27 Apr 2024 9 min read

DPS 周刊 146 - 奥威尔与缅甸

最近读完了 Emma Larkin 写的 Finding George Orwell in Burma，很有意思的一本书。

写了《1984》和《动物庄园》等作品的 George Orwell 是大家熟悉的作者，但不熟悉的是，其实这只是他的笔名，其实他和缅甸有着深远的渊源。不仅仅他曾经在缅甸生活工作过，而且他的母亲的家族在缅甸扎下了深深的根。

ORWELL’S MOTHER, Ida Mabel Limouzin, grew up here in Moulmein.

in 1863, Moulmein had become a cosmopolitan trading centre for Indian, British, German, French, American, Armenian and Chinese merchants, and Limouzin & Co. was one of the most prosperous companies in town.

One of these was Orwell’s great-grandfather—G. E. Limouzin. In the one-street British outpost of Moulmein, he founded Limouzin & Co., a company that specialized in building wooden ships.

Limouzin was survived by at least two sons, one of whom was Orwell’s grandfather, Frank Limouzin.

奥威尔的本名是 Eric Arthur Blair，他在上世纪二十年代作为皇家警察被派驻在缅甸，一共在曼德勒 (Mandalay) 呆了五年。这五年的经历给了他无数的灵感，也促成了他的人生转变 -- 从读伊顿的富家子弟，到吃皇粮的皇家警察，再到针砭时弊的作家。

Every novel that Orwell wrote ends in defeat. The main character attempts to fight the system, but, just when you think the obstacles have been surmounted, he or she loses the battle.

以至于缅甸人非常以此为傲：

In Burma there is a joke that Orwell wrote not just one novel about the country, but three: a trilogy comprised of Burmese Days, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Emma 所见到的缅甸当然不是当年那个富庶的缅甸，而是在军统的缅甸 -- 不仅一贫如洗，而且像极了奥威尔笔下的动物庄园：

‘It is a very brilliant book. And it is a very Burmese book. Do you know why?’ he asked, poking a finger enthusiastically in my general direction. ‘Because it is about pigs and dogs ruling the country! That is what has been happening here in Burma for many years now.’

Unauthorized gatherings of people are technically illegal, and a gathering that included a foreigner would attract more attention than most.

Government spies collect intelligence by eavesdropping on conversations or, as the gossip wafting around the tables has been more atmospherically dubbed, ‘tea-shop vapours’.

All communication equipment such as telephones, fax machines and modems must be registered; anyone using such machines without the correct licence is punishable by imprisonment.

事实上，缅甸曾经非常富庶：

Before the Second World War, Burma was one of the richest countries in the region.

Mandalay was considered the cultural and artistic capital of the country.

It is easy to see how Moulmein was once considered the most beautiful town in Burma. The main road is lined with graceful old buildings that once belonged to colonial merchants.

Burma has always had a high literacy rate, thanks to a strong tradition of education instilled by the country’s Buddhist monasteries, and reading for pleasure became a widespread pastime under the British.

The kings of Burma ruled over these numerous ethnic groups with varying degrees of control.

The kingdoms of Burma, Siam and Cambodia collected these pinkish, pearly-eyed elephants from the wild, housing them in palatial stables and honouring them with elaborate rituals.

但是军统之后，就完全不一样了：

Many foreigners living in Burma, mostly Indian and Chinese merchants, were stripped of their assets and fled or were forced to leave as the country sealed itself off from the outside world.

In the 1960s, after Ne Win nationalized all private businesses in Burma and drove foreign merchants out of the country, Moulmein witnessed a mass exodus of English, Anglo-Burmese and Indian families.

‘In Burma we are free to write whatever we want. We’re just not free to have it published.’

‘You see? That’s how you can pick up little snips of information. You ask an innocent question and you get a little bit of knowledge here and a little bit there, and then you add it all up and work out what the situation is.’

Though there are few Anglo-Burmese left in Burma, the country reportedly had more Eurasians than all of India.

She listed the different kinds of fear that paralyse people in Burma: ‘Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.’

In the mid-1970s Ne Win launched the notorious hpyat lay byat or ‘four cuts’ policy, which was designed to cut insurgents off from their key means of survival: food, funds, recruits and information.

One Karenni freedom-fighter I talked to on the Thai-Burma border joked that the four cuts included a fifth command issued to Burmese soldiers who fought against ethnic insurgents: cut off their heads.