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在重慶小巷里攻讀“碩士”

◇文|本刊記者 韓 希 圖| 劉汪洋 受訪者提供

“比起重慶，我的家鄉(xiāng)牛津只能算是個(gè)村子。這里可有3000多萬人吶，跟加拿大差不多了?！弊杂蓴z影師道格拉斯·霍克，帥氣，陽光。2014年底，懷揣對(duì)未知的好奇，他從英國牛津來到中國重慶。

平日里，除了在培訓(xùn)學(xué)校教孩子們英語，他大部分時(shí)間都放在了自己的“研究”上，用相機(jī)研究這座令他著迷的中國內(nèi)陸城市。他去過北京、上海、廣州，然而還是堅(jiān)定地選擇重慶落腳，“這里有真正的新舊文化融合，尤其是觀念上的。”

2013年，道格拉斯在英國格魯斯特大學(xué)完成了本科學(xué)習(xí)，專業(yè)是新聞攝影，在問及為何沒有繼續(xù)深造時(shí)，他說這個(gè)專業(yè)的研究生學(xué)習(xí)，應(yīng)該去不同的地方經(jīng)歷體驗(yàn)生活，進(jìn)行紀(jì)錄片式的圖片拍攝。機(jī)緣巧合，他首先選擇了重慶作為攻讀“碩士”學(xué)位的第一站，一呆就是三年。

“Compared with Chongqing, home to more than 30 million people, my hometown Oxford can only be considered as a small village. The population of the city is close to that of Canada.” Embracing curiosity for the unknown, Douglas Hook, a handsome, positive freelance photographer, came from Oxford, the UK, to Chongqing, China in the end of 2014.

In his daily life, apart from teaching kids English at a training school, Douglas spent most of his time on his “research”—to explore the inland city with his camera, which beckoned him deeply. Once a traveler to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, he loyally chose to settle in Chongqing. “The city truly combines new and traditional cultures, especially that in concept.”

Majoring in photojournalism, Douglas obtained his bachelor’s degree in University of Gloucestershire in the UK in 2013. When asked why he did not pursue advanced studies, he said a postgraduate student of this major should experience life in different places and take photos as a documentary. By chance, he chose Chongqing as the first station to do his “master’s degree”, and he has been here for three years.

不是他想象的樣子Contrary to His Imagination

道格拉斯17歲輟學(xué)，去澳大利亞工作，2010年到2013年進(jìn)入英國格魯斯特大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)。在很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間里，他能接觸到的關(guān)于中國的事情很少，更不用說重慶。直到從一個(gè)英格蘭朋友的哥哥那里親耳聽到關(guān)于重慶的點(diǎn)滴，這個(gè)東方城市的形象才在他腦中揭開了幕布的一角。朋友的哥哥當(dāng)時(shí)在重慶教英語，他傳遞的信息是：重慶很漂亮，重慶人很友好。

2014年底，他乘飛機(jī)直抵重慶。飛機(jī)還沒落地，他已經(jīng)看到了五顏六色的城市，一片生機(jī)。從西方來到東方，道格拉斯描述重慶時(shí)，用的第一個(gè)詞是：大（英文的massive）?！氨绕鹬貞c，我的家鄉(xiāng)牛津只能算是個(gè)村子。這里可有3000多萬人吶，跟加拿大差不多了?！彼呎f，邊張開手臂，比劃出一個(gè)大大的球型，露出難以置信的表情。

點(diǎn)亮他的，還有重慶人對(duì)“老外”的專屬熱情。他遇到問題，重慶的朋友會(huì)立馬停下手頭的事情來幫他解決；排隊(duì)買咖啡時(shí)即便偶爾有個(gè)別本地人加塞，也不會(huì)故意繞到他前面；電梯門要關(guān)上了他還沒跑攏，總有人幫他摁住開門鍵?！爸貞c人對(duì)自己人可能都沒那么客氣，對(duì)我們確實(shí)沒得說?！?/p>

“來到這里有沒有跟預(yù)想中不一樣，或者，失望的地方？”我問他。

“我和我的朋友們不太喜歡預(yù)設(shè)，或是帶著期待而來。對(duì)重慶的愛像是一個(gè)波浪形，不斷往上攀升，思鄉(xiāng)的時(shí)候，這條曲線又會(huì)下降一點(diǎn)，然后又上升，就這樣起伏。但最低點(diǎn)也是滿滿的喜愛?！碑?dāng)過兵、身材結(jié)實(shí)的道格拉斯還說，重慶給他很大的安全感。

Douglas dropped out of school at the age of 17, worked in Australia, and studied in University of Gloucestershire from 2010 to 2013. He had been exposed to little knowledge of China for a long time, let alone Chongqing. The image of the city in the Orient was not unveiled to Douglas until he heard about Chongqing from the brother of his friend. As an English teacher in Chongqing, this man told to Douglas it is a beautiful city where people are friendly.

