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Topic: Mom Sells Tomatoes as Her Son Seeks Tennis Titles
It should have been one of the happiest times of Yu Te Tseng’s life. But Tseng, the father of the world’s best male junior tennis player, lowered his head and put his right hand to his eyes, trying to stem the flow of tears.
這本該是曾育德一生中最幸福的時刻之一。但這位世界最佳青少年男子網球手的父親,卻低下了頭,把右手放到眼睛上,努力想要止住淚流。
He was sitting in a garden at the United States Open in September after his son, Chun Hsin, had won another big match. But while a friend patted him on the back, Tseng needed more than a minute to compose himself and explain his sadness.
那是9月在美網的球場,兒子俊欣又贏了一場大賽之後。當一位朋友拍了拍他的背時,曾育德用了不止一分鐘來收拾情緒,解釋他為何傷心。
For years, Tseng has coached his son, 17, who plans to turn professional at a tournament in Hong Kong at the end of the month. For years, father and son have traveled the globe while Chun Hsin, also known as Jason, soared from a working class background in Taipei, Taiwan, to the top of the junior tennis rankings.
多年來,曾育德一直給兒子當教練,17歲的他計劃在那個月底的香港錦標賽上轉為職業球員。多年來,父子二人輾轉世界各地,兒子俊欣(英文名Jason)從台北的工薪階層背景,躍至青少年網球排名的冠軍。
He tore through the competition in 2018, reaching the final of the Australian Open junior singles tournament in January and winning the French Open junior title in June and Wimbledon’s in July. He was also a semifinalist in the U.S. Open boys event, and finished the year as the No. 1 junior.
2018年的賽事他一路過關斬將,1月份殺進澳洲網球公開賽青少年組男單決賽,6月份贏得法國網球公開賽青少年組男單冠軍,7月份溫布頓奪冠。他還是美國網球公開賽青少年組的半決賽選手,年終成為世界排名第一的青少年選手。
But while he was achieving all that with his father by his side, Tseng’s mother remained in Taipei, running the family’s small food stand and looking after his 15-year-old brother, Yun Di Tseng.
在父親的陪伴下取得所有這些成績的同時,他的母親仍在台北,一邊料理家裡的小吃攤,一邊照顧他15歲的弟弟曾允帝。
For his mother, Chung Han Tsai, the heavy workload has taken a toll.The family owns a stall at the Lehua night market in Taipei, where they sell tanghulu, a treat made of glazed fruit and tomatoes on a stick. They stay on their feet from 4 p.m. until 1 a.m., with hardly a moment to spare for a break.
對母親蔡仲涵來說,工作的重擔讓她付出了代價。一家人在台北樂華夜市有個小攤位,他們在那裡賣糖葫蘆,這是一種用蜜餞和串在棍子上的番茄製成的小吃。他們從下午4點一直站到凌晨1點,幾乎沒有片刻的休息。
Tseng first played tennis at age 5 with his father, who likes to be called Ed. Within a few years, Jason had demonstrated unusual talent, and his father discovered that his night job was suddenly an advantage. It enabled him to train his son during the day.
曾俊欣第一次打網球是5歲時和父親,後者喜歡別人叫他埃德(Ed)。短短几年裡,曾俊欣就展現出了不同尋常的天賦,他的父親發現自己的夜間工作突然成為了優勢。這份工作能讓他白天訓練兒子。
On a typical day, Ed Tseng would work at the night market and get to sleep around 2 a.m. He would wake up three and a half hours later for early-morning practices, after which he and his son would return home, shower and prepare for school. The father would then sleep a bit more before rejoining his son for afternoon practice. Then it was back to work with his wife.
通常,曾育德晚上在夜市上班,然後凌晨兩點左右上床睡覺。三個半小時後,他要起床去進行晨練,之後他和兒子回家,洗澡、準備上學。曾育德會再補一點覺,然後下午再和兒子一起練球。之後就和妻子再回去上班。
On some nights, Jason and his brother would make the five-minute walk from their home to join their parents at the market, doing their homework there or pitching in by peeling tomatoes. But Jason’s focus and dreams were always on tennis.“In that moment, I don’t have a lot of time to go out with friends and do relaxing things,” he said. “I was always working, working. That is how the professional player has to do it.”
在有些晚上,曾俊欣和弟弟會從家裡走路五分鐘,去夜市和父母在一起,他們在那裡做功課,或是幫忙給番茄剝皮。但曾俊欣的關注點和夢想一直都是網球。「在那一刻,我沒有很多時間和朋友出去玩、放鬆,」他說。「我一直都在練球、練球。這就是職業球員必須要做的。」
Jason Tseng said he does not really like the treats his parents sell. He prefers ice cream, although he eliminated it from his training diet. He indulged in his favorite treat twice recently, though: to celebrate winning the French Open and Wimbledon junior titles.
