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编者按：这个外国人是谁？美国人彼得?海斯勒（Peter Hessler），中文名何伟，曾任《纽约客》驻北京记者，以及《国家地理》杂志等媒体的撰稿人，数度获得美国最佳旅游写作奖。
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. 只有夜色足够黑的时候，才能看得见星星满天！
Everything is easy when youre busy, nothing is easy when youre lazy. 勤奋让一切都简单，懒惰让一切都困难。
《江城》是他的中国纪实三部曲之一（其他两部为《甲骨文》与《寻路中国》），记录了一个初到中国的27岁美国青年的见闻与感受。何伟的观察是细腻和敏锐的。对我们来说，他在《江城》描写的1996至1998年的涪陵也许是陌生的，仿佛十年前的纪录片，充满镜头感的描写，将我们刻意或者无意忘掉的那段时光展现在眼前。
中央电视台主持人柴静说：何伟写出了我熟视无睹的中国和那种亲切的酸楚。那个酸楚是剧变的实质——人最大的痛苦就是心灵没有归属，不管你知不知觉，承不承认。看过了《江城》，对彼得?海斯勒笔下的真中国，越发的喜欢……
同样，中国人眼里的外国人，也充满着与现实有差别的想象。正如选文里提到的，何伟的学生们都不约而同地写到他的蓝眼睛——因为从小就被告知外国人的眼睛是蓝色的，而实际上，与学生们朝夕相处的何伟老师，他的眼睛是褐色的。
十多年过去，变化的很多，而不变的也很多。
由于彼得?海斯勒《寻路中国》的畅销，较早出版的《江城》一引进就受到极大关注
《River Town》中美版本不同的封面
River Town (Excerpt)
［1］ MUCH OF WHAT I LEARNED in the early days was from the students. My Chinese wasnt yet good enough to talk with the people in town, which made the city overwhelming—a
江城（节选）
［1］ 起先的一段日子，我在涪陵的很多东西都是从学生那里学到的。我的汉语不够好，不足以同城里的人交流。这让我显得有些不知所措——在哪里都无法与人正常交流。于是，我听
mess of miscommunication. And so I listened to my students, reading what they wrote in their journals for class, and parts of Fuling slowly began to draw into focus.
The first thing I saw was myself and Adam. This was intimidating, because never in my life had I been watched so closely that every action was replayed and evaluated. Everything we did was talked and written about; every quirk or habit was laid bare. Students wrote about the way I always carried a water bottle to class; they wrote about how I paced the classroom as I taught; they wrote about my laugh, which they found ridiculous. They wrote about my foreign nose, which impressed them as impossibly long and straight, and many of them wrote about my blue eyes. This was perhaps the strangest detail of all, because my eyes are hazel—but my students had read that foreigners had blue eyes, and they saw what they wanted to see.
［2］ Mostly they wanted to see all of the outside world condensed into these two young waiguoren, which was what foreigners were called in Fuling—“people from outside the country.” One afternoon, Adam and I threw a Frisbee around the front plaza after dinner, and by the next day, when I read one students journal, the lazy game had become Olympian: When I was writing my composition, someone shouted at the classes:
‘Peter and Adam are playing Frisbee!’ At once, I put down my pen and rushed out the classroom. Really, they are! I wanted to see it clearly and didnt want to miss any scene. I ran into the classroom and put the glasses on my nose, then dashed to the classroom again. I can see it clearly now!…The two sports men stood far away from Frisbee each other and began to play. How wonderful it looked! The Frisbee was 学生念他们为完成功课而写的日记。慢慢地，涪陵的一些事情成为了我所关注的焦点。
头一件事就是亚当和我本人。这够吓人的，因为我以前从未被人如此关注过，每一个动作都叫人重复和评价一番。我们所做得一切都要被人谈论，然后记录下来。一切癖好和习惯都一览无余。学生们几下我带着水杯上课的样子，我在上课时绕着教室踱步的样子，还有我在他们看来十分滑稽的笑声。他们记下了我那给他们留下深刻印象的长而直的鹰钩，好多人还描述了我得蓝眼睛。这也许是所有细节中最奇怪的一点，因为我得眼睛是淡褐色的——但学生们早就从书本上了解到，外国人的眼睛都是蓝色的。他们看到了他们想看到的东西。
［2］ 他们最想看到的，是所有浓缩在这两个年轻外国人身上的有关外部世界的东西。一天晚饭后，我和亚当在校门口广场上玩飞盘。第二天，我在阅读一个学生写的日记时，这种懒散的体育运动竟然变成了奥林匹克精神：
当时我正在写作文，突然班上有人大声喊道：“彼得和亚当在玩飞盘！”我马上放下钢笔冲出教室。确实，他们在玩扔飞盘！我想看得真切些，我可不想错过这一景象。于是我又跑回教室，带上眼镜，冲出教室。现在我看得明明白白的！......这两个运动员离得很远，拉开架势，扔着飞盘。多精彩呀！飞盘就像一团红色的火焰，在他们两个人之间飞来飞去。我看了好一阵子。外国人真实多才多艺啊！
like a red fire, flying person to person between the two men. I have seen it for a long time. Foreigners are so versatile.
