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Shanghai's Back on Top of the World

By Austin Ramzy / Shanghai Monday, May. 03, 2010

Zhou Libo's show at the cavernous Shanghai International Gymnastics Center has been sold out for days, and after I finally get a ticket, I understand why. Sporting a tuxedo and a white bow tie, Zhou, 43, a stand-up comedian, delivers rapid-fire jokes, mostly about life in Shanghai. The theme is "I'm crazy about money," and Zhou riffs on soaring property prices, how much it costs to raise kids, even how much the U.S. owes China. The audience of some 3,700 roars its approval. People are clapping, slapping their thighs, stomping the floor. I manage a smile, but even though I am a Mandarin speaker, I don't really get the humor, and many of my Chinese friends would be almost as lost. While Zhou sets up his jokes in Mandarin, the punch lines are nearly always in the local Shanghai dialect. This much I do get, however: the performance is an unabashed celebration of all things Shanghai and Shanghainese.

cavernous:洞狀的

stand-up：這里是單口的，單人表演的意思

rapid－fire：這里指像珠連炮一樣，一個接著一個

punch line：妙語（笑點）

unabashed：說坦白點，作者的意思就是說“不害臊的”對于上海以及上海人的自夸自擂。不過這個詞用在這里算不上是貶義。

roar its approval：雷鳴般的叫好聲（沒有一個形容詞，用一個roar就形象畢現）

manage a smile：這個表達太好了！用manage這個詞，正對應中文里說的“擠”出一個笑容，強作微笑。（這么地道巧妙的表達，還不趕快收入囊中？）

For China's most dynamic, most cosmopolitan and sassiest city, this is a time to celebrate. After decades of hibernation following the founding of Mao Zedong's People's Republic in 1949, Shanghai is returning to its roost as a global center of commerce and culture. This year Shanghai, as host of Expo 2010, is squarely in the international spotlight. The fair opens May 1, and organizers expect more than 70 million visitors over six months.

sassy：充滿活力的，活潑的。但是通常帶點貶義，有“不禮貌的，粗魯”的意思。（在dynamic之后，再用上sassy這個詞，老外真是每個用詞都話中有話！）

hibernation：冬眠

return to its roost：roost原義指鳥類的巢，棲息地等。這里用return和roost，也就非常清楚地表明了作者眼中的上海——從前就是世界金融和文化中心，現在只不過是一種回歸。

Shanghai's style. is to do things big. （我覺得應該說China’s style. or Chinese style. 呵呵）Its population of 19 million makes it one of the largest metropolises on the planet. More than 750 foreign multinational companies have offices in the city. The skyline counts more than 30 buildings over 650 ft. (200 m) tall. Stroll down certain streets, and you can easily imagine that you are in midtown Manhattan — so much so that on visiting the city in 2007 for the MTV Style. Gala, Paris Hilton was moved to declare, "Shanghai looks like the future."

Yet Shanghai is still trying to determine what that future should be. For all the money (local and foreign), the constant building and rebuilding, the international profile — and the pride and confidence all these things engender — you get a sense when you speak with many Shanghainese that the city is suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. Much of it revolves around whether and how to preserve the past — not just physical structures but also what has always both made Shanghai part of and set it apart from the rest of China. "On the one hand, living conditions are better than before," says prominent crime novelist Qiu Xiaolong, who sets his books in 1990s Shanghai. "At the same time, people feel kind of lost. In my books, people sit in front of their shikumen [stone gate] houses and talk. Nowadays people are shut up in air-conditioning. They want things to be better, but they don't know whether to look forward or back."

身份危機的話題在當下已經不陌生，其實我覺得并非是上海，其實世界上很多其他城市也面對著這個問題。甚至不用說城市，只說一個歷史原址風貌的保存，比如某些遺址拆還是不拆，修還是不修，都會牽扯出身份危機的問題。而事實上，整個世界不也面臨著這樣的危機嗎？

世界在發展，向著更先進發達的方向前進，但人們總覺得總些東西缺失了。在這個各地區都爭相城市化并且是模式化，甚至連美女都越來越相像的年代里，那些被認為“老土”，“落后”，但卻獨具特色的“過去”確實慢慢瀕臨絕種。越要顯示獨特的個性，卻越陷入統一模式化的泥沼。可喜的是，這一點已經慢慢被人們意識到。可悲的是，沒有意識或許也就沒有痛苦，而一旦想到了，就不可避免的要feel kind of lost.

（以免大家閱讀疲勞，下文在這里就不繼續貼了）如果大家有興趣，請點擊閱讀下文http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983788,00.html