對一些觀眾來說，《瘋狂的亞洲富人》還不夠亞洲

HONG KONG — “Crazy Rich Asians,” a romantic comedy that opened in the United States on Wednesday, is a rare commodity: a Hollywood film with a majority Asian cast. For many Asian-American viewers, that is a positive, if sorely belated, development.

香港——周三在美國上映的浪漫喜劇《瘋狂的亞洲富人》是一件罕見的商品：一部主要由亞裔演員參演的好萊塢電影。對于許多亞裔觀眾來說，這是一種積極的進步，盡管它的姍姍來遲令人傷心。

But ahead of the film’s release next week in Singapore, where much of the action is set, some residents there have questioned whether “Crazy Rich Asians” is the panacea of diversity that its proponents suggest.

但在該片下周于新加坡上映之前(該片大部分都是在那里拍攝的)，一些新加坡人質(zhì)疑《瘋狂的亞洲富人》究竟是不是其支持者所稱的多元化靈丹妙藥。

A primary worry is that the Warner Bros. film focuses on Singapore’s Chinese, the dominant ethnic majority, at the expense of Malays, Indians and other ethnic minorities who collectively account for about a quarter of Singapore’s 5.6 million people.

人們最大的擔心是，華納兄弟電影公司主要關注該國占多數(shù)的主要民族新加坡華人，忽略了馬來人、印度人和其他少數(shù)民族，在新加坡的560萬人口中，后者占四分之一。

“Part of the way that this movie is being sold to everyone is as this big win for diversity, as this representative juggernaut, as this great Asian hope,” said Sangeetha Thanapal, a Singaporean Indian writer and activist who is researching a doctoral dissertation on the concept of Chinese privilege in Singapore.

“這部電影的部分賣點是，它是多元化的巨大勝利，是代表族群的強大力量，是偉大的亞洲希望，”印度裔新加坡作家和活動人士桑里沙·塔納帕爾(Sangeetha Thanapal)說，她正在撰寫研究新加坡華人特權(quán)觀念的博士論文。

“I think that’s really problematic because if you’re going to sell yourself as that, then you bloody better actually have actual representation” of Singaporean minorities, she said.

“我認為這確實存在問題，因為如果你打算這樣推銷自己，那么你真應該真正去代表”新加坡的少數(shù)族裔，她說。

The film’s detractors said that because “Crazy Rich Asians” had not yet been released in their hometown, their criticisms were based on the film’s trailer and marketing campaign.

這部電影的批評者說，由于《瘋狂的亞洲富人》尚未在他們的家鄉(xiāng)上映，他們的批評是基于電影的預告片和營銷活動。

In a statement posted on Twitter last month, Constance Wu, the film’s female lead, indirectly addressed the criticism by acknowledging that the film “won’t represent every Asian American.”

在上個月發(fā)布在Twitter上的一份聲明中，影片女主演吳恬敏承認，這部電影“不代表每一個亞裔美國人”，從而間接回應了這一批評。

“So for those who don’t feel seen, I hope there is a story you find soon that does represent you,” Ms. Wu added. “I am rooting for you.”

“所以對于那些感覺自己未被看到的人，我希望很快就會有一個能夠代表你的故事，”吳恬敏還說。“我支持你們。”

Janice Chua, a producer on the film, initially agreed to comment, but later said she was unavailable. A spokeswoman for Warner Bros. did not respond on the record to questions about the film.

電影制片人詹尼斯·蔡(Janice Chua)最初同意發(fā)表評論，但后來表示無法置評。華納兄弟的一位發(fā)言人沒有正式回應有關這部電影的問題。

“Crazy Rich Asians” is based on a novel by Kevin Kwan that satirizes Singapore’s megarich, and the film’s trailer oozes with luxury cars, opulent parties and other trappings of the One Percent.

