城市探險隊為逝去的老香港創(chuàng)建影像檔案
香港——三名戴著口罩的探險者出現(xiàn)在香港北角地區(qū)一棟公寓樓的樓頂。他們操作一架黑色無人機越過晾衣繩，到達距離樓下街道上的汽車、有軌電車和行人十多層樓高的地方。
If history was any guide, the explorers said, the building the drone was filming — a 1952 theater with unusual roof supports — would eventually be demolished because it is not on Hong Kong’s list of declared monuments.
無人機正在拍攝的這棟建筑是一座建于1952年的戲院，有著與眾不同的屋頂支撐。這些探險者說，從以往經(jīng)驗看來，這座戲院最終會被拆除，因為它不在香港的法定古跡名單上。
The authorities are “renewing the city on behalf of the developers, not the people,” said one of the explorers, who goes by the alias Ghost in videos and whose pollution mask and fingerless gloves gave him the air of a bank robber or graffiti artist.
其中一名探險者說，當(dāng)局“重建城市為的是開發(fā)商而不是民眾的利益”。他在視頻中化名“鬼佬”(Ghost)，戴著防污染口罩和露指手套，看上去像是銀行劫匪或涂鴉藝術(shù)家。
The explorers belong to HK Urbex, a so-called urban exploration collective whose expeditions often require trespassing or walks through dark, abandoned or dangerous sites. But unlike some urban explorers, they do not court danger purely for its own sake. Their primary goal is to peel back layers of history — sometimes literally, by digging through dust and trash — and forge a video archive of Hong Kong’s colonial-era environment.
這些探險者屬于香港城市探險隊(HK Urbex)。這是一個所謂的城市探險團體，其探險活動常常需要擅自進入或步行穿過黑暗的廢墟或危險場所。但和一些城市探險者不同的是，他們不是單純?yōu)榱俗非笪ｋU而置身險境。他們的首要目標是剝開一層又一層的歷史——有時候是真正的“剝開”，要在塵土和垃圾中挖掘——并建立一份視頻檔案，記錄香港殖民時期的環(huán)境。
“Until you peel them back, you don’t know what existed before,” said Ghost, 33. “Others are interested in the adrenaline rush, but we’re interested in the story. What can it tell us about the past?”
“不把它們剝開，就不知道以前有過什么，”33歲的“鬼佬”說。“其他人感興趣的是刺激，但我們感興趣的是故事。關(guān)于過去，它能告訴我們些什么?”
Many buildings that went up here before Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China from British colonial rule have already been replaced by taller ones, as exceptionally high property values create economic incentives to cram more towers into an already crowded skyline.
1997年，香港結(jié)束英國的殖民統(tǒng)治，回歸中國，在那之前修建的很多建筑都已被更高的樓宇取而代之，價值極高的房地產(chǎn)帶來經(jīng)濟刺激，促使人們在已經(jīng)頗為擁擠的天際線中塞進更多高樓大廈。
But some buildings lie fallow for years between tenant evictions and demolition, and others, like the 1952 State Theater that the explorers filmed recently, are partly open to the public. The State Theater’s main space, for example, is now a snooker hall. HK Urbex sees these structures as prime targets for urban expeditions.
但在住戶被清理之后，一些建筑會閑置多年才被拆除;而其他一些建筑則對公眾部分開放，比如這些探險者最近拍攝的這座建于1952年的皇都戲院(State Theater)。就拿皇都戲院的主要空間來說，它現(xiàn)在是一個斯諾克臺球廳。城市探險隊把這些建筑物視為城市探險的主要目標。
So far HK Urbex has released more than three dozen videos documenting their perambulations through derelict prisons, tenements, cinemas, hospitals, casinos, police stations, bomb shelters, subway tunnels, a shipwreck and other sites across Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia. Fans say the elegiac videos, cut with bleak soundscapes and often presented without narration, are poignant meditations on urban evolution and decay.
迄今為止，城市探險隊已經(jīng)公布了近40段視頻。這些視頻記錄了他們探訪全香港和亞洲其他地方的廢棄監(jiān)獄、公寓大樓、電影院、醫(yī)院、賭場、警署、防空洞、地鐵隧道、一艘失事船只和其他一些場所的情形。視頻會配上凄涼的音景，并且通常都沒有解說。粉絲稱這些傷感的視頻是對城市演變和衰落的酸楚思考。
“It’s about forcing us to confront the aesthetic of loss,” Lee Kah Wee, an assistant professor of architecture at the National University of Singapore, said of the group’s film oeuvre. “It forces us to come face to face with this debris of modernization and these ruins that are constantly accumulating, even as we keep building.”