［3］ Other descriptions were less heroic. My favorite was written by a student named Richard, in an essay entitled “Why Americans Are So Casual”:
Im a Chinese. As we all know, the Chinese nation is a rather conservative nation. So many of us have conservative thinking in some degree. I dont know whether it is bad or good.
There is only one successto be able to spend your life in your own way. 人生唯一的成就，就是能按自己的想法生活。
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. 太多的人高估了他们所欠缺的，却又低估了他们所拥有的。
Our foreign language teachers—Peter and Adam—came to teach us this term. It provides a good opportunity of understanding the American way of life. In my opinion, they are more casual than us Chinese people. Why do I think so? Ill give you some facts to explain this.
For example, when Mr. Hessler is having class, he can scratch himself casually without paying attention to what others may say. He dresses up casually, usually with his belt dropping and dangling. But, to tell you the truth, it isnt consider a good manner in China, especially in old peoples eyes. In my opinion, I think it is very natural.
Last week, when Miss Thompson ［another Peace Corps volunteer who visited Fuling］ gave us a lecture on the American election, she took off her woolen sweater and tied it to her waist. To us Chinese people, its almost unimaginable. How can a teacher do that when she/he is having a lesson! But thanks goodness, we major in English and know something about America, it didnt surprise us. But if other people saw this, they might cant believe their own eyes.
［4］ It was an easy place to make mistakes, and plenty were made. But the locals tended to be forgiving—usually they gave us a hint, a nudge in the right direction. During the first week of class, Adam had his students introduce ［3］ 其他人的描述就没那么英雄气概了。我最中意的一篇是一个叫理查德的学生写的，名为“为什么美国人如此随意”：
我是个中国人。大家都知道，中华民族是一个相当保守的民族。所以，我们许多人的思想都比较保守。我不知道这是好还是坏。
我们的外语老师——彼得和亚当——这学期开始给我们上课。这是一个了解美国人的生活方式的好机会。依我看，他们比我们中国人还要随便。我为什么这么认为呢？请看以下事实。
例如，海斯勒先生在给我们上课的时候，他可以十分随意地在身上抓来抓去，而毫不在意别人怎么说。他穿得极随便，常常是半截皮带吊着，一晃一晃的。但是，说实话，这在中国就是不好的行为，尤其在老年人眼中特别如此。而在我看，这十分自然。
上周，汤普森小姐（一个来涪陵拜访我们的志愿队员）给我们作“美国的选择”报告的时候，她脱下羊毛衫，系在了腰间。在中国人看来，这简直是不可思议。一个老师在上课的时候，怎么可以那样做呢？谢天谢地，我们是学英语专业的，对美国有所了解，所以对此一点都不觉得奇怪。如果让其他人看见了，恐怕他们会不敢相信自己的眼睛。
［4］ 这是一个容易犯错的地方，我们的确也犯了许多错误。但是当地人都富于宽容之心——通常他们会向我们暗示什么事正确的做法。第一周上课的时候，亚当让他的学生做自我介绍，一个叫凯勒的女生站了起来。她说出了她
themselves, and a girl named Keller stood up. She told the name of her hometown, and she explained that she had chosen her English name in honor of Helen Keller. This was a common pattern; some of them had taken their names from people they admired, which explained why we had a Barbara (from Barbara Bush), an Armstrong (Neil Armstrong), and an idealistic second-year student called Marx. A few had translated their Chinese names directly—House, Yellow, North. There was one boy whose English name was Lazy. “My name is Lazy,” he said, on the first day of class. “I am very lazy. I do not like to play basketball or football or do many things. My hobbies are sleeping.”
