AT 13.5 metres high, the dragon-themed archway that marks the entrance to Chinatown has become a Liverpool landmark. Built in 2000, it is the tallest such gate outside China, local officials like to boast. Walk through the grand archway, however, and an inconvenient truth emerges: the oldest Chinatown in Europe appears to be on its last legs.
唐人街入口处伫立着一座牌坊，高13.5米，饰有龙形图案，是利物浦的一处地标建筑。2000年，这座牌坊拔地而起，其巍峨之态在中国海外首屈一指，利物浦官员常常以此为豪。穿过这座气势恢宏的牌坊，不难发现：欧洲最古老唐人街如今似乎江河日下。这实在令人沮丧。
Nelson Street, its hub, is quiet on a balmy early afternoon. Its dozens of restaurants look empty, and a cluster of Chinese professional-services firms have shut early. One of the few shops with more than ten customers inside is an American-style bagel joint. The only other people in sight are a handful of tourists snapping selfies. The two other streets that make up Chinatown look just as barren. “Chinatown is not just in decline, it is destitute,” laments Brian Wong, co-founder of the Liverpool Chinese Business Association, who nonetheless believes things can be turned around.
纳尔逊街位于唐人街核心地带，在暖洋洋午后显得非常寂静。寥寥十多家餐馆，门可罗雀，生意惨淡。一批中国专业服务公司早已关门歇业，有超过十个顾客的店面屈指可数，其中一家卖的是美式面包。除此之外，目之所及，三三两两游客正拍照留念。利物浦中国商会创始人布赖恩·黄叹息道：“唐人街不只在没落，可以说一无所有。”不过他坚信，事情总会峰回路转。
Although they are still the biggest minority group in Liverpool and its environs, ethnic Chinese residents (excluding students) have seen their numbers halve since the mid-20th century, to around 12,000. The first wave of Chinese migrants, the founders of Chinatown, arrived in the 1860s, when Liverpool established itself as Europe’s mAIn trading post with China. A second phase came in the 1950s and 1960s, as refugees fled China. Both waves of migrants faced discrimination in the job market. Partly due to this hostility from the host population, the Chinese lived closely together and literally minded their own business, opting for self-employment.
尽管华裔居民（不包括学生）仍是利物浦极其市郊人口最多的少数族群，但自20世纪中期，华裔人口减半，降至1.2万人。19世纪60年代，利物浦是欧洲与中国的主要商贸点，第一波中国移民至此，建立唐人街。第二波始于20世纪50-60年代，主要是为逃难而来。利物浦华人移民在就业市场上遭到歧视。主要由于利物浦本地人敌意，华人不得不抱团取暖，形成聚居形式，“只管自扫门前雪”，也选择自谋营生。
The declining fortunes of Liverpool’s port and the local economy more broadly in the ensuing decades spurred young, British-born Chinese Liverpudlians to seek greener pastures in Manchester and London, whose Chinatowns have since eclipsed Liverpool’s. As they left, many of the launderettes, restaurants and legal firms that had catered to them folded. Simon Wong, a local shop owner, predicts that more Chinatown businesses, particularly in the catering industry, will be forced to close down in future.
在之后的几十年里，利物浦港乃至整个利物浦经济形式逐渐衰落，在英国出生的利物浦华人纷纷前往曼彻斯特以及伦敦谋求更光明发展前景，而这些地方的唐人街随之蓬勃发展，令利物浦唐人街黯然失色。满足利物浦华人需求的洗衣店、餐馆以及律师事务所等，随着这些人的离去，不得不关门。当地的一家店主西蒙·黄预计，未来唐人街倒闭的店铺数目还会增加，尤其是餐厅。
Two remedies have been suggested. The first is to convince the city’s 10,000 Chinese students to spend more in the enclave. That may be difficult, however. Manchester’s much larger Chinatown is just a short ride away, and in any event “Liverpool’s Chinatown is too grimy,” says Li Jinzhu, who is studying at the University of Liverpool. Moreover, because Liverpool’s Chinatown specialises in Cantonese fare (reflecting the culture of its earliest settlers), it has struggled to attract Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China, whose palates are radically different.
有人提出两点建议来挽救利物浦唐人街颓势。其一，说服这座城市一万名中国留学生多来唐人街。不过，这或许并非易事。曼彻斯特的唐人街比这里大得多，车程很近。正在利物浦大学留学的李晋竹说：“利物浦的唐人街太脏了。”不仅如此，由于利物浦唐人街以广东菜为主（体现了最早来这里定居的华人的地域文化），很难吸引来自中国其他讲普通话地区的中国学生，这是因为他们的饮食习惯与广东截然不同。
A more ambitious idea, proposed in 2015 by a local property developer and supported by the council, is to build a £200m ($265m) “New Chinatown”, replete with luxury flats and glossy office towers, on a tract of wasteland by the historic Chinatown. The goal was to create Europe’s first modern Chinatown, marrying Chinese culture with City of London-like architecture. But the plan evaporated when the developer pulled out last year, after finding itself in legal trouble with the city council. Another developer has since bought the leasehold, but scrapped “New Chinatown” as originally conceived.
另一个建议非常庞大，由利物浦的一位地产开发商在2015年提出，并得到了当地议会的支持：用2亿英镑打造一个“New Chinatown”，在老唐人街旁的一块荒地上盖豪华公寓楼和高档写字楼。这个计划的目标是创建欧洲首个现代唐人街，将中国文化与伦敦式建筑风格融合。不过，在这家开发商与议会存在法律麻烦，在去年退出，这个计划也随之破灭。另一家开发商买下了这一地块的租赁权，不过并没有采纳当初所构想的“New Chinatown”方案。
The grand archway on Nelson Street is said to have been built according to the principles of feng shui, thus bringing good luck. Clearly no one bothered to raise the point that the height of the arch in feet, 44, means “double death” in Chinese.
据说矗立在纳尔逊街上的宏伟牌坊是依“风水”而建，以祈鸿运。显而易见，没有人会想到楼牌高度为44英尺，这数字在中国文化中寓意“死”（谐音），好不晦气。
编译：王雅楠
编辑：王旭泉
来源：经济学人（2018.05.31）
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