“它是為了逼著我們面對失去的美，”新加坡國立大學(xué)(National University of Singapore)建筑學(xué)助理教授李佳偉(Lee Kah Wee，音)說到該團體的拍攝作品時表示。“它逼我們直面現(xiàn)代化留下的殘垣斷壁，隨著我們繼續(xù)進行建設(shè)，這些廢墟還在不斷累積。”
The group says its most popular videos have been viewed more than 20,000 times on YouTube. Its photographs and videos have also been cited or featured in an international art exhibition, a forthcoming photography book and an advocacy campaign to save Central Market, a 1930s landmark in central Hong Kong, from demolition.
該團體稱其最受歡迎的視頻在YouTube上被觀看了兩萬多次。他們的照片和視頻也被用在一個國際藝術(shù)展、一本即將出版的畫冊和一場爭取中環(huán)街市(Central Market)不被拆除的倡議運動中。中環(huán)街市地處香港市中心，形成于1930年代，是一處地標。
The group’s eight members, all longtime Hong Kong residents, use aliases in their work to keep public attention focused on their mission instead of their personalities but also because anonymity helps shield them from potential legal trouble. They agreed to be interviewed on the condition that they be identified only by their aliases.
該團體的八名成員都長期生活在香港。在這項工作中使用化名是為了讓公眾的注意力集中在他們的使命，而不是他們個人身上，但這么做同時也是因為匿名有助于免去潛在的法律麻煩。他們同意接受采訪，但條件是只能使用化名。
The HK Urbex members often spend weeks researching obscure and abandoned sites before visiting them. Once inside, they document everyday items that they stumble upon — family portraits, X-rays, ancestral shrines, a broken piggy bank — and that will probably never be recorded in history books.
在前往偏僻的廢棄場所之前，城市探險隊的隊員通常會用數(shù)周的時間進行調(diào)查。一旦進去了，他們便會記錄下隨手觸及的日常物品，比如全家福、X光底片、供奉祖先的神龕和破損的存錢罐。這些東西可能永遠都不會出現(xiàn)在歷史書籍中。
“If not for this group of urban adventurers, all of these buildings would eventually disappear without anyone knowing what they meant to society at a certain point in time,” said Lee Ho Yin, the director of architectural conservation programs at the University of Hong Kong. He added that he regarded the group’s members as “extreme urban anthropologists.”
“如果不是這群城市冒險者，所有這些建筑最后都會消失不見，沒人知道它們在某個特定時間對社會意味著什么，”香港大學(xué)建筑文物保護課程學(xué)部主任李浩然(Lee Ho Yin)說。他接著表示，他認為該團體的成員是“極端城市人類學(xué)家”。
The Hong Kong government’s Antiquities and Monuments Office has granted 114 buildings and cultural landmarks permanent protection from development, and assigned grades to about 1,000 historic buildings, a list that may soon include the 1952 State Theater.
香港政府下屬的古物古跡辦事處賦予了114棟建筑和文化地標永久性保護，規(guī)定不得對它們進行開發(fā)。該機構(gòu)還對大約1000處歷史建筑劃分了等級。皇都戲院大概很快便會榜上有名了。
But Professor Lee of the University of Hong Kong said that the second classification did not legally protect buildings from demolition, and that Hong Kong officials — unlike their counterparts in Singapore, another wealthy Asian city and former British colony — rarely bestowed conservation status on modernist landmarks like the State Theater.
但香港大學(xué)的李浩然教授表示，第二個種類并沒有從法律上保護相關(guān)建筑不被拆除，并且香港官員不像新加坡的官員，很少把保護地位授予皇都戲院這樣的現(xiàn)代主義地標。新加坡是亞洲另一座富裕的城市，也曾是英國的殖民地。
“Unfortunately, the economy of Hong Kong is still very much pegged to property development,” he said.
“遺憾的是，香港的經(jīng)濟在很大程度上依然和房地產(chǎn)開發(fā)掛鉤，”他說。
A spokeswoman for the Antiquities and Monuments Office, reached by telephone, declined to comment on HK Urbex or its activities.
通過電話找到古物古跡辦事處的發(fā)言人時，對方拒絕就城市探險隊或其活動發(fā)表評論。
The group was formed in 2013 by Ghost and a friend, who goes by the alias Echo Delta. They both are part-time filmmakers, and they discovered their initial HK Urbex sites while scouting locations for film shoots, Echo Delta said.
城市探險隊是“鬼佬”和一個化名Echo Delta的朋友在2013年成立的。兩人都是兼職電影人。Echo Delta說，他們是在為電影尋找拍攝場地時，發(fā)現(xiàn)探險隊最初那些探險場所的。
After a video they shot of a Hong Kong shipwreck received wide coverage in the city’s Chinese-language news media, they said, they decided to create the HK Urbex Facebook page, and later a YouTube channel and Tumblr blog.
