北京——范冰冰可以說是中國最著名的女演員了,這位多產(chǎn)的影星憑借在《鋼鐵俠》(Iron Man)和《X戰(zhàn)警》(X-Men)系列中扮演的角色,成功地獲得了國際名聲。今年5月,她曾出現(xiàn)在嘎納電影節(jié)上,與杰西卡·查斯坦(Jessica Chastain)、瑪麗昂·歌迪亞(Marion Cotillard)、佩內(nèi)洛普·克魯茲(Penelope Cruz)和露皮塔·尼永奧(Lupita Nyong’o)一起,為一部即將上映的間諜大片做宣傳。
She has more than 62 million followers on China’s equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, and appears in ads for products around the world — from vitamins in Australia to lipstick by Guerlain, the clothes of Montblanc and the diamonds of De Beers.
她在中國類似Twitter的平臺微博上擁有逾6200萬粉絲,世界各地的產(chǎn)品廣告上也常有她的面孔——從澳大利亞的維生素到嬌蘭(Guerlain)唇膏、萬寶龍(Montblanc)服裝,以及戴比爾斯(De Beers)鉆石。
Now she is missing.
而現(xiàn)在,她失蹤了。
Ms. Fan, who turns 37 on Sunday, has dropped out of public view for more than three months — the victim of a sudden and precipitous fall from grace. 本周日即將滿37歲的范冰冰已從公眾視野中消失三個多月,遭受了一次驟然的名聲大跌。
Her disappearance has been greeted with concern among fans and fear among her counterparts in the industry. It has fueled a flurry of rumors of personal rivalries and political intrigue, even at the pinnacles of power in Beijing, though few concrete facts.
她的失蹤已在粉絲們中引起了擔(dān)憂,在業(yè)內(nèi)同行中引發(fā)了恐懼。這件事也引發(fā)了關(guān)于個人恩怨和政治陰謀的頻繁傳言,甚至涉及到北京的權(quán)力巔峰,但沒有多少具體的事實。
That so little is known about someone so famous in China — even whether she is in detention, or in hiding — says much about the murky intersection of politics and business, entertainment and celebrity.
人們對一個在中國如此有名的人目前的狀況——就連她是被拘押還是躲了起來——都知之甚少,這本身在很大程度上表明了中國政治、商業(yè)、娛樂和名人的模糊交集。
“She’s like collateral damage,” Hung Huang, a critic and publisher, said.
“她像是成了附帶破壞的犧牲品,”評論人兼出版商洪晃說。
Ms. Fan’s disappearance appears to be related to a government investigation into tax evasion in the film business, but she has not been charged with any crime, and no officials have confirmed that she is even under investigation. Few who know her, or the industry, believe it is simply a matter of paying taxes, though. And the damage to her reputation — and perhaps her livelihood — has already been done.
范冰冰的失蹤似乎與政府對影視行業(yè)逃稅行為的調(diào)查有關(guān),但她還沒有被指控犯有任何罪名,也沒有官員證實她是否正在接受調(diào)查。然而,在認識她的人中,或影視行業(yè)內(nèi),很少有人相信這只是個納稅的問題。對她的名譽——以及或許對她的生計——的損害已是既成事實。
Her name was abruptly removed from the posters for a Chinese production starring Bruce Willis, known in English as “Unbreakable Spirit,” about the Japanese bombing of China’s wartime capital, Chongqing, from 1938 to 1943.
她的名字突然從布魯斯·威利斯(Bruce Willis)參演的國產(chǎn)影片《大轟炸》海報上消失了。這部電影講的是1938年至1943年間日本轟炸中國戰(zhàn)時首都重慶的故事。
The film’s release, originally scheduled for August, has also been delayed until October, though whether that is linked to her situation remains unclear. (The name in Chinese is “Da Hong Zha,” which, inauspiciously for any movie, can mean “The Big Bomb.”)
影片原定的8月上映日,也已被推遲到10月份,不過尚不清楚這是否與范冰冰目前的狀況有關(guān)。(影片的中文名字《大轟炸》翻成英文可以是“The Big Bomb”,對任何電影都是不太吉利的。[Bomb在英文中有票房失利的意思。——譯注])
Another film in which she had a role, a sequel of an animated motion-capture film, also was delayed in June and has not yet been rescheduled. Raymond Zhou, an independent film critic, claimed in an interview that Ms. Fan’s role had been edited out.
