哥本哈根——它由丹麥著名建筑師比亞克·英格爾(Bjarke Ingels)設計,斥資2400萬美元建造。由丹麥女王瑪格麗特二世(Queen Margrethe II)揭幕。那里現(xiàn)在住著一對有著特殊飲食習慣的名人夫婦,雙方幾乎一年到頭都對彼此懷有敵意。
Welcome to Copenhagen Zoo’s new panda house.
歡迎來的哥本哈根動物園(Copenhagen Zoo)新建的熊貓館。
Officials at the zoo estimate that the combination of adorable animal starpower and innovative Danish design will draw an additional 400,000 visitors per year.
園方估計,可愛的動物明星和創(chuàng)新丹麥設計的結(jié)合,每年將吸引40萬游客。
“For such an iconic animal, we needed an iconic setting,” said Bengt Holst, the zoo’s director. “You wouldn’t put the Mona Lisa in an ugly frame.”
“對于這樣一個標志性動物,我們需要一個標志性的環(huán)境,”動物園負責人本特·霍爾斯特(Bengt Holst)說。“你不會把《蒙娜麗莎》放在一個丑陋的畫框中。”
But not everyone is a fan of the new house, a circular enclosure in the shape of the yin and yang symbol that cost $24 million to build and that has made front-page news in Denmark over the past weeks.
但并不是每一個人都是這個新館的粉絲,陰陽符號的環(huán)形圍場用了2400萬美元建成,這在過去幾周里已經(jīng)成為了丹麥的頭條新聞。
Opponents believe the pandas, which are on loan from China under a 15-year agreement requiring the host to pay $1 million annually, will limit Denmark’s willingness to criticize Chinese policy. The campaign to bring the pandas to Copenhagen began in 2010, just after Denmark’s parliament approved a memorandum recognizing China’s sovereignty over Tibet. Although the panda house is privately funded, some also object to the project’s cost.
反對者認為,大熊貓是根據(jù)一項為期15年的協(xié)議從中國租借來的,東道主為此每年要支付100萬美元,這將限制丹麥批評中國政策的意愿。將大熊貓帶到哥本哈根的運動始于2010年,當時正值丹麥議會批準一份承認中國對西藏主權(quán)的備忘錄之后。雖然熊貓館是私人資助,但還是有人不滿該項目的成本。
Shaped like the Chinese symbol representing opposites in balance, the enclosure has two tilting halves. Visitors can observe the pandas from above, or from a ground-level restaurant where they can dine while watching the male panda, who spends most of his waking hours scarfing down bamboo, at close range.
圍欄的形狀象征著對立面處于平衡的中國符號,有兩個傾斜的半圓。游客可以從上面觀察大熊貓,也可以從底層餐廳一邊用餐一邊近距離觀看那只雄性大熊貓,而這只大熊貓大部分醒著的時間都在啃食竹子。
“Normally, zoos have a front of house for the audience, and a back of house for the animals,” Mr. Ingels said in an interview. “We thought we would make this 360 degrees, so that no aspect of the pandas’ life was off limits.”
“通常,動物園會把前廳給觀眾,后屋是給動物的,”英格爾在接受采訪時說。“我們覺得可以把它做成360度,這樣觀察熊貓的生活就沒有死角了。”
The panda’s unusual mating habits posed the main challenge for the architects. Male and female bears only mate during two or three days each year; the rest of the time, they must be kept far enough apart that they cannot see or hear one another.
大熊貓?zhí)厥獾慕慌淞晳T對建筑師構(gòu)成了主要挑戰(zhàn)。雄性和雌性大熊貓每年只有兩到三天的發(fā)情時間,其余時候,它們必須保持足夠遠的距離,無法看到或聽到對方。”
“We didn’t want to have two separate structures,” Mr. Ingels said. “And we wanted to stay away from the typical pagoda. We realized that this ancient Chinese symbol, of black and white, male and female, offered the architectural solution.”
“我們不想要兩個獨立的結(jié)構(gòu),”英格爾說。“而且我們也不想要那種司空見慣的寶塔。我們意識到中國古代的這個黑白陰陽符號,提供了建筑上的解決方案。”
A separate area within the enclosure — normally a sort of no panda’s land — will be opened to both bears during their exceedingly brief mating season and includes trees that the female panda can climb up if her suitor is not to her liking. The rest of the year, the animals will live mostly outdoors in their separate areas, which have been landscaped to resemble the panda’s two main habitats, a dry bamboo forest and a denser woodland kept misty by a fog machine.