［5］ Other names made less sense. There was a Soddy, a Sanlee, a Ker. Some were simply unfortunate: a very small boy called Pen, a very pretty girl named Coconut. One boy was called Daisy, a name that greatly dismayed Dean Fu. The dean was a handsome man with blueblack hair, and he was our main liaison with the English department—a position whose weight of responsibility often gave him a mournful air. He seemed particularly morose when he called me into his office to talk about Daisy.
“Thats a girls name, isnt it?” Dean Fu asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Except now in America even girls dont like that name.”
“I remember it from The Great Gatsby,” Dean Fu said, smiling sadly. As a student his specialty had been American literature, and he was familiar with virtually all of the great twentiethcentury novelists. He sighed and shook his head.
“Last year that student had a boys name,” said the dean. “He changed it over the summer. I dont know why.”
家乡的名称，解释她之所以选择这个英文名字，是为了纪念海伦?凯勒。一般都是这样，他们根据自己崇敬的人来取英文名字，所以就有了芭芭拉（取自第一夫人：芭芭拉?布什）、阿姆斯特朗（取自宇航员尼尔?阿姆斯特朗），一个充满理想主义色彩的二年级学生甚至却名为马克思。有些学生把他们的中文名字直接翻译过来，如毫斯、耶洛、诺斯等。有个男生，他的英文名字是莱希。“我名叫莱希，”上第一次课的时候，他就这样介绍，“我很懒，我不喜欢篮球、足球。很多事情我都不喜欢，我的爱好就是睡觉。”
［5］ 其他一些名字则没有多大意义。有叫苏迪、桑里和凯尔的。有的纯属不幸：一个小个子男生被叫作盆，一个十分漂亮的女生取名叫可可那特。另一个男生取名黛茜，这让傅主任感觉十分惊愕。系主任傅先生英俊潇洒，蓄一头乌发，我们和英语系联系也主要是找他——这个职位的责任感常常使他生活在肃穆的氛围中。他把我叫进他的办公室，谈论黛茜这个名字的时候，尤其显得愁眉不展。
“那是个女孩的名字，对吧？”傅主任问我。
“对，”我回答说，“只是在美国，现在就连女生都不喜欢用这个名字了。”
“我记得《了不起的盖茨比》中有这个名字，”傅主任十分忧郁地笑着说。当学生的时候，他的专业是美国文学，因此他差不多熟悉20世纪所有伟大的小说家。他叹了口气，摇摇头。
“上学期这个学生取的是个男生的名字，”傅主任说，“但在暑假里他把名字改了，我真不明白这是为什么。”
英伦于我，是特拉法尔加广场（Trafalgar Square）的美人鱼喷泉和灰鸽子；是泰晤士河畔（The Thames）的二手书店和露天咖啡馆；是每天穿梭在身边的红色巴士和百年地下铁；是曲折蜿蜒的街道和街道旁人声鼎沸的酒馆；是阳光下曝光的旧胶片里的英伦故事；是五分钟前还是晴天转眼就“下猫下狗”的无常天气…… (@ISEEUK)
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. 不管去哪，别忘了带上自己的阳光！
Always be true to yourself. 无论什么时候，都要坦诚面对自己。
编者按：这个外国人是谁？美国人彼得?海斯勒（Peter Hessler），中文名何伟，曾任《纽约客》驻北京记者，以及《国家地理》杂志等媒体的撰稿人，数度获得美国最佳旅游写作奖。
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars. 只有夜色足够黑的时候，才能看得见星星满天！
Everything is easy when youre busy, nothing is easy when youre lazy. 勤奋让一切都简单，懒惰让一切都困难。
《江城》是他的中国纪实三部曲之一（其他两部为《甲骨文》与《寻路中国》），记录了一个初到中国的27岁美国青年的见闻与感受。何伟的观察是细腻和敏锐的。对我们来说，他在《江城》描写的1996至1998年的涪陵也许是陌生的，仿佛十年前的纪录片，充满镜头感的描写，将我们刻意或者无意忘掉的那段时光展现在眼前。
中央电视台主持人柴静说：何伟写出了我熟视无睹的中国和那种亲切的酸楚。那个酸楚是剧变的实质——人最大的痛苦就是心灵没有归属，不管你知不知觉，承不承认。看过了《江城》，对彼得?海斯勒笔下的真中国，越发的喜欢……
同样，中国人眼里的外国人，也充满着与现实有差别的想象。正如选文里提到的，何伟的学生们都不约而同地写到他的蓝眼睛——因为从小就被告知外国人的眼睛是蓝色的，而实际上，与学生们朝夕相处的何伟老师，他的眼睛是褐色的。
十多年过去，变化的很多，而不变的也很多。
由于彼得?海斯勒《寻路中国》的畅销，较早出版的《江城》一引进就受到极大关注
《River Town》中美版本不同的封面
River Town (Excerpt)
［1］ MUCH OF WHAT I LEARNED in the early days was from the students. My Chinese wasnt yet good enough to talk with the people in town, which made the city overwhelming—a
江城（节选）
［1］ 起先的一段日子，我在涪陵的很多东西都是从学生那里学到的。我的汉语不够好，不足以同城里的人交流。这让我显得有些不知所措——在哪里都无法与人正常交流。于是，我听
mess of miscommunication. And so I listened to my students, reading what they wrote in their journals for class, and parts of Fuling slowly began to draw into focus.
The first thing I saw was myself and Adam. This was intimidating, because never in my life had I been watched so closely that every action was replayed and evaluated. Everything we did was talked and written about; every quirk or habit was laid bare. Students wrote about the way I always carried a water bottle to class; they wrote about how I paced the classroom as I taught; they wrote about my laugh, which they found ridiculous. They wrote about my foreign nose, which impressed them as impossibly long and straight, and many of them wrote about my blue eyes. This was perhaps the strangest detail of all, because my eyes are hazel—but my students had read that foreigners had blue eyes, and they saw what they wanted to see.
