FT周末版主编的上海日记 The Diary: Caroline Daniel

I am visiting Shanghai for the first time for the FT’s Women at the Top conference. First impressions are of traffic, skyscrapers vanishing into smog and a bullet train disappearing into the distance.

我首次前往上海，参加由《金融时报》举办的《巅峰女性》高峰会议。上海给我的第一印象是繁忙的交通、蒙蒙烟雾中林立的高楼，以及呼啸着消失在前方的子弹头高速火车。

Statistics about China tend to the extravagant but some of those connected with gender issues fascinate me. China accounts for more than half the female millionaires in the world, for example. They are unafraid to embrace high-powered status symbols: women buy 30 per cent of the 400 or so Maseratis sold in China, against five per cent of those in the west. And as I logged into the hotel’s WiFi, the most-read story on the BBC was about young Chinese women training as bodyguards – all very Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

关于中国的统计数字往往水分颇多，但与女性事务相关的数据却让我很感兴趣。举个例子，中国女性占了全球女性富豪的一半还多。代表社会身份地位的大功率豪车，她们买起来毫不手软：中国境内销售的玛莎拉蒂车(Maseratis)大约为400辆，光女性就买走了30%，而西方女性这个比例只有5%。我登陆酒店的无线网络后，发现BBC网站上阅读量最多的是有关中国姑娘训练当保镖的新闻——都是些卧虎藏龙(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)式的霹雳娇娃。

The delegates are an impressively eclectic group, 180 women and men who have flown in from Brazil, America, Korea and, of course, China. In her keynote address Melanne Verveer, US ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues, said – perhaps with more assertion than conviction – that women are the solution to the global downturn. In possibly the easiest clap line for a room full of women, she cites a Harvard Business Review case study: “If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises.” But, for all the economic aspirations, the audience responds most warmly to personal revelations. Maria das Gra?as Silva Foster, gas and energy director of the Brazilian multinational Petrobras (85 per cent male), draws murmured support when she says when she is with her children, she loves them, but, in the office, “I forget I have a husband.” As I told the audience, the solution to the work-life balance may be temporary amnesia. Confessing to having five children with two husbands, another speaker says, “That’s diversity.” The evening closes with Huang Ying, a famous Chinese opera star, singing Puccini in a fabulous pink fluffy boa before being probed by Chen Luyu, a talkshow host, about the price of fame, the last time she cried and whether she can cook (she can’t).

让人印象深刻的是：与会的代表团都是男女搭配型，全部180名代表来自巴西、美国、韩国，当然包括中国。美国全球妇女问题(Global Women’s Issues)巡回大使梅兰妮?弗维尔(Melanne Verveer)在主旨发言（更多的是推断而非定论）中说女性能帮助全球经济走出低迷。面对着济济一堂的女性，她列举了《哈佛商业评论》(Harvard Business Review)的经典案例：“团队中的女性越多，整体智力水准就会水涨船高”，这或许最容易引发女性朋友的共鸣。尽管大家对经济前景表现得信心十足，但对个人私事的表白反响最为热烈。巴西国家石油公司（Petrobras，85%的员工是男性）负责天然气与能源的主管玛丽亚?福斯特(Maria das Gra?as Silva Foster)说与自己孩子呆在一起的时候，是个充满爱心的好妈妈，而在工作时，“自己都忘了老公的存在”时，全场应声附和者廖廖。我在发言中则说：解决工作与生活的两全之策或许就是暂时失忆。另一位发言的嘉宾坦承自己有5个孩子，结了两次婚，她说两全之策是“多样化”。当晚最后一个发言嘉宾是黄英，她是中国著名的歌剧明星，接受脱口秀主持人陈鲁豫刨根问底式的采访前，身披一条毛绒绒的粉色漂亮围巾的她先是引吭了一曲歌剧《普契尼》(Puccini)的选段，继而谈及自己成名的代价、最近一次哭是何时以及会不会做饭（她说自己不会做饭）。