范冰冰參演的另一部電影——一個動作捕捉動畫片的續(xù)集——6月的上映日也被推遲了,目前還沒有安排新的日子。獨立影評人周黎明(Raymond Zhou)在接受采訪時聲稱,范冰冰在該片中的角色已在剪輯過程中被刪掉。
Several of the brands she represents also have distanced themselves from her. They include Swisse Wellness, an Australian company, which announced it was suspending use of her name, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Wednesday. A duty free store in Thailand did the same.
她代言的幾個品牌也在拉開與她的距離。其中包括澳大利亞保健品公司Swisse Wellness,據(jù)《悉尼先驅(qū)晨報》(Sydney Morning Herald)周三報道,該公司宣布暫停使用她的名字。泰國的一家免稅店也做出了同樣的表示。
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Beijing Normal University published a survey ranking “social responsibility” among 100 celebrities last week and put Ms. Fan last.
中國社會科學(xué)院和北京師范大學(xué)上周發(fā)布了今年的《中國影視明星社會責(zé)任研究報告》,范冰冰在100位名人中排名倒數(shù)第一。
A promotional video Ms. Fan recorded for De Beers, posted on YouTube on May 24, amounts to one of her last public appearances.
范冰冰為戴比爾斯錄制的一段宣傳視頻是5月24日在YouTube上發(fā)布的,這大概是她最后一次公開露面。
In it, Ms. Fan describes how her parents sent her to music school as a child and wanted her to be a teacher, though she decided as a teenager to pursue an acting career. (She compares cutting a diamond for jewelry to the process of making a film.)
在這段視頻中,范冰冰講述了自己的父母怎樣在她小時候送她去音樂學(xué)校,希望她成為一名教師,但她在十幾歲時決定從事演藝事業(yè)的故事。(她把將鉆石加工成珠寶的過程比作拍電影。)
“Women today are very powerful,” she says, “they take control of their work and career, and in the meantime take care of their families.”
“當(dāng)今的女性其實是非常厲害的,”她說。“因為她們可以兼顧自己喜歡的工作和事業(yè),還可以兼顧自己的家庭。”
Ms. Fan’s disappearance followed an accusation in late May by a retired state television anchor, Cui Yongyuan. He posted on Weibo what appeared to be two contracts for an upcoming film, a sequel to one of her early successes, “Cell Phone,” released in 2003. One purported to show a salary of $1.6 million to be reported to the tax authorities (for four days work, as was widely noted online), the second an actual payment of $7.8 million.
范冰冰的失蹤發(fā)生在中國國家電視臺的退休主持人崔永元在今年5月底對她進行指控之后。崔永元在微博上公布了似乎是一部即將上映影片的兩份合同,該片是2003年上映的《手機》的續(xù)集,《手機》是范冰冰成名的早期作品之一。其中一份合同據(jù)稱顯示的片酬是1000萬元(付給四天的工作量,如網(wǎng)上人們普遍指出的那樣),這是要報給稅務(wù)局的片酬,另一份合同上則是實際支付的6000萬元的片酬。
The practice of having dual contracts — known as “yin and yang” contracts — is widespread in many industries in China as a way to avoid taxes, but Mr. Cui’s accusation prompted the State Administration of Taxation to announce a broad inquiry into the entertainment industry.
使用所謂“陰陽”雙重合同作為一種避稅手段的做法,在中國的許多行業(yè)都很普遍,但崔永元的指控導(dǎo)致國家稅務(wù)總局宣布將對娛樂業(yè)進行一次全面調(diào)查。
Its announcement did not mention Ms. Fan, but included this warning: “If violations of tax laws and regulations are found, they will be handled in strict accordance with the law.”
稅務(wù)總局的聲明中沒有提到范冰冰的名字,但警告說:“如發(fā)現(xiàn)違反稅收法律法規(guī)的行為,將嚴(yán)格依法處理。”
Mr. Cui later retreated from his initial accusations, saying he did not mean to target Ms. Fan. His ire appeared to be directed as much toward the director of “Cell Phone,” Feng Xiaogang. Mr. Cui previously had accused him of slander because the plot — in which a prominent television anchor has an affair with an assistant, played by Ms. Fan — bore striking, though he said inaccurate, parallels to Mr. Cui’s own career. A person at Mr. Cui’s office said he was no longer making any statements on the matter.
崔永元后來改變了他最初的指控,說自己不想針對范冰冰。他的怒火似乎也針對《手機》的導(dǎo)演馮小剛。崔永元此前曾指控馮小剛誹謗,因為《手機》的情節(jié)——一位著名電視主持人與(范冰冰扮演的)助手發(fā)生婚外情——與崔永元的職業(yè)生涯有驚人的相似之處,雖然崔永元曾表示那些說法不準(zhǔn)確。崔永元辦公室的一位人士說,他不再就此事發(fā)表任何聲明。
Ms. Fan denied the accusation of tax evasion — as has Mr. Feng — but she has stopped posting on her Weibo account since the tax investigation was announced. Nor has she updated her verified Twitter and Facebook accounts since she was in Cannes in May. There have been rumors of her arrest or detention — or even her flight from China.
范冰冰否認了逃稅指控,馮小剛也否認逃稅,但自從稅務(wù)局宣布調(diào)查以來,她已停止了在微博上發(fā)帖。而且,自從今年5月參加戛納電影節(jié)以來,范冰冰再也沒有更新過自己在Twitter和Facebook的實名賬戶。她已被逮捕或拘押的傳言已經(jīng)出現(xiàn),甚至還有傳言說她逃離了中國。
Efforts to reach Ms. Fan or a spokesman in recent weeks proved unsuccessful.
記者在最近幾周里試圖聯(lián)系范冰冰本人或其發(fā)言人的努力未獲成功。
Officials declined to comment on the status of the investigation, or whether Ms. Fan has since become a focus of it. An official with the Public Security Bureau in Wuxi, the city near Shanghai where her studio is based, refused to comment on whether the bureau had, as rumored, taken over the case.
有關(guān)官員拒絕就調(diào)查的進展置評,也不愿對范冰冰是否已成為調(diào)查的焦點置評。范冰冰工作室位于上海附近的無錫市,該市公安局的一名官員拒絕對無錫市公安局已接手此案的傳言置評。
“The situation is that we all speak with one voice from top to bottom: that is that we don’t accept interviews and we have no comment,” the official said.
“這個情況就是我們從上到下都是有統(tǒng)一口徑,就是對外是不接受采訪也是無可奉告,”這位官員說。
When it comes to the entertainment industry, which is heavily censored in China, the authorities appear to be particularly sensitive to the influence stars can have — for better or worse — on public opinion.
中國對娛樂行業(yè)有嚴(yán)格的審查,就這個行業(yè)而論,當(dāng)局似乎對明星可能對公眾輿論產(chǎn)生的(好的或壞的)影響特別敏感。
In the aftermath of the tax investigation, the authorities also announced new limits on the salaries of actors, even in privately financed films. No one actor can now earn more than 70 percent of the entire cast or more than 40 percent of production costs. The statement did not mention Ms. Fan, but said the industry was “distorting social values” and “fostering money worship tendencies.”
早在稅務(wù)調(diào)查之前,當(dāng)局就宣布過對演員片酬的限制,哪怕是私人出資拍攝的電影。被媒體稱為“限酬令”的通知說,單個演員的片酬不得超過全部演員總片酬的70%,全部演員的總片酬不得超過制作成本的40%。當(dāng)局最近再次發(fā)通知要求嚴(yán)格落實限酬令,通知雖然沒有提到范冰冰,但指責(zé)過高的片酬“扭曲社會價值觀念”,“滋長拜金主義傾向”。
Ms. Hung, the critic, said the investigation clearly had been intended to send a message about celebrity excess — and perhaps even about tax evasion. She noted the often-cited idiom “to kill a chicken to scare the monkey,” and said even the uncertainty around Ms. Fan’s case would have a chilling effect.
評論人洪晃表示,此次調(diào)查顯然是要對名人的放肆行為,甚至是可能的逃稅行為傳遞一個信息。她指出,中國有一個常用的成語:“殺雞儆猴”,僅是圍繞著范冰冰案的不確定性就足以產(chǎn)生寒蟬效應(yīng)。
“It makes people more nervous,” she said, “when it is unclear what is going on.”
她說,“當(dāng)人們不清楚發(fā)生了什么時,他們會更緊張。”