A stereotypical Cape Town day for Xu Jinglei

alicia

http://www.danwei.org/

Maya Alexandri is currently traveling as part of actress / director / blogger Xu Jinglei’s entourage in South Africa, and will file reports about the trip for the next week.

At the start of our tour of South Africa, one of our handlers from the Department of Foreign Affairs told us: "When Chinese people hear 'South Africa,' they think of diamonds, gold, wild animals and gambling. By the end of this trip, I promise you that you'll have a different view of South Africa."

But stereotypes are interesting. At least part of the reason why we have them is because they're useful. They're also difficult to escape. After all, having gone on a game drive in Pilanesburg National Park and visited gambling-heaven, Sun City, our group would be hard-pressed not to associate South Africa with wild animals and gambling.

Today, our group added another stereotype to the list: wine. South African vineyards, particularly those in Stellenbosch, a renowned wine region, are well-known world-wide.

We visited Vergelegen, which is owned by AngloAmerican, a South African gold mining company. Touring the vineyard, we saw the fermentation vats, posed for pictures in the wine cellar, and conducted a tasting.

The nuance of the tasting was difficult for some in Xu Jinglei's team to grasp. Aside from the weirdness of phrases like "bouquet of green pepper and gooseberry" and "mixture of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot," the idea of a tasting — where you spit out the wine after swirling it in your mouth — struck some of our team members as less-than-ideal. One team member gulped down all four tasting glasses of his wine within moments of being seated.

From Vergelegen's expansive grounds and gardens, we returned to the city center, where we stopped at a diamond cutting and wholesale / retail shop — diamonds being another stereotypical South African product. Between the vineyard and the diamond shop was a massive shanty slum, the result of sprawling growth in a nearby township. Passing by, your correspondent reflected that shanty towns were as much a stereotypical image of South Africa as were animals seen on safari and Sun City's casino.

What isn't stereotypical is the easy camaraderie between our two Department of Foreign Affairs handlers — one of whom is an Afrikaans man, the other of whom is a black South African woman. The elaborate hospitality and patient service they have lavished upon Xu Jinglei and her team isn't stereotypical. Nor is South Africa's sophisticated Department of Foreign Affairs public relations operation a stereotypical program. South Africa is among the very few countries that have included China's bloggers in their strategies for improving media coverage and raising awareness about themselves with the Chinese public.

There's nothing especially newsworthy about the fact that government officials — one white and one black — were welcoming to us and friendly towards one another; except that such person-to-person engagement is one way in which stereotypes are broken down. Similarly, South Africa's government bureaucratic programs don't make good headlines; but the openness and forward-thinking that the Department of Foreign Affairs has displayed in organizing this trip has facilitated the opportunities for engagement with South Africans necessary to develop a more complex understanding of the country and its relationship to China.

In the end, then, our Department of Foreign Affairs handler seems likely to fulfill his promise to our team. However stereotypical the activities on our itinerary, our engagement with him, his colleague, and the other South Africans we meet, makes personal each team member's experience of South Africa. Replacing a pre-existing notion of a far-away land with a first-hand experience of the place will, without question, give us a "different view of South Africa."


Xu Jinglei at Vergelegen vineyard

alicia

这是写博吗?怎么像是新闻报道?

NHB

你真勤快，这么快就搬过来了，放在这里肯定无人问津，一看准晕

alicia

原帖由 NHB 于 2008-4-1 09:41 发表
你真勤快，这么快就搬过来了，放在这里肯定无人问津，一看准晕

放在那边大家就更不看了

NHB

也好也好，被动的话也许有点效果，哈哈

河边

提老徐提的太少了，害得我看的那么仔细。。。9" />

[ 本帖最后由 河边 于 2008-4-1 15:51 编辑 ]

liumeteor

天，我才知道那个网站居然有宝贝啊，这两天光隐约觉得列表里有个英语标题的，我连发帖人是你都没看见，就以为是某个身在国外习惯用英语的同胞写的。。

俺在金山词霸的帮助下，依然看的发飘。。

还是照片好看！BOBO7

6月萧大丸子

金山词霸翻译死板啊 ，体会不到游玩的意味。

南非之旅老徐的照片很优美恬静，很漂亮。

﹎¨瑩、℡

原帖由 6月萧大丸子 于 2008-4-2 09:37 发表
金山词霸翻译死板啊 ，体会不到游玩的意味。0" />

南非之旅老徐的照片很优美恬静，很漂亮。

   对对对~  期待她的写真

alicia

原帖由 liumeteor 于 2008-4-2 09:31 发表
天，我才知道那个网站居然有宝贝啊，这两天光隐约觉得列表里有个英语标题的，我连发帖人是你都没看见，就以为是某个身在国外习惯用英语的同胞写的。。

俺在金山词霸的帮助下，依然看的发飘。。0" />

还是照 ...

