我們是爲神靈表演

BANGKOK — “Anywhere they play in Bangkok, I’ll be there,” said Warin Nithihiranyakul, 73, a dedicated fan of the Sai Yong Hong Chinese Opera troupe for more than 10 years. While waiting for his friends to arrive, he helps out by starting to set up plastic red chairs for the audience to watch the evening’s performance in an area just south of Bangkok’s Chinatown.

曼谷——“不管他們在曼谷什麼地方演出，我都會去看，”73歲的瓦林·尼西蘭亞庫(Warin Nithihiranyakul)說。十多年來，他一直是賽榮豐潮劇團(Sai Yong Hong Chinese Opera)的忠實粉絲。等朋友們到來期間，他幫忙擺放爲觀衆準備的紅塑料椅，當晚的演出在曼谷唐人街南部一個地方舉行。

A devotee of 11 years, Wandee Tengyodwanich, 62, unwraps several small plates of Chinese dough sticks and cake, passing them around to her friends in front of the stage before the show. She says that Sai Yong Hong is the best Chinese opera in Thailand because it invests in very elaborate costumes. She and her friends go to see the group a couple of times a year. They eat and catch up as they reminisce about the first time they saw Chinese opera as children.

演出開始前，62歲的旺迪·滕永旺希(Wandee Tengyodwanich)打開幾小盤油條和糕點，分給舞臺前的朋友們。她喜歡賽榮豐11年了。她說，賽榮豐是泰國最好的潮劇團，因爲它捨得花錢購買精緻的服裝。她和朋友們每年都要看幾次這個劇團的演出。她們一邊吃，一邊回憶小時候第一次觀看潮劇時的情景。

They are part of a shrinking community of people that has formed around Chinese opera in Thailand. They are preserving a cornerstone of culture and heritage dating to the seventh-century Tang Dynasty (618 to 907), making it one of the oldest dramatic art forms in the world.

她們屬於圍繞泰國潮劇形成的一個不斷縮小的羣體。他們在保存一種文化與遺產的基石，它可以追溯到七世紀的唐朝（618年至907年），是世界上最古老的戲劇藝術形式之一。

Like so much of Chinese opera throughout the world, the performances are a product of a large Chinese diaspora. Sai Yong Hong is one of about 20 Chinese opera troupes in Thailand. The audience consists mostly of older Thai-Chinese adults, some of whom take their grandchildren to connect with a cultural memory that has been passed down for generations.

和世界各地的很多中國戲曲一樣，這些演出也是大量華人流散海外的產物。泰國有約20箇中國戲曲劇團，賽榮豐也是其中之一。觀衆主要是年長的泰國華裔，他們中的一些人帶着孫輩來看演出，想讓他們瞭解這個代代相傳的文化記憶。

Chinese migration to Thailand can be traced to the 13th century, according to the Minority Rights Group. Today about 14 percent of the population is ethnically Chinese, according to World Population Review, making Thailand the home of one of the world’s largest Chinese communities outside China.

據少數民族權利組織(Minority Rights Group)稱，中國人移民到泰國的歷史可以追溯到13世紀。根據“世界人口綜述”(World Population Review)網站的數據，目前約有14%的泰國人是華裔，所以，泰國是中國以外世界上最大的華人社區所在地之一。

On a recent afternoon, actors had spent two hours applying layers of makeup backstage, transforming into gods and goddesses, heroes and villains from Chinese folklore and mythology.

前不久的一個下午，演員們花了兩個小時在後臺畫上一層層的妝，變身爲中國民間傳說和神話中的男女神明、英雄和反派。

At around 7:30 p.m., the actors and actresses of Sai Yong Hong took the stage and the performance began.

晚上七點半左右，賽榮豐的演員們開始登臺表演。

The performance mixes elements of martial arts, singing and dancing, accompanied by music played on traditional Chinese instruments like the hammered dulcimer and the four-stringed pipa. Their scripts are primarily based on Chinese folk stories, but some are adaptations of Indian movies. They are delivered in Teochew, a dialect originating in Southern China.

表演融合了武術、歌唱和舞蹈的元素，配樂是用揚琴和四弦的琵琶等中國傳統樂器演奏的。他們的劇本主要取材於中國民間故事，但也有一些改編自印度電影。唱詞用的是潮州話，一種起源於中國南方的方言。

The show sends the sound of cymbals crashing through the night, echoing through the courtyard until the performances wind down, around midnight.

響亮的鈸聲在夜晚的庭院裏迴盪，直到午夜時分演出結束。

Sai Yong Hong is one of the best-known troupes in Thailand. It has 34 actors, five of whom are from China and the rest from Thailand, and, on that night, about 60 people attended the performance. The manager, Tatchai Obthong, 52, said that when he was younger a troupe would have about 100 actors and the crowds were much larger.

賽榮豐是泰國最著名的劇團之一。它有34名演員，其中5人來自中國，其餘的來自泰國。當晚，約有60人觀看了演出。52歲的經理他差·奧布通(Tatchai Obthong)表示，他年輕時，一個劇團約有100名演員，觀衆人數要多得多。

“I didn’t like it — it was loud and scary,” he said of the first time he saw a Chinese opera as a child. Mr. Tatchai, who is Chinese and Thai, has been in the industry since he was 7. His mother had left his father and was struggling with a gambling addiction. Having fallen on hard times, she took Obthong, a childhood fan of martial arts movies, to see a Chinese opera performance.