［2］ Mostly they wanted to see all of the outside world condensed into these two young waiguoren, which was what foreigners were called in Fuling—“people from outside the country.” One afternoon, Adam and I threw a Frisbee around the front plaza after dinner, and by the next day, when I read one students journal, the lazy game had become Olympian: When I was writing my composition, someone shouted at the classes:
‘Peter and Adam are playing Frisbee!’ At once, I put down my pen and rushed out the classroom. Really, they are! I wanted to see it clearly and didnt want to miss any scene. I ran into the classroom and put the glasses on my nose, then dashed to the classroom again. I can see it clearly now!…The two sports men stood far away from Frisbee each other and began to play. How wonderful it looked! The Frisbee was 学生念他们为完成功课而写的日记。慢慢地，涪陵的一些事情成为了我所关注的焦点。
头一件事就是亚当和我本人。这够吓人的，因为我以前从未被人如此关注过，每一个动作都叫人重复和评价一番。我们所做得一切都要被人谈论，然后记录下来。一切癖好和习惯都一览无余。学生们几下我带着水杯上课的样子，我在上课时绕着教室踱步的样子，还有我在他们看来十分滑稽的笑声。他们记下了我那给他们留下深刻印象的长而直的鹰钩，好多人还描述了我得蓝眼睛。这也许是所有细节中最奇怪的一点，因为我得眼睛是淡褐色的——但学生们早就从书本上了解到，外国人的眼睛都是蓝色的。他们看到了他们想看到的东西。
［2］ 他们最想看到的，是所有浓缩在这两个年轻外国人身上的有关外部世界的东西。一天晚饭后，我和亚当在校门口广场上玩飞盘。第二天，我在阅读一个学生写的日记时，这种懒散的体育运动竟然变成了奥林匹克精神：
当时我正在写作文，突然班上有人大声喊道：“彼得和亚当在玩飞盘！”我马上放下钢笔冲出教室。确实，他们在玩扔飞盘！我想看得真切些，我可不想错过这一景象。于是我又跑回教室，带上眼镜，冲出教室。现在我看得明明白白的！......这两个运动员离得很远，拉开架势，扔着飞盘。多精彩呀！飞盘就像一团红色的火焰，在他们两个人之间飞来飞去。我看了好一阵子。外国人真实多才多艺啊！
like a red fire, flying person to person between the two men. I have seen it for a long time. Foreigners are so versatile.
［3］ Other descriptions were less heroic. My favorite was written by a student named Richard, in an essay entitled “Why Americans Are So Casual”:
Im a Chinese. As we all know, the Chinese nation is a rather conservative nation. So many of us have conservative thinking in some degree. I dont know whether it is bad or good.
There is only one successto be able to spend your life in your own way. 人生唯一的成就，就是能按自己的想法生活。
Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. 太多的人高估了他们所欠缺的，却又低估了他们所拥有的。
Our foreign language teachers—Peter and Adam—came to teach us this term. It provides a good opportunity of understanding the American way of life. In my opinion, they are more casual than us Chinese people. Why do I think so? Ill give you some facts to explain this.
