Speaking to captivate the world 如何讲好中国故事？

Disco Beach was a shoreline where crowds who danced to electronic music created vibrations that coaxed oysters to the surface. 南通市如东县的“迪斯科海滩”（Disco Beach）上，经常有许多人放着劲爆的电子音乐跳舞，随着人们手舞足蹈，一只只文蛤就露出滩面。 Visitors arrived in donkey-drawn carts. They scooped up the mollusks to cook at this attraction in Jiangsu province’s Nantong or take home. 游客们乘驴车来到这里，把那些软体动物捞上来后，有的人直接就煮了吃，有的人则会带回家好好享用。 Today? Who knows? 现在那里还有人跳舞么？谁知道呢？ I don’t. 反正我是不知道。 I can’t find English information about it online aside from the story I wrote after visiting in 2009. 除了我在2009年到访这个地方时发过一篇报道，我就再也没有在网上找到相关的英文消息了。 I could search the web in Chinese. But it would take a long time at my intermediate-reading level to reliably confirm it still exists. 没错儿，我可以用中文搜索有关信息，但以我的中等阅读水平需要大量时间才能确认这个地方依然存在。 But what I’ve seen recently is more such destinations throughout the country are developing informational English-language materials — those that not only inform but also entertain. 但是我最近发现，中国正在全国范围内增加英文信息的数量，这些英文版材料不仅传达了信息，有些也让人忍俊不禁。 China has continued moving up the quality chain in terms of sharing its story globally. 中国为了向全球讲述中国故事，一直在提高自身的质量链（quality chain）。 Twenty-one of the 50 NPC deputies and CPPCC National Committee members I interviewed on camera during the recent two sessions explained their suggestions during the country’s largest annual political gathering in plain English. 今年两会期间，我采访过的50名人大代表以及政协委员中，有21人用浅显的英文阐述了自己的议案或提案。 The video series, Two Sessions, One Minute, about the recently concluded National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee meetings cover a domestic affair — although with international impact. 《一分钟看两会》系列视频报道了刚刚闭幕的全国人民代表大会以及中国人民政治协商会议，这些中国国内的事也会有国际影响。 The series has been viewed over 60 million times. 该系列视频的浏览量达6000多万次。 Foreign journalists received multilingual materials and could sometimes conduct interviews in foreign languages. 外国记者会议期间收到了多语版的材料，有时甚至可以直接用外语采访代表和委员。 English was scant when I arrived 12 years ago — when my Chinese level was also low. 我12年前到中国的时候，中国的英语水平远远不够，当然，那时候我的中文水平也很低。 Then, a growing number of “Chinese-English” materials started to emerge. They were generally understandable but loaded with errors. 从那时起，中译英的材料越来越多，这些材料大多数都能让人读懂，但是也有很多的错误。 Later, the translation levels improved. But storytelling didn’t. 后来，翻译水平提升了，但是讲故事的能力并没有同步提升。 Many of the materials were encyclopedic in tone — informative, but dry as a mummy. 许多的材料都是用百科书式的语气写的——信息量很大，但是又像木乃伊一样干巴巴的。 More Chinese authorities and event organizers from the village level up are today developing English-language materials that are, sometimes, fascinating. 现在越来越多的村级以上政府官员以及活动策划者都在制作英文版材料，其中有些语言质量很高。 A testimony to this is The Allure of Suzhou — a book published by the city’s publicity authorities to introduce the settlement that’s known as China’s Eden for its gardens and as China’s Venice for its canals. 苏州市宣传部最近出版的《情调苏州》就是一个有力的证明，这本书主要介绍了苏州，苏州因其园林而被称作中国伊甸园，又因其运河被称作中国威尼斯。 Local officials invited talented foreign writers to explore Suzhou’s offerings and share compelling stories about their experiences and discoveries. 地方官员邀请了才华横溢的外国作家去探索苏州的魅力，并讲述他们的经历和发现，这些故事往往都很有感染力。 It was a useful backgrounder for journalists but also engaging enough that I kept it for pleasure reading after my assignments were done. 对于记者来说，这本书不仅是非常好的背景材料，而且书的内容也非常引人入胜。当我完成自己的采访任务时，我会把读这本书当做消遣。 It would inform any leisure trip I took in this delightful city I’ve already visited half-a-dozen times. 在这座令人愉悦的城市旅行时，即使我已经来过这里六次了，这本书仍然有很多用处。 Working as a journalist in China over the past 12 years, I’ve often discovered the stories I’ve written about many of the places and topics seem to be the first — and sometimes only — in English. 过去12年，我一直在中国做记者。我常常发现，我报道过的各地不同主题的文章，都是第一条，有时是唯一的英语新闻。 Like Disco Beach. 就像迪斯科海滩的故事一样。 How can you know about something if there’s no information about it in a language you can comprehend? 如果没有用你能理解的语言传达消息，你怎么能了解那些事物呢？ You can’t. 你无法了解。 I strongly believe that many of the global community’s misunderstandings of China’s realities stem less from different beliefs and more from ignorance generated by a lack of communication that’s largely linguistic. 我确信，许多国际团体对于中国真实面貌的曲解不是因为信仰不同，而是由于语言不通造成的信息真空，从而对中国缺乏了解。 China is increasingly speaking to the world in a way the global community not only understands but also finds captivating. 中国正开始用全球都能理解且更有吸引力的方法，向世界讲述中国故事。