Douglas arrived in Chongqing by flight in the end of 2014. Before landing, he already had a bird’s eye view of the colorful, animated city. The first word he used to describe Chongqing was “massive”.“Compared with Chongqing, home to more than 30 million people, my hometown Oxford can only be considered as a village. The population of the city is close to that of Canada.” said Douglas, holding out his arms to draw a large globe, an amazed expression on his face.

Besides, what surprised him most is the especially welcoming Chongqing people. His Chinese friends would put aside their own affairs to help him tackle his problems. Occasionally, some locals would cut in the line, but not before him. Some people would press the open button of the lift before he ran to catch it. “Chongqing people not necessarily treat their fellows so kindly, but they are indeed so nice to us.”

“Is there something different to your expectations, or that let you down?” I asked him.

“My friends and I don’t feel like expecting anything before coming here. My love for Chongqing is like a wave, which constantly rises. When I miss my hometown, this wave will drop a little bit, and then it will rise again - it rises and falls this way. But the lowest point of the wave is also filled with my passion for Chongqing.” Once a soldier, the strong foreigner added that Chongqing gave him a sense of security.

挖掘城市的表象以下Exploring What Is below the Surface of the City

中國文化博大精深，很多外國人喜歡逛中國大大小小的城市。但對(duì)道格拉斯而言，僅僅重慶一座城，就足夠他探索很久了。上海、廣州，在他眼里就是其他國家也會(huì)有的城市，北京有很多古建筑，但人們的生活方式早已徹底改變。在重慶，道格拉斯能夠很容易看到昔日老重慶生活的本真。

在他的住所和工作的大廈里，從窗戶望出去，不時(shí)會(huì)看到有人家在屋頂或陽臺(tái)上放一個(gè)大大的圓盤，把豆子攤開來曬；江邊上還有力哥，替人們擔(dān)很重的東西；戰(zhàn)時(shí)防御用的防空洞，現(xiàn)在還有機(jī)地成為城市的一部分……

這些城市生活的“遺跡”是讓道格拉斯駐足的研究“課題”，他始終堅(jiān)持在這里扎營(yíng)。然而眼睛和鏡頭捕捉到的，他認(rèn)為只是表象（surface），“比如，我很好奇，在這里，總是看到外公外婆婆婆爺爺在帶孫子孫女，這太有趣了，在我的家鄉(xiāng)是不會(huì)有的?！边€有一些時(shí)候，這里的人們會(huì)為了一些事情打破既有的規(guī)則，在英國他也會(huì)遇到類似情況，但他總覺得原因各有不同。這些表象之下的文化、社會(huì)背景是什么？他說，這里很多類似的現(xiàn)象讓他驚奇，他沒有時(shí)間去其他地方了，在離開中國以前，他要扎根這里，不斷挖掘表象以下的根源。

道格拉斯有一個(gè)自己的網(wǎng)站，上面保存著他在重慶的拍攝研究成果。防空洞、兩江匯合處、球迷、鄉(xiāng)村、學(xué)?！總€(gè)專題里，他都會(huì)寫一篇文字，講述畫面場(chǎng)景中生活方式的變遷和歷史背景，類似于一份圖文形式的紀(jì)錄片。他告訴我，防空洞這一主題，從調(diào)研到拍攝，他花了整整6個(gè)月時(shí)間。他的作品里沒有知名的景點(diǎn)，那些表面繁華、內(nèi)里商業(yè)的地方，似乎不在他的“課題”以內(nèi)。

Many foreigners enjoy travelling to various cities in China, a country rich in cultures. But for Douglas, mere the city of Chongqing took him a long time to explore. In his eye, Shanghai or Guangzhou are like most modern cities in other parts of the world. In Beijing, though many historic buildings remain, people’s lifestyles have been changed completely.However, the real look of old-fashioned lifestyles remains in Chongqing.

For example, looking out from the windows of his house and workplace, Douglas would sometimes see a big round flat bamboo product on roofs or balconies, which is filled with beans under the sunshine. Alongside the banks of the river, porters would help people carry heavy luggage. Air-raid shelters used for defense in wartime have become part of the city.

