The Lifespan of a Culture——Watching the Cove
（Friday）
文化的跨度——看《海豚湾》有感
The Cove is a fantastic documentary talking about mass dolphin killed in Taiji, Japan. In order to stop dolphin-killing practices in Japan, Louie Psihoyos, the director, films the whole exciting process of recording how dolphins have been killed from a truly American perspective, emphasizing it is unnecessary and cruel for Japanese to hunt dolphins. This outspoken defender of the ocean informs the public of increasing threat to dolphins and potential risk of poisoning from dolphin meat. All he tries to convey is how Japanese behave badly and how American save dolphins.
《海豚湾》是一部优秀的纪录片，纪录了日本太地町当地的渔民每年大量捕杀海豚的过程。为了阻止日本的这种大规模的杀戮，导演路易·西霍尤斯从美国人的角度记录下大量海豚被屠杀的血腥场面，更强调了日本人杀戮的残忍与不必要。这位海洋的保护者直言不讳地告诉观众海豚面临的日益严重的威胁和人们食用海豚肉的潜在风险。他试图表现日本人的行为如何恶劣，以及美国人如何拯救海豚。
These different attitudes towards nature hardly reflect well on Japan. At the beginning of the documentary, it focuses on their way to Taiji. Imagine a situation that Japanese police follow the tracks of the director group-Americans. As soon as Americans arrive, the police come to them and inquire their route rudely. Behind their inquiry, what Japanese try to cover seems to appear. They disguise themselves as friendly companions by putting up cute-dolphin posters. Out of the public view, they slaughter dolphins, whose blood dyes the river. Furthermore, even though the government knows that the meat from the dead dolphins may have potential poison, it still provides the meat for children’s lunch. During the whole documentary, people in Taiji seem cruel to animals and impolite to people. Though it may not represent all the Japanese, it truly shows how Japanese see this industry, which is a nightmare for dolphins and children.
纪录片中表现的人对自然环境的不同态度在日本反响并不好。《海豚湾》的开头记录了美国摄影团队去太地町的一路行程。想象一下，他们一路都被日本警察跟踪的场景。在摄影团队一到太地町的时候，日本警察就来找他们询问他们的行程，言辞粗暴、态度恶劣。这个询问的背后，日本人想要掩盖的事情似乎可以窥见一斑。面对公众之时，他们在太地町用张贴可爱的海豚海报伪装自己是友好的伙伴。而脱离公众视线之时，他们屠杀海豚，让血染河流。更可恶的是，政府官员了解了海豚肉有毒之后，依然将海豚肉作为孩子们的午餐。整个纪录片里充斥的都是太地町对动物的残忍和对人们的不尊重。这种行为尽管不能代表所有的日本人，但实实在在的展现了日本人如何看待这个对海豚和孩子们来说都是噩梦的产业。
Talking about American attitudes, in describing the former Flipper television series, filmed in the earlier year though, Americans tried to describe their capture as “dolphins coming back home” with their infinite care. Ten years building the industry and 35 years to destroy, it makes Ric O'Barry, the pioneer of dolphins industry, realize what is the most important. To compensate for his fault, he makes every effort to free more dolphins, which causes him being arrested many times. He devoted himself to saving dolphins, which can be further reflected as a kind of American culture-bravery and righteousness.
再说到美国人的态度，我们可以从很多年前拍摄的电视节目《飞宝》（Flipper）入手。在这个节目里，美国人把他们扑捉海豚的行为描述成“让海豚回家并无微不至的照顾他们”。理查德·奥巴瑞(Ric O'Barry)是这个节目的创立者也是海豚产业的先锋，用了十年的时间建起了这个海豚产业。在终于明白了自由对海豚才是最重要的东西之后，他又用了35年去毁掉这个产业，这也是这部纪录片《海豚湾》的来源。为了弥补自己的过失，奥巴瑞竭尽所能去释放每一条海豚，这甚至导致他多次被逮捕，因为海豚经常被人们视为私有财产。他致力于拯救海豚，这也甚至反应了一种美国文化——勇敢与正直。
Admittedly, there is no doubt that the director overstated slightly their greatness with a view to catching the public's attention to some extent. Because the international trade in captivity is so lucrative, all want to take a share of the spoils, not without American. However, we shall never ignore the fact that dolphins are dying because of our greed and indifference.
需要承认的是，为了吸引人们的眼球，导演在某种程度上确实夸大了他们所做所为的伟大性。因为这种捕获海豚的国际交易实在是一项赚钱的生意，所有人都想加入其中分一杯羹，美国人也不例外。但是我们也不能忘记，正是因为我们的贪婪和冷漠，海豚不断减少的事实。
Had Ric O'Barry not helped capture and trained the five wild dolphins and made the Flipper television series, dolphins would not have been so popular. Do they not become welcome among the public, people all around the world would not regard dolphins as profitable deals. Dolphin slaughters in Taiji have been going on years in the making and will not be undone overnight. But the elements of a saving plan are already visible in The Cove. If even Ric O'Barry now has the courage to make up for his mistake, we cannot just take it for granted that dolphin hunting in Japan is none of our business.
People take this documentary as a way to reveal the American culture and it indeed works. How does a country spread its culture? Actually, transmitting the culture works by showing its goodness to the nature.
如果理查德·奥巴瑞没有在上个世纪60年代抓捕、训练那五条野生的海豚并打造了《飞宝》这个节目，海豚或许不会那么出名而受人喜爱，那么世界各国的商人也不会将海豚视为可获利的交易品。发生在太地町的海豚屠杀已经进行了很多年，也不会在一夜之内消失，但是《海豚湾》中对海豚的解救计划已经展开。如果现在连理查德·奥巴瑞都有勇气去弥补他自己的过失，我们又怎么能理所当然地觉得海豚屠杀与我们无关呢？
人们把这部纪录片当作美国的一种文化输出，而这《海豚湾》确实成功了。一个国家如何传播它的文化？实际上，传播文化的最好的方法就是展现对自然的善意，这容易引起人们的共鸣。
☞
☞ 作者：郭冰莹 Angela 长在南方身在北京的90后。爱读书，品红楼国粹；爱音乐，听琴声潇潇；爱旅游，转尘世凡间。愿不忘初心，你我共读。