在館內(nèi)的一個單獨區(qū)域——通常這里沒有熊貓——將在它們極其短暫的交配季對兩只熊貓開放,包括雌熊貓在遇到不喜歡的追求者時可以爬上去的樹。在今年剩下的時間里,兩只熊貓將住在各自的區(qū)域,主要在戶外生活;這兩個區(qū)域在景觀設計上力求與大熊貓的兩種主要棲息地類似,一個是干燥的竹林,一個是更密的林地,一臺噴霧機營造出薄霧迷蒙的效果。
The pandas have already proven popular — 5,000 people showed up for Thursday’s public opening, double the average attendance on that day — but so has the structure.
大熊貓已經(jīng)證明了它們很受歡迎——周四的公眾開放日有5000人入園,是平日人數(shù)的兩倍——不過,熊貓館這個建筑本身也很受歡迎。
Karsten Ifversen, the architecture editor for the Danish newspaper Politiken, said that while pandas were “very lazy animals,” the enclosure “goes in the opposite direction.”
丹麥《政治報》(Politiken)的建筑編輯卡斯滕·伊弗森(Karsten Ifversen)說熊貓是“非常慵懶的動物”,但熊貓館“截然相反”。
“There’s a lot going on everywhere you look,” he said. “The architecture is almost as much an attraction as the animals.”
“在任何地方都能看到許多考慮,”他說。“這個建筑幾乎和動物一樣吸引人。”
As for the cost, the pandas do not have the most expensive home in the Copenhagen zoo. The elephant enclosure, for instance, was designed by Norman Foster and cost over $36 million.
至于成本,熊貓館在哥本哈根動物園并非最貴。例如,諾曼·福斯特(Norman Foster)設計的大象館耗資超過3600萬美元。
But for critics, the panda house is not so much a feat of animal architecture with a hefty price tag than it is a signal of overly cozy ties with China.
但在批評者看來,熊貓館與其說是價格不菲的動物建筑杰作,不如說是與中國關(guān)系過于親密的信號。
Pointing to other instances of so-called “panda diplomacy,” both the far-left Unity party and the far-right Danish People’s Party criticized the new enclosure as a symbol of political appeasement.
極左的統(tǒng)一黨(Unity)和極右的丹麥人民黨(Danish People’s Party)都提到了所謂“熊貓外交”的其他例子,批評這個新館是在政治上采取綏靖態(tài)度的象征。
“Denmark gets the pandas because we have dropped our criticism of the Chinese repression of Tibet, and because Chinese human rights violations aren’t being criticized so much,” Eva Flyvholm, a member of parliament for the Unity party, told the Danish television station DR.
“丹麥得到熊貓是因為我們放棄了對中國鎮(zhèn)壓西藏的批評,也是因為對中國侵犯人權(quán)的行為睜一只眼閉一眼,”團結(jié)黨議員埃娃·弗利夫霍爾姆(Eva Flyvholm)對丹麥電視臺DR說。
The Danish government has welcomed this new phase in its relations with China. When the panda loan was confirmed in 2014, it was accompanied by 40 new trade agreements between the two countries.
丹麥政府對中丹關(guān)系進入新階段表示歡迎。2014年熊貓出借得到確認時,兩國達成了40項新的貿(mào)易協(xié)議。
At the panda house’s inauguration on Wednesday, Mette Bock, Denmark’s culture minister, said in a speech that this was a project “about friendship.”
周三,在熊貓館的落成典禮上,丹麥文化部長梅特·博克(Mette Bock)在講話中表示,這是一個“友誼”項目。
But outside the zoo, a few dozen protesters dressed in panda suits disagreed. Cecillie Sita, 19, and Christina Kalesh, 18, said they were protesting because they objected to Denmark “kneeling” before a country that violated human rights. They said they were disappointed by Mr. Ingels’ decision to design the enclosure.
但在動物園外,幾十名身穿熊貓服的抗議者不同意。19歲的塞西莉·西塔(Cecillie Sita)和18歲的克里斯蒂娜·卡萊什(Christina Kalesh)表示,她們抗議是因為反對丹麥在一個侵犯人權(quán)的國家面前“下跪”。她們說,她們對英格爾設計熊貓館的決定感到失望。
“As a representative of Denmark, it would be nice if he came out in favor of human rights,” Ms. Sita said.
“作為丹麥的代表,如果他站出來支持人權(quán)就好了,”西塔說。
Mr. Ingels said the protesters — and the media — were overblowing it.
英格爾說,抗議者——以及媒體——都反應過度。
“The fact is, we all collaborate with China — just look at the phone in your pocket,” he said, adding that the previous night he had seen firsthand how excited people were by an invitation to dine at eye-level with the pandas.
他說,“事實上,我們都與中國有合作——只要看看你口袋里的手機就知道了。”他還說,頭一天晚上他親眼看到,那些受邀在與熊貓同一平面的地方進餐的人有多興奮。
“At the end of the day, this is about two really cute animals,” he said.
“說到底重點是兩只非??蓯鄣膭游?,”他說。