曾俊欣說,他不怎麼喜歡父母賣的那些小吃。他更喜歡冰激淋,儘管他把它從訓練飲食裡去掉了。但近期,他放縱地吃了兩次自己最愛的零食:為了慶祝自己獲得法國公開賽和溫布頓青少年冠軍。
Tsai could not make those trips. She remained in Taipei, selling tanghulu. But when Jason plays, Ed sends her updates. In a recent email, he said his wife told him that Jason’s victories buoyed her spirit, making her stand stronger in the moment.
蔡仲涵不能一起前往巡迴賽。她得留在台北賣糖葫蘆。但每當曾俊欣打球時,埃德會發給她最新情況。在近期的一封郵件裡,他說妻子告訴他,曾俊欣的勝利激勵了她的精神,讓她變得更堅強。
But the arrangement is no longer tenable with her physical condition. Tsai needs rest to recover, and Ed said this week that in the spring, the family plans to shutter the business. Legally, it cannot be sold, just closed. But now that Jason will be earning some money on tour, the investment in his future may pay off and the financial burden eased.
但她的身體狀況無法應付這種安排了。蔡仲涵需要休息才能恢復身體,曾育德本週說,明年春天的時候,他們計劃關掉攤位。從法律層面來說,它不能被賣掉,只能關張。但如今曾俊欣會在巡迴賽上賺到些錢,對他未來的投資可能會有回報,也能減輕家裡的經濟負擔。
Source article: https://cn.nytimes.com/sports/20181227/chun-hsin-tseng-taiwan/zh-hant/dual/
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Topic: Gaming’s New Lifestyle:Less Pizza, More Yoga
The squats and leg lifts were harder than they looked, and after a few sets, Alfonso Aguirre Rodriguez placed his hands on his knees and attempted to compose himself.
深蹲和抬腿動作比看起來要困難,做了幾組後,阿方索.艾吉瑞.羅德里蓋茲把手放在膝蓋上,試著讓自己放鬆。
In November, Aguirre, a 24-year-old professional video game player from Spain, joined the five-man roster of Origen, a League of Legends team that competes in the game’s top European league. The players — all signed in late fall — were told at the time that the team might be run a bit differently from what they were accustomed to.
24歲的艾吉瑞是西班牙的電子競技(電競)職業選手,去年11月加入五人組成的奧里根戰隊,這是一支在電玩「英雄聯盟」歐洲頂尖聯盟中競賽的隊伍。該隊選手-全於去年秋季末尾簽約加入-當時即被告知,這支隊伍的運作方式也許會和他們習慣的有些不同。
Now here they were, five young men who make their living sitting almost completely still in front of desktop computers, sweating through an hourlong workout in a cramped gym.
現在,眼前就是這麼五個靠著坐在桌上電腦前幾乎全不移動來維生的年輕男子,他們正在一間狹窄的健身房裡汗流浹背地鍛鍊一小時。
“I think I’m going to puke my oatmeal,” said Aguirre, who is known in the gaming community as Mithy. “I’m dying.”
「我覺得我快把燕麥片吐出來了。」艾吉瑞說,他在電玩社群中被喚作米西。「我快死了。」
Some years ago, traditional sports leagues were revolutionized by young analysts wielding computers. The way things had always been done, it turned out, was not always the best way to do things. Now echoes of that transformation have arrived in the growing world of professional e-sports, where gamers are being shepherded toward a new frontier, oddly, by the old, corporeal wisdom of traditional sports.
數年前,傳統運動聯盟被使用電腦的年輕分析家給顛覆了。事實證明,人們一向用來做事情的方法,並非永遠是最好的方法。現在這項轉變的迴響已觸及成長中的職競世界,說也奇怪,選手們竟被傳統運動的古老、肉體智慧引向新的領域。
The debate about whether competitive gamers can be considered athletes may never end. In the meantime, though, gamers are increasingly acting like them.
關於電競選手能否被視為運動員的爭論,恐怕永遠不會停止。而於此同時,玩家的作為卻越來越像運動員了。
Origen is one of two teams owned by Rfrsh Entertainment, an e-sports company based in Copenhagen. Two years ago, the organization hired Kasper Hvidt, a former captain of Denmark’s national handball team, to be its sporting director. Hvidt, 43, had no previous exposure to gaming. But that was the point.
奧里根是以哥本哈根為據點的電競公司「更新娛樂」旗下兩支隊伍之一,兩年前,這家公司雇用丹麥手球國家隊前隊長卡斯伯.赫維特為運動總監。43歲的赫維特以前不曾接觸過電玩,但這正是重點。
E-sports in recent years have crept into the mainstream, attracting new fans, new sponsors and new investment. The top professionals now make six-figure salaries and earn even more with endorsements and prize money. And yet, Hvidt observed, their approach to performance remained amateurish.
近年電競已打入主流,吸引新粉絲、新贊助商和新投資。頂尖職業選手現在可賺進六位數薪水,而且靠代言和競賽獎金還能賺更多。不過赫維特說,選手優化表現的方法仍然很不專業。
Eating right, sleeping right, exercising, cleaning up for sponsors — these ideas have undergirded traditional sports for generations. In e-sports, they are regarded as almost radical.
