低俗小说 马来西亚年轻人的阅读新宠

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — When Anis Suhailawants a cheap thrill, she turns to Instagram andTwitter to learn about the latest Malaysian paperbackreleases. But she does not buy them in ordinarybookstores here, some of which do not carry thetitles she is most interested in.

马来西亚，吉隆坡——阿妮丝·苏海拉(Anis Suhaila)如果想来点廉价的刺激，就会到Instagram和Twitter上去了解点马来西亚平装书最新的出版情况，但她不会到普通的书店去买书，有些书店里根本没有她最感兴趣的书。

Instead, she usually heads to one of the “pop upbook markets that appear occasionally, almost randomly, on the streets in Kuala Lumpur tofind what she is looking for: risqué tales of crime, horror and gritty young love that are writtenin Malay and aimed at young Muslim Malaysians.

她一般都到“快闪书市去买书，它们不时出现在吉隆坡街头，几乎没有规律可循。她要找的则是那些近乎淫秽的犯罪、恐怖小说，以及内容露骨的青春恋爱故事，这些书都是用马来西亚语写的，专门针对年轻的马来西亚穆斯林读者。

The writing can be patchy, but it is fresh and edgy, said Ms. Anis, 24, a manager at aneducation company, adding that the stories sometimes touch on “something that is relevantto Malaysia’s political scene. She devours four books a month, she said, the most recent a taleof a boy who can see ghosts.

24岁的阿妮丝是一家教育公司的经理，她说，这些小说可能是东拼西凑的，但是内容清新尖锐，故事有时候会涉及和马来西亚政界“相关的内容。这样的书她一个月能狼吞虎咽看完四本，最新看完的一本讲的是一个能看见鬼魂的男孩。

This new-style pulp fiction, much of it by first-time authors who got their start blogging, is theproduct of an independent, irreverent publishing industry that has sprung up over the pastfour years and has tapped into a desire for escapism among younger Malaysians as theircountry has become more socially conservative.

这种新形式的低级小说大都是由写博客出身的新手作家创作，过去四年来，不惧权威的独立出版业繁荣发展，它利用马来西亚青年人对日趋保守的社会的逃避心理，推出了这些小说。

In recent years, Malaysia’s laid-back style of Islam has taken on more Arab overtones. And thegovernment, controlled by the same coalition since the nation’s independence from Britain in1957, has reacted to a fledging political opposition by tightening restrictions on everythingfrom academic freedom to personal liberties.

近年来，马来西亚无为而治的穆斯林风格开始日益接受阿拉伯世界的暗示。自1957年从英国独立以来，马来西亚政府一直由同一个政治派别控制，为了遏制羽翼未丰的反对派，它开始收紧对社会方方面面的控制，从学术自由到个人自由。

Young people are told how to behave not only by their teachers and parents but also,increasingly, by the government and religious authorities. Recent decrees have includedprohibitions on yoga, the celebration of Halloween and smoking shisha, or water pipes.Newspapers and television shows are routinely censored, and in February, both the film and thenovel “Fifty Shades of Grey were banned, even though the book had been sold openly forthree years.

不仅是老师和家长们谆谆告诫年轻人应该怎样做，政府和宗教权威也愈来愈多地教诲他们。最近政府颁布法令，禁止练瑜伽、庆祝万圣节和抽水烟袋。报纸和电视节目经常遭到审查，二月，《五十度灰》(Fifty Shadesof Grey)的小说和电影都被禁了，此前三年里这本书一直都在公开发售。

In Malaysia, writers and readers “don’t have much freedom, but on print, in a book, they canbasically go naked, said Wani Ardy, 31, the proprietor of a pop-up book market where Ms. Aniswas browsing one recent Saturday afternoon under a sweltering tent.

