貓王和麥當娜 假照片中的真實認同

In his earliest memories, Zhang Wei recalls his mother singing and dancing in a theatrical troupe, performing operatic versions of Chinese folk tales. Like magic, she transformed from one character into another as Mr. Zhang watched from the wings.

母親在劇團裏唱歌、跳舞，表演中國民間故事劇目，是張巍最早的記憶之一。他在舞臺邊上看到，母親像變魔術一樣，從一個角色轉換到另一個角色。

As the Cultural Revolution ended and China opened to the West, however, the troupe’s performances changed, adding outside influences and modern references to attract new audiences. The characters in those dramas struck him as absurd — neither “really Chinese nor really Western.”

但是，隨着文革結束，中國對西方開放國門，劇團的演出也發生了變化，開始把外界的影響和時新的關聯添加進來，以便吸引新的觀衆。這種劇目中的人物讓他感覺荒謬——“既不是真正的西方流行文化，又不是傳統的中國戲曲。”

Rapid economic growth, urbanization and sporadic political liberalization over the following decades, Mr. Zhang said, changed the country to such an extent that the Chinese people faced an existential challenge. Their identity seemed to be always in transition, he explained, shifting as rapidly as his mother did from one role to another.“Someone who used to be dirt poor can suddenly become a millionaire,” he said. “Then next day be put into prison.”

張巍說，在隨後的幾十年裏，經濟快速增長、城市化，以及零星的政治自由化大大改變了中國，以至於中國人面臨着一種存在的挑戰。他們的身份似乎總是處在轉型期，張巍解釋說，就好像他母親從一個角色轉化到另一個角色。“今天是一個窮光蛋，明天可能就變成了百萬富翁，”他說。“後天可能就進了監獄。”

Mr. Zhang set out in 2007 to capture the “21st century mind-set” of the average Chinese person and photographed hundreds of people in simple, direct portraits. He abandoned the project two years later after being unable to depict the ephemeral nature of life amid dizzying change.

張巍從2007年開始捕捉普通中國人的“21世紀的心態”，用簡單直白的方式拍下數百人的肖像。兩年後，他放棄了這個計劃，覺得自己無法在令人目眩的變幻中描繪生命的短暫易逝。

He had come to realize that in the modern world, people’s sense of identity is formed by mass media and advertising. Self-worth is measured against that of entertainers, leaders and heroes promoted by a consumer-driven society. In an effort to show how these external influences affect self-definition, he took elements of his earlier portraits of everyday Chinese people and combined them using Photoshop — and perhaps a touch of alchemy — to create virtual portraits of the personalities that, Mr. Zhang said, for better or worse, shaped today’s Chinese mind-set.

他意識到，在當今世界，人們的身份感是由大衆傳媒和廣告塑造的，自我價值是通過和藝人、領袖和英雄相比較來衡量的，而宣揚這些藝人、領袖和英雄的，是一個消費驅動的社會。在努力展示這些外部因素如何影響自我定義的時候，他把自己早期那些日常中國人肖像的元素引入其中，用Photoshop——也許還有些鍊金術的作用——將它們組合在一起，創作出名人的虛擬肖像。張巍說，無論算好事還是壞事，這些名人都塑造了當今中國人的心態。

Among them are Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Bruce Lee, John Lennon, Vladimir Lenin and the singularly named trinity of Elvis, Madonna.

這些名人包括瑪麗蓮·夢露(Marilyn Monroe)、史蒂夫·喬布斯(Steve Jobs)、李小龍、約翰·列儂(John Lennon)、列寧(Vladimir Lenin)，以及專門列出的貓王(Elvis)、麥當娜(Madonna)。

Influenced by the Japanese computer game Artificial Girl 3, Mr. Zhang painstakingly combined an ear from one model, a wisp of mustache from another and a dimple from a third, often taking weeks at his computer to complete a single portrait. Thus the famous and the unknown “become a part of each other,” he said. At first glance the composite portraits seem real. But a double take reveals something slightly askew. He could create more precise images of his rich and famous subjects, but chose to “make them more absurd” by exaggerating a few characteristics.

受到日本電腦遊戲《人工少女3》的影響，張巍精心地把一個模特的耳朵，和另一個的鬍子，以及第三個的酒窩結合起來。用電腦完成一副肖像常常要花上幾周的時間。名人和普通人就這樣“成爲了彼此的一部分”，他說。乍一看，複合畫像顯得很真實。但是仔細觀察，就會發現一些部分略微有些彆扭。他本來可以把富人和名人的肖像製作得更加精確，但是決定通過誇大一些面目特徵來“讓他們顯得更荒謬”。

Mr. Zhang calls his project “Artificial Theater” because he sees his countrymen taking on a series of roles and discarding them as Chinese society changes. Indeed, everyone is like an actor, he said, “because to survive in this world sometimes you have to perform or act. Or even to be a hypocrite.”

張巍把這個計劃稱爲《人工劇團》，因爲他認爲，隨着中國社會的變遷，他的同胞扮演了一系列角色，然後又丟棄了他們。事實上，每個人都像是演員，他說，“因爲大家要生存都得學會表演，都得學得很虛僞。”

The celebrities in his portraits are all easily recognizable to his Chinese audience. But the images to do not celebrate fame. Instead, they deconstruct the cult of celebrity. Mr. Zhang knows from his childhood that heroes come and go, depending on fashion and politics, and can even become villains. His famous subjects are not, he emphasized, necessarily his own heroes.

中國觀衆可以很容易地辨認出這些肖像畫中的名人。但是，這些作品並不是在頌揚名流。相反，它們解構了對名人的崇拜。兒時的經歷讓張巍知道，潮流和政治可以造就英雄，也讓他們過氣，甚至讓他們成爲反派。他強調，作品中的這些名人未必就是他自己的英雄。

“I’m not trying to make any value judgments from an ideological point of view,” he said. “Who are really heroes worth looking up to, only history can tell.”

“我對這些人沒有具體的意識形態評價，”他說。“誰是真正值得仰視的英雄，只有歷史才能決定。”