吃得對、睡得好、做運動、為贊助商打理好門面-這些想法數個世代以來支撐著傳統運動。但在電競界,卻被視為近乎激進。
“They don’t look at themselves as physical human beings,” said Hvidt, who won the European handball championship with Denmark in 2008.
「他們並未視自己為活生生的人類。」2008年帶領丹麥隊贏得歐洲手球錦標賽冠軍的赫維特說。
“It’s common sense, in a way. But with them, it was not.”
「這多少可算是常識了,對他們來說卻並非如此。」
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Topic: Why the Philippines Is a Hoops Haven
Go to any street corner in the Philippines. Any village. Any beach. Even a church. You’re likely to see a basketball jersey.
在菲律賓隨便去到哪個街角,哪個村落,哪個海灘,甚至哪個教堂,你應該都會看到籃球衣。
“It’s often described as a religion,” Carlo Roy Singson, managing director of NBA Philippines, said in an interview.
美國國家籃球協會(NBA)菲律賓分會總監辛松受訪時說:「大家常說,籃球就是菲律賓人的宗教。」
Indeed, basketball is ingrained in Filipino culture and has been for more than a century.
The sport’s permeation of a country of about 105 million began in the late 1800s, when Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War.
的確,籃球在菲律賓文化扎根已超過一個世紀。 籃球於19世紀末傳入這個目前有一億零五百萬人口的國家,終至遍布每個角落。1898年西班牙在美西戰爭中戰敗,把菲律賓割讓給美國。
A large facet of the introduction of the fledgling game was Christian missionaries, who were part of the YMCA, or Young Men’s Christian Association. The game’s inventor, Dr. James Naismith, conceived of the sport at what was then known as the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.
籃球這個新興運動傳入菲律賓,很大一部分是靠基督教傳教士,這些傳教士是基督教國際社會服務團體「基督教青年會」(YMCA)的成員。籃球發明人奈史密斯博士就是在美國麻州春田市當時名為「國際YMCA訓練學校」的地方,想出籃球這種運動。
To take a round object and throw it into a peach hoop, as Naismith pictured it, could be a character-building endeavor. Soon after he invented it, missionaries began spreading it around the world, particularly in the Far East and the Philippines, in U.S.-controlled areas — a kind of sports imperialism.
奈史密斯設想,拿起一個球形物並將它丟進一個桃木筐,這種努力過程可以培養品格。在他發明籃球後不久,傳教士開始把這種運動傳布到世界各地,尤其是美國控制的遠東地區和菲律賓,算是一種運動殖民。
The NBA and its players, recognizing the sport’s popularity in the Philippines, have invested time there in recent years. In 2013, the Houston Rockets and the Indiana Pacers played a preseason game there. According to a spokesman for the league, the NBA’s Facebook page has 7.3 million followers from the Philippines, the largest of any country outside of the United States.
NBA及其運動員認識到籃球在菲律賓大受歡迎,近年在菲律賓投入許多時間。2013年,休士頓火箭隊和印第安納溜馬隊在菲律賓打了場季前賽。根據NBA發言人的說法,NBA臉書專頁有730萬名粉絲來自菲律賓,菲律賓是美國之外最大的粉絲來源國。
This all began in the early 1900s, when basketball was introduced into schools in the Philippines. In 1913, the first Far Eastern Championship Games — an early version of what is now known as the Asian Games — took place in Manila, featuring several East Asian countries taking part in Olympics-style competitions, including basketball.
這一切全始於20世紀初,當時籃球傳入菲律賓各級學校。1913年,亞洲運動會前身、第一屆遠東運動會在馬尼拉舉行,幾個東亞國家參與奧運式的競賽,包括籃球。
It was the first of 10 biennial events, before disagreements between the countries disbanded the games. The Philippines won gold in nine of them.
遠東運動會兩年一次,總共辦過十次,後來因為各國意見不合而停辦。菲律賓在其中九次贏得籃球金牌。
The country’s population took to the sport en masse. In 1936, its national team made the Olympics and finished fifth. At the 1954 FIBA World Championship, the Philippines won a bronze medal, the best finish for an Asian country.
菲律賓舉國上下都愛上籃球。1936年,菲律賓國家隊打進奧運並拿下第五名。在1954年世界杯男籃錦標賽中,菲律賓贏得銅牌,寫下亞洲國家最佳成績。
Two decades later, in 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association, Asia’s first basketball league, was created. These games kept the sport at the forefront of Filipino culture and helped grow interest throughout the 20th century.
20年後,1975年,菲律賓職業籃球聯賽開打,是亞洲第一個職業籃球聯賽。這些比賽讓籃球處在菲律賓文化的重要位置,並在整個20世紀激發菲律賓人對籃球的興趣。
Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/341713/web/#2L-15029994L