在马来西亚，作家和读者们“没有多少自由，但在书里，他们基本上可以赤裸示人，31岁的快闪书市经营者瓦尼·阿尔迪(Wani Ardy)说，他的书摊用帐篷遮着，非常闷热，最近的一个星期六下午，阿妮丝也曾经去过那里。

Ms. Wani, who also teaches creative writing at a university, set up her first pop-up bookmarket in 2011, just as independent publishing was taking off. She named it Boco, theJavanese word for “read. On this Saturday, about 200 people — young women in head scarvesand young men in tight jeans — were milling around some 40 stalls set up in Kuala Lumpur’sold colonial quarter. As vendors hawked grilled chicken and cold drinks, two young women tookto the stage to recite angst-ridden poetry to the chords of an acoustic guitar. Other stallsdealt in secondhand clothes and comic books, but the main attraction was paperbacks.

瓦尼也在大学里教授创意写作，2011年，她第一次开了一处快闪书市，当时马来西亚的独立出版业刚刚起步。她给书市起名“Boco，这是爪哇语的“阅读的意思。这个星期六，大约有200人来到这个开设在吉隆坡老殖民区的书市，绕着四十多个摊位打转，大都是戴头巾的年轻女人和穿紧身牛仔裤的年轻男人。小贩们到处兜售烤鸡和冷饮，两个年轻女人在舞台上弹着木吉他，朗诵充满焦虑的诗歌。有些摊位卖旧衣服和漫画，但最主要的还是平装书。

More than 10 Malay-language publishers have burst onto the scene in the past four years.Most of them produce pulp fiction, but some specialize in social criticism and poetry. Theyhave churned out hundreds of titles and estimate that they have sold more than a million booksthrough pop-up stalls, online vendors and some traditional bookstores.

过去四年间涌现了十几个马来西亚语独立出版社，造成了这一盛况。大多数出版社都出品低级小说，也有些专攻社会批评领域与诗歌。它们推出了几百本书，通过快闪书摊、网店和若干传统书店，卖出了一百万多册。

The books can be riddled with typos, but they have slick covers, and some young Malaysiansregard them as cool fashion accessories. Unlike traditional pulp fiction in Malaysia, mostlysoppy romance novels, the new works are written in the street slang favored by the young andoften feature story lines that flirt with taboo topics such as sexual promiscuity andcommunism.

书中可能充满印刷错误，但总有漂亮的封面，有些马来西亚年轻人把它们当做很酷的配饰。马来西亚传统的低级小说大都是多愁善感的爱情小说，这些新的作品却有所不同，它们用年轻人喜欢的街头俗语写成，故事通常会挑战禁忌题材，比如滥交和共产主义。

“Newspapers are subject to censorship and things like libel law, whereas with fiction, you canthen create scenarios people kind of recognize, said Amir Muhammad, 42, who started one ofthe country’s biggest independent publishing companies, Buku Fixi, four years ago and hasproduced more than 100 titles.

“报纸经常遭到审查，受到诽谤法之类东西的影响，但在小说里，你可以创造出人们能辨认出来的情景，42岁的阿米尔·穆罕默德(Amir Muhammad)说，四年前，他创建了全国最大的独立出版公司之一Buku Fixi，已经出版了100多本书。

Before publishing, Mr. Amir made films, including two documentaries about Malaysia’s decades-long struggle with a communist insurgency until the late 1980s. The first film, in 2006, wasbanned without explanation; the second, a year later, was banned because it portrayed thegovernment in a bad light, according to Mr. Amir.

涉足出版业之前，阿米尔是拍电影的，曾经拍摄过两部反映马来西亚与共产主义暴动组织斗争的纪录片，这场斗争持续几十年，直到80年代末才告终。第一部影片在2006年遭禁，并且没有给出任何解释。一年后，第二部影片也被禁止放映，阿米尔说，因为它呈现了政府的负面形象。

When he started publishing, Mr. Amir said, “bookshops told me Malays only read romance,religion and cooking. I thought, ‘There’s got to be more to life than that.’ His two best sellershave been “Kelabu, a racy love story in which a girl hires a fake boyfriend to make her real onejealous, and “Asrama, a horror story set in a girls’ school.

