Welcome to Hong Kong: the island city of China packed with seven million people at unbelievable density. But if you, dear tourist, start from Victoria Harbor and head toward the mainland, you'll find that while Hong Kong is China, she doesn't act like it.
歡迎來到香港:以驚人密度塞滿七百萬人的中國海島城市。但如果你,親愛的觀光客,從維多利亞港開始往大陸前進,你會發現雖然香港是中國,她表現得卻不像那樣。
To cross the bridge, your passport must be checked and stamped and checked and stamped. Not because you're a suspicious foreigner, mainland Chinese can't just stroll across either, but rather because Hong Kong has her own immigration policy.
要過橋,你的護照必須要檢核然後蓋章然後檢核然後蓋章。不是因為你是可疑的外國人士,大陸人也不能就這樣閒晃過去,而是因為香港有她自己的入境政策。
And Hong Kong isn't the only isolated island, there's nearby Macau with her own passport-checking bridge and a ferry between them, which also checks passports. Travel from Hong Kong to Macau to the mainland and back and you'll end up with three stamps, and that goes for everyone. Hong Kongese can't just live in Macau, and Macanese can't live in Hong Kong and they both can't just live on the mainland.
香港不是唯一的離島,附近的澳門有她自己的護照檢查大橋,還有她們之間的渡輪,那同樣也會檢查護照。從香港旅遊到澳門再到大陸然後回來,你最後會得到三個圖章,而那對所有人都一樣。香港人不能就這樣住進澳門,而澳門人不能就這樣住在香港,而且他們都不能就這樣住到大陸。
Yet, it's all China, and inconvenient travel isn't the only speciality of these sister islands. They also have separate governments and political parties, separate police, separate money, postal systems, schools, and languages. Hong Kong even has her own Olympic team which competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which doesn't make any kind of sense.
然而,這全是中國,不便利的旅遊不是這些姊妹島唯一的特點。她們還有各自的政府和政黨、各自的警力、各自的貨幣、郵政系統、學校以及語言。香港甚至有她自己的奧運隊在 2008 年的北京奧運中競爭,這根本沒任何道理。
The only things these sister islands don't have that other countries do are: one, their own armies, though that isn't entirely unique with modern countries, and two, formal diplomatic relations, though even this is unclear as both are members of international trade organizations. And other countries have embassies in Hong Kong and Macau.Sure China won't let them be called embassies; those are only for mighty Beijing. They're called consulates even if they're bigger than Beijing's embassies.
唯一這對姊妹島沒有而其他國家有的事情是:一、她們自己的軍隊,雖然這在現代國家中不全然特別,二、正式的外交關係,雖然甚至連這都模糊不清,因為港澳都是國際貿易組織的成員。而且其他國家在香港和澳門設有「大使館」。當然中國不會讓它們被稱作大使館;那樣的名稱只能給偉大的北京。它們被叫做領事館,即便它們比北京的大使館來得大。
All this makes Hong Kong and Macau, as mentioned in a previous video, the most country-like countries that aren't countries. So why are they China? China says so. It's called One China, Two Systems, though fast counters in the audience will see it should be called One China, Three Systems. Also, there's China's special economic zones where capitalism runs free, making it more like One China, Four Systems. And if China got her way, it might be One China, Five Systems. But we can't talk about everything, so back to China, Hong Kong, and Macau (oh my!) China ended up having these two essentially city-states, as always, because Empire.
這全部使香港和澳門,如同先前一部影片提到的,成為最像國家卻又不是國家的國家。所以為什麼他們是中國呢?中國說了算。這稱為「一個中國,兩種制度」,儘管觀眾裡算術快的人會發現這應該被叫作「一個中國,三種制度」。此外,還有中國的經濟特區,在那資本主義自由運作,使這更像是「一個中國,四種制度」。而如果中國得其所願,這可能會變「一個中國,五種制度」。但我們沒辦法什麼事都討論,所以回到中國、香港以及澳門 (喔我的天!) 中國最後有這兩個基本城邦的原因,一如往常,是因為帝國。
Portugal showed up in Asia in the 1500s and didn't exactly make friends. China and Portugal skirmished until Portugal used bigger-pile-of-money diplomacy to bribe a local Chinese official into turning over the islands of Macau as a trading port she could use.
葡萄牙於 16 世紀出現在亞洲,且並未真的交朋友。中國和葡萄牙交戰,一直到葡萄牙利用「銀彈外交」,用以賄賂一位當地中國官員,使他交出澳門島嶼,做為葡萄牙可用的貿易港。
Later, Britannia found China and discovered that she had many lovely things, like silks and porcelain and precious, precious tea that Britannia craved. In return, China wanted from Britannia to be left alone and Britannia nobly agreed to respect China's independence and sovereignty.
後來,英國找到中國並發現她有許多迷人的東西,像是絲綢和瓷器,以及英國迫切需要的、極珍貴的茶。做為回饋,中國想要英國不干涉,而英國豁達地同意尊重中國的獨立及主權。
Oops! Opium Wars! Nothing generates demand like addiction which Britannia was happy to supply. And her bigger-gun diplomacy secured Hong Kong as a base through which the drugs must flow. Later in a world where telegraphs and lightbulbs were newfangled, a lease gave control of Hong Kong to Britannia for 99 years or quote "as good as forever," kicking the transfer problem down the generations to be dealt with by the unimaginably futuristic society of the 1990s. Thus, these cities grew up under the influence of their Emperiffic parents. Hong Kong had English common law and lived in Britannia's org chart as one of her many crown colonies and Macau had Portuguese civil law.
