-
翻译丨为什么俄罗斯人不笑
国外网友看中国换一个角度，看到一个新的中国
Here
’
s something that has always
puzzled me growing up in the U.S.
as a
child of Russian parents.
Whenever I or
my friends were having our photos taken we
were told to say “cheese” and
smile.
But if my parents
also happened to be in the photo they were
stone-faced. So were my Russian
relatives in their vacation
photos.
My parents’ high
-school
graduation pictures show them
frolicking about in bellbottoms with
their young classmates
looking
absolutely crestfallen.
作为在美国长大的俄罗斯裔，有一点总是很困惑我。
每当我或者我朋友在照相时，有人就会叫我们说“起司”
，
要笑。
但是如果我的父母也在照片里面，他们就板
着脸。我那些俄
国亲戚们在游玩照片里面都这样。
我父母的高中毕业照片里，所有人穿着喇叭裤，看上去都很
沮丧。
It
’
s not just photos:
Russian women do not have to worry
about being instructed by random men to
“
smile.
”
It is Bitchy
Resting Face
Nation seemingly
forever responding “um
I
guess?” to any question the universe
might pose.
This does not
mean we are all unhappy! Quite the opposite: The
virile ruler the vodka the endless
mounds of sour cream
—
they
are pleasing to some. It’s just that
grinning
without cause is not
a skill Russians possess or feel
compelled to cultivate. There’s
even a
Russian proverb that translates roughly to
“laughing for
no reason is a sign of
stupidity.”
不光是照片，俄罗斯的女人也不用担
心被男人要求做“笑
脸”
。似乎面瘫脸总是在对着所有问题回应
“我猜猜看”
。
这并不是指我们不高
兴！相反：阳刚统治者的伏特加，大块
美味的酸奶油，很多人都喜欢。但是没什么原因就
微笑，这
技巧俄罗斯人不懂，或者感觉做着难受。甚至有个俄罗斯谚
语，粗糙的翻译是“没有理由的笑是犯傻的表现”
。
Russians’ fondness for the gentle scowl
seems even more
unusual to expats than
its actual climatic cold. And the cultural
difference cuts both ways: Newcomers to
America often remark
on the novelty of
being smiled at by strangers.
So why is
this? Why do some societies not encourage casual
smiling? I got my answer or at least
part of one when I stumbled
across a
new paper by Kuba Krys a psychologist at the
Polish
Academy of Sciences. In some
countries smiling might not be a
sign
of warmth or even respect. It’s evidence that
you’re a
fool
—
a
tricky fool.
对外来人事来说，俄罗斯人皱眉头的癖好比气候严寒还要奇
怪。而且文化不同的冲击在两边都有：新来美国的俄罗斯人
总是
在讨论被陌生人微笑。
那么为什么会这样呢？为什么有些社会
不鼓励随意微笑？
我在报纸上浏览波兰科学院的心理学家
Kuba Krys
写的一
篇文章中
找到了一知半解。在一些国家，笑并不会被当做热
情或尊重。而会显得你是个傻瓜
-
一个诡异的傻瓜。
Krys focused on a cultural phenomenon
called “uncertainty
avoidance.”
Cultures that a
re low on this scale
tend to have
social
systems
—
courts health-care
systems safety nets and so
forth
—
that are
unstable. Therefore people there view the future
as unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Smiling is a sign of certainty and
confidence so when people in
those
countries smile they might seem odd. Why would you
smile when fate is an invisible wolf
waiting to shred you? You
might in
those “low
-
UA” countries
even be considered stupid
for smiling.
Krys also hypothesized that smiling in
corrupt countries would
be um frowned
upon. When everyone’s trying to pull one over
on each other you don’t know if
someone’s smiling with good
intentions
or because they’re trying to trick you.
Krys
专注研究一种叫“回避不
确定性”的文化现象。这方
面很低的文化容易形成一种不稳定的社会系统
-
博取安全系
统。因此那些人们视未来不确定，不可控
。
笑是一种确定，自信的表现，所以在那些国家人们笑会显得
奇怪。不可见的命运会把你撕碎，你还在笑？在那些“回避
不确
定性”低的国家里，笑会显得傻。
Krys
也假设在腐败国家里，笑显得不好。要是有人笑着把
我拉过来，你不知道他是好意还是想骗你。
To test this
theory
Krys had thousands of people in
44 different countries judge a
series
of eight smiling and non-smiling faces on a scale
of
honesty and intelligence. He
compared their answers to the
country’s
rankings of uncertainty avoidance from a 2004
study
of 62 societies and ratings of
corruption.
