错误已经让我学到了很多东西。” |
| Professor Sheng, who joined the Michigan faculty in 1995 and holds the title Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor, the highest rank on the faculty, was born in 1955 in Shanghai. As a teenager during the Cultural Revolution, to avoid being sent to a farm to be “re-educated,” he auditioned for an officially sanctioned folk music ensemble, and was sent to Qinghai province, a remote area near the Tibetan border, according to a university biography. | 盛宗亮1955年出生于上海，1995年开始在美国密歇根大学任教，拥有“雷昂纳德·伯恩斯坦杰出大学教授”(Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor)的头衔，这是该校教职的最高级别。据该校提供的简历，“文革”时只有十几岁的盛宗亮，为了避免下放，报名参加了一个有官方许可的民族乐团，之后被送到青海省一个离西藏不远的偏僻地区。 |
| After the universities reopened in 1976, he got a degree in composition from Shanghai University, and in 1982, he moved to the United States, eventually earning a doctorate at Columbia University. | 1978年大学恢复招生后，他考上上海音乐学院获得了一个作曲学位。1982年，他移居美国，最后在哥伦比亚大学获得了博士学位。 |
| His work, which includes an acclaimed 2016 opera based on the 18th-century Chinese literary classic “Dream of the Red Chamber,” blends elements of Eastern and Western music. “When someone asks me if I consider myself a Chinese or American composer, I say, in the most humble way, ‘100 percent both,’” he said earlier this year. | 他的作品融合了东西方音乐的元素，其中包括他2016年创作的一部受到高度评价的歌剧，它改编自中国18世纪的文学经典《红楼梦》。“每当有人问我，觉得自己是中国作曲家还是美国作曲家时，我都以最谦逊的方式说，‘百分之百地两者都是’，”他今年早些时候说道。 |
| The Olivier film was controversial even when it was new. Writing in The New York Times, the critic Bosley Crowther expressed shock that Olivier “plays Othello in blackface,” noting his “wig of kinky black hair,” his lips “smeared and thickened with a startling raspberry red” and his exaggerated accent, which he described as reminiscent of “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” (To “the sensitive American viewer,” Crowther wrote, Olivier looked like someone in a “minstrel show.”) | 奥利维尔主演的那部电影在刚出来时就备受争议。影评人博斯利·克劳瑟(Bosley Crowther)当时在《纽约时报》上对奥利维尔“涂黑脸演奥赛罗”表示惊愕，并指出奥利维尔“一头怪异的黑卷发”、“涂满了厚厚一层刺眼的山莓红”的嘴唇，以及夸张的口音，让人想起了《阿莫斯与安迪》（Amos ‘n’ Andy，美国20世纪60年代前以黑人角色为主的系列情景喜剧——译注）。（克劳瑟写道，在“敏感的美国观众”眼里，奥利维尔看上去像是“黑脸走唱秀”中的某个角色。） |
| Professor Sheng, in his emailed response to questions from The Times, said that the purpose of the class had been to show how Verdi had adapted Shakespeare’s play into an opera, and that he had chosen the Olivier film simply because it was “one of the most faithful to Shakespeare.” He also said that he had not seen the makeup as an attempt to mock Black people, but as part of a long tradition — one that has persisted in opera — which he said valued the “music quality of the singers” over physical resemblance. | 盛宗亮通过电子邮件回复时报的提问时说，开设这门课的目的是讲授威尔第如何将莎士比亚的剧本改编成歌剧，他之所以选择了奥利维尔主演的那部电影，只因为它是“最忠实于莎士比亚原著的电影之一”。盛宗亮还说，他以前没有把那种化妆视为嘲笑黑人，而是将其视为一个长久传统的一部分，并一直在歌剧中延续着，他说，该传统重视的是“歌唱家的演唱质量”，而不是外形上相似。 |
| “Of course, times have changed, and I made a mistake in showing this film,” he said. “That was insensitive of me, and I am very sorry.” | “当然，时代变了，我放这部电影是一个错误，”他说。“我没有意识到，我很抱歉。” |
| But to the students — for some, it was their very first class at the university — it was simply a shock. “I was stunned,” Olivia Cook, a freshman, told The Michigan Daily, adding that the classroom was “supposed to be a safe space.” | 但那节课对学生们来说太让人震惊了，对其中某些学生来说，那是他们在这所大学上的第一堂课。“我惊呆了，”新生奥利维亚·库克(Olivia Cook)对《密歇根日报》说道，她还说，课堂“本来应该是一个安全的空间”。 |
