* H4 N' [: t3 N% O L! w ! T* G( N$ D7 d$ EFebruary 10, 20077 v6 h/ A$ }3 z4 B6 @0 X6 z
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True confessions of a Beijing babe " n2 L, s# A# k! EFresh out of college and with only a tenuous grip on the language, Rachel DeWoskin was at a party in Beijing. That’s how she found herself naked in front of 600 million people! c" t6 D( e4 w0 `% j
0 ]' g8 X6 t$ G- d4 P 5 x6 ]' G( j2 Y: CI LEARNT THE CHINESE FOR “drop trou” on the set of a television drama entitled Foreign Babes in Beijing. Yao, the director, gave the order tuoku. Perched on a bed in the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, Beijing, I thumbed through a red, laminated dictionary that looked suspiciously like a Mao primer from the Cultural Revolution. I found it. Tuo, “peel off”, ku, from kuzi, or “pants”. 5 u* }; y7 _8 ?# V# W; _' C& e$ e4 W. g% N- H: p% E6 J+ s
“You must be kidding,” I said, to no one in particular. ! z" O/ p/ S. T' P" U+ L! Q1 r' W+ L
I was playing Jiexi (Jessie), the manipulative American hussy who seduces a married Chinese man, falls in love, then sacrifices everything for him. Fresh from university in New York, I had been in Beijing for two months, working for a US company and trying to use nerdy college Chinese. Then a guy approached me at a party and said: “My friend is filming foreign niu in Beijing.” 2 [/ U4 _1 ^6 @/ B2 j/ b k
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I heard Chinese words unclearly back then; listening to people speak was like standing on my tiptoes and trying to catch their gist with a butterfly net. Niu, which means “girl” “chick”, or “babe”, sounded like “cattle” to me. I stood there, bewildered. 2 w: a+ V. X5 ]( s X3 D + H. k9 a/ F# i \0 A# i“You’re white,” he clarified. “You want to be on TV?” ) [& P1 L! J8 _0 O2 r2 g3 J Y+ f/ s5 O& x+ x) o" ~6 O2 P3 A0 C, D' c6 r
And so I found myself half-naked on the set of a Chinese soap, delivering lines such as: “I love you; what are we waiting for?” & E0 R! \( W F+ o
W8 Z1 c" x, V7 I- N( j0 D1 YForeign Babes gave me several unique opportunities. I got to play an exotic femme fatale (in this case an American temptress, exchange student, and homewrecker). Against all expectation, it was watched by 600 million people. So it inspired lots of fodder for conversation in the streets, and insight into the fraught romance between China and the West. ( H6 y8 p, t ^ / [" P( A: m1 q! Y" M8 eDuring my six years in Beijing in the 1990s, I both lived the life of a foreign woman and played the Chinese idea of that life on TV. Charting the parallel courses of those two versions was a worthwhile lesson in how China thinks about the West and Western women — and why. 1 D. z) [! W, a3 v' { / n2 ?5 C/ g2 n) ?4 X' f9 mBeijingers loved Jiexi for her commitment to Chinese men, her bravado, libido, and American style. Teenagers and their grandmothers followed me through markets, buying whatever Jiexi bought— fake Prada purses, extension cords or fish paste. / N+ X, g5 h4 T8 @
) _* j1 b. g* }* B- E# E' |( L0 WEveryone wanted to be a liberated, unapologetic babe. Foreign Babes carried the delicate pretence of a socialist message (that foreign imports are corrupting), but was actually an advert for all things Western. * p8 u" ~1 T$ F' ]) E& |1 W2 U
/ s4 G U$ `' a$ [Western women were the subject of tremendous interest, partly as a result of our reputation for being “open-minded” importers of libido and free love. This stereotype did not originate in the Chinese imagination, but as an American import. If the only contact you have had with a Western woman is Dynasty or Baywatch, you may think that foreign women are sluts. I once pointed out that no Americans actually wore fur coats or shouted: “Can’t I just be your lover?” and the producer replied: “We don’t care what you think. You look American! Like Dallas!” W2 E& p' ^* G* ^% L$ S+ j
" u; F' B$ ^7 L5 N7 B9 F- [ dDaily life in Beijing was a study in perception and a constant language lesson. Chinese has density and ambiguity, made richer by my evolving but always uncertain grip on its edges. While I was looking up dialogue and accidentally announcing in casual conversation that American professors castrate students (who would know that a tonal mistake in the word “strict” could turn it into “castrate”?), actual discourse in China was shifting. Modern words stretched Chinese stroke marks: Maidanglao, melodious Chinese McDonald’s, caifu, a newly minted term for peasants who get rich quick. Kekou Kele (Coca-Cola) contains, in four cleverly transliterated syllables, both a mimic of the original and homonyms for thirst, delight and quenching. It flaunts the compressed power of Chinese to contain multiple meanings in single syllables. ' I5 J- N& W- F# p; ]
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In the Great Wall Sheraton, after I had searched unsuccessfully for alternate interpretations of “peel”, “off”, or “your pants”, my unstoppably macho co-star Wang Ling and I stripped.Under normal circumstances, I would have thought him fabulous. But I was panicked in the hot lights, and Yao was directing. “Rub his back.” * V; t3 \( G! b. L, I
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So I did, in small, even circles. The room went silent. I thought the scene might be exciting for our immediate audience, but now I know that they were astonished, wondering if Western girls do it like that. I was supposed to be writhing in ecstasy, but had missed a vocabulary clue and given a chaste backrub. , m$ \. ?9 Q: } z- I" _- a
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“You know,” I said. “I’d be more comfortable if Director Yao were also naked.” Everyone inhaled. It was a request born of desperation. But later, when I tried to convince people that Jiexi and I were not the same person, and that neither of us represented the entire West, I would regret asking Yao to tuo his ku. ) E. q- }) X, \# Z$ u; O 5 N- K1 d, ^; s. ]7 hHe shrugged. “We’re all professionals here,” he announced. And in a gesture of tremendous camaraderie and allegiance, he dropped his pants. 1 t8 g2 S( H! i' N( ~/ @
3 A' }! ?3 V1 I F- F- M: c“Thank you,” I said. 0 i. y2 @, Q$ o/ p/ E9 r
7 u* H' s/ _; d! t2 y! |. L$ f8 Z“No problem," he said. “I can understand this request. Now we are dou yiyang, all the same.” When he said “action”, I tried to redeem myself by clawing Wang Ling’s back enthusiastically. The cameraman whispered to his assistant: “See what I mean? Foreign babes are tigers.” : x# |7 i" ~3 T, K
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Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China by Rachel DeWoskin is published by Granta (£7.99, offer £7.59. inc p&p from 0870 1608080)
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图片附件: [True confessions of a Beijing babe] DeWoskin.jpg (2007-2-14 11:05, 12.1 KB) / 下载次数 111