从1955开始，6年间英国开展了一项秘密计划，他们招募年轻人培训中文，再将他们送到远东进行间谍活动。直到今天，他们的故事才为人所知。
For six years from 1955 Britain ran a secretive program me to school young men in Chinese before shipping them off to the Far East to spy. Only now has their story become public.
这是大多数雄心勃勃的毕业生们所梦想的冒险经历。被招募，宣誓保守秘密，再学习外语，然后被送到异域他乡。但是对于1950年英国300名服兵役的年轻人来说这并不是连环画。这不仅对这群如今已经或快要70高龄的小伙子来说是一次改变一生的经历，也连带为哈弗，剑桥，利兹，爱丁堡，美国、加拿大和新西兰的大学培养了一代讲中文讲师。
It the sort of adventure most ambitious school leavers could only dream about. You get called in, Members of the first Chinese course in Hong Kong sworn to secrecy and tutored in a foreign language before being shipped off to exotic climes.
Yet this was no comic book adventure for about 300 National Service recruits in 1950s Britain. Not only was it a life-changing experience for men who are now in or approaching their 70s - but as a spin-off it provided universities in Oxford, Cambridge, Leeds, Edinburgh, the US, Canada and New Zealand with a generation of lecturers in Chinese.
故事的发生的时候，正是世界被划分为资本主义和共产主义的年代。中国毛主席的掌权让英国对租地香港的掌控岌岌可危，同时又极具战略意义。英国政府觉得他们需要一群可靠的人，驻扎在香港，监听封锁的中国国内的广播。但问题是，有多少英国人会说中文呢？
The story starts at a time when the world was split between capitalism and communism. The rise to power of Chairman Mao in China put the British territory of Hong Kong in a highly vulnerable, yet also suddenly strategic position.
鲁伯特.阿尔逊曾经用奈杰尔.韦斯特的笔名写过关于情报工作的历史，他说当时的决定是训练一批18岁及18岁以上适合的人员和士兵，“作为一个庞大的，实质上又是自由的资源……这些年轻人不管愿不愿意都承诺工作两年”。当一些服役人员被送往马来亚，韩国，肯尼亚和塞浦路斯打仗的时候，语言课程（大多是俄语）为一些更聪明的士兵提供了不同的道路。但是怎样分别谁对学习中文更有天赋呢？选拨过程就好像猜谜一样，没有人能确定什么样的才华对于学习中文来说是最好的。因此优秀的学者们倾向于选择剑桥的，有培训会计师或艺术背景的人员。大多数选出来的人都是纯属意外。其中有人就是在被问到谁会简单的法语时举了手，结果发现自己就被选上了。
The British government decided it needed a reliable group of men, based there, who could listen in to the radio broadcasts emanating from the closed off People's Republic, next door. The problem was, how many Brits could actually speak Chinese?
Rupert Allason, who writes about intelligence history under the name Nigel West, says the decision was taken to train people and National Service, which every fit man of 18 and over had to do, "represented a gigantic virtually free resource... these were young men who had a commitment, whether they liked it or not, for two years".
While some National Servicemen were sent to fight in places like Malaya, Korea, Kenya and Cyprus the languages courses, most commonly Russian, provided a different route for some of the brighter recruits.
But how to sift for potentially gifted Chinese speakers? The selection process was a bit of a guessing game, with no-one seemingly sure which talent would be best for learning this alien language - so classics scholars bound for Cambridge mixed with trainee accountants and those in the arts.
For many their selection came as a bolt from the blue. One found himself on the course after putting his hand up when the recruits on parade were asked if any of them had done French O level.
雷吉.亨特回忆说他和另外两个人走到教育官面前的时候本来准备学俄语，但被问到愿不愿意转去新开的中文课程，他们想都没想就回答了“”好的，长官！“。就是这一刻改变了我们的一生。”
Reg Hunt recalls how he and two others were preparing to study Russian when they were marched in to see the education officer and asked if they would transfer to to the embryonic Chinese course. "'Yes Sir!', we replied without a moment's thought. And that moment changed our lives."
麦克.华莱士是主动选择的这个课程的——虽然他的目的只是为了和他在切尔藤娜姆的情人（后来的妻子）离得近点。
Mike Wallace actively chose the course - although only because it meant staying closer to his then sweetheart (and later wife) in Cheltenham.
新招募的人员基本上对中国一无所知。有人甚至都没有听过中文。但是宣誓保密后，相关课程就在偏远的驻地开始了，如中部的维斯霍尔，布里斯托尔的帕克切尔西和多西特点沃斯马特维斯。
The new recruits knew almost nothing of China. Few had even heard the language. But after being sworn to strict secrecy the lessons began at often out-of-the-way RAF camps including Wythall in the Midlands, Pucklechurch near Bristol and Worth Matravers in Dorset.
什么都不一样Everything was different
戴维.马克穆伦现在成了剑桥的中文教授，他的双胞胎哥哥杰姆斯在哈佛教日语，他说，如今他才知道，他们所受的严格训练方式，是一个语言类讲师“梦寐以求”的。“最初两周就是学习准确地发音，和正确的语调。你不能这样教大学生，你不能统一管制他们——这样做很有效。”
David McMullen, who went on to became a professor of Chinese at Cambridge and whose twin brother James lectured in Japanese at Oxford, says the regimented way in which they were taught, he now knows, was a "language instructor's dream".
"The first two weeks were spent chanting out the sounds accurately and the tones accurately. You can't do that with undergraduates, you can't regiment them in the same way - it was a very good way of doing it."
