周浩暉與《死亡通知單》，中國(guó)犯罪小說(shuō)走向世界

YANGZHOU, China — Zhou Haohui, the latest author to catch the wave of Chinese crime fiction crashing on international shores, had an unsatisfying job teaching engineering at a university outside of Beijing in 2007 when he began publishing — online — the novels that would earn him a cultlike following in China.

中國(guó)揚(yáng)州——周浩暉是最新一位趕上中國(guó)犯罪小說(shuō)進(jìn)入國(guó)際市場(chǎng)浪潮的作家。2007年，他對(duì)在北京附近一所大學(xué)教工程學(xué)的工作感到不滿(mǎn)意，于是開(kāi)始在網(wǎng)上寫(xiě)小說(shuō)。后來(lái)這些小說(shuō)讓他在中國(guó)受到了狂熱追捧。

These books — a trilogy about a police hunt for a vengeful killer — went into print two years later, ultimately selling more than 1.2 million copies. They inspired a serial on the streaming site owned by Tencent, the social media giant, that has, to date, been watched a staggering 2.4 billion times, according to his agent, China Educational Publications Import & Export Corporation. A feature film went into production in April.

它們構(gòu)成了一組三部曲，講述的是警方追查一名復(fù)仇殺手的故事。兩年后，這些書(shū)出版，最終賣(mài)出120多萬(wàn)本。據(jù)周浩暉的代理公司中國(guó)教育圖書(shū)進(jìn)出口有限公司稱(chēng)，根據(jù)它們改編的一部連續(xù)劇，在社交媒體巨頭騰訊旗下的流媒體網(wǎng)站上播放量高達(dá)24億次。一部長(zhǎng)片已于四月開(kāi)拍。

Now the first book of Mr. Zhou’s trilogy, “Death Notice,” will be released on June 5 in the United States, and in Britain next week. The American publisher, Doubleday, hopes it will vault him into the ranks of other contemporary Chinese novelists — like Qiu Xiaolong, He Jiahong and A Yi — who have reached a global audience with stories from China’s criminal underbelly.

現(xiàn)在，周浩暉三部曲中的第一部《死亡通知單》將于6月5日在美國(guó)發(fā)布，下周在英國(guó)發(fā)布。美國(guó)雙日(Doubleday)出版社希望這本書(shū)能讓周浩暉躋身裘小龍、何家弘和阿乙等中國(guó)當(dāng)代小說(shuō)家的行列，這些作家憑借中國(guó)社會(huì)底層的犯罪故事在全球贏得了讀者。

Crime, Mr. Zhou says, is a universal theme, which is why detective stories or police thrillers (even from an authoritarian political system like China’s) can more easily transcend cultural divides than, say, historical fiction.

周浩暉說(shuō)，犯罪是一個(gè)普遍的主題，所以偵探故事或警匪小說(shuō)(即便出自中國(guó)這樣的威權(quán)主義政治體制)能夠比歷史小說(shuō)等類(lèi)型更容易超越文化差異。

“When you are talking about crime — criminal cases, the police in large cities, this suspenseful feeling of mystery — I feel that readers all over the world like this kind of thing,” he said in an interview here in his hometown, Yangzhou, a historical imperial city of 2 million people on the Yangtze River a couple hours upstream from Shanghai.

“討論罪犯和警察的這種都市都有(的事)，這種懸疑性神秘感這些東西，我覺(jué)得這是全世界的讀者都很喜歡的一個(gè)類(lèi)型，”他在家鄉(xiāng)揚(yáng)州接受采訪(fǎng)時(shí)說(shuō)。地處長(zhǎng)江沿岸的揚(yáng)州是一座古都，人口200萬(wàn)，從上海逆流而上幾個(gè)小時(shí)便可抵達(dá)。

He noted that Martin Scorsese’s 2006 film “The Departed,” which won four Oscars, including Best Picture, was a remake of the highly regarded 2002 Hong Kong film, “Infernal Affairs,” about a police mole infiltrating the mob. The drama simply shifted to South Boston.

他指出，馬丁·西科塞斯(Martin Scorsese)2006年的作品《無(wú)間道風(fēng)云》(The Departed)是對(duì)2002年備受好評(píng)的香港電影《無(wú)間道》(Infernal Affairs)的翻拍?！稛o(wú)間道》講述的是警方一名臥底潛入犯罪團(tuán)伙的故事?！稛o(wú)間道風(fēng)云》只是把背景換成了南波士頓，該片獲得了包括最佳影片在內(nèi)的四項(xiàng)奧斯卡獎(jiǎng)。

Mr. Zhou, who is 40, seems unfazed by his celebrity here. He is as likely as not to pass unnoticed, even here in his hometown, where his novels are prominently on display in bookstores. He is cerebral and soft-spoken, and his interests are broad.