For example, when Mr. Hessler is having class, he can scratch himself casually without paying attention to what others may say. He dresses up casually, usually with his belt dropping and dangling. But, to tell you the truth, it isnt consider a good manner in China, especially in old peoples eyes. In my opinion, I think it is very natural.
Last week, when Miss Thompson ［another Peace Corps volunteer who visited Fuling］ gave us a lecture on the American election, she took off her woolen sweater and tied it to her waist. To us Chinese people, its almost unimaginable. How can a teacher do that when she/he is having a lesson! But thanks goodness, we major in English and know something about America, it didnt surprise us. But if other people saw this, they might cant believe their own eyes.
［4］ It was an easy place to make mistakes, and plenty were made. But the locals tended to be forgiving—usually they gave us a hint, a nudge in the right direction. During the first week of class, Adam had his students introduce ［3］ 其他人的描述就没那么英雄气概了。我最中意的一篇是一个叫理查德的学生写的，名为“为什么美国人如此随意”：
我是个中国人。大家都知道，中华民族是一个相当保守的民族。所以，我们许多人的思想都比较保守。我不知道这是好还是坏。
我们的外语老师——彼得和亚当——这学期开始给我们上课。这是一个了解美国人的生活方式的好机会。依我看，他们比我们中国人还要随便。我为什么这么认为呢？请看以下事实。
例如，海斯勒先生在给我们上课的时候，他可以十分随意地在身上抓来抓去，而毫不在意别人怎么说。他穿得极随便，常常是半截皮带吊着，一晃一晃的。但是，说实话，这在中国就是不好的行为，尤其在老年人眼中特别如此。而在我看，这十分自然。
上周，汤普森小姐（一个来涪陵拜访我们的志愿队员）给我们作“美国的选择”报告的时候，她脱下羊毛衫，系在了腰间。在中国人看来，这简直是不可思议。一个老师在上课的时候，怎么可以那样做呢？谢天谢地，我们是学英语专业的，对美国有所了解，所以对此一点都不觉得奇怪。如果让其他人看见了，恐怕他们会不敢相信自己的眼睛。
［4］ 这是一个容易犯错的地方，我们的确也犯了许多错误。但是当地人都富于宽容之心——通常他们会向我们暗示什么事正确的做法。第一周上课的时候，亚当让他的学生做自我介绍，一个叫凯勒的女生站了起来。她说出了她
themselves, and a girl named Keller stood up. She told the name of her hometown, and she explained that she had chosen her English name in honor of Helen Keller. This was a common pattern; some of them had taken their names from people they admired, which explained why we had a Barbara (from Barbara Bush), an Armstrong (Neil Armstrong), and an idealistic second-year student called Marx. A few had translated their Chinese names directly—House, Yellow, North. There was one boy whose English name was Lazy. “My name is Lazy,” he said, on the first day of class. “I am very lazy. I do not like to play basketball or football or do many things. My hobbies are sleeping.”