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虽说我在报刊杂志上曾读到如今上海200米以上的高楼大厦比纽约还要多，但实地看到的景象还是大大出乎我的预料。据戴维?戴利(David d’Heilly)统计：30年前，整个上海超过8层的大楼只有121座，他关于特大城市的专著即将出版。到2005年时，上海的高楼达到了1万座：为此，上海拆倒了老城区的大部分建筑。因而到星期一时，我离开酒店，打算探幽一番巴拉德(JG Ballard)与诺尔?寇威尔(No?l Coward)笔下的老上海。到头来只找到了新天地，这是由当年法租界改建而成，里面开着一家星巴克以及供应北京烤鸭比萨的比萨快餐店(Pizza Express)，它的尽头位于车水马龙的高架桥下。

Though I’d read that Shanghai now has more skyscrapers over 200 metres high than New York, I had not expected to see quite as many high-rises. Thirty years ago there were just 121 buildings over eight storeys tall, according to David d’Heilly, author of an upcoming book on megacities. By 2005, the total had risen to 10,000: to accommodate them much of the old city has been bulldozed. And thus on Monday, when I leave the hotel hoping to explore the old Shanghai of JG Ballard and No?l Coward, all I manage to find is Xintiandi, a restored area of the French concession, with a Starbucks, and Pizza Express serving Peking duck pizza, before getting lost under a highway.

我接受一位朋友的建议，向彼得?希巴德(Peter Hibbard)求助，希巴德是居住在上海的作家，去年因保护上海历史遗存做出的突出贡献而被授予帝国勋章(MBE)；他又是一位城市规划专家，对上海的许多复原工程建言献策过。带着一本步行指南The Ginger Griffin，希巴德自己曾转遍了上海。他自信、豁达又健谈。走街串巷中，不是为逝去的一切而哀伤，而是把留存至今的东西清晰展示给读者。他的激情极富感召力，对旧上海的研究费了很多心血。他的iPad中存储着几千张上海的照片——从《字林西报》(North China Daily News)废旧期刊上淘来的上世纪30年代的老照片到上海的电话簿，不一而足——从这些老照片中，他找到了当年范婷（Dame Margot Fonteyn，美国芭蕾舞演员）孩提时代居住过的房子（他甚至有一张范婷九岁时装扮成猫的一张相片）。

I take the advice of a friend and turn to Peter Hibbard, a Shanghai-based British writer who last year was awarded an MBE for his services to heritage conservation in Shanghai. An expert in urban planning who has advised on many of the city’s restoration projects, Hibbard conducts private tours under the nom-de-pied The Ginger Griffin. He is a perky, optimistic raconteur: on a walking tour, rather than lamenting what is no longer there, he opens your eyes to what is left. His enthusiasm is infectious, his research painstaking. On his iPad he has thousands of images, from 1930s photographs gleaned from old editions of the North China Daily News and phonebooks of Shanghai – from which he found an apartment where Dame Margot Fonteyn lived as a child (he even has a photo of her aged about nine dressed as a cat).

这种近乎窥探的四处寻芳探幽着实让人轻松愉快：快步走进私家厅堂、为进隐密庭院使劲按门锁密码、敲寻常中国百姓的家门希望能一窥其客厅尊容、漫不经心地经过门卫进入某家医院（这里曾经是花旗银行(National City Bank of New York)买办吴培初(Percy C Woo)的私宅，由匈牙利著名建筑师邬达克(Laszlo Hudec)于1932年所建）。我们蹑手蹑脚地走进立体派装饰风格的利顺德大饭店(Astor Hotel)的舞厅，那一天这里正充当亚洲版《危险关系》(Dangerous Liaisons)的电影外景地，看到演员们身着上世纪20年代的装扮、手中拿着香烟正忙活着。

The tour feels satisfyingly intimate and voyeuristic, bordering on snooping. It involves nipping into private lobbies, punching security codes to enter hidden courtyards, knocking on doors of Chinese families Hibbard has courted to peer into sitting rooms, and insouciantly walking past guards to enter a hospital, once the home of Percy C Woo, comprador of the National City Bank of New York, and built in 1932 by renowned Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec. We sneak into the ballroom at the art deco Astor Hotel, being used that day as a film set for an Asian version of Dangerous Liaisons, with actors bustling around in 1920s costumes, dangling cigarettes.