現(xiàn)年40歲的周浩暉對(duì)自己在中國(guó)的名氣顯得鎮(zhèn)定自若。在家鄉(xiāng)，他的小說(shuō)被擺放在書(shū)店的顯眼位置，即便如此，他本人并不引人矚目。他理智，語(yǔ)氣溫和，興趣廣泛。

In addition to a dozen crime novels, he has written two books on food, including one on the cuisine of his native region, known as Huaiyang and considered one of the “four great traditions” of Chinese cooking (along with Cantonese, Sichuan and Shandong, from the northeast).

除了十多本犯罪小說(shuō)外，他還寫(xiě)了兩本有關(guān)美食的書(shū)，其中一本是關(guān)于他家鄉(xiāng)的淮揚(yáng)菜?；磽P(yáng)菜被認(rèn)為是中國(guó)“四大菜系”之一(另外三大菜系分別是粵菜、川菜和來(lái)自中國(guó)東北部的魯菜)。

His mild manner seems at odds with the lurid violence of crime novels. In “Death Notice,” the killer of two police academy cadets in a gruesome bombing resurfaces after 18 years, this time orchestrating the murder of a revered police sergeant whose failure to solve the original case haunted his career.

他舉止溫和，這似乎和犯罪小說(shuō)中令人毛骨悚然的暴力不相符。在《死亡通知單》中，一個(gè)兇手在一場(chǎng)可怕的爆炸案中殺害了兩名警校學(xué)員。18年后，兇手再次現(xiàn)身。這一次，他策劃殺害一位受人尊敬的警官。未能偵破當(dāng)初那起案件一事，始終困擾著這名警官。

Then, as now, the killer fashions himself as an avenger, bringing justice to those whose crimes have gone unpunished. The killer calls himself Eumenides after the third of the Oresteia ancient Greek tragedies by Aeschylus and warns each of his victims in notes drawn with exquisite Chinese calligraphy, luring the police into a diabolical game. The new killing spree revives a special police task force that had been shelved for reasons that, to explain fully here, would amount to a spoiler.

現(xiàn)在，兇手把自己塑造成一個(gè)復(fù)仇者，將那些罪行未受懲罰的人繩之以法。兇手以埃斯庫(kù)羅斯(Aeschylus)的古希臘悲劇三部曲《奧瑞斯提亞》(Oresteia)中的第三部“Eumenides”(復(fù)仇女神)作為自己的名字，并用精美的毛筆字寫(xiě)下通知，警告每一個(gè)受害者，將警方引入一場(chǎng)惡毒的游戲。再次出現(xiàn)的一連串殺戮促使警方重啟一個(gè)專(zhuān)案組。此前，該專(zhuān)案組曾遭擱置，至于擱置的原因，若是在這里詳細(xì)解釋?zhuān)拖喈?dāng)于劇透了。

Of course, censorship shapes crime writing here, which to some can make the genre seem relatively wan. A Yi, who was a police officer in Jiangxi Province before writing thrillers, said in an interview that the crime novel might have exhausted its potential in China. “Crime novels still do very well,” he said, “but for the writers, creating these stories is getting harder and harder.”

當(dāng)然，審查制度影響著這里的犯罪小說(shuō)寫(xiě)作。對(duì)一些人來(lái)說(shuō)，審查制度可能會(huì)讓犯罪小說(shuō)看上去比較蒼白無(wú)力。阿乙在寫(xiě)驚悚小說(shuō)之前是江西省的一名警察。他在接受采訪(fǎng)時(shí)說(shuō)，犯罪小說(shuō)在中國(guó)的潛力可能已經(jīng)耗盡了。“犯罪小說(shuō)還是很受歡迎，”他說(shuō)，“但是，就對(duì)創(chuàng)作者來(lái)說(shuō)，他的創(chuàng)作難度越來(lái)越大。”

Mr. Zhou acknowledged that the censors had posed problems, forcing him to make changes in his books, but he said that novels tend to get more leeway than movies or content online, which the government polices with greater zeal because that is where more Chinese are spending their time. The investigation at the heart of “Death Notice” does hinge on questions of police corruption and the privileges the wealthy in China enjoy — all of which are experiences Chinese readers can relate to.

