踩踏事故並非當代中國缺陷的判決書

Dozens crushed to death in a tragic stampede at a place where people congregated to enjoy themselves, not to die. Police blamed for failures in crowd control. Emergency services pilloried for a slow and chaotic response which led to needless deaths.

悲劇性踩踏事故發生了，有數十人被擠壓至死。人們聚集在這個地方，原本是爲了享受快樂，而不是爲了走向死亡。事故發生後，人們指責警方未能對人羣實施有效管控。應急部門也因應對遲緩且混亂、導致毫無必要的傷亡，而受到公開譴責。

Sound like the New Year’s Eve disaster at the Shanghai Bund, in which 36 people died and dozens more were injured? It’s not: it’s a description of the 1989 Hillsborough stadium tragedy in Sheffield, England, in which 96 people died and hundreds were injured in a similar human pile-up. My point? China has no corner on the market for unruly crowds, incompetent police and unnecessary disasters. But you’d never know that, from the way many mainlanders reacted to the carnage.

這聽起來是不是像是在說新年夜(New Year’s Eve)上海外灘發生的那場導致36人喪生、數十人受傷的災難？事實並非如此。這裏說的是1989年英格蘭謝菲爾德市希爾斯堡體育場(Hillsborough stadium)慘案，當時同樣發生了人員踩踏，最終有96人喪生，數百人受傷。我爲何提到這起事故？在不聽管控的人羣、不稱職的警察和不必要的災難方面，中國的表現並不突出。不過，從許多中國人對外灘慘案的反應中，你肯定認識不到這一點。

When news of the Bund bloodbath surfaced on a frigid bright New Year’s morning in Shanghai, the first reaction of many locals was to blame the Chinese. Only hours after dozens of young people had suffocated to death at the very same spot, Chinese bystanders at the scene of the stampede repeatedly told me versions of the same thing: “Chinese are like that”, or sometimes “young Chinese are like that, they like to push and shove”, or occasionally “Chinese from outside Shanghai are like that, they don’t know how to behave in a civilised fashion”.

當外灘慘案的消息在上海寒冷而晴朗的元旦清晨傳來時，當地許多人的第一反應是譴責中國人。在數十名年輕人窒息而死僅僅數小時後，踩踏事故現場的中國圍觀者反覆向我訴說着內容不同但主旨相同的話：“中國人就是這樣”，有時候還有“中國年輕人就是這樣，他們就喜歡擠來擠去”，偶爾還有“上海以外的中國人就是這樣，他們不懂文明禮貌”。

China is a proud nation that can boast the world’s oldest continuous civilisation, but beneath that strain of arrogance runs something that often feels like a national inferiority complex. Ordinary Chinese are always the first to point out shared character flaws (although usually they impute them to compatriots other than themselves). And what better chance to do that, than when 36 people have needlessly lost their lives in the country’s most modern, best run and arguably most civilised city.

中國是一個充滿自豪感的國家，以擁有世界上歷史最悠久的、不曾中斷的文明爲傲。然而，在這種自負的氣質背後，卻存在某種往往讓人感覺像是民族自卑情結的東西。中國民衆經常是首先跳出來，指出國人共同的性格缺陷的（儘管他們通常會把這些缺陷歸罪在同胞、而不是自己身上）。如今，在中國最現代化、管理最好、可以說是最文明的城市，有36人無謂地失去了生命。對中國民衆來說，再也沒有比這更好的機會來發出這樣的指責了。

Shanghai has pretensions to be the 21st century’s new New York, a green, rationally planned, ultra-modern city. For such a place to lose 36 young people in such an old, old way, is a massive loss of face. It feels like — though it is not — the kind of thing that only third world countries do.

上海自命要成爲21世紀的新紐約——一座合理規劃、超現代的綠色城市。但卻以一種非常落後的方式失去了36條生命，是一件無比丟臉的事。感覺只有第三世界國家纔會發生這種事——儘管事實並非如此。

Maybe that’s why so many people were willing to believe one of the first stories that surfaced to explain the crush (later denied by police): that revellers in a building above tossed coupons into the crowd that looked like US dollars.

也許，這就是爲什麼會有如此之多的人願意相信，是一座大樓上狂歡的人向人羣中拋撒看起來像美元一樣的優惠券導致了踩踏事故。人們一開始爲這起事故找了不少起因，這件事就是其中之一（警方後來否認此事造成了踩踏）。

Many Chinese were quick to accept this as the cause — a sign of how worried they are about excessive greed in mainland society. Somehow the whole story tapped into a narrative of national angst.

許多中國人不假思索地認爲這件事就是起因，說明他們對中國社會的過度貪婪之風有多麼擔憂。不知怎麼地，整件事與一種關於民族憂慮的敘事建立起了聯繫。

In the days that followed, blame was distributed much more widely: the city government was criticised for failing to give adequate publicity to the cancellation of the evening’s main event; police failed to shutter the closest metro stop to control numbers, and did not send enough officers until it was too late; ambulances were slow to arrive; hospitals were slow to kick into gear; relatives were prevented from getting to their loved ones.

隨後幾天，越來越多的人淪爲受指責的對象：人們批評上海市政府未充分宣傳這個新年夜重大活動取消的消息；批評警方未封閉離現場最近的地鐵站來控制人流，未及時調派足夠警力；批評救護車遲遲未來；批評醫院進入狀態太慢；批評當局阻止死傷者親屬接觸他們死傷的親人。

Failure all around, fault all around — much of it deserved. But still, four days after the tragedy, at a spot overlooking the impromptu Bund memorial to the dead, bystanders were still blaming the victims, and in some strange way, their Chineseness. Young tourist Wei Ting, recently arrived from Guangdong in southern China, explained in careful English that pushing and shoving on New Year’s Eve is what Chinese people “usually do”.

到處是不足，到處是缺陷——其中很大一部分指責是應該的。但在悲劇發生4天之後，在一處可眺望外灘上人們自發悼念遇難者的場所，仍有旁觀者在指責事故受害者，並以某種奇特的方式指責受害者的中國人特色。年輕的遊客魏廷（Wei Ting，音譯）最近剛從廣東來到上海，他以斟酌過的英語解釋稱，在新年夜擠來擠去是中國人“常做”的事情。

But the fact is, the Bund bloodbath is not a verdict on the flaws of modern China. People get crushed to death in developed countries too (including a hideously unlucky Walmart employee trampled by a crowd of US Black Friday bargain hunters in 2008).

但事實上，外灘慘案並非一份對現代中國缺陷的判決書。發達國家也會發生人們擠壓致死的悲劇（包括2008年一名極其不幸的沃爾瑪(Walmart)員工被美國一羣在“黑色星期五”(Black Friday)搶便宜貨的購物者踩死）。