“We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it” is one of my father’s favourite sayings. “Until the cows freeze over” is another.
“当我们到达那座桥时，我们会把它烧掉”是我父亲最喜欢的谚语之一。 “直到奶牛冻僵”是另一个。
A blended idiom or cliché is called a malaphor. The combination of two hitherto unrelated concepts makes us smile, and puzzle over how we come to know the things we know. One of the irrefutable ingredients in our weird and wonderful mental schemata is the society in which we live, and one of the most fabulous markers of society and culture is fashion. What we see literally becomes part of who we are. And the bridge-burning timeline is certainly relevant in the here and now.
混合成语或陈词滥调被称为malaphor。 两个与之为之不相关的概念的结合让我们微笑，并困惑于我们是如何了解我们所知道的事情的。 我们怪异而美妙的心理模式中无可辩驳的成分之一是我们所生活的社会，而社会和文化最美妙的标志之一就是时尚。 我们所看到的真的成为我们身份的一部分。 而桥梁燃烧的时间线当然与此地有关。
When I first moved to China in 2013, masks were another whimsical fashion afoot in Asia. They formed part of the initial reports back to friends and family back home. If the proclivity for our host country to sport facial wear to battle smog, SARS and other meddlesome biohazards wasn’t enough to shock Europe, there was always the then common slit-panted babies, outdoor pyjamas and the “passion killer” nylon ankle socks.
當我在2013年第一次搬到中国时，口罩是亚洲的另一种奇思妙想的时尚。 他们构成了给家乡朋友和家人的初步报告的一部分。 如果我们的东道国穿着面部服装来对抗烟雾、SARS和其他令人担忧的生物障碍的倾向不足以震惊欧洲，那么总是有当时常见的穿着开衩的婴儿、户外睡衣和“激情杀手”的尼龙踝袜。
“I’ve seen people out with camera lenses that would make Annie Liebovitz swoon. One guy threw himself down on his belly to take picture of the ninjas blowing bubbles from the double buggy last week. It was all I could do not to roll right over him”, I typed.
“我见过有人带着相机镜头，这会让Annie Liebovitz晕倒。 上周，一个人趴着拍了忍者们在双越野车上吹泡泡的照片。 我打字道：“我能做的就是不直接从他身上翻滚。”
Weeks later, the same picture showed up on a wall in Xinjiekou subway station. In Asia, everyone embraced their inner Annie. Amateur photography combined with agile gymnastics to capture lights and angles unseen to the Western eye. Snapping images was very à la mode. The pyjama-clad, slit-panted, slipper-footed photographic contortionists of yonder years, against grey skied backdrops and the masks where what most stuck with me. My children drew pictures of grey skies, green grass. Their eyebrows rose in puzzlement when I asked, “Why not paint the sky blue?”
几周后，同一幅画出现在新街口地铁站的墙上。 在亚洲，每个人都拥抱了他们内心的安妮。 业余摄影与敏捷体操相结合，捕捉西方人看不到的光线和角度。 捕捉图像非常时尚。 那些穿着睡衣、穿着开衩裤、穿着拖鞋脚的摄影师，在灰色的滑雪背景和面具上，最让我记忆犹新。 我的孩子们画了灰色的天空和绿草的画。 当我问：“为什么不把天空涂成蓝色？”时，他们的眉毛困惑地扬了起来。
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Thanks to the tremendous green push on the part of the government, blue skies have become a pleasant addition to daily life in Nanjing in recent years, and the influencers of the up and coming generation no longer sport their outdoor jim-jams, even in the midst of winter. Things change.
得益于政府对绿色的巨大推动，近年来，蓝天已成为南京日常生活的宜人补充，即使在隆冬，新一代的有影响力的人也不再穿着户外的jim-jams。 事情发生了变化。
Covid came. The mask literally disappeared from stores from one day to the next.
新冠病毒来了。 口罩从一天到下一天从商店里消失了。
Masks were the new black.
面具是新的黑色。
Hand washing, time spent in solitude and a deep examination of the ego ensued. Sanitisers followed the masks out the store doors. Mysteriously, in the West, toilet paper also vanished. In Asia, we were left scratching our… heads in wonder. These are the times we are living.
