活在中國式潛規則中的人們

The first rule I taught my children when we moved to China was that green doesn’t mean “go”. Don’t walk when the green man says walk, and don’t stop when the red one says halt. I think we all found it wonderfully liberating.

搬來中國後，我教孩子們的第一條規則就是綠燈不意味着“行”。綠燈亮時不要走，紅燈亮時也別停。我想我們都覺得這樣非常自由。

China has its own rules — and they are not the ones I learnt in kindergarten. In fact, after seven years as a pedestrian and several forays as a driver, I have not yet figured out exactly what they are — but they seem to work. So you are better off making your own deal with the oncoming traffic (or any of the other challenges of living and working in China) than expecting “stop, look and listen” to apply. China has 5,000 years of history and that means 5,000 years of knowing instinctively that pedestrians have no right of way. That green man may look just like the guy in London or Los Angeles, but he is not the same. He has been localised.

中國有自己的規則——和我在幼兒園學到的那些不同。實際上，在中國當了7年行人並嘗試開了幾次車以後，我仍然沒弄明白這些規則到底是什麼——但這些規則好像還挺管用。所以，面對迎面而來的車流（或者在中國生活和工作時遇到的任何其它問題），你最好還是自己看着辦，別指望“停、看、聽”那一套能幫到你。中國擁有5000年的歷史，這就意味着5000年來人們都本能地明白行人在路上是“靠邊站的”。交通燈上的綠色小人看起來或許和倫敦、洛杉磯的並無二致，但卻是另一個人。他已經本地化了。

So I tell my kids what I would tell anyone coming to do business in China: don’t expect rules to protect you, but don’t worry that they will thwart you either. And read Tim Clissold, the British businessman whose book Mr China: A Memoir (2004) is probably the best I have ever come across about China. Now he has written another: Chinese Rules: Mao’s Dog, Deng’s Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China ; it’s about what makes China tick — for foreigners who can clearly hear it ticking but can’t quite figure out why.

所以同樣的話我既告訴我的孩子們，也告訴那些來中國做生意的人們：別指望規則能保護你，但也別擔心規矩會阻礙你。英國商人祈立天(Tim Clissold)的書《中國通》(Mr China: A Memoir, 2004)可能是我讀過的關於中國的書中最好的一本。現在他又寫了另一本書《中國規則》(Chinese Rules: Mao’s Dog, Deng’s Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China)。這是一本有關中國運轉機理的書——外國人能夠明顯感覺到中國運轉自如，但卻弄不清楚緣由。

Rule one in his book is that China does not play by anyone else’s rules so stop wishing that it would. To which I would add: you can make that work for you. My children love never having to wait for the lights to change to cross the street. That is certainly one way to celebrate what others might call lawlessness.

他書中第一條規則就是：中國不會按照任何別人的規則來運轉，所以就不要對此抱以希望了。關於這個我想補充一句：你可以讓這條規則爲你所用。我的孩子們非常喜歡過馬路從不用等變燈。這無疑是別人口中“無法無天”的一點好處吧。

In the big picture, lawlessness has receded monumentally since we moved here in 2008. New laws, closely guided by western models, have been passed in virtually every area of business life in China, from intellectual property to competition law. But old habits die hard, and it may take decades for the habits of legality to trickle down to the average wage slave. So I still have plenty of daily opportunities to see people ignoring rules I thought were written in stone and to teach my kids how to make that work for them. Often, this happens in hotels, perhaps because “the customer is always right” is another one of those rules that China most definitely does not play by.

總的來看，自我們2008年搬來中國以來，法制缺位的狀況已經得到了極大改善。從知識產權到反壟斷法，中國已經通過各項緊密參考西方模板的新法律，幾乎覆蓋到中國商業活動的每一個方面。但積習難改，可能需要幾十年的時間，遵紀守法的觀念才能逐漸深入老百姓心中。所以在日常生活中，我還有大把機會看到人們無視那些我原以爲每個人都必須遵守的金科玉律，並教我的孩子們怎麼利用這一點。這常常發生在酒店裏，也許因爲“顧客總是正確的”這條規則也屬於在中國幾乎肯定沒用的規則之一吧。

Recently, I took the kids to a five-star hotel for one of those quintessential parent-teen bonding excursions that involve letting them lie in a hotel Jacuzzi and order room service all day. When we got there, the hotel clerk calmly informed us that he had rented out our pre-paid room to another guest who really, really wanted to stay there.

最近，我帶孩子們前往一家五星級酒店，想來一個標準親子游，讓他們躺在酒店的按摩浴缸裏享受一整天的客房服務。當我們抵達那裏的時候，酒店前臺很平靜地告訴我們，他已經把我們預付過的房間給了另外一名非常非常想住在這兒的客人。

Armed with my kindergarten rule book, I began to splutter about having booked through Priceline and paid with a credit card, which made it a binding contract, surely? But I didn’t know how to say Priceline in Chinese and he wasn’t having it anyway. Someone else was in our bed; that was the long and short of it.

腦子裏裝着幼兒園裏學到的規則，我氣急敗壞地和他理論：你開玩笑吧，用Priceline預定過了、也用信用卡付款了，難道不是就已經達成了有效合同？但是我不知道怎麼用漢語說Priceline，不過反正他也不明白。總之，別人睡了我們的牀，說什麼都於事無補。

Of course, in the end they found us a suite instead, and the kids celebrated by inviting several classmates to share the Jacuzzi and sleep over — in a room with a maximum official occupancy of two. So that is the teen version of the green man “don’t walk” rule: if the other guy breaks the rules, so can you. You may get the better end of the bargain.

當然，最後他們給我們換了個套間，我的孩子們邀請了幾個同學共享按摩浴缸並且一起過夜來慶祝——儘管按規定該房間最多入住兩人。於是這就成了綠燈“不通行”規則的青少年版：如果別人破壞了規矩，你也能。說不定你佔的便宜還更多。

Clissold’s fourth rule (I won’t tell you the others; buy the book) is that given the choice between the right result and the right rule, China will always choose pragmatism. That one has worked in my family’s favour, too: like the time when the police allowed us to license two dogs — in the same week that the law changed, making owning more than one dog illegal.

祈立天的第四條規則（我不會告訴你其它規則是什麼；去買書吧）：在好結果和好規則之間選，中國總會選擇實用主義。這一點也讓我們家受益：比如有一次警察允許我們給兩條狗上狗證——而那個星期法律剛改，養狗超過一條就算違法。

Being an inveterate stickler for the rules, I tried to point out to the accommodating cop that what we were doing was against the law. He indicated that, being a policeman and all, he was aware of the new law — so could I please stop looking my gift dog in the mouth and just go home.

作爲一名積習難改的守法者，我試着向那位好心通融的警察指出，我們這樣做是違法的。他說，身爲一名警察，他當然清楚新的法規——所以你就別得了便宜賣乖了，趕緊回家去吧。

My message to my kids, and to anyone else who wants to live a happy life in China, is not to get hung up on rules; nobody else does. And you must ditch the kindergarten morality. It is too simple for this place.

我想對我的孩子們，以及任何想在中國快樂生活的人們傳達的訊息是：不要在規則上吊死；沒人那麼幹。你必須拋開幼兒園裏學到的道德觀，對於這兒來說那種道德觀太天真了。