“外來媳婦”戴安娜：一個書蟲

“外來媳婦”戴安娜：一個書蟲

lf you mention to a local Cantonese family about the TV drama “Guangdong Daughters-in-Law”, they will immediately think of the tall blond western woman called Diana. Yet what people know very little of is what the actress who plays her, Esther Haubensack is really like in person.

Crew of Guangdong Daughters-in-Law《外來媳婦本地郎》劇組。

Six years ago, when I fi rst started to work for a local TV channel as an editor, I was assigned to co-work with “Diana”, a cheerful American housewife on the screen, as people liked to call her.

My debut with her was a short programme introducing Cantonese food, and she was the host to try out the dishes. There was a heatwave that summer, and the working environment was bad enough. Esther however, sat quietly amid the hustle and bustle in the studio with what seemed to be an invisible air of peacefulness around her. She didn't interact with others when she was free, instead, she buried herself in her books.

I hate interrupting a person reading a book, but it was my job. When she listened to my instruction, she still looked pensive to me. I even began to worry if she was capable to deliver the“cheerfulness” needed for the show.

My doubt vanished as Esther's face brightened up the second the camera started rolling. Her eyes spar-kled and her voice was loud and clear. However boring the lines were, she read them with moving affec-tion. She became a totally different person to me. I was impressed.

When her piece to the camera had fi nished, the“inner fi re” was suddenly switched off. She returned to her own quiet world, and started to read a book about archaeology.

Over the next two years, I witnessed her going through books of a surprising diversity, from history to linguistics, culture to religion. In a typical Chinese working environment, it is considered essential to maintain a good relationship with one's colleagues. However, off i ce friendship did not seem to bother Esther too much.

“I don't really have many stories to entertain you guys,” she once said.

Seems to me, Esther is someone who values more of the spiritual world. Simply for this, she deserves my full respect.

lNTRODUCTlON

Esther Haubensack, German actress. She majored in sinology in Ludwig Maximilian University, Freistaat Bavaria, Germany. She started her further studies in Peking in 1992 and soon learned the northern traditional art - “crosstalk” from maestro Ding Guangquan.

Later, she decided to live in Canton, as she found learning Cantonese benef i cial for an even deeper un-derstanding of ancient Chinese. First Zhongshan, then Guangzhou, Esther fi nally ended up with the fa-mous TV drama.

Esther's background as a linguistics learner helps her to fully comprehend Chinese history, literature and culture. As the German saying goes, “übung macht Meister” – practice makes perfect.

埃斯特·豪本薩克，這位在80年代就讀于德國南部聯邦州巴伐利亞的漢學學生，在1992年踏上了中國的大地。她在北京繼續深造漢語，同時跟隨著名相聲大師丁廣泉學習京腔相聲。也許她注定跟南方結緣，不久后她來到中國南方——廣東，繼續自己的演藝事業，隨后更加在電視上讓廣東的觀眾們領略了“西關大屋飛入外來雁”說的一口洋人粵語。

埃斯特學習粵語的動機，在當年卻無比單純：她覺得粵語更加接近古漢語，古詩中的平仄更加能夠在粵語中領悟出來。為了能更好地讀歐陽修的著作，她決定投身粵語文化的世界中看個究竟。

從發音，到詞匯、語法和各種諺語，埃斯特就像一個機械修理師那樣解剖東亞的各種語言和方言。對于她來說，了解語言的內部結構和運作機理，是理解東亞各種文化的很好途徑。她對語言的執著程度，幾乎讓她成為了語言學的“機械師”。她就好像拿著高倍數放大鏡的鐘表師傅那樣，檢視著一門語言最細微部件的運作情況。在我看來，她的這種執著和嚴謹精神，是德意志偉大工匠精神的一種傳承。無論機械、哲學、光學、化工，還是音樂藝術，這個民族一直用這種精神，締造了各種近乎神話的成就。

正如德語諺語所言：übung macht Meister，“不斷鍛煉成就大師”，她的這種精神值得我們敬佩。

如果你跟一個廣東本地家庭說起《外來媳婦本地郎》，他們一定會對劇中“老四”的媳婦戴安娜印象深刻。這700多集的熱劇讓“戴安娜”成為了廣東街頭巷尾人盡皆知的人物。然而，這位充滿歡聲笑語的金發女郎實際上又是怎樣的一個“外來媳婦”呢？這篇文章將帶你走近熒幕背后的戴安娜。

6年前，我在廣州一個本地電視頻道當一個小小的編導，我的合作對象，就是那個在熒幕上人盡皆知的戴安娜。現實生活中，她來自德國南部巴伐利亞州，名叫埃斯特·豪本薩克（Esther Haubensack）。

在我的處女作中，戴安娜擔任嘗試一味廣州本地菜的出鏡主持。那是個炎熱的夏天，錄制環境非常惡劣。作為初出茅廬的畢業生，大家吵吵鬧鬧但也是各忙各的，唯有那個身材高大的“戴安娜”安靜地坐在角落，埋首書中。在她的身上，仿佛有一張與周遭環境隔絕的透明薄膜——任憑攝像和餐館的人多么吵鬧，她依然頭也不抬。

