金正恩爲何推出平壤時間 Despotic rulers who display their muscle to turn back time

Kim Jong Un LINKED TO FRIDAY ADVANCE PAGE already rules North Korea like a medieval despot, but his latest eccentricity is actually trying to turn back time. To mark the 70th anniversary of victory over the “wicked Japanese imperialists”, the poobah of Pyongyang has decreed that his country will set its clocks half an hour later to reject the timezone Japan imposed during its occupation of the Korean peninsula.

金正恩(Kim Jong Un)已經像箇中世紀專制君主那樣統治朝鮮了，但他最近的怪異法令事實上是試圖改變時間。爲紀念戰勝“邪惡的日本帝國主義”70週年，這位朝鮮普巴（poobah，意爲至高無上的君主——譯者注）頒佈法令，規定他的國家將把時區推後半小時，以抵制日本在佔領朝鮮半島時強加於朝鮮的時區。

Eccentric it may be, but there is a history of rulers changing time zones to assert their power. When such decisions institutionalise real authority, they look masterful; when they substitute for it, they range from in to absurd.

這一法令或許怪異，但歷史上不乏統治者更改時區以彰顯自己權力的先例。當這類決定將真正的權威制度化時，它們顯得專橫；而當這類決定只不過是假裝權威時，它們呈現出從不安到荒謬的各種面貌。

Time zones were forced by new technology but shaped by political whim. They emerged as the agricultural pulse set by the sun was replaced by the grinding rhythm of industry. In the agrarian mid-19th century the US had more than 300 time zones. As railways took over, a private sector solution emerged: in 1883 railroad companies imposed the four time zones that still eXist.

推進時區的是新科技，但時區的面貌則是由政治上的心血來潮決定的。當工業的刺耳節奏取代了太陽設定的農業節拍時，時區就誕生了。在農業社會時期的19世紀中葉，美國有300多個時區。隨着鐵路的發展，一個私營部門解決方案誕生了：幾家鐵路公司在1883年強制分出四個時區，一直沿用至今。

The world soon organised itself into longitudinal zones anchored on Greenwich Mean Time in London. But symbolic quirks and anomalies persist.

全世界很快理順了時間——基於倫敦格林尼治標準時間(GMT)劃分成數個縱向時區，但具有象徵意義的古怪、異常安排依然存在。

Imposing a single timezone on a recalcitrant populace, as did the Japanese in Korea, is a show of power as well as of administrative efficiency. No one can control the sun but rulers can change how much of it their subjects see. Nazi Germany enforced uniform time on its conquered countries in western Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed Moscow time on Crimea after seizing the province last year.

對不順從的民衆強行施加單一時區，就如日本曾經對朝鮮做過的那樣，除了可以展示力量，還能提高行政效率。沒人能控制太陽，但統治者可以控制臣民能看到多少陽光。納粹德國在它佔領的西歐國家實施統一時間。俄羅斯總統弗拉基米爾渠京(Vladimir Putin)去年侵佔克里米亞後，在該省強行實行了莫斯科時間。

However, adopting inconvenient time zones for symbolic reasons begins to look like insecurity. After the Communist takeover in China in 1949, Mao Zedong imposed Beijing time nationwide. China now has one timezone covering latitudes where Russia has five. Inhabitants of western China have to get up in darkness for winter months on end. But introducing a new zone might look like a concession to the repressed discontents in the western region of Xinjiang, some of whom have informally adopted their own local time.

但是，出於象徵原因而採用不方便時區，就顯得缺乏安全感了。1949年共產黨接管中國後，毛澤東在全國推行了北京時間。中國現在只有一個時區，而橫跨同樣緯度範圍的俄羅斯有五個時區。每年冬天，中國西部地區居民都有好幾個月得在黑暗中起牀。但實行新的時區，看起來可能像對新疆西部地區受壓抑的不滿分子作出讓步，其中一些人已經非正式地用起了當地時間。

Similarly, India combined several imperial time zones into one after independence from Britain in 1947, and then underlined the point by setting it an awkward five and a half hours ahead of London time. This wastes electricity, and farmers in Assam in India’s far east have to use an informal “tea garden time” to align the sun and the clock.

同樣地，1947年印度脫離英國獨立後，也將英帝國統治時期的幾個時區合併成一個，然後刻意將這個統一時間奇怪地設定爲比倫敦時間早五個半小時。統一時區浪費電力，而且爲了讓太陽和時間相一致，印度最東邊的省份阿薩姆邦的農民不得不使用非正式的“茶園時間”。

And when a timezone is purely symbolic, it really can begin to look odd. President Hugo Chávez set Venezuela’s clocks back half an hour in 2007, putting them out of kilter with its neighbours, for no apparent reason but cussedness.

而當一個時區的設定純粹出於象徵意義，它真的會顯得奇怪。2007年委內瑞拉總統烏戈查韋斯(Hugo Chávez)將本國時區調後半小時，讓委內瑞拉的鐘表與鄰國對不上時間，這麼做唯一明顯的理由就是因爲固執。

The most entertaining example is Spain. It should really observe the same time as the UK and Portugal since the vast bulk of it is west of the Greenwich meridian. Instead it keeps central European Time, putting it in the same zone as Poland. A parliamentary commission has concluded that using the wrong clock keeps Spaniards up too late and makes them tired and unproductive.

最有趣的例子莫過於西班牙。西班牙大部分國土都位於格林尼治子午線的西邊，其實本應該與英國和葡萄牙遵循同樣的時間。可是西班牙全國使用的是歐洲中部時間，與波蘭位於同一個時區。西班牙的一個國會委員會已經得出結論，使用錯誤的時區導致西班牙人起得太晚，容易疲倦，且生產效率低下。

The timezone is the legacy of the deep cunning of Francisco Franco. Knowing a terrible idea when he saw one, the dictator resisted pressure from Adolf Hitler to abandon neutrality and enter the second world war. But, realising the symbolic importance to fascism of uniformity in everything, he made the magnificently pointless gesture of adopting Berlin time. (A reminder: Hitler committed suicide as his Reich imploded in 1945; Franco died peacefully in office 30 years later.)

西班牙現行時區是朗西斯科嬠朗哥(Francisco Franco)留下的一個老謀深算的遺產。當年阿道夫希特勒(Adolf Hitler)要求佛朗哥放棄中立、加入第二次世界大戰，因爲佛朗哥這個人對壞主意有敏銳的判斷力，他抵擋住了希特勒的壓力。但他知道一切保持一致對法西斯具有重要的象徵意義，於是他作出了一個了不起的、毫無意義的姿態，改用了柏林時間。（提醒一下，1945年希特勒在德意志國(Reich)崩潰後自殺，而佛朗哥則是在30年後安詳地死於位上。）

It is not hard to see where on the spectrum of absurdity North Korea’s action lies. Given its shambolic economy, it scarcely matters what timezone Pyong adopts. Japan may have lost the war, but its economic miracle won the peace. Mr Kim may change the clocks, but he cannot put history into reverse.

不難看出朝鮮此次更改時區在“荒謬光譜”上處於何種位置。考慮到朝鮮一團糟的經濟情況，平壤方面採取何種時區其實沒多大重要性。日本當年輸掉了戰爭，但日本的經濟奇蹟贏得了和平。金正恩能改變時區，但他無法逆轉歷史。