專做朝鮮旅遊的英國人 The Beijing based Briton seeking to promote ties with North Korea

The “fork in the road” came for Nicholas Bonner when he was asked to become a lecturer at Sheffield university, not far from his native Cheshire, just as he was preparing to establish a travel agency focused on North Korea. “It’s the only time I was really poleaxed,” the 53-year old says over lunch in Beijing, his home since 1995. “It really knocked me down.”

尼古拉斯邦納經歷過一次重要的人生抉擇：一方面，他受邀出任距自己出生地英國柴郡(Cheshire)不遠的謝菲爾德大學(Sheffield University)教職；另一方面，他那時又想創辦專赴朝鮮旅遊的公司。“這是我平生唯一一次深感不知所措的時刻。”53歲的邦納在他北京的寓所一邊吃午餐一邊對我說。他自1995年以來就一直定居北京。“我當時真是暈菜了。”

The “Hermit Kingdom” won. Bonner is a regular fixture in his Beijing neighbourhood, dispensing a cheery “hello darling!” as he pedals from home to the office of Koryo Tours. The North Korean paintings on display there offer the first taste of the business he has built in one of the world’s most sealed-off countries.

最終他決定創辦赴“隱士之國”(Hermit Kingdom)旅遊的公司。邦納的熟悉身影如今時常出沒於自己所在的小區。每次騎車從自家到“高麗之旅”公司(Koryo Tours)上班時，打招呼問候聲不斷。他的公司陳列着很多朝鮮圖片，算是對他在這個全世界最爲封閉的國家開展的旅遊項目有個初步瞭解。

He and business partner Simon Cockerell have so far taken more than 20,000 western tourists to North Korea on government-supervised tours that they hope will allow a few glimpses of insight and mutual understanding.

到目前爲止，他與自己的合夥人西蒙科克雷爾(Simon Cockerell)已成功安排2萬多西方遊客赴朝鮮旅遊（儘管整個行程受到朝鮮政府嚴格管控），他倆希望這種旅遊能對朝鮮有一定了解，並增進朝鮮與外部世界的相互理解。

In most of the world’s eyes, North Korea is a pariah state. Bonner promotes an engagement that goes well beyond tourism. He and Cockerell have ploughed most of their savings into three documentaries and a feature film shot in North Korea.

在多數世人眼裏，朝鮮是國際社會的“棄兒”。邦納提倡加強與朝鮮進行接觸，這已遠遠超出旅遊本身的範疇。他與科克雷爾把自己的大多數存款都投資到了3部記錄片以及在朝鮮拍攝的一部故事片。

The company’s first project, a film about the North Korean football team that, against all odds, advanced to the World Cup quarter-finals in 1966, brought him full circle back to the north of England. The Game of their Lives (2002) was directed by Sheffield-based Daniel Gordon. Bonner was too young to join the North Korean’s ragtag band of English supporters in 1966, but he relished the original team’s return to Middlesbrough in 2002 where a crowd of 30,000 gave them a standing ovation.

公司拍攝的首部影片，讓邦納重回英格蘭北部地區。這部影片講述了1966年的那支朝鮮足球隊過五關、斬六將，最終成功晉級世界盃八強的故事。《人生的賽事》(The Game of their Lives, 2002)由來自謝菲爾德的丹尼爾戈登(Daniel Gordon)執導。1966年時的邦納還是個毛孩，不可能參加到英國普通民衆支持朝鮮隊的拉拉隊中去，但在影片中，這支球隊的“原班人馬”來到米爾德斯堡(Middlesbrough)後，現場3萬名觀衆站起身長時間爲其鼓掌，邦納深切感受到了昔日盛況。

Recalling the trip, Bonner says: “These projects we do take time, they just take time, take time, take time, and then it happens...傳渀攀 minute [you’re] having a drink with the lads having made the film... and them saying we’d love to go back [to England]. And the next minute — it really feels like it — you’re there.”

邦納在回憶這次赴英行程時說：“我們的影片拍了很多時間，真得花了太長的時間，最終完工了。與出演的演員們喝酒聊天，他們說很高興能‘重回’英格蘭。沒過多少時間（真的就有了這種感覺），就真的回到了米德爾斯堡。”

From its base in Beijing, Koryo Tours serves as international liaison for Pyongyang’s biennial film festival. It also helped exhibit North Korean art at the 2014 Venice Biennale and, in April this year, it brought westerners to run in the Pyongyang Marathon. That caused Koryo’s staff more than a few grey hairs after North Korea sealed its borders in October 2014 due to fear of Ebola and only reopened them in March — after Koryo had already started refunding clients’ deposits.

總部位於北京的大本營“高麗之旅”公司成了平壤電影節（每兩年舉辦一次）的國際聯絡站；它還幫助朝鮮藝術參加2014年威尼斯雙年展(Venice Biennale)。今年四月，旅行社安排西方運動員參加了平壤馬拉松賽。2014年10月，因擔心埃博拉病毒擴散，朝鮮關閉了邊界（直到2015年3月才重新開放）後，開始退還西方參賽者的定金，把旅行社員工急得平添了幾根白髮。

Bonner is a big believer in engagement with North Korea, which has been hit with US and European sanctions in an attempt to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons programme. He believes that those in the west who believe any interaction with North Korea, including tourism, gives the ruling elite financial support and moral legitimacy “are a bit naive, although I am sure they think I am just as naive”.