He found that in countries
like Germany Switzerland China and
Malaysia smiling faces were rated as
significantly more
intelligent than
non-smiling people. But in Japan India Iran
South Korea
and
—
you guessed
it
—
Russia the smiling faces
were considered significantly less
intelligent. Even after
controlling for
other factors like the economy there was a strong
correlation between how unpredictable a
society was and the
likelihood they
would consider smiling unintelligent.
“
This research indicates
that corruption at the societal level
may weaken the meaning of an
evolutionary important signal
such as
s
miling” Krys writes.
为了证明这个理论，
Krys
让来自
44
个国家的几千个人判断
八个笑和不
笑的脸，说出他们诚实和智慧的程度。他用这个
结果和
2004
年的
'
回避不确定性
< br>'
以及各国腐败排名作对比。
他发现德国，瑞士，中国，马来西亚的笑脸比不笑脸被点评
为更加聪明。但是，日本，印
度，伊朗，韩国，和你猜猜
-
俄罗斯的笑脸看上去没有不笑脸聪
明。即使在控制了其它因
素下，比如一个社会不确定的程度与他们认为笑代表愚蠢程
度的经济联系等。
Krys
写到
“这个研究表明社会腐败程度可能会削弱人们重要
的发展标准
-
笑，的意义”网友评论
yes it is true on May 28 5:08 PM said:
Russians are just pathetic and sad
idiots. A smile is a sign of
happiness
well being and genuine (not fake) self confidence.
Russians have none of these qualities
so it makes sense that they
discourage
each other from smiling. It is little wonder
everybody who can leave gets out and
that the population is so
miserable
that the country has one of the biggest rates of
alcoholism and drink themselves to
death. Russia also has one
of the
lowest life expectancy rates in the world and its
no
coincidence.
俄罗斯人只是一群可怜悲哀
的蠢货。笑是快乐，真正（不是
假的）的自信的标志。俄罗斯人不具备这些品质，所以他
们
不鼓励笑。
根本就不用多想，
他们所
有能离开的人都会出去，
人口十分悲惨，那个国家还有最高的酗酒症比例，可以一直
喝到死。俄罗斯也是世界人口寿命最低的国家之一，这一切
都不是巧
合。
47
14 jamesxxxxxxxx on May 28 10:58 PM
said:
@yes it is true: Russians may be
something or the other but it's
not
what you are indicating.
In typical
American bigotry which usually stems from a
positive
yet completely naive and
uninformed view of the rest of the
world - you are wrong.
I'll
bet $$100 you've never been to Russia you don't
speak another
language and you've never
lived or been for any extended period
in a culture that is not your own.
Go and live in France for 2 years. You
will change your view of
*everything*
because you'll realize just how vastly different
cultures are and how everything affects
everything.
是的：俄罗斯人是有点那什么但不是像你说的那样。
典型的美式偏执，往往源于一种乐观却十分单纯的世界观
-
你错了。
我赌
$$100
你从没去过俄罗斯，
你
不说其它语言，
从没在其它
文化圈里生活过。
< br>
去法国呆两年。你会改变对“所有”的理解，因为你会意识
到文化间有多么不同，一物如何影响着一物。
6
8 barry drake on May 30
2:21 AM said:
@jamesxxxxxxxx: The
communists knocked the Russian smile
out -- they do it to everyone.
Refer North Koreans
共产者剔除了俄罗斯人的笑容
--
他们对每个人这样做
。
就像北朝鲜人一样。
0
0 Smile faces
on May 30 3:26 AM
said:
@yes
it is true: Even 3 days old baby is smile too. Try
to tickle
the legs.
@
确实如此：
试着在腿上挠痒痒的话，
连出生
3
天的小宝都
会笑。
11
28
rggsdgsgsdg on May 28 5:28 PM said:
The
reason is the sad state of their teeth.
原因是他们牙齿的情况不太好。
11
26 Old-timer on May 28 5:30
PM said:
Bad teeth is another reason.
牙不好是另一个原因。
14
22 Uncle_Eccoli on May 28
5:33 PM said: