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LOS ANGELES — Disney theme parks have always been about trading an imperfect world for a perfect one. There is no trash blowing down Main Street, U.S.A. It’s nothing but happy trappers and singing bears over in Frontierland. Dream big, and the gleaming technology of Tomorrowland just might come true.
洛杉矶——迪士尼主题公园一直致力于把不完美的世界置换成完美世界。“美国小镇大街”(Main Street, U.S.A.)上看不到垃圾。“西部拓荒世界”(Frontierland)里只有幸福的猎人和唱歌的熊。立下远大志向，“明日世界”(Tomorrowland)中熠熠生辉的技术就有可能变成现实。
In case the castles are too subtle, Disney outright promises escape from the real world. The welcome signs at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida quote Walt Disney’s words from 1955, “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”
唯恐自己建的城堡太过含蓄，迪士尼干脆公开承诺要带人逃离真实世界。加州迪士尼乐园和佛罗里达州华特·迪士尼世界的欢迎标语源自迪士尼本人1955年的一句话，“在这里你将离开现实的今日，进入一个昨日、明日和梦想的世界。”
Lately, however, it has become harder for Americans planning a Disney vacation to buy into the company’s utopian theme park concept. The horrific mass shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla., cast a shadow on nearby tourist destinations, including Disney World. Then word leaked that the gunman had also scoped out a Disney shopping complex. Next came an incident that was shocking enough to kick the nightclub carnage off some front pages: A toddler was dragged by an alligator into a Disney World lake and drowned.
然而，最近一段时间，越来越难以动员美国人去规划自己的迪士尼假期，为该公司带有乌托邦色彩的主题公园概念埋单。佛罗里达州奥兰多一家夜店发生的大规模枪击事件，给附近包括迪士尼世界在内的旅游目的地蒙上了一层阴影。后来有消息称，枪手也曾到一家迪士尼购物中心踩点。接着就发生了惊人程度足以把夜店里的血腥屠杀挤下报纸头版的事故：一个孩子在被鳄鱼拖入迪士尼世界的湖中后溺亡。
“Is Disney’s Image Tarnished?” a headline on an investment website asked on Monday, with the alligator attack — the first such accident in Disney’s 45-year history in Florida — as a particular source of concern. The funeral for Lane Graves, the 2-year-old victim, was held Tuesday in Nebraska.
“迪士尼的形象黯然失色了吗？”一家投资网站在周一的一篇文章的标题中如此发问。这种忧虑主要源于鳄鱼袭人事件——佛罗里达州迪士尼乐园开业45年以来，还是第一次发生这样的事情。遇害者是2岁的莱恩·格雷夫斯(Lane Graves)，其葬礼于周二在内布拉斯加州举行。
Whether last week’s events reverberate for Disney in a business sense (beyond a possible lawsuit stemming from the alligator attack) is a question that will only be fully answered in the months to come, peak season for theme park vacations. If families cancel reservations or the pace of reservations noticeably slows, then the answer is yes. If they do not — as most analysts predict — then Disney will power forward, recovering from this spate of bad publicity as it has from others.
上周的事件是否会给迪士尼造成挥之不去的商业影响（除了鳄鱼袭人事件可能引发官司之外）？这个问题的确切答案得在未来几个月寻找，那是游客前往主题公园度假的高峰期。如果许多家庭取消了预订，或者放慢了预订步伐，那么答案就是肯定的。如果像大多数分析人士预测的那样，他们并未这么做，那么迪士尼就会勇往直前，从这一连串负面新闻造成的危机中恢复过来，就像摆脱其他负面新闻的影响一样。
The company’s stock price is already improving, climbing about 3 percent since Thursday, when authorities discovered Lane Graves’s body. Blockbuster results for “Finding Dory” at the box office helped, as did the opening of Shanghai Disneyland.
公司的股票价格已经有所回升，自上周三当局发现莱恩·格雷夫斯的尸体以来共上涨了3%左右。《多莉去哪儿》(Finding Dory)票房大卖和上海迪士尼度假区开业都对股价回升起到了促进作用。
Theme parks, zoos and other tourist destinations have survived tragedies before. One-time incidents tend not to undermine well-run businesses, and Disney parks are definitely thriving.
以前，主题公园、动物园及其他一些旅游目的地，都有过在悲剧发生后挺过来的先例。一次性事件不大可能破坏经营状况良好的企业的根基，而迪士尼乐园无疑正在蓬勃发展。
But even without recent events, Disney was having to work harder to pull off its “not a worry in the world” magic trick. Record crowds have made the experience less joyful. So has technology: Never mind their cynical parents, American children, babysat by iPad from the time they were in diapers, are not as easily mesmerized by analog rides like It’s a Small World and Autopia, with its little cars putt-putting along a track.
不过，即便近来的事件并未发生，迪士尼也必须更加努力，才能施展它那“令人无忧无虑”的魔法。破纪录的客流量让游客的体验变得不那么愉快了。科技也带来了同样的影响：先不说吹毛求疵的家长，美国的小孩还裹着尿不湿的时候就与iPad为伴，他们可不那么容易对“小小世界”(It’s a Small World)、“驰车天地”(Autopia)——可以让人驾驶小车在轨道上走走停停——之类的模拟类游乐设施着迷。
More aggressive safety procedures have become a fixture of modern life; metal detectors are now routine at baseball stadiums, concert arenas and even some movie theaters. In response to increased security concerns, Disney, Universal and SeaWorld began using metal detectors in December, the first time the companies deployed such measures on a large scale.
