学者称天香公主未必有助维汉理解

Last week, The New York Times reported on the production in China of an animated television series with an exotic 10-year-old heroine, Princess Fragrant. The 104-episode series is loosely based on murky historical narratives about the Fragrant Concubine, an ethnic Uighur woman who in the 18th century was brought thousands of miles east to the Chinese imperial court in Beijing of the Qianlong Emperor, an ethnic Manchu, to be one of his program’s creators are Han, the dominant ethnic group in China. It was commissioned last year by the government of Kashgar, an oasis trading hub in Xinjiang, the vast western borderland where violence between Uighurs and Han has been soaring. The mythical tomb of the Fragrant Concubine, who is known as Xiangfei in Mandarin and Iparhan in the Uighur language, is in an Islamic Sufi shrine in Kashgar and is often visited by tour groups from other parts of China. Most Uighurs are Sunni Muslims.

上周，《纽约时报》就中国制作的一部动画片进行了报道，故事的女主角是10岁的天香公主。这部动画片共有104集，一定程度上以关于香妃的含糊不清的历史故事为基础。香妃是维吾尔族人，在18世纪，她被往东带到了距离家乡数千英里的、位于北京的中国皇宫，给当时的满族皇帝乾隆当妃子。这个节目的创作人员是在中国占主导地位的汉族。去年，喀什政府批准了这个动画片的制作。喀什是新疆的一处绿洲，也是一个贸易中心。幅员广阔的新疆位于中国西部边陲，维吾尔族与汉族之间的暴力冲突正在那里愈演愈烈。充满神秘色彩的香妃墓位于喀什的一座伊斯兰苏菲派神祠，这里经常有来自中国各地的游客前来参观。大多数维吾尔族人都是逊尼派穆斯林。

The creators, based in the southern city of Shenzhen, across the country from Xinjiang, say their goal and that of officials in Kashgar is to improve ethnic relations through the cartoon, which shows Uighur, Han and Kazakh characters going on adventures together along the Silk Road.

动画片的主创人员生活在中国南部城市深圳，距离新疆十分遥远。他们说，他们和喀什官员的目标就是通过这部动画片来改善民族关系。这部动画片讲述了维吾尔族、汉族和哈萨克族角色在丝绸之路上共同展开冒险历程的故事。

James Leibold, a scholar of China’s ethnic policies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, who is teaching in a study-abroad program this semester in Beijing, shared his thoughts on the series by email. He pointed out the paradox that Princess Fragrant is drawn with a silky head scarf even while officials in Xinjiang have been imposing bans on the wearing of head scarves by women in public, which is central to the practice of Islam in many parts of the world. Mr. Leibold wrote: It’s hard to believe the cartoon will achieve its stated goal of “boosting cultural exchanges and understanding between Han and Uighur people.” The production team (mostly Han from Shenzhen, I recall) admit knowing little about the region and its people. As you know, ethnic tensions in Xinjiang are at their highest levels in decades, and many Uighurs feel under siege from an increasingly intrusive party-state, here perceived as both alien and Han, as it penetrates deeper into their daily lives. Like other “Han productions,” I suspect Xinjiang’s majority Uighur population will see right through this latest piece of “ethnic unity propaganda.” They have their own narratives of Iparhan, ones that stress resistance to Qing/Chinese imperial rule.

墨尔本拉筹伯大学(La Trobe University)研究中国民族政策的高级讲师詹姆斯·莱博尔德(James Leibold)本学期在北京参与一个海外留学项目的教学工作，他通过电子邮件分享了对这部动画片的看法。他指出，动画片中的天香公主戴着一块丝质头巾，而新疆官员却一直在执行禁止妇女在公共场合佩戴头巾的禁令。而佩戴头巾在世界上许多地区都是非常重要的伊斯兰行为准则。莱博尔德写道： 很难相信这部动画片将达到它所谓的“促进文化交流和维汉两族人民的相互理解”的目的。制作团队（我记得他们大多是来自深圳的汉族人）承认，他们对这个地区以及该地区人民了解甚少。如你所知，新疆的民族矛盾已达到数十年来最激烈的程度，许多维吾尔人都觉得，随着这个政党国家对他们的日常生活进行更深的渗透，干预越来越强，他们感到四面受敌，认为这是个与自己不相容的汉人国家。与其他汉族的影视产品一样，我认为在新疆占大多数的维族人一眼就能看穿这是个最新的民族团结宣传片。对于香妃的故事，他们有着自己的版本，这些版本都强调了对清朝/中华帝国统治的抵抗。

In fact, I find it highly ironic and revealing that Iparhan/Fragrant Princess has been drawn with a headscarf while local officials in Xinjiang are now promoting a scarf-less “standard” for traditional Uighur “beauty” (see here), banning Uighur women with the hijab from boarding buses in Karamay city and entering other public places, and even confiscating silk scarves and traditional hats from local markets in Urumqi (see here) series has Uighur advisers appointed by the Kashgar government, but it is unclear how much the Han creators know of the new policies on veils in Xinjiang or of the role of the veil in traditional Muslim societies.

这里有一点颇具讽刺意味，也可以说明一定问题，动画片中的天香公主戴着头巾，而新疆地方官员目前却在宣扬，不戴头巾是传统维吾尔族“美人”的“标准”（见此处）。他们禁止戴着希贾布的维吾尔族女性在克拉玛依乘坐公共汽车或进入其他公共场所，甚至没收了乌鲁木齐当地市场的丝巾和传统花帽（见此处）。这部动画片里有喀什政府委任的维吾尔族顾问，但目前还不清楚这些汉族主创究竟对新疆针对头巾的新政策，以及头巾在传统穆斯林社会中的角色了解多少。

In an interview this week, Deng Jiangwei, the director of “Princess Fragrant,” said that the program did not mention politics or Islam and that its aim was mainly to teach viewers “that ethnic unity is the most powerful weapon in the face of adversity.”

《天香公主》的导演邓江伟在本周接受采访时说，动画片并没有提到政治或伊斯兰教，它的目的主要是告诉观众“面对逆境，民族团结是最强大的武器”。

As for what the cartoon says about the role of women, Mr. Deng said: “It is also the coming-of-age story of the princess, about how she goes on adventures and learns to become a young adult with courage and virtues.”

关于这部动画片对女性角色的描绘，邓江伟说：“它还讲述了公主的成长故事，描述了她展开历险并最终成为一名具有勇气和美德的年轻人的过程。”