VOA双语新闻 Old China Hands' Recall Life in Shanghai

China's coastal 1 cities attracted international traders, missionaries 2 and adventurers for 200 years before the communist party took power in 1949. Most Westerners left soon after that, but many retain fond memories of their years in China. They are called Old China Hands.

在中国共产党1949年执政前的200年里，中国的沿海城市吸引着国际商人、传教士和冒险家。大多数西方人在1949年后很快离开了中国，但是他们当中许多人对中国有着美好的回忆。这些人被称作“老中国通”。

Several hundred people, many born and raised in China, came together to recall the international settlements they once called home. They shared reminiscences and tested their memory of once-familiar people and places, especially from the international city of Shanghai.

参加这次聚会的有好几百人，其中许多人在中国出生长大，他们回忆了过往时代在中国的日子。他们分享记忆，共同回忆了曾经熟悉的人名和地名，特别是当时的国际城市上海。

Zoya Shlakis, whose parents were Lithuanian and Russian, grew up in Shanghai. Her father, an engineer, worked in one of the city's landmarks 3, the central post office. The family had an apartment on the top floor.

佐亚.什拉基斯的父母分别是立陶宛人和俄罗斯人。她在上海长大。她的父亲是一名工程师，在上海有名的中央邮局大楼工作。他们家住在大楼顶层的一套公寓。

"My childhood, my youth was spent in Shanghai," she said. "It's the only city that I ever knew, and I was a very lucky person. We always had a roof over our head and food on our table, and we got along with the Chinese around us very well. And I had a very happy childhood."

什拉基斯说：“我的童年和青年都是在上海度过的。上海是我唯一熟悉的城市。我很幸运，我们总是有房子住，有饭吃，我们和周围的中国人相处得很好。我的童年很幸福。”

Bob Gohstand, 70, comes from a Jewish family that escaped persecution 4 in Russia and settled in China. His parents met and married in the Chinese city of Harbin. He shows a picture of himself, age four, atop his father's shoulders, after the family had moved to Shanghai.

今年70岁的鲍博.戈斯坦德来自一个犹太人家庭，他们当年逃离了在俄罗斯的迫害，在中国定居下来。他的父母在哈尔滨认识并结婚。他出示了一张他4岁时的照片，他坐在爸爸的肩膀上，那时他们一家已经搬到了上海。

"I've always loved this picture," he said. "This is my father the pharmacist, outside his shop, St. George's Pharmacy 5 in Shanghai on Bubbling Well Road."

戈斯坦德说：“这一直是我心爱的一张照片。我爸爸是个药剂师，站在他的药店外，上海涌泉路上的圣乔治药店。”

What emerges from such pictures is a thriving community that resembles those of America or Europe.

从这样的照片我们看到的是一个类似美国或欧洲的繁荣社区。

Some residents rarely ventured outside their international enclaves, which included Shanghai's French concession 6, with its elegant homes and tree-lined boulevards. Harold Giedt went to school in Shanghai's International Settlement, home to many Americans and British. He spent part of the year, however, in the city of Guangzhou to the south, where his family lived.

一些西方居民很少走出他们聚居的洋房和林荫大道，包括上海的法租界。哈罗德.希德特在有很多美国和英国人居住的上海公共租界内上学。但是他们家住在广州，他每年在广州渡过一些时间。

"When I would go home in the summer, in South China, I would be completely immersed in the situation where there were Chinese that were the only people I would play with," he explained. "I would speak Chinese for hours on end, not even think in English."

希德特说:“等到我放暑假回广州的时候，我已经完全和中国人融合到了一起，我只跟他们玩，我会一直说中文，连想都不想英文。”

Bob Gohstand coordinates 7 the Old China Hands archive at California State University, Northridge, and says relations were often tense between Western nations and the Chinese government, which complained of unequal treaties forced on China. But he says to understand China today, you must first understand China of the past.

戈斯坦德协调加利福尼亚州立大学诺思里奇的“老中国通”档案。他说，在那个时代，西方国家和中国政府的关系经常相当紧张，中国政府对强加在中国头上的不平等条约不满。他说，要理解现在的中国，你必须首先理解过去的中国。

"And China yesterday included the presence of many foreigners: teachers, educators, missionaries, commercial people, military people, religious people," he noted 8. "Every kind of person from every corner of the world came to China.

“中国以前有很多外国人在那里：老师、办学的人、传教士、商人、军人、宗教人士等等。来自世界各个角落，什么人都有。”

Some stayed for a few years. Others set down roots and stayed for many generations. The survivors 9 are getting older now, but many continue to hold reunions and share memories of their younger days in China.

有的人呆了几年，有的人在那里落地生根，一住好多代。至今仍然活着的“老中国通”年纪已经都不小了，许多人继续举行这样的聚会，共同回忆他们年轻时在中国的岁月。