考研英语时文赏读(56):韩国娱乐圈地震——胜利丑闻事件
摘要:考研英语作为一门考研公共课,虽然大家都学了英语十几年,却仍经常有总分过线挂在英语上的情况,因此英语复习不单单是单词、做题。阅读作为考研英语的大头,仅仅做考研真题或许没法满足你的阅读量,因此帮帮之后会不定时推出一篇英文美文,这些文章都与考研英语阅读同源,多读必有好处。
►背景介绍:
上个月,韩国流行乐团 Bigbang 前成员胜利被曝出丑闻,这一事件也引发了韩国娱乐圈的地震。一些粉丝至今难以相信自己喜欢多年的明星的真实面目竟然是这样的。《经济学人》对这一事件也进行了关注。
Sex, drugs and spy-cams
性、毒品和偷拍
Exposing K-pop’s dirty secrets
揭开韩国流行音乐圈的肮脏内幕
South Korea’s music industry is racked by misogyny and abuse
韩国音乐产业饱受厌女症和虐待之苦
All that’s left of the “Burning Sun” nightclub in Seoul are the faint outlines of the letters that used to spell its name, which have been hastily removed from above the former entrance. The club was run by Lee Seung-hyun, better known as Seungri, a member of Bigbang, a K-pop group.
位于首尔的"烈日”夜总会原先入口上方的招牌已经被匆匆拆除了,只剩下依稀可辨的模糊轮廓了。该夜总会是由韩国流行乐团 Bigbang 的成员李昇炫(其艺名“胜利”更为人所知)经营的。
It was closed last month after police began investigating Seungri and his business associates for offences involving drugs, tax evasion and the provision of sexual services to potential investors (prostitution is illegal in South Korea). Though Seungri denies the allegations, he nevertheless made a grovelling public apology.
上个月,在警方开始调查胜利及其生意伙伴涉嫌贩卖毒品、逃税漏税和向潜在投资者提供性服务(在韩国,卖淫是违法的)等犯罪行为后,该夜总会就关闭了。尽管胜利否认了警方的这些指控,但他还是低声下气地公开道歉了。
Some called Mr Lee “Seungsby” (after the Great Gatsby, a high-living fictional anti-hero); the analogy has become even more apt since things all started to unravel spectacularly for Mr Lee. His music label has terminated his contract.
一些人称李昇炫为“胜茨比”(从《了不起的盖茨比》而来,盖茨比是一个生活奢侈的非英雄式的虚构人物);当丑闻被揭露后,这个比喻对于胜利来说就更贴切了。他的唱片公司也终止了他的合同。(小编注:胜利之所以被人们称为“胜茨比”,是因为他在诸如夜总会等的副业上经营的非常成功,与《了不起的盖茨比》中的主人公盖茨比的经历十分相似,而盖茨比最终的结局是失去了一切,因此文中会写道“丑闻揭露后,这个比喻更为贴切”。)
K-pop offers fans a polished and sanitised version of sex and glamour. Recording contracts often ban stars from having girlfriends or boyfriends to ensure that fans can project their desires onto them unimpeded. This makes the revelations that have emerged about the industry since Mr Lee’s downfall all the more damaging.
韩国流行音乐给粉丝们提供的是美化和净化后的性感与魅力。唱片公司通常会在合同中禁止明星们交男女朋友,使得粉丝们可以毫无阻碍地对他们抱以幻想。因此自胜利丑闻爆出后,有关娱乐圈的爆料更具破坏性。
The part of the scandal that has sparked the most outrage is the revelation that male K-pop stars and their associates apparently used group chats to exchange pornographic videos of women who had been filmed without their consent, along with lewd banter. Jung Joon-young, a singer, songwriter and former television host, has been arrested on charges of filming and distributing illegal spy-cam footage.
这起丑闻最引起公愤之处是,韩国男歌星及其同伙公然在群聊中交换未经当事人同意而拍摄的女性色情视频,还开着低俗下流的玩笑。歌手、词曲作家、前电视主持人郑俊荣因拍摄和传播非法拍摄的视频而被捕。
In a video a friend shared with him, a woman appears unconscious. In extracts of web chats published by a Korean broadcaster, the men joke about drugging and raping women. They also seem to implicate the police in their schemes, alluding to a senior officer who “has our back”.
在他的一位朋友分享给他的一部视频中,一名女性似乎毫无知觉。在韩国一家广播公司发布的网络聊天片段中,一些男性拿下药和强奸女性开玩笑。他们似乎还暗示有警方牵涉其中,暗指一名高级警官是他们的后台。
Spy-cams are common in South Korea, where pornography is banned and internet porn is harder to access than elsewhere.
偷拍在禁止情色的韩国很常见,而且相比于其他国家,在韩国想上色情网站是很困难的。
Protests against them form the basis of an energetic women’s movement that began last year and has garnered fresh attention after two men were arrested for installing illegal spy-cams in motel rooms across the country, filming some 1,600 guests without their knowledge.
从去年开始就有一场以抗议偷拍行为为基础的声势浩大的女性运动,并且在两名男子因在全国各地的汽车旅馆安装非法偷拍摄像头(在当事人不知情的情况下对1600名旅客进行了偷拍)而被捕后,这一运动再次引起了人们的关注。
For feminists, the latest K-pop scandal is yet another sign of pervasive misogyny. Jin Sun-mee, the minister for gender equality and family, called on men last week to “please stop” objectifying women, adding that: “Women are humans with souls.”
对于女权主义者来说,韩国流行音乐最新的丑闻是厌女症普遍存在的又一证据。上周,性别平等与家庭部部长金顺美呼吁男性,“请停止”物化女性,并补充道:“女性是拥有灵魂的人类。”
Fans are disappointed and angered by the revelation that their favourite stars may be truly awful people. “I hate myself for liking him so much,” one woman says of Seungri.
对于他们最喜欢的明星的人品可能有问题,粉丝们感到失望和愤怒。一位女性是这样评价胜利的,“我非常后悔自己那么喜欢他。”
YG Entertainment, his former label, has seen its valuation plunge since the scandal broke. Whatever else the investigation reveals, it has already shown that, in the K-pop business at least, not all publicity is good publicity.
自丑闻曝出以来,胜利的前东家YG娱乐公司的市场估值大幅下跌。无论调查还将挖出什么,它至少已经表明,在韩国流行音乐圈,并非所有的宣传都是好宣传。(小编注:all publicity is good publicity.是一句英文俗语,其英文解释是:said to emphasize that it is better that something receives badpublicity than no publicity at all.即:某事就算受到负面宣传也比没有宣传要好。很显然,胜利丑闻事件告诉我们,如果宣传负面到一定程度,可能很难再挽救了。)
►重难点词汇:
hastily adv. 匆忙地;急速地;慌忙地
prostitution n. 卖淫;滥用;出卖灵魂
sanitise vt. 采取卫生措施使其安全;给…消毒
unimpeded adj. 畅通无阻的;未受阻的
pornographic adj. 色情的;色情作品的;春宫画的
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