Nanjing is hotting up, diners are flocking outside, the makeshift tables have been set up and the cases of beer have been chilled. The crayfish bonanza has begun. Yet, that which is now virtually a national obsession in fact originates here in Nanjing, from one of the darkest periods in the city’s history.
南京正在升温，食客蜂拥而至，临时餐桌已布置，啤酒盒已冷藏。 小龙虾的盛会已经开始了。 然而，现在几乎是民族痴迷的东西实际上起源于南京，是城市歷史上最黑暗的時期之一。
The crayfish in which so many delight is a close cousin to that famed in Louisiana, USA. Imported to Japan to use as feed for the South American bullfrog, the Japanese so too delighted in the crayfish for being low in fat, high in protein and easy to raise.
如此多的小龙虾与美国路易斯安那州著名的小龙虾是近亲。 进口到日本作为南美牛蛙的饲料，日本人对小龙虾太高兴了，因为小龙虾脂肪低，蛋白质高，易于饲养。
With the defeat of Japan in World War II, so the Japanese soldiers, and many civilians, departed Nanjing. Among the many logistical difficulties, what to do with all the crayfish which many Japanese liked to keep as pets?
随着日本在第二次世界大战中战败，日本士兵和许多平民离开了南京。在诸多后勤困难中，许多日本人喜欢饲养的小龙虾该如何处理？
No right-minded, crayfish-loving Japanese was about to leave their pet to starve. So instead, they plonked them into a lake near Nanjing’s former military airfield (then also the city’s civilian airport) close to Nanjing South Railway Station, where they could feed on both the living and dead organic matter therein.
没有哪个心智正常、热爱小龙虾的日本人会让他们的宠物挨饿。因此，他们将它们扔进了南京南站附近前南京军用机场（当时也是该市民用机场）附近的一个湖中，在那里它们可以以其中的活有机物和死有机物为食。
Here they also multiplied. Fast forward to the 1980s; with living standards improving and people’s diets becoming more varied, so a multitude of crustaceans found their way to the dinner table. As the memory of the Nanjing Massacre was only half a century distant, the crayfish was not one of them.
他们也在这里繁衍。快进到 20 世纪 80 年代；随着生活水平的提高，人们的饮食更加多样化，大量的甲壳类动物进入了餐桌。由于南京大屠杀的记忆距今只有半个世纪，小龙虾并不是其中之一。
Yet the Chinese are not about to let anything go to waste, especially economic opportunity, and so it came to be that the enterprising people of Xuyi, in west Jiangsu, saw fit to spend the next few decades turning their city into a crayfish industrial base.
然而，中国人不会让任何东西被浪费掉，尤其是经济机会，因此，江苏西部徐义的进取心人认为，在接下来的几十年里，将他们的城市变成一个小龙虾的工业基地。
Overall, China is now the world’s biggest exporter of crayfish, while the Chinese themselves chomp their way through more than 90 per cent of global crayfish consumption, according to the South China Morning Post.
据《南华早报》报道，总体而言，中国现在是世界上最大的小龙虾出口国，而中国人自己却吞噬了全球90%以上的小龙虾消费。
This year, China will produce approximately 1 million tonnes of crayfish, meaning that the not altogether particularly attractive bottom feeder has become a monster of economic proportions. Last year, the city of Xuyi signed crayfish-related deals worth US$15 million. The less-than-humble beast has even become the city’s semi-official mascot.
今年，中国将生产约100万吨小龙虾，这意味着不完全有吸引力的底层食者已经成为经济规模的怪物。 去年，徐义市签署了价值1500万美元的小龙虾交易。 这只不谦卑的野兽甚至成为了这座城市的半官方吉祥物。
Cute to some, perhaps, but to others, a health hazard.
也許對某些人來說很可愛，但對其他人來說，這是一種健康危害。
In a 2016 report published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information and co-authored by Nanjing University’s School of Environment and the Nanjing State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, it was noted that, while mean metal concentrations in crayfish samples surveyed from 12 provinces in China conformed to national safety standards, there are dangers for those who consume crayfish en masse, specifically that, “carcinogenic effects due to the presence of As [Arsenic] was above the acceptable level”.
在国家生物技术信息中心发表的一份由南京大学环境学院和南京国家污染控制和资源再利用重点实验室共同撰写的2016年报告中指出，虽然从中国12个省份调查的小龙虾样本中的平均金属浓度符合国家安全标准，但那些大量食用小龙虾的人存在危险，特别是“As [砷]的存在导致的致癌作用高于可接受的水平”。
More graphically, almost a decade ago, in 2010, scores of people in Nanjing contracted Haff disease after eating crayfish. The unfortunate and thankfully rare muscular condition, also known as rhabdomyolysis, can lead to acute renal failure.
更生动地说，近十年前，即2010年，南京数十人在吃小龙虾后感染了哈夫病。 不幸且值得庆幸的罕见的肌肉疾病，也称为横纹肌溶解症，可能导致急性肾衰竭。
For readers who are new to the city and still not put off, The Nanjinger reminds to not buy dead crayfish, eat them raw or their heads. Can’t finish them all? Do ask for a doggy bag even with no intention of eating them later; unscrupulous restaurants are known to sell leftovers on as new.
对于刚到这个城市但仍然不退的读者来说，《南京人》提醒不要买死小龙虾，不要生吃它们或吃它们的头。 不能全部完成吗？ 即使以后不打算吃它们，也请要求一个狗袋；众所周知，肆无忌惮的餐厅会把剩饭剩菜当作新的东西出售。