曾錚的圖片故事(4)Jennifer’s Photo Stories

曾铮

Living with mom alone 父母分居的幼年生活
and
How an Australian’s Shock Shocks Me

以及
一個澳洲人的震撼對我的震撼






These two photos were taken when I was 2 and 3 years old. At that time I lived with my mother; whilst my father lived in another city of some 100 kilometers away.
這兩張照片分別是我兩歲及三歲時與母親合照的。當時我父親與我們不在一起，他住在另一個200里以外的城市。
There was one experience that I will never forget: When the editor of my publisher for the Australian version of my memoir was revising my book, and when she read the sentence “I moved to Mianyang with my father," she immediately changed “my father” to “my parents”. As an Australian, she thought that when the family moved from one city to another, everybody in the family should move together. She thought I must have mistakenly written “my father” instead of “my parents”.
有一件事是我永遠也忘不了的。當我的自傳的澳洲英文版編輯在修訂我的書稿時，她看到其中有這句話：「我跟隨父親來到綿陽。」她二話不說大筆一揮就改成：「我跟隨父母來到綿陽。」她以爲我英文不靈光，不小心把「父母」寫成「父親」了呢。作爲一個澳洲人，她想當然地認爲：要遷至另一個城市，當然是一家人一起走，哪有父親走母親不走的道理？
I had to explain to her that no, in China, everything is controlled by the government. And my mother wasn’t allowed to move with my father that time. She was so shocked to learn this “little fact”. For us Chinese, this is just our everyday reality. And I was also very shocked by her shocked reaction. It made me realize that it seemed that people in a normal western society are living in a different world compared to that of China. The social environments and systems are so different, thanks to the Communist party, which has brought about so many disasters.
我只好跟她解釋了好半天中國的戶籍制度和人事編制問題，以及中國人如何一切都在政府的管制之下，沒有遷徙自由的問題。她聽到這些就像是聽天書一樣。
說實話，她的「震驚」也「震撼」了我，並讓我意識到，西方正常社會，跟共產國家，是多麼不一樣啊。西方人理所當然就擁的東西，我們中國人，得拼了多少命，都掙不來啊？
So let’s go back to these two photos. My parents weren’t able to live together since they married in 1995; and until I was already 7 years old. Life has been extremely tough for the entire family.
還回到這兩張照片吧。我父母自結婚起，一起到我七歲，奮鬥了七、八年，才好不容易調動到一起。其間因爲不能調到一起，還差點鬧離婚呢。
For full version of Jennifer’s story, please click here:
曾錚的故事完整版請點這裏：
https://www.facebook.com/jenniferzeng97/posts/917494741684499