周浩暉承認(rèn)，審查機(jī)構(gòu)是個(gè)問(wèn)題，它們逼迫他修改書(shū)中的內(nèi)容。但他說(shuō)，小說(shuō)的余地往往比電影或網(wǎng)絡(luò)內(nèi)容大，政府對(duì)后者的監(jiān)管力度更大，因?yàn)樵谒鼈兩厦婊〞r(shí)間的人更多。《死亡通知單》的核心調(diào)查的確涉及警察腐敗和中國(guó)富人享有的特權(quán)，這些經(jīng)歷都能與中國(guó)讀者產(chǎn)生共鳴。

“When you write crime novels you know you shouldn’t write anything too negative,” Mr. Zhou said, “but you have no way of knowing where the line is.” The solution, he said, was to have a good editor with a better sense of what can pass muster.

“我們寫(xiě)犯罪小說(shuō)不太好決定你說(shuō)什么要特別負(fù)面，”周浩暉說(shuō)，“你沒(méi)有辦法把握這個(gè)。”解決的辦法，他說(shuō)，就是找一個(gè)對(duì)什么內(nèi)容能通過(guò)審查有更好判斷力的好編輯。

The producers of the film version of “Death Notice” dealt with potential political sensitivity by shifting the action to Hong Kong, which is considered by Communist propaganda to be thoroughly dissolute after decades of colonial rule.

《死亡通知單》電影版的制片人把故事發(fā)生的地點(diǎn)改成了香港，以避免潛在的政治敏感性問(wèn)題。共產(chǎn)黨的宣傳部門(mén)認(rèn)為，香港在經(jīng)歷了數(shù)十年的殖民統(tǒng)治后，已經(jīng)徹底墮落了。

For commercial rather than political reasons, Mr. Zhou’s literary agent here also made changes in the English-language version of the book, translated by Zac Haluza. The action now takes place in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, not Yangzhou or nearby Nanjing, the cities Mr. Zhou said he had in the back of his mind when crafting the story. The assumption was that Chengdu, which is best known for pandas and spicy food, would be recognizable to foreign readers and give the drama a more visceral feel, Rob Bloom, Mr. Zhou’s editor at Doubleday, said in an email.

周浩暉的美國(guó)文學(xué)代理人出于商業(yè)原因，而非政治原因，也對(duì)該書(shū)的英文版做了些改動(dòng)，英文版由扎克·哈盧扎(Zac Haluza)翻譯。英文版的故事發(fā)生在四川省會(huì)成都，而不是揚(yáng)州或鄰近的南京。周浩暉表示，他在構(gòu)思這個(gè)故事時(shí)，頭腦中一直想的是這兩座城市。周浩暉在雙日出版社的編輯羅布·布魯姆(Rob Bloom)在接受電子郵件采訪(fǎng)時(shí)表示，這是出于這樣的考慮：以熊貓和辛辣食物聞名的成都為外國(guó)讀者所熟知，更可能會(huì)讓讀者產(chǎn)生身臨其境的感覺(jué)。

When asked about the change, Mr. Zhou laughed and said he, too, had wondered why they did that.

被問(wèn)及這個(gè)改動(dòng)時(shí)，周浩暉大笑起來(lái)，表示他也很想知道他們?yōu)槭裁匆@么改。

Doubleday has options for the second and third parts of the trilogy, called in Chinese “Fate” and “Farewell Song,” but has not yet committed to them — perhaps because Mr. Zhou’s first foray into English, a novel called “Valley of Terror,” published by Amazon Crossing last year, did not take off.

雙日出版社有權(quán)選擇是否接著引進(jìn)這個(gè)三部曲的第二部和第三部——它們的中文書(shū)名分別是《宿命》和《離別曲》——但此時(shí)還沒(méi)有敲定，也許是因?yàn)橹芎茣煹牡谝槐居⒆g小說(shuō)、去年由Amazon Crossing出版的《恐怖谷》并不暢銷(xiāo)。

Yangzhou, where Mr. Zhou grew up, is renowned for its literary history, especially a 9th century poet, Du Mu. One poem lamenting the whereabouts of a friend is so well known that Mr. Zhou’s colleagues recited it in unison during an excursion to Slender West Lake, a World Heritage Site in the city. (Mao Zedong’s handwritten transcription of Du Mu’s poem is carved into a stone monument beside the lake.)

周浩暉長(zhǎng)大的城市揚(yáng)州以悠久的文學(xué)傳統(tǒng)聞名，尤其是九世紀(jì)的詩(shī)人杜牧。杜牧有一首感嘆朋友下落的詩(shī)廣為流傳，周浩暉的同事們?cè)谟斡[該市的世界遺產(chǎn)名勝瘦西湖時(shí)能齊聲朗誦這首詩(shī)(毛澤東手寫(xiě)的杜牧詩(shī)句被刻在湖邊的一座石碑上)。

Mr. Zhou remembers playing in the park as a child — when there was no entrance fee — but literary inspiration came to him much later.