我反感打斷一個正在讀書的人，然而出于職業的需要卻不得不這樣做。我開始講解自己撰寫的臺詞，她則一臉茫然地看著我寫的東西。我開始有些擔心她在錄制的時候是否會有任何火花可言。

然而，當攝像機開啟，她的雙眼竟瞬間綻放出光彩，仿佛切換了一個人格！像歌劇名伶一般，她臉部變得異常有表現力，響亮的女中音在整個拍攝場地上空盤旋，抑揚頓挫，穿透了攝像機的麥克風。在我看來乏味的臺詞，她卻說得津津有味；無論食物為了拍攝出最好的效果，不斷重復翻炒而變得干硬難吃，她還是在鏡頭面前用最陶醉的表情，把東西放在嘴里反復咀嚼……好吧，這就是電視的世界。

很快，“戴安娜”的戲份就結束了。她身上的那團火也隨之熄滅。她又回到她的書本世界里。我偷偷一瞥，看到書的封面用德語寫著“考古學”。在隨后的兩年多時間里，我們都以這種方式合作著，我早已習慣她的沉默，當然也看到她讀的書不斷在變化，從歷史到語言學，從考古到人類學，甚至宗教書籍。在中國人的團隊文化里，人們喜歡熱熱鬧鬧，打成一片，而不少外籍主持人也很快適應了這種打趣說段子的氛圍。然而，對于“戴安娜”來說，除了拍攝，她的生活似乎也有另外一層追求。“我其實沒什么八卦花邊新聞可以跟你說呢。我這十幾年住在廣州，出來逛街應酬的時間加起來可能不超過一年。”她這樣跟我說過。

也許有些人能夠對當下生活感到滿足，但是“戴安娜”卻仿佛在自己的精神世界中探尋更加重要的東西，而這些東西需要耗費巨大的腦力，仿佛周遭的嘈雜環境和各種瑣事她都無暇搭理。這也許被某些人視作一種自傲和清高，然而我覺得完全不是這樣。

N: NIHAO

E: Esther

Haubensack

N: What made you choose to study Chinese when you were a student in Bavaria?

E: I did try some other foreign languages, such as Arabic, but I found the intonation too diff i cult for me. Then I tried Russian. The Cyrillic letters are fi ne by me, but the declensions of the verbs are just too complicated.

N: German also has declensions. Doesn't it help you to learn Russian?

E: Yes. That bothered me enough. Then later I tried Hindi but the university I studied in didn't have a faculty for Hindi and I had to study Sanskrit as part of the curriculum. Japanese was very popular at the end of 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, as the economy of Japan was on the rise. Chinese, in comparison, was not a popular language to learn at the time. Therefore, it was easier to get a scholarship for this course. I had more opportunities to participate in many events. I also helped tidying up the library and assisted the tutors.

N: Then later you went to Beijing for further studies. Can you share with us your secrets of learning Chinese so well?

E: Beijing at the time had a really good environment for leaning Mandarin. My roommates were Japa-nese and they didn't speak any English, so we were forced to speak Chinese for practical communica-tion. The most interesting thing was, when I was a student, the university still had a separated canteen for foreign students and Chinese students. I never went to the foreign students' canteen. Instead, I chose to go to Chinese students' canteen. All the boys got 2 “liang”(1“liang” equals to 50 grams) of rice while the girls got 1 “liang”. I used Chinese to tell the canteen staff to give me 2 “liang” and all the male students would look at me being amused. Of course 2 “liang” was too much for me. But generally, many other foreigners would learn and speak Chinese in a natural and much better way than me.

N: While you were in Beijing, you learnt crosstalk with maestro Ding Guanggen. Why didn't you choose it as a career?

E: First of all, I couldn't write script on my own and I didn't think my humour would make people laugh. Nowadays it's a little bit hard to really create clean jokes to make people laugh. You will really have to make a lot of extra body-language or exaggerated gestures to impress the audience for TV. Any-way,“below waistline” humour is just not my style.

N: Why did you only stay in Korea for a year?

E: Because by then, I was already married and my husband was based in Beijing. He couldn't speak any Korean, so it was a better choice for me to go back to China. It is funny that when my husband visited me in Seoul, he could not have any conversation with the Koreans at all.

On one evening, we were going to have a dinner at a restaurant. The restaurant waiter asked my husband in Korean and he could not hear a word. I must answer the waiter's question in Korean and the whole restaurant was surprised to fi nd a white woman could speak Korean instead of an Asian man.

N: After coming back to China, why did you start to learn Cantonese?

E: The decision was to gain a better understanding of ancient Chinese. When you try to read and understand ancient Chinese poems, Mandarin's intonation would not help you read the poems aloud in a more original way. Therefore I encouraged myself to learn Cantonese. I was lucky to fi nd a very good textbook with all the details of the language including basic pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, situa-tion conversation and so on. As long as I have a good textbook, I can learn a language very quickly.

N: So you learnt Cantonese all on your own?

E: Well later I came to Guangzhou to meet the author of the textbook, a professor at Jinan University. He gave me one-to-one intensive courses for a week.

