香港人追忆撒切尔夫人 评价褒贬不一

Margaret Thatcher may have been Britain's 'Iron Lady, ' but in China, state-run media said Tuesday, she met her match.

说撒切尔夫人(Margaret Thatcher)在英国是有名的“铁娘子”，但中国国有媒体周二报道说，她曾经在中国遇到过对手。

After extensive negotiations, Mrs. Thatcher inked her signature to the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, thus agreeing to return Hong Kong--Britain's last remaining major colony--to Chinese rule, a memory that nearly three decades later continues to reverberate as the city navigates its at times stormy relations with the mainland.

在经过多次谈判之后，撒切尔夫人1984年签署了《中英联合声明》(Sino-British Joint Declaration)，同意将英国最后的主要殖民地香港归还给中国，在30年后的今天，在这个城市与内地的关系也时常掀起波澜之际，这一记忆仍然时不时发出回响。

Mrs. Thatcher had originally hoped that the British could continue to administer the city after it returned to Chinese sovereignty. Instead, under the terms of the declaration, the Chinese agreed the city could continue to retain a high degree of autonomy, including its own political and economic system, for a period of 50 years.

撒切尔夫人最初希望在香港主权回归中国之后，英国能够继续管理这座城市。但根据《中英联合声明》，中国同意香港将继续保持高度自治，包括保留独立的政治和经济体系，50年不变。

'We can say that she made her biggest compromise as prime minister in this issue, ' wrote the nationalist tabloid Global Times in a Tuesday editorial .

中国的民族主义小报《环球时报》在周二的一篇社论中说，应当说，在香港回归问题上，这位“铁女人”做了她在首相位置上的最大一次正确“妥协”。

In a sign of just how deep an impression she left on the former British colony, newspapers across Hong Kong Tuesday splashed numerous full-page eulogies commemorating Mrs. Thatcher across their front pages, adorning them with images of white roses, chrysanthemums and lilies. In Chinese tradition, white flowers are used to signify mourning.

香港的各大报纸周二纷纷在头版用整版篇幅悼念撒切尔夫人，用白色的玫瑰、菊花和百合的图案做装饰，这凸显了她给这个前英国殖民地留下了多么深刻的印记。在中国的传统中，白花代表哀悼。

Since Hong Kong returned to Chinese control in 1997, the city's identity has grown increasingly enmeshed with that of the mainland, particularly as tens of millions of Chinese tourists have flooded Hong Kong to shop, buy property and even give birth.

自从香港1997年回归中国，香港的身份认知与内地的身份认知越来越密切地交织在一起，尤其是在数千万的内地游客涌入香港购物、买房甚至产子之际。

For many Hong Kong locals, the iconic memory of Mrs. Thatcher remains the image of the blue-clad prime minister tripping and tumbling down the steps as she exited the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 1982, a video clip that aired widely in Hong Kong at the time and was reprised in various stills in newspapers across the city Tuesday. Mrs. Thatcher would later go on to praise the 'brilliance' of her Chinese negotiating partner, Deng Xiaoping.

对于许多香港本地人来说，对撒切尔夫人印象最深的记忆仍然是1982年她一身蓝装在人民大会堂的台阶上跌倒的情景，撒切尔夫人跌倒的视频当时在香港广泛传播，周二，在香港的报纸上又刊登了昔日的照片。在跌倒之后，撒切尔夫人还是对他在中国的谈判对手邓小平的智慧进行了赞扬。

In reflecting on Mrs. Thatcher's passing, several Hong Kong democratic activists were critical of her legacy in Hong Kong. Emily Lau, a former reporter and current legislator, recalled asking Mrs. Thatcher during a 1984 visit to Hong Kong after she signed the Joint Declaration whether it was morally defensible to deliver six million Hong Kong residents into the hands of a communist dictatorship. Mrs. Thatcher replied that she believed most Hong Kong locals accepted the arrangement, and suggested Ms. Lau was perhaps the 'solitary exception.'

在对撒切尔夫人的追忆中，几名香港民主活动人士对她在香港留下的遗产提出了批评。在签署完联合声明后，曾经当过记者的立法会议员刘慧卿在撒切尔夫人1984年访问香港时问她，把600万香港市民交到共产主义独裁统治的手里，这在道义上说得过去吗？撒切尔夫人回答说，他相信大多数香港人会接受这个安排，并暗示刘慧卿可能是唯一的例外。

'That marked a very, very dishonorable chapter in the history of the British Empire, ' said Ms. Lau, who argues that the former British prime minister 'didn't look after the well-being of Hong Kong people.'

刘慧卿说，这是英国历史上非常非常不光彩的一章，她说，这名前英国首相没有考虑香港人的福祉。

Still, though, Martin Lee, a former Hong Kong legislator and the city's best-known crusader for democracy, said that those years were a time of greater optimism about the city's political future. At this point, whether Hong Kong will be able to directly elect its own leaders without interference from Beijing remains an open question. But at the time, Mrs. Thatcher wasn't alone in believing Hong Kong would have a good chance at self-determination, he says.

不过，前香港立法会议员、香港最知名的民主人士李柱铭说，当年人们对香港的政治未来更加乐观。他说，眼下，香港是否能够不受中国政府的干预直接选举领导人仍然是个问题；但在当时，撒切尔夫人并不是唯一一个相信香港非常有可能实现自决的人。

Mr. Lee recalled his pre-handover exchanges with Mrs. Thatcher fondly, and said that she seemed genuinely concerned about Hong Kong's future.

李柱铭回忆了他与撒切尔夫人在香港回归之前的愉快交流，他说，她似乎真心地关切香港的未来。

'It was a different time, ' he said. 'We all thought we'd just wait 10 years and then we'd have democracy.'

他说，那时不一样，我们都认为只需要等待10年就会拥有民主。

On the eve of the 1997 handover, Mrs. Thatcher sounded an optimistic note in an interview, saying that she hoped Hong Kong would one day be a model for all of China. 'Chinese people will come to Hong Kong, they'll see and they'll say why is it different, and what is the difference?' she said. 'It is the same people, the same talents, but here there is a rule of law founded on the belief that each and every person matters in personal lives, ' she said. Hong Kong, she said, 'is a flagship of what the China people can do.'

在1997年主权交接的前夕，撒切尔夫人在接受采访时显得很乐观，她说，她希望香港有一天能够成为全中国的榜样。她说，内地人会来到香港，他们会看到，他们会问为什么如此不同？区别在哪里？同样的人民，同样的人才，但是这里拥有法治，这里的法治建立在每个人的生活都是重要的信念之上。她说香港是一艘旗舰，让人看到中国人能做成什么。