五城記：一個英國人的中國夢（簡體書）

凱瑞·布朗

1967年生於英國肯特郡，曾在劍橋大學接受教育，並在利茲大學攻讀博士學位。是英國著名的中國研究領域的教授，英國倫敦國王學院“劉氏中國研究院”主任，英國皇家國際事務研究所亞太項目副研究員。2012年至2015年，任悉尼大學中國政治學教授和中國研究中心主任，並主持“歐洲-中國研究與咨詢網絡”工作，向歐盟對外行動署提供政策建議。2006年至2012年，在位於倫敦的英國皇家國際事務研究所任高級研究員，亞洲項目負責人。1998年，加入英國外交與聯邦事務部，在北京任一等秘書，然後轉調至倫敦，任印度尼西亞及東帝汶事務科科長。曾著有二十本關於當代中國的著作。

作者凱瑞·布朗自1994年起，職業角色經歷了多重轉換，做過外交官、商人、咨詢專家，*終成為學者。他的絕大部分時間要麼是在中國度過的，要麼是在與中國的合作中和對中國的研究中度過的。與他人分享知曉中國的快樂，已經成為他職業生涯和個人生活的主要意義所在。

該作品是外國人寫作中國系列圖書，以外國學者們在中國生活的視角闡述他們的觀點和感悟。本系列叢書通過傳記的形式記敘了他們眼中生動、感人的中國故事，是跨文化領域的精彩圖書。 

NTRODUCTION /

CHAPTER ONE Hohhot /

CHAPTER TWO Beijing /

CHAPTER THREE Shanghai /

CHAPTER FOUR Xi’an /

CHAPTER FIVE Hong Kong /

LAST WORDS /

Empire of the Senses

In this book, I have decided to focus on something tangible,and very physical, as a way of telling my China story, but also illustrating this issue of diff erence, but how diff erences can aid the quest to make something more defined and knowable. Place is something that always fascinated, and continues to fascinate me, in my life in England. Th e relationship of particular places, for instance, to the lives of writers, something I mentioned at the start of this introduction, in Kent. The memory traces, as they are called, that are left after major events in places like fields where battles occurred, or buildings where major events happened, or cities or towns which testify to the many diff erent kinds of lives that have been lived there over the generations. Ancient places were of specific interest — fragments of old churches in the UK which went back to the earliest period when Christianity was being spread here, in the fifth and sixth century, or the faint traces of roads from the Roman period, which are often left in the landscape. Domestic buildings which, despite modernised facades facing the high streets, were clearly very ancient behind these, or woods which had iron age or other remains covered up by shrubs or trees, but still were just about visible.

Coming to a new city, right from when I was quite young, I would always try to get a map of it in my head.

This was helped in Britain, and Europe, by the simple fact that almost every place, however old or new, usually had a specific pattern — a church or churches, or a cathedral, somewhere near the centre, and then perhaps a city or town or village square, with businesses, restaurants, a pub, hotels, and, spanning out from this, parks, monuments, major streets, leading to other hubs and major features. Sometimes there were very visible public buildings — government offices, or institutions, or museums. At other times there were art galleries, or newly rebuilt areas where the feel and features of the buildings were wholly different. All of this helped

build up an idea of age, character, and contributed to the sense of place.

One of the great challenges in exploring places in China, as this book will illustrate, is that the lay out and geography, and the meaning of particular places, along with the best way to interpret these, is very

different. Contemporary China, the place I have been visiting and familiar with over the last quarter of a century, is somewhere that has undergone and continues to undergo immense physical transformation. Cities can change in the space of a few years, so they are often almost unrecognisable from the first time one visited. This only adds to the original problem — how someone from a different cultural background can start to‘read’ the terrain they are physically walking in when it itself is so changeable. Temples instead of churches is one of the easier issues to readapt to and be alert about. But the ways in which city space and town space is organised and managed, the functions of buildings, their style, the ways in which you can date them — all of this needs different kinds of knowledge.