不许在这里谦虚,其实都没怎么讲她,唉,还是多放照片好

liumeteor

原帖由 alicia 于 2008-4-2 20:38 发表

不许在这里谦虚,其实都没怎么讲她,唉,还是多放照片好

真没谦虚，我的英语都还给老师了，现在只记得报价的相关词。。

﹎¨瑩、℡

我英语一直都不怎么好~   

绿茶瓜子

谁翻译一下啊……

绿茶瓜子

徐静蕾在开普敦的没有新意的一天  

http://www.单位.org/


玛雅·亚历山德里(Maya Alexandri)目前正作为徐静蕾（演员/导演/博客作者）的随行人员在南非旅行，她会记录下一周的旅程。

       当我们的南非之旅开始的时候，一位来自外交部的官员告诉我们说：“当中国人听到“南非”的时候，他们会想到钻石，黄金，野生动物和赌博。在本次旅行结束的时候，我保证你们会对南非有了一个不同的看法。”

       但是，那些没有新意的观念是多么的有趣。至少我们产生这种观念的部分原因是它们很有用，也很难不产生这样观念。毕竟，在匹兰内斯堡国家公园(Pilanesburg National Park)飚车和参观赌博天堂太阳城之后，我们的团队很难不把南非和野生动物、赌博联系起来。

       今天，我们旅游团给南非的老旧观念更新了一条：酒。南非的葡萄园，特别是斯坦陵布什(Stellenbosch)的葡萄园，一个著名的酿酒地区，可是世界闻名的。

       我们访问了伐黑列亘酒庄(Vergelegen)。它由英美资源集团所有(AngloAmerican,一家南非的金矿公司)。在葡萄园里神遛的时候，我们看见了发酵用的大桶，在酒窖里摆成某种图案，引导着人们品尝。

       对于徐静蕾旅游团里的一些人来说，品酒的细微差别很难领会。  除了那些怪异的惯用语以外(比如“青椒和醋栗酒的香味”和“赤霞珠Cabernet Sauvignon和梅乐Merlot(两者都是很NB的红酒——瓜子注)的混合酒），品酒的方法也struck some of our team members as less-than-ideal(这句没明白是什么意思——瓜子注).(品酒的方法是让酒在你嘴里转几圈，然后吐出去)。一位团员在入座不久之后就将他全部四杯酒一饮而尽。

       我们从伐黑列亘辽阔的土地和花园里回到了市中心，在一家钻石切割批发零售小卖部里停了下来。钻石是另一种南非的经典老特产。在葡萄园和钻石店之间，是一片大规模的贫民窟，这是附近一个有色人种居住区蔓延扩散的结果。从旁经过，你一定会认为：贫民窟和野生动物以及太阳城的赌场一样，都属于南非的老旧的印象。

       有什么是有点新意的吗？有，那就是我们很容易和两位外交部官员建立起来的同志间如春风般温暖的友情。他们一位是南非的白人，一位是南非黑人妇女。他们热情周到、耐心服务的溺爱着徐静蕾及其旅游团，这一点很有新意，同样，老练的南非外交部的公关工作也很有新意。很少有几个国家能在推广媒体宣传，提高其在中国公众中的知名度的策略当中将中国博客作者囊括进来的，而南非就是其中之一。

       一黑一白两位政府官员欢迎我们并友好的对待我们这件事其实并不是什么值得报道的特殊新闻，但是像这样的人对人的接洽就是一种打破陈规的方法。同样的，尽管南非政府的官僚习气弄不出什么好新闻来，但是南非外交部在组织这次旅行时所表现出来的公开和前瞻，促进了让世界更了解南非以及发展与中国关系的机会。

      最后，我们的外交部官员们好像是要实现他对我们的保证了(保证让我们对南非有不同的看法)。虽然在我们的旅行线路上，那些没有新意的事物却随处可见，但我们与他这些天来的相处，他的同事，和那些我们遇到的南非人，让我们每一个团员对南非都有了各自的经历。用第一手的经历来替代我们对于一块遥远大地的先入为主的旧观念，毫无疑问，这让我们“对南非有了一个不同的看法”。



在伐黑列亘葡萄园里的徐静蕾


[ 本帖最后由 绿茶瓜子 于 2008-4-3 03:34 编辑 ]

之沐

怎么看也不像葡萄