These “relics” of urban life attracting Douglas to stay here and study the city, he decided to settle down here. “What eyes and cameras can capture is only what stays on the surface.” he said, “Like I always see grandparents look after their grandchildren in Chongqing, which never happens in my hometown. I’m very curious about it.” Sometimes in Chongqing, people broke rules for some reason, which also happened in the UK. But he thought reasons varied, and he always wondered the culture and social background under the surface. Douglas said that many phenomena like this in Chongqing amazed him, and he had no time to explore other places. He would settle down in Chongqing to dig out the roots under the surface before leaving China.

Douglas has a website where he uploads his photo shooting, including air-raid shelters, the confluence of Jialing River and the Yangtze River, football fans, villages, schools...In each special topic, he writes a report to describe changes and backgrounds of the lifestyle in the scene, making his works a documentary with pictures and interpretations. Douglas told me that he has spent 6 months studying the topic of air-raid shelters from research to photo shooting. Famous scenic spots, however, were not included in his works, nor the places with glittering facade and commercialized interior.

贊頌真正的文化遺址Praises for Genuine Cultural Relics

在西方，人們對(duì)東方的歷史知之甚少。所以，他們相信“讀萬卷書不如行萬里路”，在現(xiàn)實(shí)的世界里看到最鮮活的歷史遺跡，耳聞歲月留下的故事，對(duì)他們來說是最好的認(rèn)知。于是，磁器口、洪崖洞、重慶天地，這些有名的都市復(fù)古懷舊景點(diǎn)，道格拉斯基本上都去過。可他知道，歷史里最真實(shí)的部分已經(jīng)不屬于那些地方了。

拆遷以前的十八梯令他癡迷，他知道那里的一磚一瓦，那是厚重的真實(shí)存在。他說，他來重慶的第一年，就去了很多次十八梯，差不多一周就要去一次。對(duì)他來說，未來的十八梯就是另一個(gè)“磁器口”。他的困惑在于，在英國，很多建筑都是很老很老的，可人們不會(huì)想到要拆掉重建，只會(huì)想辦法修復(fù)，可在重慶，解決方式就不太一樣了。盡管他明白，重建是對(duì)原生居民生活極大的改善，比如居住條件、安全等，可他依然唏噓不已，“我覺得重慶應(yīng)該多一些對(duì)自己真實(shí)文化和歷史的贊頌（他的原話是celebration，中文有慶祝、贊頌之意），舊的東西不一定要拆掉，真實(shí)就是美的?！?/p>

當(dāng)我跟他分享一篇介紹重慶開埠時(shí)英國人在這里留下的遺址的文章時(shí)，他非常高興地聽我給他一一翻譯，看到那些遺址現(xiàn)在還保留著，他指著照片興奮地說“exactly”。言下之意，這些遺跡的留存就是他所謂的“贊頌”。

他的這個(gè)想法，或許從他腳上的鞋子可見一斑。那是一雙20幾塊錢的綠色勞保布鞋，購于他家樓下的商店里，看著與時(shí)髦格格不入，可他卻經(jīng)常在穿，很是喜歡。想來，這么多年過去仍能輕易地買到，舒適度也自然是有的，那又何樂而不為呢？這樣的“贊頌”方式，大抵也是可貴的。

In the West, people know little about the eastern history, and thus they believe that to travel to the East is better than to read about it. To observe the most dynamic historic relics in the real world and to listen to the story of the old years is the best way for them to acknowledge the eastern world. Douglas has been to such places for nostalgia as Ciqikou, Hongya Cave and Chongqing Tiandi. However, he knows that the most genuine part of the history didn’t belong to these places.

Before its demolition, Shibati attracted Douglas so much that he could tell every piece of it. He visited it almost once a week during his first year in Chongqing, but he said that it will become another Ciqikou in the future. What bewildered him were the measures taken to deal with old buildings. In Britain, there are many ancient buildings, which are restored rather than demolished and reconstructed. Although he understands that reconstructions would greatly improve the citizens’ living conditions and ensure their safety, he still insists that Chongqing should retain the celebration to its culture and history and old things do not have to be removed, as the genuine is beauty.

When I shared with him an article by interpreting it word by word, which introduced the relics left by Englishmen when Chongqing opened as a commercial port, he was so delighted. Seeing that the relics still exist, he excitedly pointed at the pictures, “exactly!” The very existence of the relics is what he meant by celebration.

We could also get a hint of Douglas’ viewpoints from his shoes, a pair of green cloth shoes worth some 20 Yuan from the shop downstairs. Though the shoes are old-fashioned, he often wears them and likes them very much. The shoes are comfortable and still available after dozens of years, so why not try it? His way of “celebration” is probably precious.

A Foreigner Doing a Master’s Degree in Chongqing’s Alleys

Article | Han Xi Pictures | Liu Wangyang Interviewee