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After Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished in March, many ordinary Chinese and officials became incensed at Malaysia’s handling of the disaster and vowed never to travel to the country. Most of the 227 passengers on board had been Chinese flying to Beijing from the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
今年3月，当马来西亚航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)的MH370航班失踪后，中国许多普通民众和官员被马来西亚对那场灾难的处理所激怒，发誓永不造访这个国家。失踪航班上的227名乘客中，大部分是从马来西亚首都吉隆坡飞往北京的中国人。
Now it turns out that one of the casualties of the fallout from the missing flight is an outdoor theatrical spectacle that was to have been co-directed by China’s most famous filmmaker and set in the former Portuguese colonial town of Melaka, on the Straits of Malacca along Malaysia’s west coast.
现在的结果显示，航班失踪一事还影响到了一部大型室外演出剧。该剧本来应由中国最著名的电影制作人参与执导，并以曾经处在葡萄牙殖民统治下的城市马六甲为背景。马六甲地处马来西亚西海岸的马六甲海峡边上。
The show, “Impression Melaka,” was expected to debut in October in Melaka, commonly known in English as Malacca, but has now been postponed. It would have been the first of the “Impression” series, co-directed by Zhang Yimou, the prominent filmmaker, to take place outside China. Since 2003, Mr. Zhang and two other directors have staged “Impression” shows as nightly events during peak season at nine well-known Chinese tourist sites, including the karst landscape around Guilin, the rebuilt ancient town of Lijiang and West Lake in the city of Hangzhou.
名为《印象马六甲》(Impression Melaka)的这部剧目本有望于10月在马六甲举行首演，但现在却被推迟了。它本来将是由知名导演张艺谋联合执导的“印象”系列中，首部在中国境外举行的演出。自2003年以来，张艺谋和另外两名导演已在中国九大著名景点上演了“印象”系列演出，演出均在旺季的夜间举行。这些景点包括以卡斯特地貌闻名的桂林、重建的丽江古城以及杭州的西湖。
Melaka is a tourist draw in Malaysia because of its preserved shophouses and colonial buildings. It is also well known among Chinese as a base that the Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He used on his voyages to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.A Malaysian company, PTS Properties, had been working on “Impression Melaka” with the Chinese company founded by Mr. Zhang and his two co-directors, Wang Chaoge and Fan Yue. The three of them created the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
在马来西亚，马六甲凭借保留下来的街屋，以及建于殖民时期的建筑吸引了大量游客。它在中国人中也很有名，因为明代郑和率领的舰队在前往非洲和阿拉伯半岛时，曾将其作为基地。《印象马六甲》项目中的马来西亚合作方是PTS发展有限公司(PTS Properties)，中方合作方则是由张艺谋，以及与他合作的另外两名导演王潮歌和樊跃成立的公司。2008年北京夏季奥运会的开幕式即出自他们三人之手。
“One of the reasons we postponed the Impression launch date is due to the commercial decision after the MAS airline event,” Pang Bak Chua, a senior project manager at PTS Properties, said in an email, referring to Malaysia Airlines by its industry code. He declined to discuss the matter in more detail.
“我们推迟《印象马六甲》首演日期的原因之一，是MAS航班失踪事件发生后做出的商业决策，”PTS发展有限公司高级项目经理彭木蔡（Pang Bak Chua，音译）在一封电子邮件中写道。MAS是马来西亚航空公司在业内的代码。他拒绝更详细地讨论此事。
Local Chinese governments, companies and individuals have invested huge sums of money to stage the “Impression” shows, which involve acrobats, hundreds of dancers and other performers, and percussive music. Investors put $15 million, for example, into a show that opened in Henan Province in 2007, “Zen Shaolin.” It is not clear whether the sites have made back the money they invested, and some Chinese officials and art critics have criticized the “Impression” series as wasteful.
为了推出“印象”系列演出，中国的地方政府、公司和个人投入了大量资金。演出涉及杂技演员、数百名舞蹈演员和其他演员以及动感的音乐。比如，为了2007年在河南省上演的《禅宗少林》，投资者砸下了1500万美元（约合9300万元人民币）。目前尚不清楚那些景点是否均已收回了投资。部分中国官员和艺术评论家指责“印象”系列很浪费。
In 2010, Jiang Zongfu, vice mayor of Linxiang in Hunan Province, said in an online post that he had researched the investments made by tourist sites and concluded that the “Impression” series was a losing business venture. “Under peer pressure, tourism sites all want to have an entry of the Impression series episode, without thinking about whether it’s really worth it,” wrote Mr. Jiang, who was in charge of tourism in Linxiang.