| A week after the video was shown, Professor Sheng signed on to a letter from six of the composition department’s seven professors, which described the incident as “disappointing and harmful to individual students in many different ways, and destructive to our community.” He also sent another, longer, apology, saying that since the incident, “I did more research and learning on the issue and realized that the depth of racism was, and still is, a dangerous part of American culture.” | 该片播放一周后，盛宗亮在作曲系七名教授中的六人联名起草的一封信上签了名，这封信将这起事件描述为“令人失望，在很多方面对学生个人造成了伤害，也对我们的社区造成了破坏”。盛宗亮还发了第二封更长的道歉信，说自事件发生以来，“我对这个问题做了更多的研究和学习，意识到种族主义之根深蒂固过去是、现在仍然是美国文化的一个危险部分。” |
| Professor Sheng also cited discrimination he had faced as an Asian American and listed various Black musicians he had mentored or supported, as well as his daughter’s experience performing with Kanye West. “I hope you can accept my apology and see that I do not discriminate,” he wrote. | 盛宗亮还提到了自己作为亚裔美国人面临的歧视，列举了他指导或支持过的多名黑人音乐家，以及他女儿与坎耶·维斯特(Kanye West)一起表演的经历。“我希望你们能接受我的道歉并明白我不歧视任何人，”他写道。 |
| That apology provoked fresh outrage. In an open letter to the dean, a group of 33 undergraduate and graduate students and nine staff and faculty members (whose names were not made public) called on the school to remove Professor Sheng from the class, calling his apology “inflammatory” and referring to an unspecified “pattern of harmful behavior in the classroom” which had left students feeling “unsafe and uncomfortable.” | 这封道歉信引发了新的愤怒。在致院长的一封公开信中，（未公开姓名的）33名本科生、研究生，以及九名教职员工要求学校不再让盛宗亮教这门课，称他的道歉信“有煽动性”，还提到未具体说明的“课堂上的有害行为模式”让学生感到“不安全和不舒服”。 |
| (“In retrospect,” Professor Sheng wrote in his email to The Times, “I should have apologized for my mistake without qualification.”) | （“回过头来看，”盛宗亮在发给时报的电子邮件中写道，“我应该毫无保留地为自己的错误道歉。”） |
| On Sept. 30, a senior in the class, Sammy Sussman, posted the long Medium essay, outlining what he saw as Professor Sheng’s “disregard for students” (which, he wrote, included walking out in the middle of Mr. Sussman’s audition for the program several years earlier). Mr. Sussman, who in 2018 was the first to report allegations of sexual misconduct against another music faculty member, Stephen Shipps, also linked the case to what he said was a broader failure of the university and the classical music industry to hold prominent figures to account. | 9月30日，选了这门课的大四学生萨米·萨斯曼(Sammy Sussman)在Medium上发的一篇长文中，概述了他眼里的盛宗亮“漠视学生的行为”（他写道，其中包括在自己几年前的一次试演时盛宗亮的中途退出）。萨斯曼是第一个在2018年对另一名音乐学院教授斯蒂芬·希普斯(Stephen Shipps)提出不当性行为指控的人，他还将该案与密歇根大学和古典音乐界未能让知名人士承担责任的更广泛失职联系起来。 |
| After Mr. Sussman posted a link to the essay on Twitter, it was retweeted by another composition professor, Kristin Kuster, who cited the need for “conversations about pedagogical racism and pedagogical abuse,” and tagged a number of musicians, as well as the Pulitzer Prize board and the MacArthur Foundation. (Both Mr. Sussman and Professor Kuster declined to comment on the record.) | 萨斯曼在Twitter上发布这篇文章的链接后，作曲系的另一名教授克里斯汀·库斯特(Kristin Kuster)转发了链接，提出了“讨论教学法的种族主义和教学法中的不当”的必要性，还在转发时挂上了几名音乐家、普利策奖委员会和麦克阿瑟基金会的标签。（萨斯曼和库斯特都拒绝公开置评。） |
| Some accused the students, and the school, of overreacting. In an article in Reason, Robby Soave, an editor at the magazine, argued that Professor Sheng’s apology “ought to have been more than sufficient” and argued that he now deserves an apology himself. | 一些人指责学生和学校反应过度。《理性》杂志(Reason)的编辑罗比·索阿夫(Robby Soave)在该杂志的一篇文章中指出，盛宗亮的道歉“本应绰绰有余”，他还提出，盛宗亮本人现在应该得到道歉。 |