邦納深信必須與朝鮮進行接觸才能改變它，而朝鮮因美歐制裁（旨在迫使平壤政權放棄核計劃）而深受打擊 。那些西方人認爲與朝鮮進行任何形式的交往（包括旅遊在內）會給平壤的統治集團增加經濟支持度以及道德合法性，他認爲這些西方人“有點天真，儘管對方覺得自己同樣天真。”

Part of his optimism stems from his experience in China. Bonner first visited the country in 1993 when relations with the west were still chilly following the bloody crackdown on protests around Tiananmen Square four years earlier.

他爲何如此樂觀，部分原因源於他在中國的生活經歷。邦納於1993年首次來到中國，當時的中國與西方的關係仍處於冰點，原因是四年前政府在天安門廣場血腥鎮壓抗議民衆。

He moved permanently to Beijing in 1995 and invested in Poachers Bar, at the time a magnet for expats and trendy Chinese. As Bonner puts it: “That was the time we had the US marines and the Russian mafia and the Chinese girls and the Mongolian gang”.

1995年，他永久定居北京，並投資開了Poachers Bar酒吧，當時它是外國僑民與中國新潮人士最喜歡光顧的地方。正如邦納說：“我們當時的顧客中，既有美國海軍陸戰隊員、俄羅斯黑手黨、中國姑娘，也不乏蒙古黑幫。”

His first trip to North Korea was also in 1993. “At that time it was a really seamless journey from Beijing into North Korea, there was no difference. They were still putting in the escalators in the subway. That’s the thing that reminds me how backwards China was, the escalators in 1995.”

他同樣是在1993年第一次去了朝鮮旅遊。“當時，從北京到朝鮮的旅程安排得‘嚴絲合縫’，兩個國家其實沒啥差別，都仍在地鐵裏安裝自動扶梯，正是這些，不由得讓我回想起1995年時的中國還很落後。”

Bonner had studied and taught landscape architecture at Leeds Metropolitan University. Growing up he thought he would be a countryside ranger but became fascinated with Asian landscape architecture. He decided to seek out the North Korean version of the discipline, for no better reason than “no one knew about it”.

邦納曾在利茲都市大學(Leeds Metropolitan University)學習景觀建築學，並於畢業後留校任教。長大後他原想當名鄉村護林員，但對亞洲景觀建築萌生了濃厚興趣，於是想去看看朝鮮的景觀建築，原因無它，只是 “當時無人瞭解”。

“I then realised that although there were some things going on in China, and that I could be involved in a small way — you know, bloody hell, you can do anything [in North Korea].”

“而後我意識到儘管中國正發生變化，也可以在其中小打小鬧一番——但你知道，我的老天，我能在朝鮮大有可爲。”

The biggest challenge to date has been Comrade Kim Goes Flying (2012), feature film about a coal miner who struggles to become an acrobat, directed by Kim Gwang Hun. It is a fun if cheesy film of a young woman triumphing over sexism and class prejudice. Bonner along with producer Ryom Mi Hwa and Belgian co-director Anja Daelemans pushed for the “girl power” theme against the resistance of the male film establishment.

迄今爲止，最大的挑戰來自《飛吧，金同志》(Comrade Kim Goes Flying)，這部由金光漢(Kim Gwang Hun)執導、耗資100萬歐元拍攝的娛樂影片（製作精美）講述了一位年輕煤礦女工在戰勝性別歧視以及階級偏見後，經過個人奮鬥成長爲一名雜技演員的勵志故事。邦納與製片人羅美花(Ryom Mi Hwa)以及聯合導演、比利時人安嘉戴爾曼(Anja Daelemans)力推“女性奮鬥”題材，以挑戰長久以來男性主導電影題材的狀況。

Bonner views the films and Koryo’s charitable work with orphanages — the company raises funds to send food packages — as an integral part of the business. “Just taking in tourists is, in my opinion, not enough. Tourism should be part of a process of improvement and not a zoo tour.”

邦納把拍電影與“高麗之旅”支持孤兒院（公司籌集資金後給孤兒院送食品）視作公司工作不可分割的組成部分。“在我看來，僅僅安排遊客去朝鮮旅遊遠遠不夠，旅遊應是改善朝鮮民衆生活的一部分，而不能像去動物園參觀那樣置身事外。”

Comrade Kim Goes Flying is one of only a handful of North Korean films to have been screened publicly in South Korea, a small victory even though it failed to be a commercial success. Sanctions dogged the production, hampering money transfers as international banks shut down two of Koryo’s accounts. Bonner, however, believes the film shows what could be accomplished if greater resources were devoted to engaging rather than isolating the country.

《飛吧，金同志》是爲數不多在韓國公映的朝鮮影片，儘管它的票房收入不盡如人意，但也算是小小的勝利。經濟制裁困擾着電影製作，由於國際銀行凍結了“高麗之旅”公司的兩個賬戶，使其無法順利轉賬。但邦納認爲這部電影證明：如果國際社會投入更大精力財力去朝鮮進行接觸、而不是孤立它的話，實際效果會更好。

“There are enormous problems,” he says, “and it’s a very difficult country to work in, but it’s amazing what you can do if you persevere.”

“朝鮮面臨種種棘手問題。”他說，“在朝鮮開展工作困難重重，但若能持之以恆，定能出其不意開闢一片新天地。”