《瘋狂的亞洲富人》根據(jù)凱文·關(Kevin Kwan)的小說改編，諷刺新加坡的超級富豪，電影預告片中充斥著豪華轎車、奢侈派對和位居財富頂端的百分之一有錢人的其他標志。

The film is “an unabashed celebration of luxury and money, with hints of class conflict that have more to do with aspiration than envy or anger, set in an Asia miraculously free of history or politics,” the film critic A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times.

電影評論家A·O·斯科特(A. O. Scott)在《紐約時報》發(fā)表的影評中寫道，這部電影“毫不掩飾地贊美奢華與金錢，伴隨著隱約的階級沖突，但更多是關于對財富的渴望而不是嫉妒或憤怒，而且發(fā)生在一個奇跡般地擺脫了歷史和政治的亞洲。”

Kevin Ma, the founder of Asia in Cinema, a Hong Kong-based news site, said that the film’s emphasis on over-the-top wealth was not surprising. “It’s not a new thing for Asians to see rich Asians on screen,” he said.

總部位于香港的新聞網(wǎng)站Cinema in Asia的創(chuàng)始人馬樂民表示，該片對奢華財富的強調(diào)并不令人驚訝。“對于亞洲人來說，在屏幕上看到富有的亞洲人并不是新鮮事，”他說。

Other critics have applauded the inclusion of cast members who are not of East Asian descent. The cast includes the Filipino-American actor Nico Santos, and Henry Golding, the male lead, who has an English father and a mother from Malaysia’s Iban indigenous group.

其他影評人稱贊影片使用了沒有東亞血統(tǒng)的演員，其中包括菲律賓裔美國演員尼可·桑托斯(Nico Santos)和男主角亨利·戈爾丁(Henry Golding)，后者的父親是英國人，母親是馬來西亞伊班族人。

Some Singaporean writers said they feared the film would mirror the underrepresentation of minorities that already pervades local films and television shows.

一些新加坡作家表示，他們擔心這部電影反映出當?shù)仉娪昂碗娨暪?jié)目中盛行的少數(shù)民族代表性不足。

“Mind you, I’m happy that there are non-East Asian actors involved in major roles,” said Ng Yi-Sheng, an author and gay rights activist whose debut poetry collection won the 2008 Singapore Literature Prize.

“不過，能有非東亞演員參與主要角色還是令我高興，”作家兼同性戀權(quán)利活動人士吳易盛說，他的首部詩集獲得了2008年的新加坡文學獎(Singapore Literature Prize)。

“But judging from the trailers, the browner Asian characters are predominantly guards and domestic workers and drivers,” Mr. Ng said in an email. “That’s kind of oppressive, don’t you think?”

“但是，從預告片中來看，棕色皮膚的亞洲人角色主要是警衛(wèi)、家政工人和司機。”吳易盛在電子郵件中寫道：“這有點不公正，不覺得嗎?”

Singapore, a financial hub at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, is a former British colony that gained independence as part of Malaysia in 1963 and then split from Malaysia two years later. The city-state’s governing party has never lost its hold on power, and the government controls the domestic news media.

新加坡是位于馬來半島南端的金融中心，是前英國殖民地，1963年作為馬來西亞的一部分獲得獨立，兩年后又從馬來西亞分裂出來。這個城市國家的執(zhí)政黨從未失去對權(quán)力的控制，而政府又控制著國內(nèi)的新聞媒體。

Even though Singapore’s Chinese ethnic majority accounts for about three-quarters of the city-state’s population, the government often goes to great lengths to promote interethnic harmony as a symbol of national identity.

盡管在新加坡，作為多數(shù)族裔的華人占據(jù)該國人口的四分之三，但政府常常竭力促進民族和諧，將其作為國家認同的象征。

“We don’t really have enough of a precolonial culture to celebrate — we’re on Malay land, but most of us aren’t Malay, and Chinese culture was a little too Communist-affiliated in the old days,” Mr. Ng said. “So a multiracial concept of nationhood was kind of the obvious choice for us.”

