The Danger of a Single Story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TED

And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call "the danger危險 of the single story."

我想和大家分享幾個關於“單一故事的危險性”的個人故事。

I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria.

我在奈及利亞東部的一個大學校園裡長大。

My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth.

母親說我兩歲就開始讀書，不過我覺得四歲左右可能更接近事實。

So I was an early reader, and what I read were British and American children's books.

所以我是個早慧的讀者，讀的都是英美兒童讀物。

I was also an early writer, and when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated有義務的/被迫的 to read,

我也是個早慧的寫作者，大約七歲時開始用鉛筆寫作，配上蠟筆插圖，可憐的母親不得不讀這些作品。

I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, (Laughter) and they talked a lot about

我寫的正是我讀的那種故事：所有角色都是白人、藍眼睛，他們在雪地裡玩耍，吃蘋果（笑聲），還大談特談……

the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out.

……天氣，感嘆太陽出來是多麼美好。

(Laughter) Now, this despite儘管 the fact that I lived in Nigeria.

然而，這發生在我住在奈及利亞的事實面前。

I had never been outside Nigeria.

我從未離開過奈及利亞。

We didn't have snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to.

我們沒有雪，我們吃芒果，也從不談論天氣，因為根本沒有必要。

My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer, because the characters in the British books I read drank ginger beer.

我的角色也喝很多薑汁汽水，因為我讀的英國書裡的角色都喝薑汁汽水。

Never mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was.

別管我當時根本不知道薑汁汽水是什麼了。

(Laughter) And for many years afterwards, I would have a desperate絕望的 desire to taste ginger beer.

在那之後的許多年裡，我都極度渴望嘗一口薑汁汽水。

But that is another story.

那是另一個故事了。

What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable易受影響的 and vulnerable脆弱的 we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.

我認為，這證明了我們在面對故事時是多麼容易受影響和脆弱，尤其是作為孩子的時候。

Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced說服 that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be

因為我只讀過角色是外國人的書，我便深信書籍本質上必須包含外國人，且必須講述我無法產生共鳴的事物。

about things with which I could not personally identify認出.

……與個人經歷無法產生共鳴的事物。

Now, things changed when I discovered African books.

後來，當我發現了非洲的書籍時，情況發生了變化。

There weren't many of them available, and they weren't quite as easy to find as the foreign books.

這些書的數量不多，而且不像外國書籍那麼容易找到。

But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, I went through a mental shift in my perception感知 of literature.

但得益於欽努阿·阿契貝和卡馬拉·萊耶等作家，我對文學的認知發生了轉變。

I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist存在 in literature.

我意識到，像我這樣的人——皮膚像巧克力般的女孩，捲髮扎不成馬尾辮——也能存在於文學作品中。

I started to write about things I recognized.

我開始描寫我熟悉的事物。

Now, I loved those American and British books I read.

當然，我依然喜愛那些我曾讀過的英美書籍。

They stirred攪拌 my imagination.

它們激發了我的想象力。

They opened up new worlds for me.

它們為我開啟了全新的世界。

But the unintended非故意的 consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature.

但意想不到的後果是，我並不知道像我們這樣的人在文學作品中竟然存在。

So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are.

因此，發現非洲作家對我而言意味著：它讓我免於只有一種關於書籍的單一故事。

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family.

我來自一個傳統的奈及利亞中產階級家庭。

My father was a professor.

我的父親是一位教授。