但是纪律都是相对的。87岁的空军上尉帕迪.瑞尼是当时一门课程的讲师之一，他曾是二战期间轰炸机指挥部经验丰富的老兵。他说，成绩好的那群人“和普通的服役士兵非常不一样”，他们喜欢更宽松的环境。“这里并没有“去剪头发”之类的命令，”他回忆道。在各项课程的学员完成学业被派遣到香港去之前，培训整整进行了一年，期间到过很多令人羡慕的地方，包括的黎波里，罗马，伊拉克，卡拉奇和新加坡。
But discipline is all relative. One of the course instructors, 87-year-old Flight Lieutenant Paddy Raine, a veteran of Bomber Command in World War II, said the academically bright bunch on the course "were very different from your normal" National Serviceman and enjoyed a more relaxed regime.
"There wasn't any 'get your haircut' and that sort of thing," he recalls.
The lessons continued for a full year before the members of each course flew out to Hong Kong, stopping at an enviable range of locations including Tripoli, Rome, Iraq, Karachi and Singapore.
对于40年代年轻的英国人来说，香港是一个全新的发现。“她好像永远都不会打烊。不管白天黑夜，街头都是人山人海。你走进小巷，想找间餐厅，你会看到挂着招牌，宣称能治愈最可怕的疾病，还都用血淋淋的照片做着展示。所有的一切都完全不同——一段美好刺激的日子。”这就是麦克记忆中的过往。
Hong Kong was a revelation for young men from 1950s Britain. "It never seemed to close. Any time of night and day the streets seemed to be crowded. You'd go down an alley looking for a restaurant and you'd see signs up for curing the most horrific diseases, all illustrated with gory colour pictures. Everything was different - it was a wonderful exciting time," is how Mike Wallace recalls it.
他们在引导下开始工作。坐在收音机旁，带着耳机，听到什么中文都写下来。24小时的轮班漫长而枯燥，尤其是他们并不知道他们听的东西有什么用。幸好有公共档案室发行的报纸和另外的人做的其他调查，他们现在明白和记录中国空军的行动和监控中国飞往和飞出香港的航班一样，每一组常常出现的4个中文数字代表一个字。他们也不知道每次换班时呈交的工作成果被怎么样了，现在看来这些资料经过香港的评估，与澳大利亚以及美国的情报机构共享。
They were introduced to their work; sitting at radio sets with headphones on jotting down whatever they heard in Chinese. With the need for 24-hour cover the shifts were long and sometimes dull, especially as they did not know the significance of what they were listening to.
But thanks to papers released at the Public Records Office - and other research by those involved - they now know that as well as recording Chinese Air Force movements and monitoring the Chinese flights into and out of Hong Kong, each of the frequent bursts of four Chinese numbers represented a character.
And while they never knew what happened to their work when they handed it in at the end of each shift, it now seems it was assessed in Hong Kong and shared with Australian and US intelligence.
重聚
Reunions growing
还好有大量的课程着重教授技术语言和数字，大多数人欣喜的发现这份工作也不那么难。正如麦克.华莱士所说“有些中文说的非常缓慢、清晰，就像专门为了方便我们一样”。约翰.诺里斯肯定中国知道他们在干什么，因为他们的工作地点就位于香港最高峰的山顶，靠着一个巨大的无线电杆。而且在香港许多酒吧的经历也佐证了这个想法。“你点了啤酒，服务员会学者耳机的样子说“你在山顶工作”。”“不不不“，我们回答，但是太明显了”。我采访的人中除了奈杰尔.韦斯特，没有人觉得他们在冷战中发挥了很大的作用。奈杰尔认为他们记录了中国政府的一举一动，这项工作至关重要。他们建立了一个模式，一旦有什么风吹草动，如调动前夕，都可以观测到。因此，虽然无法通过他们在共产主义阵营里获取的大量情报来衡量他们的贡献，这段生活对于他们自身的影响却是毋庸置疑的。
Thanks to the intensive lessons focusing on technical language and numbers, most were pleasantly surprised to find the work not too tough. As Mike Wallace says "some of the Chinese was so slow and clear that it appeared to be being said purely for our benefit". John Norrish was pretty sure the Chinese knew what was going on given that they were based right on the top of the highest peak in Hong Kong alongside a huge radio mast. And experiences in the plentiful bars of Hong Kong seemed to confirm that view.
"You'd order a beer and the barmaid would mimic headphones and say 'you work on the Peak'. 'No, no no' we'd reply, but it was pretty clear."
None of those I spoke to makes grand claims about their role in the cold war but Nigel West says their work was vital in recording the day-to-day activities of the Chinese - building up a pattern so that any change to it, such as might occur before mobilisation, could be spotted.
So while it is impossible to gauge the servicemen's contribution to the vast mass of intelligence on the Communist bloc there is little doubt about the impact it had on their own lives.
这么些年建立起来的纽带一直都没有消失，借助网络的帮助很多该项目的参与者都保持或者重新却得了联系。近几年来参加聚会人数越来越多——今年晚些时候将举行的一次的聚会比上一次又多了30几个人。
The bonds formed have lasted all these years and with the help of the internet many of those involved have remained or been able to get back in touch. Reunions have been gaining in numbers as the years go by - the fifth course for instance expects more than 30 of their number to gather later this year.
好些人继续学习中文或用中文讲学，还有许多人多年后发现在商业领域中文很有用，而更多人则正式就职于情报机构。就算是那些再也没机会讲普通话的人也可以讲述他们在“休学“时的传奇经历，这些故事就算放到伊恩.弗兰芒的小说里也绝不逊色。
Many went on to study or lecture in the language, others found their Chinese useful in business years later while still more ended up moving officially into the intelligence field.
And even those who never uttered another word of Mandarin have the sort of tale to tell about their "gap year" that wouldn't look out of place on the pages of an Ian Fleming novel. 深圳翻译公司