随之而来的是洗手，在孤独中度过的时间，以及对自我的深刻审视。 消毒剂沿着口罩走出了商店的大门。 神秘的是，在西方，卫生纸也消失了。 在亚洲，我们惊讶地……挠挠头。 这些是我们所生活的时代。
Indeed, I see it in my own life. Walking through the school foyer that fateful first Monday back, my limbs moved in an odd, triangular way. At first, I couldn’t quite place the discomfort, the tension tingling in my pores. It wasn’t until I sat down on my newly sterilised stool that it hit me like a ton of toilet rolls; the seams of my clothes were too close to my body. The mask on my face was stifling. My muffled outbursts of cognitive fairy dust reduced to “and that is why wemufhabaykoncheddar the importance of the shwafflehufflefrump essential…” We all know those eyes; the “Huh?” eyebrows. Someone said, “They should invent a mask with a clear window so we could see your lips”.
的确，我在自己的生活中看到了它。 走在那個命運的第一個星期一，我的四肢以奇怪的三角形方式移動著。 起初，我无法完全感受到这种不适，紧张感在我的毛孔中刺痛。 直到我坐在新消毒的凳子上，它才像一吨卫生纸一样击中我；我衣服的接缝离我的身体太近了。 我脸上的面具令人窒息。 我低沉的认知仙女尘埃的爆发变成了“这就是为什么wemufhabaykoncheddar shwafflehufflefrump essential的重要性……”我们都知道那双眼睛；“嗯？” 眉毛。 有人说：“他们应该发明一个带透明窗户的面具，这样我们就能看到你的嘴唇。”
“You should do it”, I replied, enunciating clearly and slowly. We slowed down. I pre-wrote class notes. We adapted and move forward.
“你应该这样做，”我回答道，清晰而缓慢地说。 我们放慢了速度。 我预先写了课堂笔记。 我们适应并向前迈进。
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In the case of the mask windows, someone has beaten us to the chase. Eric Kim, a student from Portland, Oregon, High School worked within the deaf community. He felt that communication without the facial cues and lip-reading aids would be unfathomable, and so he set to making face masks with a transparent window, using pipe cleaners, vinyl and regular face masks. He has shipped 17 so far and raised over US$2,400 on his GoFundme page which he will donate to the deaf community.
就面具窗而言，有人把我们赶到了正题。 Eric Kim是俄勒冈州波特兰高中的学生，在聋人社区工作。 他觉得没有面部提示和读唇辅助工具的交流是深不可测的，所以他开始使用管道清洁器、乙烯基和普通口罩制作带有透明窗户的口罩。 到目前为止，他已经发货了17次，并在他的GoFundme页面上筹集了2400多美元，他将捐给聋人社区。
Reading this heartened me. Even in the depths of uncertainty, of doubt, of apprehension, the human spirit still reaches out to help. Always look for the helpers, says Mr. Rogers.
读这个让我振了上心。 即使在不确定性、怀疑和忧虑的深处，人类精神仍然伸出援手。 Rogers先生说，总是寻找帮助者。
Parallel to the diverse reactions of the human species to Covid19, fashion too has evolved since January of this year. On a personal level, much the same as the seams of my work pants suggested themselves too strongly upon my soul that morning, so too did my shoes oppress, my shirt confine and my sensible socks constrict. Social isolation had stripped my wardrobe bare of buttons, zips, fastners and buckles. Denim was banished in the first wave, anything that needed a reading of the care label in the second. Soon, only the stretchy pants and fleecy pjs were to be found on the once vibrantly stuffed shelves. Hoodies, soft and thick hung where silks and linens used to sway.
在人类对新冠肺炎的不同反应的同时，自今年1月以来，时尚也发生了变化。 在个人层面上，就像那天早上我工作裤的接缝太强烈地暗示我的灵魂一样，我的鞋子压迫，我的衬衫限制，我理智的袜子收缩。 社交隔离让我的衣柜里脱光了纽扣、拉链、紧固件和扣子。 牛仔布在第一波被驱逐，任何需要在第二波阅读护理标签的东西。 很快，在曾经充满活力的架子上，只有弹力裤和羊毛睡衣。 连帽衫，柔软而厚实，挂在丝绸和亚麻布曾经摇摇的地方。
The skirts were culled. For the men, the most visible stamp of Covid has been the renunciation of hope for a professional hair trim and running the gauntlet with the home trimmers, or worse, at the hands of someone who had “done it loads of times before. Oooops”. If you want to enjoy gems such as “Just let my girlfriend attempt a skin fade and now I look like I’m about to nuke America”, you can check out delightful hashtags like #coronacuts, #don’tdothis, #bigmistake, #thehorror.
