TED英语演讲：不能受限于听故事

本期TED演讲嘉宾Sisonke Msimang女士认为好的故事是必须的，但是它们并没有我们想象中那么神奇，相反，好的故事往往容易麻痹人们的思想，给人制造一种幻象，好像这个世界因为它们变得更好了，但真实的情况却不是我们想象中那样的。那么真相是什么呢?什么才能真正帮助我们让世界变得更好呢?让我们从她诙谐又深刻的演讲中找寻答案吧。下面是小编为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：不能受限于听故事，欢迎借鉴参考。

演说题目：不能受限于听故事，要看到故事的背后

演说者：Sisonke Msimang

So earlier this year, I was informed that Iwould be doing a TED Talk. So I was excited, then I panicked, then I wasexcited, then I panicked, and in between the excitement and the panicking, Istarted to do my research, and my research primarily consisted of Googling howto give a great TED Talk.

今年年初， 我被告知要发表一场 TED 的演说。一开始我很兴奋，然后变成紧张，然后又很兴奋，然后又很紧张， 就在兴奋与紧张之间， 我开始进行一些研究， 我的研究主要是用 Google 搜寻：如何发表一场完美的 TED 演说。

And interspersed with that, I was GooglingChimamanda Ngozi Adichie. How many of you know who that is?

在这个过程中，我也查询了奇玛曼达.恩格兹.阿迪契。有多少人知道她是谁吗?

So I was Googling her because I alwaysGoogle her because I'm just a fan, but also because she always has importantand interesting things to say. And the combination of those searches keptleading me to her talk on the dangers of a single story, on what happens whenwe have a solitary lens through which to understand certain groups of people,and it is the perfect talk. It's the talk that I would have given if I had beenfamous first.

我Google了她因为我经常Google 她，因为我是她的粉丝，而且因为她总是讲了 重要又有趣的事情。所有搜寻到的结果，总是把我引导到她的演讲，关于只听单一故事的危险性，关于当我们只用一种视角去观察某些特定群体的后果。这是一场完美的演讲。如果当初是我先成名的话，这就是我想进行的演讲。

You know, and you know, like, she's Africanand I'm African, and she's a feminist and I'm a feminist, and she's astoryteller and I'm a storyteller, so I really felt like it's my talk.

你知道，就像，她是非洲人，而我也是非洲人;她是女权主义者，而我也是女权主义者; 她讲故事，而我也讲故事;所以我真的认为那是我的演讲。

So I decided that I was going to learn howto code, and then I was going to hack the internet and I would take down allthe copies of that talk that existed, and then I would memorize it, and then Iwould come here and deliver it as if it was my own speech. So that plan wasgoing really well, except the coding part, and then one morning a few monthsago, I woke up to the news that the wife of a certain presidential candidatehad given a speech that --that sounded eerily like a speech given byone of my other faves, Michelle Obama.

所以我决定学习写程序，然后去入侵因特网，把所有这场演讲的影片全部删除，然后我会把演讲内容背熟，然后就把它当成自己的演讲说出来。整个计划进行得非常成功，除了写程序的部分之外;直到在几个月前的一个早上，当我醒来时，看到一则新闻当中，某位总统候选人的太太发表了一场演说──感觉很诡异，听起来像是另一个我喜欢的人在演讲，米歇尔.欧巴马。

And so I decided that I should probablywrite my own TED Talk, and so that is what I am here to do. I'm here to talkabout my own observations about storytelling. I want to talk to you about thepower of stories, of course, but I also want to talk about their limitations,particularly for those of us who are interested in social justice.

于是我决定应该写一篇自己的 TED 演讲稿，这就是我现在要做的。我要说的是自己对于「说故事」的观察。当然，我会告诉你故事的力量，但是我也想谈它的局限性， 特别是对于我们之中，某些关注社会正义的人。

So since Adichie gave that talk seven yearsago, there has been a boom in storytelling. Stories are everywhere, and ifthere was a danger in the telling of one tired old tale, then I think there hasgot to be lots to celebrate about the flourishing of so many stories and somany voices. Stories are the antidote to bias. In fact, today, if you aremiddle class and connected via the internet, you can download stories at thetouch of a button or the swipe of a screen.

自从七年前阿迪契的演讲之后，说故事形成一股风潮。到处都是故事，虽然这可能是老生常谈，但我还是认为能有这么多的故事，能有这么多的声音出现，是很值得庆祝的事。故事是偏见的解药。实际上，如今，如果你属于中产阶级，而且能连上因特网，你可以下载很多故事，只需要按下鼠标按钮，或是滑动触控屏幕。

You can listen to a podcast aboutwhat it's like to grow up Dalit in Kolkata. You can hear an indigenous man inAustralia talk about the trials and triumphs of raising his children in dignityand in pride. Stories make us fall in love. They heal rifts and they bridgedivides. Stories can even make it easier for us to talk about the deaths ofpeople in our societies who don't matter, because they make us care. Right?