N: You are from Freistaat Bavaria and it has its own dialect in Germany like Cantonese. Do you share your pride of your own dialect just as we are proud of Cantonese?

Esther's familyEsther的家人。

E: Germany has many dialects and of course it has a standard language “Hochdeutsch”(High German). In the case of Bavaria, not all the cities speak Bavarian dialect, just like the case of Guangdong, where you have Cantonese cities as well as Hakka and Chaoshan cities.

Nuremberg for example, is a Bavarian city but it doesn't speak Bavarian dialect. Culturally it is more like a Baden-Württemberg city. We take the area along the Danube River as “real” Bavarian cities and the dialect in Austria is also quite like our dialect. And even among these Bavarian-speaking cities, there are some tiny differences in the accents. I would say Bavarian dialect and culture are more similar to Northern Chinese culture. Bavaria is a rural province and its culture is a rural one. There are some TV or radio channels which broadcast the dialect, but it is a pity that schools don't teach it anymore.

N: Do your children travel as well?

E: Sure. But I will not allow them to travel alone as my parents did with me. They would need parental accompaniment. If I have to bring them around, I would try to let them communicate with the locals instead of following the tourist clichés.

N: How do you spend the time on a plane? Do you read as you usually do?

E: I actually watch fi lms if I can. But of course I read if there is nothing interesting to watch. When I start reading, I cannot stop. I once read Bible stories on the plane, and I got so touched that I even cried. The fl ight attendant was surprised to fi nd me sobbing before I told her it was merely because of a book. I was very embarrassed.

N：當你還在巴伐利亞州讀書的時候，為什么選擇漢語呢？

E：我也嘗試了一些其他的語言。比如說阿拉伯語，但是我當時發現音調發音在文本上沒有標注，所以顯得有些麻煩；然后我也嘗試了解過俄語，俄語西里爾字母對于我來說并不困難，可是它的動詞變格太多了，非常復雜。中文對于我來說夠簡單的了。

N：可是德語本身動詞也很多變格的呢！歐洲語言不都是有變格的嗎？

E：是啊，但是母語本身的變格已經夠麻煩了。其實我當初也想學印度語，可是當時我的大學并沒有這一門學科。而且當時要學印度語，首先就要學梵文。在我求學的年代，歐洲想學東方語言的學生幾乎都喜歡學日語，所以日語系幾乎擠破了頭。于是我選了相對較冷清的漢語系，因為這樣申請獎學金更加容易，而且系里人比較少，我可以參與更多的活動，比如幫忙整理一下圖書館里的一些資料，這樣對我來說幫助更大。

N：然后你就來到北京繼續學習了。你對語言方面的投入真大啊，而且收效非常好。

E：當時的北京，學習漢語的氛圍其實很好。我的舍友都是日本人，她們不懂英文，所以交流起來必須用漢語。我學習漢語的途徑就是，每學一課，比如到商店買東西的場景，我都跑到校外的小賣部，在店員身上“試驗”各種詞匯。當時的校園還是區分了外國留學生飯堂和中國學生飯堂，而我更加喜歡往中國學生的飯堂里面跑，更加好地觀察和學習他們的交流習慣。有趣的是，當時飯堂的員工都給男生二兩飯，而只給女生一兩飯。我每次都要求給我二兩飯，前面排隊的男生都看著我笑起來……

N：在北京的時候，你開始跟隨丁廣泉學習相聲。為什么再沒從事這門藝術呢？

E：首先，我不會自己寫劇本，寫出來也怕人家覺得不好笑。我覺得現在，在電視上說相聲，要逗人家笑可不是那么容易，有時候智商被拉下來了，品位也拉下來。太多夸張的扮相和過分喧嘩的造型，甚至有些比較俗的內容都不適合我。

N：回中國后，你就開始學習粵語了？

E：我學習粵語的目的是更好地理解漢語古文。當你嘗試閱讀一些古詩的時候，你會發現普通話的音調太簡單，而粵語能夠更好地讓你理解其中的平平仄仄。我很幸運地找到了一本非常好的對外粵語教材，它羅列了基本的發音、語法、詞匯、情景對話這些東西。只要有一本教材在手，我學一門語言并不困難。

N：你會覺得帶孩子到其他國家旅行也是一種很好的教育手法嗎？讓他們見識一下這個世界。

E：是的。但是我認為他們不應該獨自出游，我的父母曾經也讓我獨自出游，但是這是不對的。如果我陪伴他們到其他國家旅游的話，我會讓他們見識旅游熱點以外的一些真正的風土人情，跟當地人展開真正的交流，而不是被導游拖著走。

N：你如何打發在飛機上的時間呢？從中國回德國，耗時很久呢。你是不是像以前那樣讀書呢？

E：其實我在飛機上更想看看電影。不過沒有選擇的時候，我還是寧愿讀書。有一次我讀了一本跟《圣經》有關的故事書。我被書中的情節感動得馬上哭了起來。機上的空姐被我嚇壞了，雖然她最后知道我是讀了書才這樣子，我還是感到有些尷尬。

ESTHER HAUBENSACK: AN ACTRESS AS WELL AS LlNGUlST

Text by Josef Ho Photos by Zeng Jian