距离著名的外滩不远处，我们拾级登上一段宽阔弯曲的楼梯（斑驳的红色油漆甚是好看）直至楼顶，这里现在是10多户人家的公用厨房。石库门(The Stone House)房子（过去就是这么称呼）可以追溯至1857年，由美国商号旗昌洋行(Russell & Co)所建，在早期的鸦片贸易中，它曾是怡和洋行(Jardine Matheson)的商场劲敌。汉密尔顿大厦(Hamilton House)过去是外国医生行医的地方，当年以三重公寓楼以及楼顶花园著称于世，立体派装饰风格的大厅里如今放满了自行车，但从脏兮兮的白灰顶与楼梯间，依然可以感悟一丝当年老上海的风韵。中国的古建筑保护差强人意，寄希望于用更具现代气息的文化规避，在空荡荡的豪华购物中心，到处充斥着人造大理石的大厅。

Just off the famous Bund, we go up a wide curved staircase, with beautifully red peeling paint, to the top floor, now an open kitchen used by a dozen families. The Stone House building (as it was known) dates from 1857, and was built by Russell & Co, an American competitor to Jardine Matheson in the early opium trade. At Hamilton House, once popular with foreign medical practitioners for its triplex apartments and roof gardens, the art deco lobby is filled with bicycles, but you can still get a whiff of old Shanghai in the dirty, stuccoed ceilings and stairwells. Older Chinese architecture is less well preserved, shunned in favour of a more present-tense culture, and the opulence of fake marble lobbies in empty luxury shopping malls.

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而回到伦敦，打动我的却是整座城市的低矮建筑（似乎显得很不体面），然而，在暮色朦胧中，参加萨默塞特宫(Somerset House)庭院溜冰场的揭幕晚会，是最惬意不过的事了。纸托蛋糕顶是旋涡状的蒂芬尼(Tiffany)纯冰，服务员端着热气腾腾的棉花糖巧克力穿梭在人群中。歌手艾米丽?桑黛(Emeli Sandé)点亮了圣诞树，皮帕?米德尔顿(Pippa Middleton)身穿白色护套与黑色紧身裤、以一套眼花缭乱的动作来到冰场。一切就犹如充满了温情的迪斯尼乐园。但我无暇溜冰，因为我还得赶到百乐门(Paramount Club)，参加为白血病与淋巴瘤研究(Leukemia and Lymphoma Research)募捐而举行的小型颁奖酒会。前首相布莱尔的新闻主管、体态苗条的阿拉斯泰尔?坎贝尔(Alastair Campbell)正在主持现场。过去六周时间，他的体重从98.42公斤降到了89.81公斤，并准备拍摄一部关于风笛的电影。（这两件事并不相关：减体重是在法国维托斯山(Mont Ventoux)磨着性子骑自行车锻炼后的结果。）整晚上几乎都是矜持的逗笑，而最后一位嘉宾的获奖感言却大大出乎我的预料。

Back in London, the city strikes me as shamefully low-rise. Yet nothing can beat the beauty of a misty opening night for the ice-rink in the courtyard of Somerset House. There are cupcakes topped with Tiffany blue icing swirls and waiters serving hot chocolate with marshmallows. Singer Emeli Sandé lights the Christmas tree and Pippa Middleton takes to the ice in a white jacketed/black leggings swirl. It is all very Disney England, but I don’t have time to skate as I am going on to a small awards drinks at the Paramount Club for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research. A svelte Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications, is doing the honours. He has gone from 15st 7lb to 14st 2lb over the past six weeks and is preparing to present a film about bagpipes. (The two events are not connected: he lost weight after doing his slowest time ever on Mont Ventoux on a bike.) After a night of low-key banter, the story behind the last award takes me by surprise.

