“中国人太需要释放自己了”：走进成都搏击俱乐部
成都一家搏击俱乐部，它使用的是英文名“Monster Private War Club”（怪兽私人战争俱乐部）。 GILLES SABRIE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHENGDU, China — On the sixth floor of a down-on-its-luck shopping mall in this southwestern Chinese city, a brawny, hyperkinetic master of ceremonies going by the name “Train” strutted around a new fight ring, pumping up the crowd for a Friday night of punching, jabbing and kicking.
中国成都——在这个中国西南城市一家冷清的购物中心的六楼，一名强壮、亢奋的主持人在一座新的比赛台上大摇大摆地走来走去，在这个充满着拳打、肘击和脚踢的周五夜晚，这位自称"Train"（火车）的主持人在煽动观众的热情。
After a monthslong shutdown, “fight club” was back in business.
在关闭数月后，“搏击俱乐部”重新开张了。
The funk music faded, lights brightened and two amateur boxers started squaring off. Yan Nan, a lithe 33-year-old office worker in a state-owned machinery company, was up against Li Guowei, a neatly muscular sports teacher, 4 inches shorter and seven years younger.
音乐减弱，灯光变亮，两名业余拳手开始摆好架势。33岁的严南是一名身体柔韧的白领，在一家国有机械公司工作，他对战的是肌肉匀称的体育老师李国伟，比严南矮4英寸、年轻7岁。
“I hope the kids in his class don’t mess up,” the master of ceremonies, whose real name is Wang Zijing, joked about Mr. Li to the hundreds of fans crowded around the ring.
“我们希望他班上的孩子不要乱来，”真名叫王子敬的主持人说，他当着聚在比赛台周围的数百名粉丝，开起了李国伟的玩笑。
The fight club in Chengdu, a city with about eight million urban residents and a reputation for spicy food and laid-back living, is a testament to entrepreneurial young Chinese trying something new, even when numerous obstacles, licenses and official jitters stand stand in the way.
成都拥有大约800万城市居民，以火辣美食和放松的生活方式著称，这家搏击俱乐部证明，即使面临无数限制、营业执照和官方的过度敏感的阻扰，开拓进取的中国青年也要尝试新事物。
Shi Jian, the club manager, and Mr. Wang said they had been inspired to open their venture in late 2015 after repeated viewings of “Fight Club,” the 1999 cult film in which Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star as two unlikely partners who start an underground barefist fighting club.
这家俱乐部的经理石坚和王子敬说，他们在反复观看电影《搏击俱乐部》(Fight Club)后受到启发，在2015年年末创办了这家企业，在这部拍摄于1999年的小众电影中，布拉德·皮特(Brad Pitt)和爱德华·诺顿(Edward Norton)扮演两名出人意料的同伙，共同创办了一家地下空手拳击俱乐部。
严南正在热身。 Chris Buckley/The New York Times
“Before all this, I didn’t have anything to do with fighting,” said Mr. Shi, with a folk-singer-like bowl cut and heavy glasses. “I like to have fun and also do something meaningful, and then I saw that movie.”
“做这个事情之前，我和搏击没有一点关系，”石坚说，他剪着民谣歌手式的西瓜头，戴着厚厚的眼镜，“我喜欢玩，想做点有意义的事情。正好又看了这部电影。”
Mr. Shi, 35, a man of few words, and Mr. Wang, 29, a man of few silences, also seem like unlikely allies.
35岁的石坚沉默寡言，29岁的王子敬活泼健谈，同样看不出是可以合伙做事的样子。
But they and another investor found a shared cause in entertainment that they thought would appeal to Chinese in their 20s who were bored with karaoke nights and bars. Their club features weekly boxing, kick boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and goes by the English name “Monster Private War Club.” It seeks an edgy audience, with graffiti-sprayed walls and a dimly lit recreation room.
但他们和其他投资人在这个娱乐项目中找到了共同的事业，他们认为那些20岁左右、对卡拉OK之夜和酒吧感到厌倦的中国人，会对这个感兴趣。他们的俱乐部使用英文名"Monster Private War Club"（怪兽私人战争俱乐部），每周举办拳击、踢拳和综合格斗比赛。他们用满墙的涂鸦和一间灯光昏暗的娱乐室来吸引特立独行的受众群。
“What Chinese people lack most is a spirit of fun, that’s what Chinese people need most of all,” said Mr. Wang, a former soldier who spoke in a torrent of Sichuanese-accented Mandarin Chinese and rap-inspired English, salted with plentiful profanities in both. “They really need to let themselves go.”
