利物浦与中国

　　Here comes the yuan

　　人民币驾到

　　A city’s bid to revive its fortunes through the local and the global

　　利物浦努力通过本地特色和全球投资重振其经济

　　Sep 3rd 2011 | LIVERPOOL | from the print edition

　　AT THE new Museum of Liverpool (above), a sleek limestone affair of Danish design, the city’s Chinese community, which began with an influx of sailors at the start of the 19th century, gets an exhibit to itself. The emphasis seems a little odd, until you consider the city’s regeneration strategy, which rests on a characteristically 21st-century mix of the local and the global. The aim is to use Liverpool’s storied past to attract investment from around the world—and from China in particular.

　　在一座丹麦风格的优美石灰石建筑——新建的利物浦博物馆里（上图），城市的华人社区开了一个展览会。利物浦的华人社区兴起于19世纪初期大量中国水手涌入城市之时。如此强调这件事，似乎有些奇怪，除非你仔细考虑过城市的复兴策略。利物浦的复兴策略的基础是一个典型的21世纪本地特色与全球投资的混合体。这个策略的目的在于：利用利物浦赫赫有名的历史吸引来自世界各地的投资，尤其是中国。

　　Liverpool has been through tough times. Once an imperial entrep?t, the city built its wealth on the exchange of slaves, cotton and commodities. But the end of empire, the rise of air travel and the advent of shipping containers slashed maritime employment after the 1960s. Manufacturing failed to compensate for the losses, even if a cultural efflorescence led by the Beatles accompanied the economic woes.

　　利物浦曾经历艰难困苦的时期。从前，作为帝国的贸易中心，利物浦通过交换奴隶、棉布和日用品创造财富。但是在19世纪60年代之后，大英帝国的衰落、航空交通的兴起和集装箱船的出现这种种因素使航海业的员工被大幅裁员。即使披头士在经济萧条下引起了一场文化繁荣，制造业仍无法弥补这种损失。

　　Many problems persist. A city that held 856,000 people in 1931 now houses just over half that number. In the suburb of Anfield, home to Liverpool Football Club, an aborted regeneration scheme has bequeathed row after blighted row of boarded-up houses; gardens are overgrown with weeds and poppies sprout on street corners. The proportion of people on state benefits is twice the national average, as is the proportion of Liverpudlians who lack formal qualifications. Health is poor and life expectancy is low. Only two-thirds of residents work—41% of them in the public sector, which puts the city at especial risk in an era of government austerity.

　　很多问题继续存在。一个在1931年人口为85万6千的城市，如今的居住人数却只有那时的一半多一点。利物浦足球俱乐部的所在地安菲尔德郊区曾实行过一个复兴策略，但最终流产，遗留下来的是一排又一排门窗被木板钉住的房屋，景象一派衰颓；住宅的花园里野草丛生，街头角落处罂粟疯长。安菲尔德郊区领取政府救济的人数比例两倍于全国平均水平，利物浦没有正式文凭的市民比例也是如此。健康状况相当不堪，平均寿命也不高。只有三分之二的居民有工作——其中41%在政府部门上班，在政府采取紧缩财政措施的年代里，这种情形会使城市的处境特别危险。

　　Yet the lean years helped to stop the city’s historic buildings being replaced by the concrete utopias beloved of modernist planners. Now Liverpool is using its bruised beauty to its advantage. It won its bid to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture, which boosted tourism. The revamped city centre, reopened that year, is tasteful and modern; the nearby Albert Dock, once teeming with stevedores, bustles with bars and restaurants.

　　但是，几年的经济萧条却有助于阻止城市的历史建筑被现代主义规划者所喜爱的水泥乌托邦所取代。如今，利物浦正在发挥自身已伤痕累累的美丽之优势。它已成功申请成为2008年欧洲文化之都，这促进了当地旅游业发展。在那年重新开放的市中心已经过改造，既雅致优美，又现代时髦。在附近，曾经到处都是搬运工的艾伯特码头如今开满了酒吧和餐厅。

　　The next step is to attract investment from overseas. To that end, Liverpool Vision (the council’s inward investment arm) has set up a dedicated office in Shanghai. The Peel Group, an infrastructure and real-estate outfit, hosted a pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo last year. It is courting Chinese sovereign-wealth funds to develop Liverpool’s derelict northern dockyards. The plans include a 60-storey “Shanghai tower,” named to reinforce Liverpool’s links to that city (the two have been “twinned” since 1999).

　　下一步则是吸引海外投资。为此，利物浦视野公司(即城市议会的内部投资部门)已经在上海成立了一个专门的办事处。皮尔集团是一个基础设施及房地产建设机构，它在去年上海世博会上也主办了一个展馆。皮尔集团正试图取悦中国主权财富基金，以向其寻求资助开发利物浦北部已被遗弃的造船厂。计划包括建立一座60层的高塔，命名为“上海塔”，以此加强利物浦和上海间的联系（两城在1999年结为姐妹城市）。

　　The Peel Group has already secured Chinese cash for a development in Birkenhead, across the Mersey: these days, says Lindsey Ashworth, the company’s development director, China is a much more promising source of funds than Britain. The firm sees the two foreign-financed projects as test cases for others elsewhere in the North West. Things have come full circle since penurious sailors from the Far East first arrived two centuries ago. (The risk is that growth will prove more vandalistic than poverty: UNESCO, the UN’s culture and conservation body, is worried that the dockyards development will mar Liverpool’s world heritage-listed waterfront.)

　　皮尔集团已经成功将一笔中国资金弄到手，用于开发一个位于默西河对岸别根海特的住宅小区。公司的开发主管林赛?阿什沃思说道：如今，比起英国政府，中国政府是个更有前景的资金来源。该公司将这两个外资项目当作西北部别的地区其他项目的实验。两个世纪前，来自远东的贫穷水手初来乍到;如今，中国人又来了。（风险在于：比起贫困，城市发展对公共财产更具破坏性：联合国的文化和保护团体——联合国科教文组织，担心开发造船厂会破坏利物浦名列世界遗产名录的海滨。）

　　The Liverpool brand is clearly a tricky, if appealing, proposition. Encrusted with verdigris, two statues of the “liver bird”, the city’s symbol, sit atop a riverside building. Legend has it that the female bird looks out to sea, to search for returning sailors; the male looks back towards Liverpool, to see if the pubs are open.

　　打造利物浦品牌这个建议虽然很吸引人，却显然有点棘手。城市的象征——两座锈迹斑斑的“利物鸟”铜像坐落于一栋河畔建筑的顶部。相传那只雌鸟向大海望去，搜寻返航的水手；而雄鸟则向里利物浦望去，在看那些酒吧有否开门。