作者：李岘
笑谈五：中国人的“抬轿子”可不是说着玩儿
Anecdote Five: We Chinese are Serious About "Chinese Sedan Chair"
典礼选在湖边的亭阁前，可以说是美不胜收。可是要取到这美景的唯一麻烦是这里离Clubhouse要徒步二百米；以我和伴娘穿着高跟鞋的速度，至少要走三分钟。让来宾在太阳底下目睹新娘亦步亦趋地走过三分钟，恐怕所有的期待和浪漫都会因此而淡化。为了解决这个问题，我和未婚夫可谓绞尽了脑汁：藏到离亭阁近一些的大树后面？可是树下的落叶和树上的枯枝弄不好就把辛苦画的妆破坏了；买个屏风放到接近典礼的地方等众人坐定后再出现？可是如此美妙的自然景观多出一个室内用的屏风，会给人一种不伦不类的感觉。租一辆高尔夫球车从蜿蜒的小路缓缓驶来？可是在那儿租不到高尔夫球车，而且那条小路也禁止车辆通行!
The wedding ceremony would be held in a pavilion by the lake, whose scenery is heaven-like. The only problem was, it was 200 meters away from the Clubhouse and it would take me and my bridesmaids at least 3 minutes to walk there in heels. All the expectations and romance would be ruined if the guests bathing in the sun had seen us walk for so long. My fiancé and I were brainstorming, trying to figure a better solution. How about hiding behind a big tree near the pavilion? But the fallen leaves and dead branches of the tree might ruin my make-up. Maybe putting a screen near the pavilion to hide me and showing up after everyone had been seated? An indoor screen with such picturesque scenery, seemed definitely improper. How about renting a golf car to drive me there on a winding lane ? Well, we couldn't rent such a vehicle nearby and by the way, no carts were allowed there.
于是，未婚夫又把他那最最最初的计划拿了出来：还是要想办法租“轿子”！
Finally, my fiancé came up with his original plan, to rent a Chinese sedan chair.
别看他中国话不会几句，中国的国粹还真的知道不少。
Although he could barely speak Chinese, he does know a lot about Chinese culture.
西式婚礼抬中国轿子？我想都没想就一口否决。不过我知道他为什么对轿子情有独钟。我看到他的第一张照片就是在苏州园林以中国轿子为背景拍摄的。尽管我不知道他对轿子的概念理解多少，但是他对中国文化的热情在那一刻确实打动了我。
A Western wedding using a Chinese sedan chair? I refused without even giving a thought. But I knew why he was so into it. The first picture I saw him, was taken in the Suzhou Garden with the Chinese sedan chair as the background. I didn't know how much he knew about the Chinese sedan chair, but I was moved by his enthusiasm about Chinese culture.
既然没有更好的选择，那就由他去办吧。他果然认真，在网上从美国的西部找到了东部，最后才发现只有在中国的婚庆公司才有这种轿子。我不忍心看到他的失落，就告诉他中国民间还有一种简易的“轿子”，是一张竹椅加上两根竹竿，其实也不失为是一种选择。于是他又开始寻找竹椅和竹竿。遗憾的是美国的家具不是木头做的就是铝合金做的，临近婚期也没找到竹编的椅子，更谈不上两根长长的竹子。我有些沉不住气了：还是想想别的办法吧！
Since there were no better options, I let him handle it. He was pretty serious about it. He searched from the east to the west online, and found out that only the Chinese wedding companies have such chairs. Sorry for his failure, I told him there is a simple version of such a Chinese sedan chair in the society of China-- a bamboo chair with two bamboo poles. So he began to search for a bamboo chair and bamboo poles. Unfortunately, American furniture is made of either wood or aluminum alloy. We couldn't even find a chair woven by bamboo strips, let alone bamboo poles when the wedding was approaching. And I began to become impatient, thinking of other solutions.