2010年，湖南省临湘市副市长姜宗福在网上发帖称，自己对旅游景点所做的投资进行了研究，断定“印象”系列是赔钱的商业投资。“在业内压力下，旅游景点都想上‘印象’，却不去想是不是真的值得，”主管旅游的姜宗福写道。
The “Impression” creators and their representatives declined to respond to Mr. Jiang when his post first appeared.
姜宗福的帖子刚出现时，“印象”系列的创作人员及其代表拒绝回应。
This week, no one has answered the phone at the Beijing offices of China Impression Wonders Art Development, the company founded by Mr. Zhang and his associates that puts on the “Impression” shows.
本周，记者致电张艺谋与合作伙伴成立的观印象艺术发展有限公司位于北京的办公室，但电话无人接听。“印象”系列演出正是由该公司推出的。
The website of PTS Properties says 150 cities around the world were in “stiff competition” to have the first “Impression” show outside China. The directors chose Melaka after visiting it in 2012. The show would be the “first world-class international mega performance out of China, in Southeast Asia,” the site says, and it would “integrate Melaka’s glorious history and modern day culture with characteristic music, presenting a feast of light, shadows, dance, fine arts and melody with strong visual and acoustic impact.”
PTS发展有限公司的网站说，全世界150个城市为推出中国境外的首部“印象”系列演出展开了“激烈竞争”。导演在2012年亲自前往后选定了马六甲。该网站称，“在东南亚举办”的《印象马六甲》将是“这个世界级国际大型系列演出首次在中国以外与观众见面”，并表示演出将“用独特的音乐将马六甲辉煌的历史和现代文化融为一体，奉上一场有着强烈视听效果的光影、舞蹈、艺术和旋律盛宴”。
The description says the show would be performed on an “iconic theater built with a 360-revolving seat area for over 2,000 people. The only one in the region, the 70-minute show is expected to include a cast of 500 employees, inclusive of 200 performers, and is expected to attract 1.2 million new tourists.”
相关介绍称，演出场地将是一座“标志性的剧院，设有一个可360度旋转的座位区，可容纳2000多人。演出时长70分钟，将是本地区绝无仅有的，预计会吸引120万新增游客。演职人员预计达500人，其中包括200名演员”。
The man who lobbied hardest to bring “Impression” to Melaka was Boo Kuang Loon, the founder of PTS Properties. In a 2013 interview with StarBizWeek, a Malaysian magazine, Mr. Boo said that he had wanted to set up a musical fountain by the water in Melaka to increase tourism but that his consultants told him that would be difficult.
极力游说各方引入“印象”系列的人是PTS发展有限公司的创始人巫光伦(Boo Kuang Loon)。2013年接受马来西亚杂志《StarBizWeek》采访时，巫光伦说自己早前想在马六甲建一座临水音乐喷泉，以促进旅游业，但顾问告诉他这件事不容易。
“My architect reminded me about ‘Impression,’ and I thought that Malaysia was ready for this,” he said. “I’ve watched a couple of the ‘Impression’ shows in China before, but I didn’t think I could be able to bring such a big-scale attraction to Malaysia then.”
“在建筑师的提醒下，我想到了‘印象’系列，我觉得马来西亚准备好了，”他说。“我以前在中国观看过几场‘印象’系列演出，但我那时以为没办法将这种大规模观光项目引入马来西亚。”
Mr. Boo met with the directors in July 2012, and the plans subsequently unfolded. He said that perhaps the directors were attracted to Melaka because of its historical ties with Zheng He, the mariner, and with dynastic China. The stage would be in the shape of a junk from Zheng He’s fleet, and there would be “Islamic elements as part of the backdrop, depicting Zheng He’s voyages and the Malacca sultanate,” Mr. Boo said.
2012年7月，巫光伦见到了导演，相关计划随后成型。他说，导演被马六甲所吸引或许是因为它与航海家郑和，以及古代中国的历史联系。巫光伦表示，舞台会采用郑和所率舰队中的帆船的形状，并且背景中还会包括“伊斯兰元素，以描述郑和的航行和马六甲苏丹王朝”。
The total investment in the production would be 250 million to 300 million Malaysian ringgit, or $75 million to $86 million, and it might take five to six years for the show to break even, Mr. Boo said.
巫光伦表示，演出的制作总投资将达2.5亿至3亿马来西亚林吉特（约合4.5亿至5.4亿元人民币），可能要用五六年时间才能收回成本。
Another Malaysian newspaper, The Sun, said in 2013 that the “Impression” show “is set to become one of the iconic tourist attractions for Visit Malaysia 2014.”
另一家马来西亚报纸《太阳报》(The Sun)在2013年表示，这部“印象”系列演出“将是2014马来西亚旅游年(Visit Malaysia 2014)的标志性旅游观光项目”。
