一代传奇邵逸夫逝世

 　　一代传奇邵逸夫逝世

　　AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

　　ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I'm Robert Siegel. When you think of Asian cinema, flying swordsmen likely come to mind and flashy stunts¹. And that's because of one of the world's most influential² film producers, Sir Run Run Shaw. Over half a century, he created a studio that spawned³ the Kung Fu genre⁴ and helped modernize⁵ the Asian film industry.

　　Shaw died Tuesday in Hong Kong at the age of 106. NPR's Neda Ulaby has this remembrance.

　　NEDA ULABY, BYLINE⁶: A world without Run Run Shaw would've meant a world without Quentin Tarantino...

　　(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

　　ULABY: Or the Wu Tang Clan⁷...

　　UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Raw, I'm going to give it to you with no trivia.

　　ULABY: Or "The Matrix."

　　(SOUNDBITE FROM FILM "THE MATRIX")

　　UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: I know kung fu.

　　ULABY: That global pop culture vernacular⁸ came from a Hong Kong media mogul who dominated the industry for decades. When Run Run Shaw was born, China still had an emperor. His father was a textile tradesman, but that did not interest Shaw and three of his older brothers. They went from producing Chinese opera in the 1920s to running movie theaters all over Southeast Asia.

　　Then, the enterprising Shaw brothers had a problem, says Asian film expert Grady Hendricks(ph). There was not enough money to fill all the screens they owned and buying movies was expensive.

　　GRADY HENDRICKS: And the price Shaw always wanted was cheap and the only other price he preferred was super cheap.

　　ULABY: That's how Run Run Shaw got into the movie business. Musicals, historical dramas, epic⁹ romances with high production values and lavish¹⁰ budgets. Starting in the 1950s, he build Shaw Brothers into a Hong Kong monopoly with a studio called Movie Town, says Grady Hendricks.

　　HENDRICKS: And it housed film stages, special effects studios, photo processing plants, dormitories for their stars, anything you'd need to make a movie, that was at Movie Town.

　　ULABY: In Asia, the Shaw Brothers studio was like Paramount¹¹, Warner Brothers and MGM all rolled up into one. It handled every aspect of the business and it changed movies forever. Before the Shaw Brothers, the biggest Asian movie stars were women. But starting in 1967, Hendricks says they introduced macho martial¹² arts films with a massive hit called "One-Armed Swordsman."

　　HENDRICKS: Guys with bare chests, you know, mutilation of the male body, the swordsman gets his arm cut off, these guys are greased down and slick.

　　ULABY: Social unrest rocked the globe and this story about questioning authority popped in pop culture everywhere.

　　HENDRICKS: It was angry young men kicking over the old men holding them back. It was nihilistic. It was bleak¹³. I would say really almost all modern day action movies sort of spring from this fountain.

　　ULABY: All in all, the Shaw Brothers produced more than 800 movies. Unfortunately, Run Run Shaw dismissed the talents of both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, but generally his business acumen¹⁴ was amazing. He developed one of the biggest TV networks in Asia. He built thousands of schools and universities across China and endowed a Chinese studies institute at Oxford¹⁵ University.

　　He bailed¹⁶ out the Macy's department store chain in 1991 and he produced a Hollywood science fiction classic with a robot anti-hero. When he dies, it's a reflection on artificial intelligence and the fragility of memory. The movie, "Blade Runner."

　　(SOUNDBITE FROM FILM, "BLADE RUNNER")

　　UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: All those moments will be lost in time like tears and rain.

　　ULABY: Run Run Shaw was an unparalleled figure in world cinema and the global imagination. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

3 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

4 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

5 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

8 vernacular   

adj.地方的，用地方语写成的；n.白话；行话；本国语；动植物的俗名

参考例句：

• The house is built in a vernacular style.这房子按当地的风格建筑。
• The traditional Chinese vernacular architecture is an epitome of Chinese traditional culture.中国传统民居建筑可谓中国传统文化的缩影。

9 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

10 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

11 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

12 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

13 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

14 acumen   

n.敏锐，聪明

参考例句：

• She has considerable business acumen.她的经营能力绝非一般。
• His business acumen has made his very successful.他的商业头脑使他很成功。

15 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

16 bailed   

保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Fortunately the pilot bailed out before the plane crashed. 飞机坠毁之前，驾驶员幸运地跳伞了。
• Some water had been shipped and the cook bailed it out. 船里进了些水，厨师把水舀了出去。