喔喔!鴉片戰爭!沒有什麼能像英國很樂意提供的癮頭那樣產生需求了。而她的「大砲外交」獲得香港做為一個毒品必流通的基地。後來在一個電報和燈泡還很新奇的世界,一紙租約將香港控制權交給英國 99 年,或可說「幾乎是永遠」,將讓渡問題踢給後代,給難以想像的 1990 年代未來社會去解決。因此這些城市在他們帝國家長的影響下成長。香港有英國普通法,且以她眾多直轄殖民地之一的身分存在英國的組織圖裡,而澳門有葡萄牙民法。
And the parental effect is still seen today: visit Hong Kong and she is clearly Britannia's daughter what with her love of business and international finance and lasers and English-accented language and near-identical transport system. Macau had a more troubled adolescence, as her bigger sister stole the spotlight with her trading skills. But Macau eventually grew up to be the gambling capital of the world. She's Las Vegas times 10 with a mixture of both Portugal and China.
而那雙親的影響至今仍可見:拜訪香港,她顯然是英國的女兒,有鑑於她對商業及國際金融還有雷射燈光的熱愛,還有英國腔的語言以及幾乎相同的運輸系統。澳門有個較麻煩的青春期,因為她的姊姊用貿易本領搶去鋒頭。但澳門終於發展成世界賭城。她是拉斯維加斯乘上十倍,有著葡萄牙和中國兩者的混合。
But empires come and empires go, and the 90s eventually arrived, meaning Britannia's lease expired. Portugal claimed the treaty gave her control of Macau forever, but China disagreed and the UN was in a no-empires-no-longer mood, and frankly, had Portugal complained too much, China could have used her own bigger-army diplomacy at this point to resolve the situation.
但帝國來、帝國走,而 90 年代終於來臨,代表英國的租約到期。葡萄牙堅稱那條約給她澳門的控制權直到永遠,但中國不同意,而聯合國正處在種「不再有帝國」的心情,且老實說,如果葡萄牙抱怨太多,中國大可在此刻用她自己更強大的軍隊外交來解決狀況。
So the transfer was going to happen, but the world was nervous about China, what with the lingering communism and all, so the deal was the empire's daughters would go, but they had to remain basically independent, to which China agreed as long as everyone else agreed to call them China.
所以讓渡即將發生,但全世界都對中國感到緊張不安,由於歷久不消的共產主義以及一切,所以那交易是帝國的女兒們會離去,但她們必須保持本質上獨立,中國同意那交易,只要其他人同意稱她們中國。
The situation was a bit like if the U.S. had to give Alaska back to Russia and Russia super promised to leave Alaska self-governing. You couldn't blame the locals for being nervous. But unlike what you'd expect in this case, China has mostly left the little sister islands alone.
這狀況有點像如果美國得將阿拉斯加歸還給俄羅斯,而俄羅斯超級保證讓阿拉斯加自治。你不能怪當地人覺得緊張。但不像你在這個案例中原本預期的,中國幾乎不干涉這兩座小姊妹島。
So, everything is dandy. However, the handover came with its own version of the as-good-as-forever clause. China didn't agree to leave Hong Kong and Macau alone for all time, only fifty years, again, passing political problems to a future generation. (Hopefully one that's actually unimaginably futuristic this time.)
所以,每件事都好極囉。然而,這交接有它自己版本的「幾乎是永遠」條款。中國並未答應一直不干涉香港和澳門,只有五十年,又一次,將政治問題留給後代。(希望這次是真的想像不到的未來一代。)
Anyway, assuming such provincial concerns as these are not rendered irrelevant by the singularity, what happens in the 2040s? Will Hong Kong and Macau remain tiny city-states or will they lose their independence and be absorbed? Only China knows, and China does not say.
總之,假設奇異點事件 (註) 發生時,像這般的地方關係還是被認為重要的話,2040 年代會發生什麼事?香港和澳門還會維持小城邦狀態,還是她們會失去她們的獨立然後被吸收呢?只有中國知道,但中國不說出口。
註一:此處的奇異點是種理論,指科技發生極大進步,而當此轉捩點來臨時,舊的社會模式將一去不返。
- 「適用於」- Go For
Travel from Hong Kong to Macau to the mainland and back and you'll end up with three stamps, and that goes for everyone.
從香港旅遊到澳門再到大陸然後回來,你最後會得到三個圖章,而那對所有人都一樣。 - 「合理、說得通」- Make Sense
Hong Kong even has her own Olympic team which competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which doesn't make any kind of sense.
香港甚至有她自己的奧運隊在 2008 年的北京奧運中競爭,這根本沒任何道理。 - 「為所欲為」- Get One's Way
And if China got her way, it might be One China, Five Systems.
而如果中國得其所願,這可能會變「一個中國,五種制度」。 - 「出現」- Show Up
Portugal showed up in Asia in the 1500s and didn't exactly make friends.
葡萄牙於 16 世紀出現在亞洲,且並未真的交朋友。 - 「幾乎是、相當於」- As Good As
...a lease gave control of Hong Kong to Britannia for 99 years or quote "as good as forever"...
...一紙租約將香港控制權交給英國 99 年,或可說「幾乎是永遠」... - 「因為、由於、考慮到」- What With
...visit Hong Kong and she is clearly Britannia's daughter what with her love of business and international finance and lasers...
...拜訪香港,她顯然是英國的女兒,有鑑於她對商業及國際金融還有雷射燈光的熱愛...