获奖者是杰里米?戴维斯(Jeremy Davison)，八天内，他与一位朋友决定以骑行自行车450英里、跑步100英里的方式来纪念另一位死于白血病的朋友。但在骑行时，他的同伴却当场死于车祸。事后我与戴维斯交谈，他对我说今晚是他第二位朋友罹难后，第一次放声大哭，他仍觉得朋友的英魂会来到现场。他不知道该如何了却心中的这段遗憾，说只能寄希望于未来，继续不断地筹款（筹款网址：award.justgiving.com/beldonchallenge）。

It is given to Jeremy Davison who together with a friend had set out to cycle 450 miles and run 100 miles in eight days in memory of another friend who had died of leukaemia. But on the cycling leg his companion was killed instantly by a car. I speak to Davison afterwards, who says that tonight is the first time he had cried since the second death and he still thinks his friend will walk into the room. It is hard to know where to put that confession, but Davison says he can only look to the future and carry on fund-raising (award.justgiving.com/beldonchallenge).

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周二参加了另一场筹款晚会——由慈善组织Mencap举办、名为Little Noise Sessions的筹款音乐会。音乐会精彩纷呈，到今年已是第六届，地点就在伦敦克莱帕顿(Clapton)的St John at Hackney教堂，这是首次在教堂内举行音乐节，对于习惯于体育场观众爆满的乐队来说，（在教堂举办音乐会），看到的是实属难得一见的温馨场面。我赶到那儿是参加Elbow乐队巡回演出的最后一站，或者正如乐队脚踏实地的主唱加维(Guy Garvey)所说，“这是我们今年无数场演出的最后一场”。

Tuesday is another charity event – one of Mencap’s brilliant Little Noise Sessions, now in their sixth year. It is in St John at Hackney in Clapton, the first time a music festival has been held at the church and a rare intimate setting for a band that can pack stadiums. I am there for the last gig of Elbow’s album tour, or as Guy Garvey, its down-to-earth lead singer, puts it, “the last of five squillion performances this year”. The staging is spare, with just one glitterball revolving over the set and the ceiling so high that the acoustics are tough, but the former pub band easily manages to fill the vacuum. Garvey salutes the audience with a raised plastic beer glass and from there on in his stage manner is one of capacious inclusiveness – commanding the crowd to “do something interesting with your hands”, and later invoking us to “maybe now do the clappy thing” as we variously waggle our fingers or power-clap like Spanish castanets. Somehow he manages to segue from repartee about Christmas presents into the long opening “woo-ah” of “Grounds for Divorce”. All the big soaring anthems are played, happily echoed by an out-of-tune audience around me. More spiritual was when they followed Garvey in echo-whistling, a sort of modern day call and response, in keeping with the religious setting. The band closes with their epic “One Day Like This”. “One day like this a year would see me right / Throw those curtains wide / One day like this a year would see me right.” Leaving with a beaming sense of goodwill for a good cause is quite possibly the best cure ever for Chinese jetlag.

舞台设施实在简陋，只有一盏闪光球在上面转动，舞台顶太高，音响效果也是差强人意。但这支以前在酒吧闯荡的乐队还是设法弥补了以上缺陷。加维用一个有凸起花纹的塑料啤酒杯向观众表达谢意。从那以后，他在舞台上的表现堪比“海纳百川”——先是引导观众“要用双手做些有意义的事”，然后，当我们杂乱无章地挥舞着双手或者象西班牙响板一样使劲鼓掌时，他就请求观众“也许现在应该来点掌声”。但他聪明地从圣诞礼物的巧妙应答转向歌曲《离婚的正当理由》(Grounds for Divorce)长长的序曲部分。紧接着，专辑中的打头歌曲被乐队撕心裂肺地唱了个遍，周围的歌迷们跑着调地齐声高唱。更感动的是看到观众用口哨声（现代流行的附和方式）和着加维的演唱，哪些场景十分契合教堂庄严的氛围。乐队最后一首歌是史诗般的《如此一天》(“One Day Like This”)。歌中唱道：“一年中如此的一天会让我心情舒畅/拉开那些沉重的窗帘/一年中如此的一天会让我心情舒畅。”离场时，内心洋溢着对慈善事业的无比向往，或许这是倒（去中国出差）时差的最佳“良药”。

Caroline Daniel is editor of FT Weekend

卡罗琳?丹尼尔是《金融时报》周末版主编