“中国人是最缺乏娱乐精神的，中国人也是最需要娱乐精神的，”王子敬说，他曾是一名军人，说着一口带四川口音的普通话和受说唱影响的英语，在两种语言里都夹杂了大量脏话。“中国人太需要释放自己了。”
33岁的白领严南（右）对战26岁的体育老师李国伟。 GILLES SABRIÉ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Here it’s a bit more commercial,” he said of their new space inside a karaoke nightclub, “but we’re trying to find some of the vibe of the underground.”
“这边现在稍微商业一点，”他说起他们在一家卡拉OK夜店里开的新场地，“但是我们也在努力找回underground（地下）的感觉。”
A Chinese saying goes that it’s easier to get away with things in the far provinces, “where heaven is high and the emperor far away.” And it would be difficult to imagine such raucous entertainment surviving in button-down Beijing.
中国有一句俗话，“山高皇帝远”，意思是在偏远的省份做事情更容易。很难相信这种喧闹的娱乐活动在严肃的北京能够生存下来。
But boxing, mixed martial arts and other high-energy fighting forms have been enjoying a minor boom in China in recent years. Gyms and audiences have multiplied across the country. Precise numbers are hard to come by, but one fan group estimates that the number of clubs had reached 8,300 in 2016, up from 2,700 in 2008.
但拳击、综合格斗和其他高强度搏击运动近年来在中国正掀起一阵小小的热潮。全国各地的健身房和观众数量翻倍增加。很难找到具体的统计数据，但一个粉丝群体估计，俱乐部的数目从2008年的2700家已经涨到了2016年的8300家。
Even so, commercial fight venues that draw a broader audience are rare. And Chengdu, with its zestful night life and hipster scene, seemed as good a place as any to try opening one. Yet even here the club has struggled to balance between being cool enough to draw customers and respectable enough to keep the inspectors at bay.
即便如此，能够吸引更广泛观众的商业搏击场所很少。成都欢闹的夜生活和潮人文化可能让它正好成为一个适合开俱乐部的地方。然而即使在这里，这家俱乐部也在努力寻找平衡，一方面要酷到可以吸引消费者，一方面又正经到可以避免引来当局的审视。
In a former venue, the fight club had to fend off complaints from the police, who deemed the weekly bouts undesirable, if not illegal. The authorities cut off their power and water late last year, Mr. Shi and Mr. Wang said. Tensions had also grown when a national controversy erupted last April after Xu Xiaodong, a mixed martial arts fighter, challenged masters of China’s gentler traditional martial arts to a fights, and flattened one of them in about 10 seconds.
在之前的一处场馆，这家搏击俱乐部需要避开警察的投诉，警方认为他们每周一次的比赛即使不算违法，也是个麻烦。石坚和王子敬称，去年年底，当局切断了他们的水电。并且在去年4月，综合格斗手徐晓冬向修习较为和缓的中国传统武术的大师发起挑战，大约10秒便将其中一位大师击倒，引起了全国性争议，紧张气氛也随之加剧。
这家俱乐部在努力寻找平衡，一方面要酷到可以吸引消费者，一方面又正经到可以避免引来当局的审视。 GILLES SABRIÉ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mr. Xu may have won that fight hands down, but the episode brought bad publicity for new martial arts in China.
徐晓冬或许不费力气地赢了比赛，但这次事件也为中国的新武术带来了负面宣传。
The Chengdu club shut down in November because of the friction with the authorities, and reopened late last month after the partners persuaded city sports officials to support them. They found a new venue in the half-empty mall, which some residents say is cursed by ghosts from an ancient cemetery that was dug up nearby.
由于与当局的摩擦，成都的这家俱乐部曾于去年11月关门，但在合伙人说服成都体育官员对他们给予支持后，上月底又重新开放。他们在一个半闲置的商场内找了一个新的场地，有些居民说，这里被附近挖出的一座古墓的鬼魂诅咒了。
Even with that official support and begrudging approval from the police, the club has to be careful to stay respectable. There is absolutely no gambling, no drugs, no brawling between patrons, nothing that could bring officials’ wrath, Mr. Shi said.
即使有了官方的支持和警方不情愿的批准，俱乐部还是得谨慎行事才能体面经营。石坚说，这里绝对没有赌博、没有毒品、没有客人争吵斗殴，没什么会招致官员的怒火。
“If we were into gambling, do you think we’d be as poor as we are now?” Mr. Wang chipped in. “In a year I could afford to buy a Rolls-Royce.”