| “The University of Michigan is a public institution at which students and professors deserve free speech and expression rights,” he wrote. “It is a violation of the university’s cherished principles of academic freedom to punish Sheng for the choices he makes in the classroom. Screening a racially problematic film in an educational setting is neither a racist act nor an endorsement of racism.” | “密歇根大学是一个公立部门，学生和教授理应享有言论自由和表达权利，”索阿夫写道。“因为盛宗亮在课堂上的选择而惩罚他，违反了学校珍视的学术自由原则。在教育的背景下播放一部有种族问题的电影既不是种族主义行为，也不是对种族主义的认可。” |
| A spokesman for the university, Kim Broekhuizen, confirmed that the incident had been referred to the university’s Office of Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX for investigation, but emphasized that Professor Sheng had stepped down from the class voluntarily, was still teaching individual studios, and was scheduled to teach next semester. | 密歇根大学发言人金姆·布鲁克赫伊珍(Kim Broekhuizen)证实，该事件已交给大学的公平、民权和教育修正案第九条办公室(Office of Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX)进行调查，但她强调，盛宗亮是自愿不再教这门课的，他仍在进行个人工作室授课，下学期也计划继续教课。 |
| “We do not shy away from addressing racism or any other difficult topic with our students,” Ms. Broekhuizen said in an email to The Times. But “in this particular instance, the appropriate context or historical perspective was not provided and the professor has acknowledged that.” | “我们不回避与学生讨论种族主义或任何其他困难的话题，”布鲁克赫伊珍在给时报的一封电子邮件中写道。但“在这个具体例子中，这位教授没有提供适当的背景或历史视角，他已经承认了这点。” |
| Some scholars who teach blackface traditions questioned the quickness of some to denounce the students, or to mock their insistence on contextualization as a demand for “trigger warnings.” | 一些讲授涂黑脸传统的学者对有人如此之快地谴责学生，或嘲笑学生坚持让教授提供了解这些传统的背景是要求得到“触发警告”（对可能会冒犯到他人的内容提前发出警告——译注）提出质疑。 |
| “Gen Z is unbelievably right on when they say, ‘If you’re not going to give us the context, we shouldn’t have to watch it,’” said Ayanna Thompson, a Shakespeare scholar at Arizona State University who has written extensively on Shakespeare and race. | “Z世代说，‘如果你们不给我们提供背景，我们就可以不看’，说得太对了，”亚利桑那州立大学(Arizona State University)研究莎士比亚的艾安娜·汤普森(Ayanna Thompson)说，她写过大量关于莎士比亚和种族的文章。 |
| Professor Thompson, the author of the recent book “Blackface” and a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company, declined to comment on the details of Professor Sheng’s case. But she said that when it comes to “Othello” and blackface minstrelsy, the connections aren’t incidental, but absolutely fundamental. | 汤普森是最近出版的《涂黑脸》(Blackface)一书的作者，也是英国皇家莎士比亚剧团(Royal Shakespeare Company)的理事。她拒绝就盛宗亮情况的细节置评。但她说，就《奥赛罗》与白人涂黑脸的走唱秀而言，两者之间的联系不是偶然的，而是绝对根本的。 |
| Contrary to widespread belief, she said, blackface wasn’t an American invention, but sprang from older European performance traditions going back to the Middle Ages. And it was at an 1833 performance of “Othello” featuring a blacked-up actor that T.D. Rice, the white American performer seen as the father of minstrelsy, claimed to have been inspired to get up at intermission and put on blackface to perform “Jump Jim Crow” for the first time. | 她说，与普遍的看法相反，涂黑脸并不是美国人的发明，而是源自更老的欧洲表演传统，可追溯到中世纪。被视为涂黑脸走唱秀之父的美国白人演员T·D·赖斯(T.D. Rice)声称，他是在1833年观看了一场涂了黑脸的演员上演的《奥赛罗》后受到启发，在幕间休息时走上台，涂着黑脸首次表演了名为《跳跃吉米科罗》(Jump Jim Crow)这首歌。 |
| “Whenever you’re teaching Shakespeare, period, the history of performing race should be part of the discussion,” Professor Thompson said. “Everyone has a responsibility to give the full history.” | “每当你讲授莎士比亚时，表演种族的历史都应该是讨论的一部分，绝对的，”汤普森说。“每个人都有责任提供完整的历史。” |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们