“我不喜歡——又吵又嚇人，”他說起自己小時候第一次看潮劇的感覺。中泰混血的他差自七歲就入了這一行。他差的母親離開了他的父親，曾爲賭博成癮而苦。身陷困境的她帶着自幼喜歡武打電影的奧布通去看了一場潮劇演出。

At the end of the night his mother told him that he was going to stay with the troupe. “I was sold by mother for 6,000 bath,” or about $190, he said.

晚上結束時，母親告訴他差，他要留在劇團了。“母親6000泰銖就把我賣了，”他說，6000泰銖大約相當於190美元。

He remembers that it was hard for him to adapt because he wasn’t allowed to speak Thai and had to learn Teochew, but he quickly realized that to survive he had to learn the craft and the language. He began by serving as a roadie and eventually went to work with a Chinese opera company in Singapore, where he learned more about the performance aspect, before returning to Thailand, where he has worked for the past 12 years.

他記得自己當時很難適應，因爲不允許他說泰語，他必須學習潮州話。但他很快意識到，想活下來，自己就必須學習這門技藝和這種語言。他首先做起了隨團的雜工，最後去了一個在新加坡的中國戲曲公司工作。他在那裏學到了更多關於表演方面的東西后回到泰國，過去12年一直在這裏工作。

Performances are free — they are commissioned by shrines in Bangkok and sometimes around the country. “We don’t perform for people, we perform for the gods,” Mr. Tatchai said. They transport the stage with a six-wheel truck and assemble it at each location where they perform. The whole troupe gets paid 20,000 bath (about $640) per night.

演出是免費的——他們受僱於曼谷的寺廟，有時還會去全國各地的寺廟。“我們不是爲人民表演，我們是爲神靈表演，”他差說。他們會用一個六輪卡車搬運舞臺，在演出地點進行組裝。全團每晚大約能獲得兩萬泰銖（約合640美元）。

For many of the actors, the stage is home. “Now it’s a high season, so we travel together all the time,” Mr. Tatchai said. After the show, some will sleep under the stage or set up tents nearby.

對於許多演員來說，舞臺就是家。“現在是旺季，所以我們總是一起到處跑，”他差說。在演出之後，一些人會睡在舞臺底下，或在附近搭起帳篷。

One performer, Somsak Saetae, 62, has been an actor with the group for more than 10 years. He has been in the industry since he was 8 and has seen its evolution. “In the past, women couldn’t set foot on the Chinese opera stage, and all the performers were men,” he said. “Women could not even touch the shrine, only men were allowed; now the whole industry has changed.”

62歲的演員頌薩·塞塔(Somsak Saetae)是一位已在劇團內待了十多年的演員。八歲就入了行的他見證了這個行業的演變。“在過去，女人是不能踏上中國戲曲舞臺的，所有的演員都是男的，”他說。“女人甚至不能觸碰神龕，只有男人才可以；現在整個行業都變了。”

Today even some of the male roles are played by women, like Malee Saewong, 53, who has been a part of this troupe for only four years but has acted in other troupes since she was 14. “I am old now so I get to play male characters, but it’s easier because you don’t have deal with doing your hair,” she said.

如今，甚至一些男性角色也會由女性扮演，比如才加入劇團四年、但14歲起就已在別的劇團演出的馬莉·賽黃(Malee Saewong)。“我現在年紀大了，所以就去演男性角色，但也更輕鬆了，因爲不用再做頭髮，”現年53歲的她說。

Prasong Piewnen, 56, is the group’s cook and cares for her sleeping grandson after the show. Her husband is a musician and her daughter an actress in the troupe. Ms. Prasong said that she was used to this way of life. “If I stay at home, it’s just too quiet,” she said.

56歲的巴頌·皮恩(Prasong Piewnen)是劇團的廚師，會在演出後照顧她睡着的孫子。她的丈夫是一個樂手，女兒是劇團的演員。巴頌表示，她已經習慣了這樣的生活。“我要是待在家裏，那就太安靜了，”她說。

As the community ages and audiences dwindle, there is a fear that the art will die out. Performers face uncertain futures. Mr. Somsak said that he wanted to continue performing as long as he could. “In this industry when you retire you just simply say to the gods, ‘You know I’m getting old now, please protect me until the end,’” he said.

隨着這個羣體的老齡化和觀衆的減少，人們擔心這個藝術形式將會消失。演員們前途未卜，頌薩表示只要可以，他會一直演下去。“在這個行業裏想退休，只要簡單地和神靈說一句，‘您知道我年紀大了，請一直保佑我’，”他說。

Mr. Tatchai has seen the changes as well, and he said he thought the industry would continue to get smaller but would not go away.

他差也看見了這些變化，他說，他認爲這個行業會繼續縮小，但不會消失。

“As long as Chinese shrines exist and people continue praying,” he said, “the Chinese opera will be here.”

“只要有中國的佛龕存在，人們繼續祈禱，”他說，“這裏就會有潮劇。”