“我们如果有赌博的性质，你觉得我现在能这么穷吗？”王子敬接话说，“我一年就能买劳斯莱斯了。”
Each Friday night involves four boxing, kick boxing or mixed martial arts fights between men, and sometimes women.
每周五的晚上都有四场男子拳击、踢拳、综合格斗比赛，有时还有女子比赛。
严南在第三轮被击倒，但他说他还会继续战斗。 GILLES SABRIÉ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
“I think it’s a great setting with plenty of atmosphere,” said Liao Yanyun, 22, a professional boxer who fought a match at the club recently, when she and her opponent fought to a draw. “You attract a big crowd to this kind of fight, and that will help boxing to develop,” she said, though she added, “There are a lot fewer female fighters than men, and it’s hard for women to find matches and opponents.”
“我觉得这里的环境挺有氛围的，”22岁的职业拳手廖焱云说，她最近在俱乐部的一场比赛中和对手打成了平手。“这种比赛观众多，能带动拳击发展，”她说，但又补充道，“女拳手比男拳手少很多，对手和比赛都很不好找。”
This year the partners plan to expand by bringing in professional fighters from across China, and maybe stars from Thailand. For now, the club’s fighters are hardscrabble professionals from local clubs or pure amateurs.
今年，这对合伙人计划从全国各地引入职业拳手，也可能引入泰国明星，以此进行扩张。目前，俱乐部的拳手都是当地俱乐部勉强过活的业内人士，或根本就是业余爱好者。
Before Mr. Yan’s fight, he and a dozen or so friends warmed up with a dinner of peppery tofu, and Mr. Yan appeared cheerfully indifferent about his chances in the club. “I haven’t thought about tonight, it’s just for the kicks,” he said.
严南在比赛前和十几个朋友吃了一顿麻婆豆腐晚餐热身，他看起来快活得对自己在俱乐部的胜算并不上心。“今天晚上我也没想过，就是来玩一玩，”他说。
The famous first rule in the movie “Fight Club” was “do not talk about Fight Club,” and Mr. Yan had his own twist: Do not tell his parents. He inherited his love of boxing from his grandfather, but said his mother and father would be alarmed if they found out he was climbing into a ring.
《搏击俱乐部》里著名的第一条规矩是“不要提起俱乐部”，而严南有自己的改编：不要告诉他爸妈。他从自己的祖父身上继承了对搏击的热爱，但他说，如果父母发现自己在往拳击场里钻，会很担心的。
“They think at my age you should be more stable,” he said.
“他们觉得我这个年龄应该沉稳一点，”他说。
In the first of three rounds against Mr. Li, Mr. Yan initially appeared to have the upper hand. While Mr. Li went into a defense crouch, Mr. Yan threw down punches as dozens of supporters screamed encouragement.
在三轮对战的首轮中，严南一开始似乎占了上风。李国伟弓身防御，严南挥出一记记重拳，引起许多支持者的高声叫好。
But Mr. Li had a strategy: Younger and smaller than his opponent, he figured he first had to tire Mr. Yan out. By the second round, Mr. Yan began to flag. In the third round, Mr. Li moved in and began pounding at Mr. Yan — who by the end of the third round was slumped and beaten.
但李国伟也有对策：虽比对手更年轻，身形也更小，但他料想自己要先耗尽严南的体力。到了第二轮，严南开始疲累。第三轮中，李国伟开始出击，重拳打向严南——等到第三轮结束，严南已被击倒在地。
Mr. Wang, the master of ceremonies, hurried the two fighters out of the ring to make way for the next bout, a kick boxing match between two professionals from nearby clubs.
主持赛事的王子敬催促两位拳手离开拳击场，为下一场由两位附近俱乐部的职业选手参加的踢拳比赛让位。
By the final fight of the night, the competitors and the crowd were screaming for more. Yet Wang and Mr. Shi said they wanted to create an even more passionate crowd, by bringing back a cagelike octagon-shaped ring that would let spectators press closer to the fighting.
到了当晚进行到最后一场比赛时，参赛选手和观众都在喊不过瘾。王子敬和石坚说他们本想重新起用可以让观看者靠得更近的八角笼，从而让观众愈加狂热。
In the dressing room, Mr. Yan was tearful — losing was harder than he had expected.
在更衣室里，严南流泪了——失败比他预想的更痛苦。
But he vowed to return to the club’s ring. “After more time and practice,” he said.
但他发誓要回到俱乐部的搏击场上。“先练习一段时间吧，”他说。
作者：储百亮、Adam Wu
储百亮(Chris Buckley)是《纽约时报》驻京记者。
翻译：Jowii、Ziyu
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