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编者按：本站提供9月9日人民网发表并广泛转载的《中国人看不懂美国大选未删节版》。红色部分为原译有误或删节的部分。欲看人民网版请点击这里
人民网9月9日讯：美国人再次行动起来，以他们奇怪的、不可思议的总统选举迷惑民众。
中国实行一党制，这里的人们无需为选举人团和政党会议这些复杂的东西劳神，因此美国总统选举所呈现的景象对他们来说并不是一个诱人的民主广告。
"很多人认为西方民主可笑，它更像是选秀或者选美，""我觉得中国人是怀着一种优越感来看待选举的，心想'这种方式不适合我们'。" 上海外语频道的一位英语电视新闻节目主持人潘晓莉(音译)说。
然而如果说中国人认为美国总统竞选混乱、不得体，那是有充分原因的。中国的新闻报道并没有正确地突出美国政治进程中那些比较讨人喜欢的方面。中国日报头版刊登了共和党全国代表大会上防暴警察制服一名抗议者的巨幅照片，好几家报纸以"性丑闻"为标题报道了共和党副总统候选人萨拉·佩林17岁的女儿怀孕的消息。上海和台湾几家报纸登出一张据称是佩林的裸照，这最终证明是一场骗局。
与性相比，许多中国人似乎对钱更为敏感。尽管北京刚刚花费了420亿美元筹办奥运会，但是共和党和民主党的代表大会之奢华让这里的观众看成是挥霍。上海美国研究所所长丁幸豪(原文为Ding Xinghai，应为Ding Xinghao)说，"一些人认为在经济态势不太好的情况下，一次性花费这么多钱是相当荒唐的。他们认为，必须有一种更为高效的方式进行选举。"
负面描述美国政治长期以来一直是中国宣传的主要内容。上海复旦大学从事美国研究的沈丁立教授想起自己1970年代当学生时听过得马克?吐温的作品，即嘲讽美国选举程序的《竞选州长》。
沈说，"人们认为资本主义的这种竞选方式全是如何编造不实报道中伤对手。这完全是一场政治秀"。
造成这种负面印象的另一个原因是，很多中国人不喜欢任一方的候选人。也许是出于怀念她的丈夫，中国人显然更喜欢参议员希拉里·克林顿。奥巴马因为批评中国制造的产品而得罪了一些中国人，麦凯恩因为会见达赖是引起许多中国人的愤怒。
北京大学国际关系院院长王缉思本周在汉城一个新闻研讨会上称："普通中国人很难分清两党的竞选纲领或理解两位候选人各自关心的话题。他们大多视之为一个女人、一个黑人和一个老人之间的竞争"他还表示："美国的大选话题如堕胎和同性婚姻等对于中国人来说都是与中国(传统)背道而驰的。"
与上述问题相比，更加格格不入的是选举过程本身。选举人团、初选、代表大会和围绕蝴蝶形对开选票的争端等无不令晕头转向。
中国的许多人不再关心美国大选不是因为不感兴趣，而是因为他们看不懂。
而在中国的体制下，全国人民代表大会投票批准共产党提名的国家主席候选人。
"在中国，一旦一个人被挑选出来，他就（铁定）成了国家主席。就是这样。"19岁的学生何思源（音译）说。
不过并不是所有人都同意这种观点。
"我希望有（美国的）一些复杂因素。"一个不愿透露姓名的36岁的北京人说道。
"大选可能没有那么高效，不过毕竟总统是由人民选出来的。"
The Original:
China watches U.S. elections with bemusement
The electoral spectacle appears chaotic and unseemly to many Chinese, used to disciplined one-party rule. It doesn't help that the media focus on the absurdities.
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 6, 2008
BEIJING -- The Americans are doing it again, mystifying the masses here with their weird, weird presidential elections.
To the Chinese, who are spared by the one-party communist system such complications as an electoral college and party caucuses, the spectacle unfolding in the United States is not a very tempting advertisement for democracy.
"A lot of people think Western-style democracy is a joke -- it's more like a pop idol contest or a beauty pageant," said Pan Xiaoli, an anchorwoman for International Channel Shanghai, an English-language TV station. "I think the Chinese watch with a sense of inherent superiority, saying, 'This is not the way for us.' "
Yet if the Chinese think the U.S. presidential campaign is chaotic and unseemly, there is good reason. Chinese coverage has not exactly highlighted the more flattering aspects of the American political process.
A photo that dominated the front page of Thursday's China Daily showed riot police wrestling a protester to the ground at the Republican National Convention. The headline "sex scandal" appeared in several newspapers on stories about the pregnancy of the 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Newspapers in Shanghai and Taiwan ran a nude photo purportedly of Palin that turned out to be a hoax.
But many Chinese appear to be less squeamish about sex than money. Though Beijing just spent $42 billion to stage the Olympics, the lavishness of the Republican and Democratic conventions struck observers here as wasteful.
"Some people think it is quite crazy spending so much money at a time that the economy is not in good shape. They think there must be a more efficient way of having an election," said Ding Xinghai, president of the Shanghai Institute of American Studies.
Negative depictions of American politics were long a staple of Chinese propaganda. Shen Dingli, a professor of American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, remembers hearing as a student in the 1970s a reading of a Mark Twain parody of the electoral process called "Running for Governor."
"People think the capitalist way of campaigning is all about making up fake stories to slander your opponent, that it's just a political show," Shen said.
Another reason for the negativity is that many Chinese don't like either candidate.
Perhaps from nostalgia for her husband, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had been the clear favorite here.
Sen. Barack Obama has alienated some Chinese by criticizing Chinese-made products. And Sen. John McCain infuriated many more by meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader who is reviled by the Chinese government.
"For ordinary Chinese observers, it is hard for them to differentiate between the platforms or understand the anxieties. They've seen it mostly as a competition between a woman, a black man and an old man," said Wang Jisi, dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, speaking at a seminar of journalists this week in Seoul.
"American election topics like abortion and homosexual marriage are alien to Chinese," he added.
More alien than the issues is the process itself. The electoral college, the primaries, the convention delegates and the arcane disputes over butterfly ballots are utterly baffling.
Many people here have stopped following the U.S. campaign not because they are uninterested, but simply because they can't keep track of it all.
Under the Chinese system, the National People's Congress votes to approve the presidential candidate selected by the Communist Party.
"Here in China, once somebody is chosen, he becomes president and that's it," said He Siyuan, 19, a student.
But not all agree.
"I wish we had some of those complications," said a 36-year-old man from Beijing, who did not wish to give his name.
"Maybe it is not so efficient, but the president is chosen by the people."
(转载本文请注明"中国选举与治理网"首发)
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