你可以藉由收听 Podcast， 了解加尔各答地区的 贱民阶层如何生活。 你可以听到澳洲的原住民谈论关于教育出端庄、 具有自尊的孩子， 所需要进行的尝试与成功经验。 故事让我们相爱。 故事能治愈裂痕，弭平分歧。 故事甚至能让我们更容易 谈论社会上某些市井小民的死亡，因为故事让我们关注这些事。 对吗?

I'm not so sure, and I actually work for aplace called the Centre for Stories. And my job is to help to tell stories thatchallenge mainstream narratives about what it means to be black or a Muslim ora refugee or any of those other categories that we talk about all the time.

我不是很确定， 事实上我在一个叫「故事中心」的地方工作。我的工作是帮助人们 说出一些挑战主流论述的故事，例如我们经常讨论的议题：身为黑人，穆斯林，难民 以及其他族群，背后所代表的含意。

But I come to this work after a long history as a s

ocial justice activist, and soI'm really interested in the ways that people talk about nonfictionstorytelling as though it's about more than entertainment, as though it's aboutbeing a catalyst for social action. It's not uncommon to hear people say thatstories make the world a better place. Increasingly, though, I worry that eventhe most poignant stories, particularly the stories about people who no oneseems to care about, can often get in the way of action towards social , this is not because storytellers mean any harm.

但是我接手这份工作，是在我长期从事社会正义行动之后，而且让我非常感兴趣的，是人们在谈论「纪实故事」时所持的态度和方式，认为它不只是娱乐， 认为它是社会行动的催化剂。 我们常听到人们说：故事能让世界更美好。不过我开始担心： 即使是最让人感动的故事， 特别是那些市井小民的故事，也经常会妨碍到社会正义的进行。 这不是因为说故事的人故意要造成伤害。

Quite the contrary. Storytellersare often do-gooders like me and, I suspect, yourselves. And the audiences ofstorytellers are often deeply compassionate and empathetic people. Still, goodintentions can have unintended consequences, and so I want to propose thatstories are not as magical as they seem. So three -- because it's always got tobe three -- three reasons why I think that stories don't necessarily make theworld a better place.

恰恰相反， 说故事的人通常是想要做好事的人， 例如我，以及在座的你们。 而听故事的人 通常也是充满热情和同情心的人。但是，好的动机也会导致 意想不到的后果， 所以我想强调的是， 说故事并不像看起来那么神奇。 有三个原因，总是要有三个── 我认为有三个原因，故事不一定会让世界变得更好。

Firstly, stories can create an illusion ofsolidarity. There is nothing like that feel-good factor you get from listeningto a fantastic story where you feel like you climbed that mountain, right, orthat you befriended that death row inmate. But you didn't. You haven't doneanything. Listening is an important but insufficient step towards socialaction.

首先，故事能产生一种 「共同一致」的幻觉。 没有其他东西能够像 听了奇幻故事一样， 能带给你更好的感觉了; 就彷佛是你自己征服了那座山，是的。或者是你和一位死刑犯成为朋友。 但是你并没有真的去做。 你没有完成任何事。 倾听故事是很重要的一步， 但对于社会行动来说，仍然不足够。

Secondly, I think often we are drawntowards characters and protagonists who are likable and human. And this makessense, of course, right? Because if you like someone, then you care about the inverse is also true. If you don't like someone, then you don't careabout them. And if you don't care about them, you don't have to see yourself ashaving a moral obligation to think about the circumstances that shaped theirlives.

第二，我认为人们经常会被 那些令人喜爱、具有人性化的 角色和主人公所吸引。 而且这也符合常理，是不是? 因为如果你喜欢他们，你自然就会关心他们。但反之亦然。如果你不喜欢他们，你自然也不会关心他们。如果你不关心他们，你自然也不会认为 自己负有道义责任，去思考那些人周遭的生活环境。

I learned this lesson when I was 14 yearsold. I learned that actually, you don't have to like someone to recognize theirwisdom, and you certainly don't have to like someone to take a stand by theirside. So my bike was stolen while I was riding it --which is possible if you're riding slowlyenough, which I was.