更加激进的安检程序逐渐成为现代生活的标配；如今，在棒球场内、举办演唱会的场馆中，甚至一些电影院里，金属探测器都是常规设备。由于人们对安全日益担忧，迪士尼、环球影城(Universal)和海洋世界(SeaWorld)从去年12月开始使用金属探测器。这是三家企业首次大规模推行类似举措。
But these measures, while appreciated by most tourists who might feel less safe without them, work against Disney’s singular efforts to create what it advertises as “the Happiest Place on Earth.” It’s awfully hard to forget the real world when you’re being wanded.
这些举措虽然受到离了它们可能就会感到不安的大多数游客的欢迎，却和迪士尼打造它在广告中宣扬的“地球上最快乐之处”的特殊努力背道而驰。当你接受安检的时候，绝对难以忘记现实世界。
Shanghai Disneyland, formally unveiled on Thursday, also has rows of metal detectors at its graceful front gates. But the mood at this newest Disney park — the first on the Chinese mainland — was utterly joyful last week, even as the grim news from Orlando made its way to visitors’ smartphones. Spending time in the park on four different days, three of them with paying guests, I was struck by how fully intact that classic Disney sense of wonder really seemed.
于上周四正式开业的上海迪士尼乐园，也在雅致的大门那里安放了一排排金属探测器。不过，上个星期，这家新开业的中国大陆第一家迪士尼主题公园内的氛围非常欢快，尽管游客们的智能手机接收到了来自奥兰多的悲惨消息。我在那里呆了四天，其中三天是和购票入场的游客呆在一起。令我触动的是，经典的迪士尼式奇迹竟然得到了如此完整的呈现。
Without question, the excitement and pomp around the opening contributed to that feeling. But something else was happening at Shanghai Disneyland. I got the sense that this was what it must have felt like at the original Disneyland in the 1950s. Visitors were very obviously awe-struck — this fantastical place, smelling of fresh paint and new vinyl seat covers, was something they had never seen before. Chinese guests, having never confronted a 9/11 or repeated mass shootings, seemed free of the baggage that many Americans now carry to public gathering places. The spell seemed easier for Disney to cast.
毫无疑问，开业带来的兴奋与盛况更容易让人产生这种感觉。但在上海迪士尼乐园，还有别的事情正在发生。我觉得，50年代位于加州的第一家迪士尼乐园肯定也给人以这种印象。游客显然有大开眼界之感——这个散发着新油漆的味道和新塑料椅套味道的梦幻之地，是他们以前从未见过的。中国游客没有遭遇过9·11恐怖袭击，也不曾目睹大规模枪击事件一次又一次地发生，今天的美国人在公众聚集之处所背负的那种心理压力，看上去并未对他们造成困扰。迪士尼似乎不必费那么大力气便能施展魔法。
Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, alluded to this fascination as we toured Shanghai Disneyland on June 11. “I grew up in the United States dreaming of going to Disneyland one day — unaffordable for us, by the way, and I didn’t go until I was a parent,” he said. “You now have that same dynamic here in China that existed in the ’50s and ’60s in the United States, as people started looking for more leisure activities. It’s palpable.”
我们在6月11日参观上海迪士尼乐园时，迪士尼首席执行官罗伯特·A·艾格(Robert A. Iger)提到了这种吸引力。“我是在美国长大的，小时候一直梦想着有朝一日能去迪士尼乐园看看——我们负担不起相关费用，顺便说一句，直到有了孩子，我才走进乐园，”他说。“上世纪五六十年代存在于美国的那种向往之情，也存在于今天的中国，恰好遇到了人们开始把目光投向更多休闲活动的时候。这一点是显而易见的。”
In Shanghai, Disney’s rides are fully updated technological marvels — no more jerky animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean, which is now fully digital, with boats controlled by underwater magnets and Imax-style screens with video. In another difference from Disney’s domestic parks, even rank-and-file cashiers and hotel maids seem thrilled to be there. When they waved and chirped, “Have a magical day!” they appeared to mean it, rather than just repeating a corporate mantra.
在上海，迪士尼的游乐项目是全面更新的科技奇观——如今“加勒比海盗”(Pirates of the Caribbean)里不再有不流畅的机动形象，而是完全数码化，有水下磁铁控制的船只，还有Imax式的超大银幕在播放视频。与迪士尼在美国国内的主题公园相比，这里的另一个不同之处在于，就连普通收银员和酒店女服务员似乎也因身处公园内而异常兴奋。当他们挥着手欢快地说，“享受充满魔力的一天！”似乎是发自内心地送出这样的祝福，而非只是重复一句企业口号。
On an especially difficult week for Disney in the United States, Shanghai proved that the company’s pixie dust still works the same way it used to in a more innocent age. Even if you have to go to the other side of the world to find it.
这一周，迪士尼在美国的日子极其不好过，上海则证明，这家公司的魔法还像在过去那个更纯真无邪的年代里那么有效。尽管为此你得去往世界的另一头。