“我們確實沒有足夠的前殖民文化可以頌揚——我們居住在馬來人的土地上，但我們大多數(shù)人都不是馬來人，而過去的中國文化有點過于共產(chǎn)主義，”吳易盛說。“因此，多民族的國家概念對我們來說是一個明顯的選擇。”

But it has always been a delicate balancing act. Today, there are growing concerns in Singapore that a newly powerful China could upset that equilibrium by seeking to promote loyalty to the Chinese “motherland” among Singaporean Chinese.

但它始終是一種微妙的平衡。今天，新加坡越來越擔心新近強大起來的中國可能會在新加坡華人中促進對“祖國”中國的忠誠，從而破壞這種平衡。

In the local film industry, the concern centers on why minority actors are “seldom featured as leads in movies and sometimes assigned stereotypical roles,” said Mathew Mathews, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, a Singaporean research institute.

新加坡研究機構(gòu)政策研究院(Institute of Policy Studies)的資深研究員馬修·馬修斯(Mathew Mathews)表示，在當?shù)仉娪敖纾藗冴P注的焦點是為什么少數(shù)族裔演員“很少充當電影中的主角，有時會被賦予刻板印象角色。”

Last year, for example, the Singaporean Indian actor Shrey Bhargava wrote on Facebook that he had been asked in an audition to use a stereotypical Indian accent.

例如，去年，印度裔新加坡演員謝瑞·巴爾加瓦(Shrey Bhargava)在Facebook上寫道，他在試鏡中被要求使用俗套的印度口音。

Mr. Bhargava said he had left feeling disgusted and had concluded that diversity in Singaporean films “comes down to playing stereotypes so the majority race can find it amusing.” His post went viral and sparked a debate about ethnicity and diversity.

巴爾加瓦說他感到厭惡，并得出結(jié)論認為新加坡電影的多樣性“最終還是使用刻板印象，讓占多數(shù)的種族覺得有趣。”他的帖子傳播開來，引發(fā)了關于種族和多樣性的討論。

But Mr. Mathews, who has studied race, religion and immigration in Singapore, played down the debate over ethnic representation in “Crazy Rich Asians.”

但是研究新加坡種族、宗教和移民問題的馬修斯認為《瘋狂的亞洲富人》中族裔代表性的爭論并不重要。

“I think most fair-minded Singaporeans would see this film as a work of fiction and not expect a high level of realism and accuracy in cultural portrayals,” he said in an email. “我認為大多數(shù)公正的新加坡人會把這部電影看作一部虛構(gòu)的作品，并不認為文學呈現(xiàn)中應當具有高度現(xiàn)實性和準確性，”他在電子郵件中寫道。

The film’s detractors disagree. 影片的批評者并不同意。

Alfian Sa’at, a prominent Singaporean author, who writes in English and Malay, said in a scathing Facebook post that the film featured “East Asian people purporting to speak for all Asians,” adding that he hoped it would “go away quietly.”

新加坡用英文和馬來文寫作的著名作家阿爾法安·薩特(Alfian Sa'at)在一篇嚴厲的Facebook帖子中寫道，這部電影的特色是“東亞人自我標榜要為所有亞洲人說話，”他還說，他希望這部影片“不聲不響地消失”。

And in a Twitter thread and a Medium essay, Kirsten Han, a Singaporean journalist and activist, offered an equally blistering critique.

新聞記者兼活動人士韓俐穎在Twitter和Medium文章中提出了同樣激烈的批評。

“When it comes to representation, what I would like to see as a Singaporean is something that reflects my country and society in all our diversity and complexity, and helps audiences make connections between our experiences and theirs,” Ms. Han wrote in the essay.

“在談到代表性時，作為一個新加坡人，我希望看到一部作品能夠反映我的國家和社會的多樣性和復雜性，并幫助觀眾將我們的經(jīng)歷與他們的經(jīng)歷聯(lián)系起來，”她在文章中寫道。

“‘Crazy Rich Asians’ does nothing to improve the situation,” she added.

“《瘋狂的亞洲富人》沒有改善這種情況，”她補充說。