亚当·约翰逊（Adam Johnson）是美国小说家和短篇小说作家。他凭借其2012年的小说《孤儿大师的儿子》获得了普利策奖，并因其2015年的故事集《财富微笑》而获得了全国图书奖。他还是斯坦福大学英语教授，专注于创意写作。奖项： 普利策奖、怀廷作家奖、古根海姆奖学金。
In America, the stories we tell ourselves and we tell each other in fiction have to do with individualism. Every person here is the center of his or her own story. And our job as people and as characters is to find our own motivations and desires, to overcome conflicts and obstacles toward defining ourselves so that we grow and change.
在美国，我们在小说中讲述的故事和彼此讲述的故事与个人主义有关。 这里的每个人都是他或她自己故事的中心。 我们作为人和角色的工作是寻找我们自己的动力和欲望，克服在定义自己方面的冲突和障碍，以便我们成长和改变。
But, in North Korea, it's just the opposite. There's one story. It's written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters. There, as a youth, your aptitude towards certain jobs is measured, and the rest of your life is dictated, whether you'll be a fisherman or a farmer or an opera singer.
但是，在朝鲜，情况恰恰相反。 有一个故事。 它是由金政权撰写的。 已有2300万人被定为次要人物。 在这里，作为一个青年，您将衡量自己对某些工作的敏锐度，并决定你的余生，无论你是渔夫，农民还是歌剧歌手。
The reader feels as if he is in Chongjin, where starving people ate the bark off trees; or atop Mount Taesong with the elite of Pyongyang, whose existence is a mix of sadism and whimsy; or with the masses who are bombarded day and night with the propaganda of North Korea's alternate reality.
读者仿佛置身于崇津，那里饥饿的人们把树皮剥下来。 或在平壤的泰松山顶上，平壤的精英分子是虐待狂和异想天开。 或与宣扬朝鲜替代现实的昼夜轰炸的群众一起。
I'd known that the visit would be highly scripted and that genuine interactions with citizens wouldn't be possible, since it's illegal for them to speak with foreigners. Still, I'd thought I'd had a unique look at North Korea, only to discover I was wrong.
我知道这次访问将具有高度的脚本性，并且不可能与公民进行真正的互动，因为与外国人交流是非法的。 尽管如此，我还是以为我对朝鲜有独特的见解，却发现我错了。
For an entire populace, change, growth, and spontaneity were dangerous. Acting upon a personal desire, whispering a hidden longing, revealing your true feelings - all the human actions we think of as essential to a character - had be censored by the self lest they be punished by the state.
对于整个平民来说，变化，增长和自发性都是危险的。 根据个人的意愿行事，低声说出隐藏的渴望，揭示您的真实感受-我们认为对角色至关重要的所有人类行为-都经过自我审查，以免受到国家的惩罚。