我在 14 岁时学到了这一点。我学到的是，实际上你不一定要喜欢某个人，才能认可他的智慧; 而且你也不需要喜欢某个人，才能和他站在同一阵线。我的脚踏车被偷了， 在我骑着它的的时候──这是可能的，如果你骑得够慢， 我当时就是这样。

So one minute I'm cutting across this fieldin the Nairobi neighborhood where I grew up, and it's like a very bumpy path,and so when you're riding a bike, you don't want to be like, you know --

就在我正要穿过一片田地的时候， 就在内罗毕附近，我生长的地方， 因为路非常崎岖不平， 所以当你骑车时， 你不会想要......你知道的──

And so I'm going like this, slowlypedaling, and all of a sudden, I'm on the floor. I'm on the ground, and I lookup, and there's this kid peddling away in the getaway vehicle, which is mybike, and he's about 11 or 12 years old, and I'm on the floor, and I'm cryingbecause I saved a lot of money for that bike, and I'm crying and I stand up andI start screaming. Instinct steps in, and I start screaming, "Mwizi,mwizi!" which means "thief" in Swahili. And out of thewoodworks, all of these people come out and they start to give chase. This isAfrica, so mob justice in action. Right?

所以我就骑得很慢。 突然间，我摔倒在地上。 当我躺在地上时，抬头一看， 有个小孩正骑着车逃跑， 他骑着我的脚踏车。 他大概 11 或 12 岁， 我还倒在地上， 然后我大哭，因为我存了很久的钱 才买了这辆脚踏车，于是我一边哭，一边站起来大喊。 出于本能，我开始大喊： "Mwizi, mwizi! " 这在斯瓦希里语中代表「小偷」的意思。 这时候许多人从伐木场跑出来， 他们开始追赶。 这是在非洲，当时暴民政治 正在兴起。是吧?

And I round the corner, and they'vecaptured him, they've caught him. The suspect has been apprehended, and theymake him give me my bike back, and they also make him apologize. Again, youknow, typical African justice, right? And so they make him say sorry. And so westand there facing each other, and he looks at me, and he says sorry, but helooks at me with this unbridled fury. He is very, very angry. And it is thefirst time that I have been confronted with someone who doesn't like me simplybecause of what I represent. He looks at me with this look as if to say,"You, with your shiny skin and your bike, you're angry at me?"

当我走到转角时， 他们已经抓住了小偷。他们已经抓住了他。 嫌犯已被逮捕， 他们要他把脚踏车还给我， 而且他们还要他道歉。 你知道，这是典型的非洲正义，是吧? 所以他们要他说：对不起。 我们当时就面对面站着，他看着我，说了对不起。 但是他用非常愤怒的表情看着我， 他非常，非常生气。 这是我第一次直接面对着， 一个只是因为我的身份 而不喜欢我的人。 他带着那种神情看着我，彷佛在说：「你，你有光滑的皮肤， 还有一辆脚踏车，你对我生气?」

So it was a hard lesson that he didn't likeme, but you know what, he was right. I was a middle-class kid living in a poorcountry. I had a bike, and he barely had food. Sometimes, it's the messagesthat we don't want to hear, the ones that make us want to crawl out ofourselves, that we need to hear the most.

我知道他不喜欢我，这的确不好受， 但是你知道吗，他这样想是正常的。 在这个贫穷的国家， 我是一个生长在中产阶层的小孩。 我拥有一辆脚踏车，而他几乎连食物都没有。 有时候，有些讯息是我们不想听的; 但是那些让我们坐立难安的讯息， 却正是我们最需要听的。

For every lovable storyteller whosteals your heart, there are hundreds more whose voices are slurred and ragged,who don't get to stand up on a stage dressed in fine clothes like this. Thereare a million angry-boy-on-a-bike stories and we can't afford to ignore themsimply because we don't like their protagonists or because that's not the kidthat we would bring home with us from the orphanage.

在每一位我们所喜爱的故事演说者背后，有成百上千个被忽略、疲惫不堪的声音， 他们没有机会穿上这么好的衣服，站在这个讲台上。有数百万则像是脚踏车上生气男孩的故事，我们不应该忽视他们，只是因为我们不喜欢那些故事里的主角，或者只是因为，他不是我们在孤儿院 想领养的那个小孩。

The third reason that I think that storiesdon't necessarily make the world a better place is that too often we are soinvested in the personal narrative that we forget to look at the biggerpicture. And so we applaud someone when they tell us about their feelings ofshame, but we don't necessarily link that to oppression. We nod understandinglywhen someone says they felt small, but we don't link that to discrimination.

而第三个原因， 我认为故事不一定能让世界更美好， 是因为我们经常 过于投入在个人叙事中， 而让我们忘记去综观全局。 当某些人告诉我们他们感觉到羞辱时， 我们会为他们鼓掌， 但这时我们不一定会联想到压迫。 当有人说他们觉得自己渺小， 我们会理解地点点头， 但是我们不会联想到这是歧视。

The most important stories, especially for social justice, are those that doboth, that are both personal and allow us to explore and understand thepolitical.