婚礼的前三天，他将“轿子”摆到了我的面前：一张蒙着红色锦缎的单人沙发椅，两根从Home Depot买来喷上金色油漆的棍子，用钉子将椅子和棍子连接在一起。轿子？
Three days before the wedding, he showed me the "sedan chair", a single sofa chair covered by red silk with two poles with gold paint bought from Home Depot, connected by nails. That's my sedan chair.
未婚夫得意地叫来两个高达一米八九的儿子，不由分说地让我坐上去试试。
My fiancé proudly asked his two six feet tall sons to carry me to experiment whether this man made Chinese sedan would work.
尽管平日里与他的两个儿子相处得不错，但是让人家一前一后地抬着我，从客厅的东边走到西边我就叫停：不行，不行，我担心木棍会断的。
Though I get along with the two sons, having them carry me with one in front and one in back was totally another story. After they carried me from the east of living room to the west, I asked them to stop. I was feeling uncomfortable about the idea of them carrying me so I gave an excuse of worrying that the poles would break.
三个男人异口同声地说：以你的体重，这两根棍子你踹都踹不断的。放心吧。
But three of them told me simultaneously, “ With your weight, you couldn't break them even by jumping up and down. So there is nothing to worry about.”
我被他们的真诚深深感动。坐吧！
I was moved by their sincerity. O.K. let's do it!
婚礼的前一天，帮我租场地的朋友兴奋地告诉我，有一对印度人两个星期前也在湖边举行了婚礼，那场面让周围的邻居足足议论了三天--新娘是骑着白马走过那条小路的！
The day before the wedding, the friend who helped me rent the pavilion told me excitedly that an Indian couple held the wedding there two weeks ago and that the wedding was talked about by the neighbors for three days--because the bride got there on the back of a white horse.
这可是无独有偶。印度人在美国找不到大象就用白马代替；我们找不到中国正统的“轿子”就用椅子来替。独创！我得意地对朋友说：你等着瞧，明天你的邻居也要为咱们的中国文化叹为观止！
Uniqueness always comes in pairs. The Indians couldn't find an elephant so they used the white horse instead. We couldn't find the authentic Chinese sedan chair so we would use a sofa chair instead. How unique! I told my friend to wait for tomorrow, a day when your neighbors would be astonished by our Chinese culture as well!
其实我不知道有多少朋友的邻居会看到我的婚礼，可是我知道未婚夫的嘉宾可都是“地道”的美国人，为此我们还专门印制了精致的节目表，用英文介绍了轿子的来历。当然，为了节省篇幅，没有指出当代中国人的婚礼大多是用轿车而非轿子。
Actually, I don’t think that I would know how many neighbors of my friend could watch my wedding, but I knew the guests invited by my fiancé are pure Americans. Therefore, we printed the exquisite show lists with English explanations for the Chinese sedan chair. In order to save space, we didn’t say that in most weddings in China, the bride is not carried by the Chinese sedan chair, but by a car.
“何止是美国人看着新鲜，就连我们这些中国人见你被他的两个儿子一路抬来，那活思想：这要是在中国，父亲娶妻，儿子不在中间作梗就不错了，哪能还为你抬轿子？”。
“就是，我当时还担心你会被人家扔到半路上呢。”。
"We were astonished too when seeing you being carried by his two sons. In china, if the father wants to get re-married, it will be god-blessed if his sons won't disagree, let alone carry the Chinese sedan chair for you themselves."
"Yeah. I was afraid that you would be thrown out half way!"
两位闺蜜得知“轿子”的来历后，直呼我太幸运啦。我何尝不是？在坐轿子的两分钟里，我体会到的是人与人之间应有的宽厚、大度和善良。难怪中国人向来把“抬轿子”的喻意理解得讳莫如深。还好，木棍没断。
When two of my close friends knew the story behind the sedan chair, both of them thought I was super lucky. So did I. During the two minutes in the chair, I felt people should be kind to each other. No wonder we Chinese always take the meaning of raising sedan chairs with deep feelings. God blessed us since the two poles didn’t break.
注：美国《东西方》杂志2013年1月刊首发
（待续）
