漢字裏的性別暴力與文化偏見
BEIJING — What if “womanwomanwoman” were the English word for rape, defilement, adultery?
北京——如果英文中表示“強姦”(rape)、“褻瀆”(defilement)、“通姦”(adultery)等意思的詞是三個“女”字(womanwomanwoman)，那會怎樣呢？
That is roughly how the Chinese character “jian,” or 姦, translates, as it is made up of three characters for “woman,” 女.
漢字“姦”的英文翻譯大致就是這些，這個字由三個女組成。
(In mainland China, the character 姦 was simplified to 奸 after the 1949 Communist revolution as an aid to literacy, but the three-woman version is still standard in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities, and widely recognized on the mainland.)
（中國大陸1949年的共產黨革命成功後，作爲幫助提高識字率的一種輔助手段，“姦”被簡化成“奸”了，但三個女的寫法仍是香港、澳門、臺灣，以及海外中國社區的標準，大陸人也大都認識這個寫法。）
Troubled by the word’s gender associations, curators made it the symbol of an art exhibition that had been scheduled to open in Beijing on Nov. 25, the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
出於對這個字的性別關聯的不安，一個藝術展的策展人把該字作爲展覽的主題，這個藝術展原定於11月25日的聯合國國際消除對婦女和女童暴力日(International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women)在北京開幕。
The exhibition, “Jian, Rape: Gender Violence Cultural Codes,” was to have run until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day, signaling 16 days of global activism against gender violence with the hashtag #orangetheworld.
題爲《姦：性別暴力傷害的文化符號》的藝術展原定要持續到12月10日的國際人權日(Human Rights Day)，是爲期16天的抵制性別暴力全球行動的一部分，該行動在網上使用#orangetheworld井號標籤。
The exhibition was canceled.
藝術展被取消了。
But curators, feminists and commentators say there is a pressing need for more awareness in China of the gender prejudices woven into the language.
但是，策展人、女權主義者與評論員說，仍有迫切必要讓更多的中國人認識到語言中存在的性別偏見。
“Why did one woman become three, and such a symbol of political and moral imagination and an object of enmity in traditional Chinese society and political theory?” asked Tong Yujie, the academic convener of the canceled exhibition, in an essay prepared for the show.
佟玉潔是被取消的藝術展的學術召集人，她在爲展覽準備的文章中寫道，“爲什麼由一個女人變成三個女人的字是具有如此政治和道德想象的符號，是中國傳統社會和政治理論仇恨的對象？”
As evidence, Ms. Tong offered examples from ancient Chinese history and political texts:
佟玉潔提供了一些中國古代歷史與政治典籍中的例子作爲證據：
In the “Zuo Zhuan,” or “Commentary of Zuo,” dating from the fourth century B.C., “jian” is used to mean “evil”: “To cast away what is virtuous and give honor to what is evil is the greatest of calamities.”
在出自公元前四世紀的《左傳》中，“姦”的意思是“邪惡”：“棄德崇姦，禍之大者也。”
In the “Guoyu,” or “Discourse of States,” from the same period, a “jian” is a traitor: “Rebels inside the country are scoundrels, while those outside the country are traitors.”
在同期的《國語》中，“姦”的意思是叛徒: “亂在內為宄，在外為姦。”
Gender is written into all languages, but it is especially striking in Chinese because of the visual nature of the language, said David Moser, a linguist and the academic director of CET Beijing Chinese Studies at Capital Normal University.
漢語言學專家、首都師範大學CET對外漢語學習項目的負責人莫大偉(David Moser)說，所有的語言中都寫進了性別，但由於中文的視覺特性，它在中文中特別引人注目。
“In everyday language, how many Chinese speakers are aware that, in every set phrase with male-female gender reference, the male always comes first?” he said in an email.
“在日常語言中，有多少中國人能意識到，在每個成語的男女性別指涉上，男性總是排在前面的？”他在一封電郵中說。
“A married couple is 一對夫婦, a husband and wife. Your parents are your 父母, father and mother, never 母父, or mother and father. Even a phrase like 男女老少, meaning everyone, literally ‘men, women, old and young,’ subconsciously reinforces a supposedly ‘natural’ hierarchy — men over women, old over young,” Mr. Moser said.
“比如‘一對夫婦’是丈夫和妻子，‘父母’是媽媽和爸爸，人們從來不會說‘母父’。甚至像‘男女老少’這種意識是所有人的短語，也下意識地強化了所謂的‘自然’的等級結構——男在女之前，老在少之前，” 莫大偉說。
In Chinese, tradition weighs heavily, with a language capable of great beauty and subtlety also offering enduring discrimination.
中文很重視傳統，這門可以極具美感與微妙的語言，也夾帶着經久不衰的歧視。
“Reversing the order isn’t perceived as just a polarity flip in the interest of equality,” Mr. Moser said. “It would be simply perceived as ‘wrong,’ by most Chinese people.”
“如果把它們順序反轉，人們不覺得這僅僅是爲了平等的緣故進行的倒裝，”莫大偉說。“大多數中國人都會直接將其視爲 ‘錯誤’。”