周浩暉還記得自己小時(shí)候來(lái)這個(gè)公園玩過(guò)——當(dāng)時(shí)不收門(mén)票——但很久之后，他才有了文學(xué)靈感。

“In the Chinese education system, there was no one to guide you to consider ‘what do you want to do?’” he said. “They just told you, study, study, study and get into a good university.”

“因?yàn)橹袊?guó)的教育制度很激烈，我們從小接受教育的時(shí)候呢，沒(méi)有人去引導(dǎo)我們?nèi)ニ伎?lsquo;你想要干什么?’”他說(shuō)，“就是告訴你要學(xué)學(xué)學(xué)，然后考上一所好的大學(xué)。”

He did, attending Tsinghua University in Beijing — one of the country’s most prestigious — and pursuing a degree in environmental engineering. Soon, though, he realized he did not really like engineering. He wrote as a hobby, posting stories on the message board of the university on the edge of Beijing where he taught for a decade.

他的確考上了好大學(xué)——中國(guó)最負(fù)盛名的大學(xué)之一，北京的清華大學(xué)——并且獲得了環(huán)境工程學(xué)位。但他很快意識(shí)到自己其實(shí)并不喜歡工程學(xué)。后來(lái)，他在位于北京邊緣的一所大學(xué)教了十年書(shū)，把寫(xiě)作當(dāng)成業(yè)余愛(ài)好，在那所大學(xué)的網(wǎng)絡(luò)論壇上發(fā)表故事。

He began to write in earnest in 2003 during the SARS crisis, when millions of people were effectively quarantined by the viral outbreak; hundreds died. “We had nowhere to go hang out and have fun,” he said, “so I would spend the whole day shut in my room.”

在2003年非典期間，他開(kāi)始認(rèn)真寫(xiě)作。當(dāng)時(shí)，由于病毒爆發(fā)，數(shù)百萬(wàn)人被隔離，數(shù)百人死亡。“我們沒(méi)有地方去娛樂(lè)，”他說(shuō)，“然后我就整天關(guān)在屋子里。”

With the success of the “Death Notice” trilogy, he was able to quit his job as a professor in 2012 and return to Yangzhou. He has given up writing exclusively and now devotes his creative efforts to producing his own films online, through the production company, Frog Brothers, which he founded. He has also begun studying film direction, having been disappointed that the popular serial version of his trilogy turned into a dark comedy.

由于《死亡通知單》三部曲的成功，他于2012年辭去教授工作，回到揚(yáng)州。他放棄了全職寫(xiě)作，現(xiàn)在通過(guò)自己創(chuàng)立的制片公司“青蛙兄弟”創(chuàng)作自己的網(wǎng)絡(luò)電影。由于對(duì)自己廣受歡迎的三部曲被拍成黑色喜劇感到失望，他也開(kāi)始研究電影導(dǎo)演。

Producing and directing allows him to control more aspects of the stories he wants to tell, he said. His first online film project was a psychological thriller, roughly translated as “Shuttered Room,” about two strangers mysteriously confined in a sealed apartment together.

他表示，制作和導(dǎo)演讓他能夠在更多方面控制自己想要講述的故事。他的第一部網(wǎng)絡(luò)電影是一部心理驚悚片，名為《禁錮之屋》，講述兩個(gè)陌生人被神秘地關(guān)在一個(gè)封閉公寓里的故事。

Mr. Zhou’s taste for the cinematic is clear. The germ of the idea for the “Death Notice” trilogy came from a 2006 music video by Jay Chou, the popular singer and actor from Taiwan, and the narrative is lean and fast paced, with little by way of description or excessive ruminations.

周浩暉對(duì)電影的喜愛(ài)顯而易見(jiàn)。《死亡通知單》三部曲的靈感來(lái)源于臺(tái)灣流行歌手兼演員周杰倫2006年的一個(gè)音樂(lè)錄像。這個(gè)故事情節(jié)緊湊、節(jié)奏很快，幾乎沒(méi)有任何與主題無(wú)關(guān)的描寫(xiě)或過(guò)多的思考。

He seems part of a generation for whom the boundaries between the written and the visual, the printed word and the image on screen, have blurred, allowing him to glide dexterously from one medium to the next, one genre to the next. The format, Mr. Zhou said, was not so important. “I just ask myself, ‘What is the best way to tell the story.’”

對(duì)他這一代人來(lái)說(shuō)，語(yǔ)言與視覺(jué)、印刷文字和銀幕上的圖像之間的界限已經(jīng)模糊，使他能夠靈活地從一種媒介轉(zhuǎn)向另一種媒介，一種體裁轉(zhuǎn)向另一種體裁。周浩暉表示，形式?jīng)]那么重要。“我只是問(wèn)自己，‘講故事的最佳方式是什么?’”