裙子被淘汰了。 对于男性来说，新冠病毒最明显的印记是放弃对专业理发的希望，用家庭修剪器跑手套，或者更糟的是，在“以前做过很多次”的人手中。 哎呀”。 如果你想享受“让我的女朋友尝试皮肤褪色，现在我看起来像要核美国”这样的宝石，你可以查看#coronacuts、#don’tdothis、#bigmistake、#thehorror等令人愉快的标签。
The flexibility, nay lithe glee, with which my wardrobe morphed into a leisure wear dystopia is similarly reflected across the world, now that lockdowns extend across Europe and The States. There is the horrendous issue of The Roots of Wrath; black and grey valleys running deep beneath rolling hills of blonde and russet browns. Scarves seem to be a way forward; simply bandage them around your head until you can feasibly claim that it’s a balayage. You could also just rock those roots like a total influencer and be the first to sport the new normal; The Way I Am. It may also help shift attention from the new Joe Exotic haircut your loved one is sporting. It may help with the seams.
现在封锁蔓延到欧洲和美国，我的衣柜变成了休闲服装反乌托邦的灵活性，这种灵活性，不，柔韧的欢乐也同样反映在世界各地。 有《愤怒之根》的可怕问题；黑色和灰色的山谷在金发和红褐色的连绵起伏的山丘下深处。 围巾似乎是前进的一条路；只需把它们包扎在你的头上，直到你可以合理地声称这是Balayage。 你也可以像一个完全有影响力的人一样摇滚那些根源，并成为第一个展示新常态的人；我的方式。 这也可能有助于将注意力从你所爱的人正在做的新Joe Exotic发型上转移。 它可能对接缝有帮助。
I love scarves. I love roots. The important thing is to reach out to someone else too, see who we can help. Maybe not making miniature miracles out of pipe cleaners, but there is always a way, if we look.
我喜欢围巾。 我爱根。 重要的是也联系其他人，看看我们能帮助谁。 也许不能用管道清洁器制造微型奇迹，但如果我们看的话，总有办法的。
Elizabeth Savetsky, an influencer who lives in New York has had to revamp her blog content to remain relevant during lockdown. To compensate for the lack of creativity social distancing has imposed on her blog, she’s begun to explore a deeper layer of herself, and share it with the world. Recently, she posted a video of herself singing, and old photos and snacks have started to appear in her blog posts reflect a going inwards and an acceptance of another side of an of an influencers life; the tie-died sweater and sweatpants-clad human in the cave, grazing on snacks. Rarely shared, it’s not hard to imagine how heartening it is for kids to see their idols living a pretty similar life to their own right now, fashion be damned.
居住在纽约的网红Elizabeth Savetsky不得不修改她的博客内容，以便在封锁期间保持相关性。 为了弥补社交距离对她的博客缺乏创造力，她开始探索自己更深层次，并与世界分享。 最近，她发布了一段自己唱歌的视频，她的博客帖子中开始出现旧照片和零食，反映了对影响者生活的另一面的内向和接受；穿着扎染毛衣和运动裤的人在洞穴里吃零食。 很少分享，不难想象看到孩子们的偶像现在过着与他们自己非常相似的生活是多么令人振奮，该死的时尚。
It’s not rocket surgery. Unprecedented times cause unprecedented change. Our armours fall away when we spend time sitting with them. It becomes harder, and in a sense, pointless to keep up old pretences. We can become more aware of our personal narratives, and the whims of fancy that dictate them.
这不是火箭手术。 前所未有的时代带来了前所未有的变化。 当我们和它们坐在一起时，我们的盔甲会掉下来。 保持旧的假象变得更加困难，而且从某种意义上说，是毫无意义的。 我们可以更加意识到我们的个人叙述，以及决定它们的奇思妙想。
We can relax, at last.
我们终于可以放松了。
Covid 19. Bringer of Roots, Cutter of Dodgy Skin-Fades, Seams Redeemer. We have made this can of worms, or bats, and now we must lie in it.
新冠肺炎。 根的带来者，狡猾的皮肤褪色的切割者，接缝救赎者。 我们制造了这罐虫子或蝙蝠，现在我们必须躺在里。
Covid is here. But we are still here too.
新冠病毒来了。 但我们仍然在这里。