［5］ Other names made less sense. There was a Soddy, a Sanlee, a Ker. Some were simply unfortunate: a very small boy called Pen, a very pretty girl named Coconut. One boy was called Daisy, a name that greatly dismayed Dean Fu. The dean was a handsome man with blueblack hair, and he was our main liaison with the English department—a position whose weight of responsibility often gave him a mournful air. He seemed particularly morose when he called me into his office to talk about Daisy.
“Thats a girls name, isnt it?” Dean Fu asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Except now in America even girls dont like that name.”
“I remember it from The Great Gatsby,” Dean Fu said, smiling sadly. As a student his specialty had been American literature, and he was familiar with virtually all of the great twentiethcentury novelists. He sighed and shook his head.
“Last year that student had a boys name,” said the dean. “He changed it over the summer. I dont know why.”
家乡的名称，解释她之所以选择这个英文名字，是为了纪念海伦?凯勒。一般都是这样，他们根据自己崇敬的人来取英文名字，所以就有了芭芭拉（取自第一夫人：芭芭拉?布什）、阿姆斯特朗（取自宇航员尼尔?阿姆斯特朗），一个充满理想主义色彩的二年级学生甚至却名为马克思。有些学生把他们的中文名字直接翻译过来，如毫斯、耶洛、诺斯等。有个男生，他的英文名字是莱希。“我名叫莱希，”上第一次课的时候，他就这样介绍，“我很懒，我不喜欢篮球、足球。很多事情我都不喜欢，我的爱好就是睡觉。”
［5］ 其他一些名字则没有多大意义。有叫苏迪、桑里和凯尔的。有的纯属不幸：一个小个子男生被叫作盆，一个十分漂亮的女生取名叫可可那特。另一个男生取名黛茜，这让傅主任感觉十分惊愕。系主任傅先生英俊潇洒，蓄一头乌发，我们和英语系联系也主要是找他——这个职位的责任感常常使他生活在肃穆的氛围中。他把我叫进他的办公室，谈论黛茜这个名字的时候，尤其显得愁眉不展。
“那是个女孩的名字，对吧？”傅主任问我。
“对，”我回答说，“只是在美国，现在就连女生都不喜欢用这个名字了。”
“我记得《了不起的盖茨比》中有这个名字，”傅主任十分忧郁地笑着说。当学生的时候，他的专业是美国文学，因此他差不多熟悉20世纪所有伟大的小说家。他叹了口气，摇摇头。
“上学期这个学生取的是个男生的名字，”傅主任说，“但在暑假里他把名字改了，我真不明白这是为什么。”
英伦于我，是特拉法尔加广场（Trafalgar Square）的美人鱼喷泉和灰鸽子；是泰晤士河畔（The Thames）的二手书店和露天咖啡馆；是每天穿梭在身边的红色巴士和百年地下铁；是曲折蜿蜒的街道和街道旁人声鼎沸的酒馆；是阳光下曝光的旧胶片里的英伦故事；是五分钟前还是晴天转眼就“下猫下狗”的无常天气…… (@ISEEUK)
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. 不管去哪，别忘了带上自己的阳光！
Always be true to yourself. 无论什么时候，都要坦诚面对自己。