那些最重要的故事，特别是有关社会正义的， 是那些能够兼顾两方面的故事， 不仅能让我们心有所感， 又能让我们去探究和理解它背后的政治。

But it's not just about the stories we likeversus the stories we choose to ignore. Increasingly, we are living in asociety where there are larger forces at play, where stories are actually formany people beginning to replace the news. Yeah? We live in a time where we arewitnessing the decline of facts, when emotions rule and analysis, it's kind of boring, right?

但这不仅仅是关于我们所喜欢的故事，以及我们所选择忽视的故事两者间的比较。 逐渐的，我们生活的社会里出现了一股愈来愈大的力量。事实上，许多人开始用故事来取代新闻。没错吧? 我们所处的时代，正在见证着：事实开始不被重视， 情感开始主导一切，而理性的分析，令人感觉枯燥，对吧?

Where we value what we feel more than what we actually know. Arecent report by the Pew Center on trends in America indicates that only 10percent of young adults under the age of 30 "place a lot of trust in themedia." Now, this is significant. It means that storytellers are gainingtrust at precisely the same moment that many in the media are losing theconfidence in the public. This is not a good thing, because while stories areimportant and they help us to have insights in many ways, we need the media.

我们重视自己的感觉远胜过我们实际知道的真相。探讨美国趋势的皮尤研究中心 最近有一份报告，显示在 30 岁以下的年轻人当中，只有 10% 的人 「非常信任传播媒体」。这是很重要的警讯。这意味着，在讲述故事的人赢得信任的同时，传播媒体正在失去大众的信心。这不是件好事。因为故事虽然很重要，它能帮助我们在很多方面获得领悟，但是我们仍然需要传播媒体。

From my years as a social justice activist, I know very well that we needcredible facts from media institutions combined with the powerful voices ofstorytellers. That's what pushes the needle forward in terms of social justice.

在我从事社会正义行动的时期，我很清楚的知道，我们需要结合传媒机构提供的可靠事实，以及讲述故事者，强而有力的声音。这才能推动社会正义的前进。

In the final analysis, of course, it isjustice that makes the world a better place, not stories. Right? And so if itis justice that we are after, then I think we mustn't focus on the media or onstorytellers. We must focus on audiences, on anyone who has ever turned on aradio or listened to a podcast, and that means all of us.

最后的分析，当然，只有正义 才能让这个世界更美好。而不是故事本身，对吧? 所以说如果我们追求的是正义，我认为我们不应该聚焦在媒体或是讲故事的人身上。 我们必须关注听众，关注那些打开收音机或收听 podcast 的人，这就意味着我们每一个人。

So a few concluding thoughts on whataudiences can do to make the world a better place. So firstly, the world wouldbe a better place, I think, if audiences were more curious and more skepticaland asked more questions about the social context that created those storiesthat they love so much. Secondly, the world would be a better place ifaudiences recognized that storytelling is intellectual work.

最后我有一些想法， 关于听众能做些什么， 让这个世界更美好。 首先，我认为这个世界会变得更好， 如果听众能够更加好奇、更加质疑，并且对于他们喜爱的故事 背后的社会脉络， 提出更多问题。 其次，这个世界会更加美好， 如果大家能意识到 说故事是耗费脑力的工作。

And I think itwould be important for audiences to demand more buttons on their favoritewebsites, buttons for example that say, "If you liked this story, clickhere to support a cause your storyteller believes in." Or "click hereto contribute to your storyteller's next big idea." Often, we arecommitted to the platforms, but not necessarily to the storytellers then lastly, I think that audiences can make the world a better place byswitching off their phones, by stepping away from their screens and steppingout into the real world beyond what feels safe.

另外我认为有件事对听众来说是非常重要的，就是要求他们喜爱的网站增加更多的按钮，比如说，像这样的一个按钮：「如果你喜欢这个故事，请点击这里，支持讲故事那人所捍卫的信念。」 或者是「点击这里 来捐赠她下一个大理念」。我们一般总是忠于某个网络平台，而不是在故事人的本身。最后，我想大家可以让世界更美好， 我们可以关掉手机，远离各种电子屏幕，走进这个真实，但感觉不太安全的世界。

Alice Walker has said, "Look closelyat the present you are constructing. It should look like the future you aredreaming." Storytellers can help us to dream, but it's up to all of us tohave a plan for justice.

艾丽斯.华克曾经说过，「仔细看着你正在建造的当下，那应该是你梦想中的未来。」 讲故事的人能帮助我们去梦想， 但是最终还是要靠我们自己为正义制定计划，采取行动。

Thank you.(Applause)

谢谢大家。(掌声)