阿米尔说，自己刚开始从事出版业时，“书店老板告诉我，马来西亚人只读爱情小说、宗教书和烹饪书。我想，‘生活中还应该有其他东西。’他最畅销的两本书一本是《克拉布》(Kelabu)，这是一本情色爱情小说，讲述一个女孩雇来假男友，好让她真正的男朋友妒忌，另一本名叫《阿斯拉玛》(Asrama)，讲述发生在女子学校里的恐怖故事。

A rival publisher, Lejen Press, has had one of the biggest hits so far, a novel called “AwekChuck Taylor. Written in a combination of street slang and text messages, it has sold about40,000 copies, making it a superstar of independent publishing here.

阿米尔的竞争对手，勒耶出版社(Lejen Press)推出过迄今最畅销的书籍之一——《穿查克·泰勒的阿维克》(Awek Chuck Taylor)。它结合了街头俗语和手机信息语言，卖出了四万册，成为独立出版界的超级巨星。

The narrator, Hafiz, is a Malay slacker, a college dropout who is usually broke, is often profaneand recounts his adventures chasing multiple girls at the same time. “Awek is slang for girl,and Chuck Taylor refers to the Converse sneakers worn by a character who declares herself anagnostic and a fan of books on communism and anarchy.

小说的叙事者哈菲兹(Hafiz)是马来西亚人，一个懒家伙，从大学退了学，手头总是没钱，不怎么虔诚，在故事中讲述自己同时追求一堆女孩的冒险故事。“阿维克是“女孩的俗语，“查克·泰勒是指书中一个女孩穿的匡威鞋，她说自己是个不可知论者，喜欢共产主义和无政府主义的书。

The novel does not explore such concepts in any depth. But openly talking of abandoningIslam in Malaysia could lead the religious authorities to impose a stint of rehabilitation.

这本小说没有探讨什么深刻的观念，但在马来西亚，公开谈及放弃伊斯兰教信仰可能会引起宗教权威施加的一些惩戒。

The author of “Awek Chuck Taylor, Nomy Nozwir, 31, who writes as Nami Cob Nobbler, said itwas based loosely on his own life. “There are people who tell me off, he said in a phoneinterview. “They say my writing is too vulgar. But the fact is, I am not hiding anything.

《穿查克·泰勒的阿维克》的作者诺米·诺兹沃(Nomy Nozwir)31岁，笔名纳米·科布·诺布勒(Nami CobNobbler)，他说小说是粗略地根据他的生活写成的。“有人谴责我，他在接受电话采访时说，“他们说我写的写作太粗俗。但我只是没有遮遮掩掩而已。

Though some officials have voiced concerns that this tide of cheap fiction will have an adverseeffect on Malay grammar, the government appears to be paying little attention.

尽管有些官员对这股廉价小说的风潮表示关切，觉得它们可能对马来西亚语文有不良影响，但总的来说，政府似乎并没怎么注意它们。

Last year, Lejen became the first of the independent publishers to open a brick-and-mortaroutlet: a shop in a Kuala Lumpur suburb that hosts readings and book releases, often with livebands, and sells T-shirts emblazoned with its logo.

去年，勒耶成了第一家开办实体店的独立出版社，店面位于吉隆坡郊区，主办阅读与图书发行活动，常常邀请乐队现场表演，还发售带有出版社标识的T恤。

Aisamuddin Asri, a former semiconductor engineer who founded Lejen, said officers from theHome Ministry had come by several times, following up on public complaints. But they leftwithout taking any action.

勒耶的创建者阿萨马丁·阿斯里(Aisamuddin Asri)之前是半导体工程师，他说在一些公开投诉之后，内务部的官员来过几次，但他们没有采取任何行动就离开了。

Mr. Amir, the former filmmaker, who just opened his own physical store, quipped of theauthorities, “Let’s hope they continue not to read.

拍过电影的阿米尔也刚刚开了自己的实体店，他用俏皮话嘲弄官方：“希望他们今后也像以前一样，从来不读书。