他們說，在他們拍攝的一段有關(guān)香港一艘失事船只的視頻被本地中文新聞媒體廣泛報道后，他們決定為探險隊創(chuàng)建一個Facebook頁面，后來又創(chuàng)建了YouTube頻道和Tumblr博客。
HK Urbex members say their videos are visual expressions of the “localist” political movement that has recently gained support in Hong Kong and reflects a conviction among many younger people that their city’s identity is distinct from that of the Chinese mainland.
城市探險隊的成員說，他們的視頻是“本地主義”政治運動的視覺表現(xiàn)。該運動最近在香港受到支持，反映了很多年輕人的想法，即這座城市的特點和內(nèi)地不一樣。
The localist movement is itself an outgrowth of the pro-democracy Occupy Central protests of 2014, which swept Hong Kong and reflected a widespread fear among many people here that Beijing is running roughshod over the “one country, two systems” principle governing Hong Kong’s transfer to Chinese rule. The principle granted the city a high degree of legal, financial and political autonomy until 2047.
本地主義運動本身是2014年支持民主的占領(lǐng)中環(huán)(Occupy Central)抗議活動的產(chǎn)物。當(dāng)時的抗議活動席卷全港，反映了在很多港人中存在的一種普遍擔(dān)憂。他們擔(dān)心北京肆意踐踏“一國兩制”原則。該原則允許香港在2047年以前享有高度的法律、財政和政治自治權(quán)。香港正是在該原則的前提下回歸中國的。
“I guess we’re indirectly political,” Ghost said, as Echo Delta’s drone buzzed above North Point.
“我猜我們是在間接參政，” “鬼佬”說。此時，Echo Delta的無人機正飛翔在北角地區(qū)上空。
After filming the State Theater, whose structural supports soar above its roof in concrete parabolas like those of a suspension bridge, Echo Delta and Ghost took a taxi to the city’s Central district. The idea was to check on some abandoned buildings that they have been monitoring over the years.
高聳在皇都戲院的屋頂上的支架結(jié)構(gòu)是混凝土材質(zhì)，呈現(xiàn)拋物線形狀，就像懸索橋的支架結(jié)構(gòu)一樣。拍攝完皇都戲院后，Echo Delta和“鬼佬”搭乘出租車來到香港的中環(huán)地區(qū)，目的是去檢查他們多年來一直在監(jiān)測的一些廢棄建筑。
One stop was Central Market, a 1930s landmark that Ghost had previously explored twice — first by sneaking past a security guard who was urinating and later by climbing in through a window.
其中一站是中環(huán)市場。形成于1930年代的中環(huán)市場是一座地標，“鬼佬”以前進去過兩次。第一次是偷偷避開正在小便的保安，第二次是通過一扇窗戶爬進去的。
This time, a side door was unlocked.
這一次，一道側(cè)門沒有上鎖。
Echo Delta slipped inside, but a security guard quickly shooed him away.
Echo Delta偷偷溜了進去，但很快，一名保安便揮手趕他走。
“Sorry,” he said.
“不好意思，”他說。
On nearby Bridges Street, a white residential building that the pair had once sneaked into was now ringed by a fence, with “X” marks in its windows. “They’ve cleared it out,” said Echo Delta, whose alias is a play on his real-life nickname.
在附近的必列者士街上，有一棟白色的住宅樓。他倆曾經(jīng)溜進去過。現(xiàn)在，這棟樓被一道柵欄圍了起來，窗戶上標記著“X”。“他們把樓清空了，” Echo Delta說。這個化名和他在現(xiàn)實生活中的綽號有關(guān)。
Later, they saw that while several abandoned buildings near the Graham Street Market had been razed for new construction, others were still standing, right beside the market’s open-air vegetable hawkers.
后來，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，盡管嘉咸街市場附近的幾棟廢棄大樓都已被夷為平地，用于建設(shè)新項目，但其他建筑都還在。它們就位于該市場的露天蔬菜攤旁邊。
One squat apartment building in particular, which had plants growing in its crevices, caught their eye. They lingered for a few minutes under its shadow, apparently transfixed by its architectural features.
一棟裂縫中長出了植物的低矮公寓樓尤其引起了他們的注意。他們在它的陰影下徘徊了幾分鐘，似乎被它的建筑特色迷住了。
“Look at those long windows,” Echo Delta said quietly. “Victorian — no, Georgian?”
“看那些長窗，” Echo Delta輕聲說。“維多利亞風(fēng)格，不，喬治王朝時期風(fēng)格?”
“That would be one to look into,” said Ghost, the only white member of HK Urbex. His alias plays on a Cantonese slang term for foreigners.
“可以進去看看，” “鬼佬”說。作為城市探險隊里唯一的白人成員，他的化名和粵語中一個指代外國人的俚語有關(guān)。
His partner nodded.
他的搭檔點了點頭。
“I bet it’s going to be turned into a Starbucks,” Echo Delta said.
“我打賭這里會變成一家星巴克(Starbucks)，” Echo Delta說。
