VOA慢速英语2013 作家捕捉科特迪瓦的生活风貌

 

AS IT IS 2013-10-05 Writer Captures Flavor of Life in Ivory Coast 作家捕捉科特迪瓦的生活风貌

Hello, and welcome. I’m June Simms with VOA Learning English.

Today on As It Is, we tell how cinema has returned to the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut.

And we hear about an Ivorian writer whose increasingly popular comic book series has now been made into a movie.

Writer Captures Flavor of Life in Ivory Coast

A series of French comic books set in the West African country of Ivory Coast has gained the attention of many readers in Africa and overseas. A film based on the books was released in French movie houses in July and will soon be shown in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan. VOA’s Lisa Bryant recently spoke¹ with creator Marguerite Abouet in Paris. Christopher Cruise brings you her report.

We are back in the 1970s, in the Ivorian city of Abidjan, following the lives of Aya, Bintu, Fanta, Ignace and other colorful characters. They all live in the ethnically-mixed neighborhood of Yopougon.

These cartoon characters are the stars of a series of comic books and now a new film, called "Aya de Yopougon". The Yopougon is where Aya’s author, Marguerite Abouet, lived as a little girl.

“I deliberately³ chose Muslim and Christian⁴ names for my characters, because I had the chance of living in Yopougon, and in Ivory Coast. Abidjan was the crossroads of West Africa at the time. Everything passed through the country. And my neighbors could be a Muslim who had married a Baoulé [one of Ivory Coast’s many ethnic² groups], and so in a single household you could have very different names.”

Marguerite Abouet worked with French illustrator Clement⁵ Oubrerie, to help bring the Aya books and movie to life. They tell the story of life in Yopougon: the loves, heartaches, hopes, dreams and the difficulties. The books touch on sensitive issues like homosexuality, betrayal and physical abuse.

The Aya series has become a best-seller both in Ivory Coast and in France. In some ways, the real story is Ms. Abouet herself: the little girl from Yopougon who made it big in Paris.

During holidays in Ivory Coast, Ms. Abouet would return to the family’s village.

“During vacations we would go to the village where our grandparents lived, with all of our cousins. We had no electricity or running water. Our grandfather was our television. Every evening he’d gather us all around a big fire and tell us stories.”

Ms. Abouet took those stories with her when she moved to France. They became material for her writing.

Thierry Laroche is an editor for the French publishing house Gallimard Jeunesse. He says there is reason the Aya series has been so popular.

“It was completely original, completely exotic. We were able to discover the insider’s Africa. And it wasn’t talking about negative things, war or sickness. It doesn’t mean hiding these problems, but talking about Africans and how they live.”

The Aya comic books have gained fans in both Africa and France. Thirty-four-year-old Edia Aikessi, who bought a ticket to see the Aya movie in Paris, grew up in Abidjan. She says the books bring back her memories of the city, the expressions, the dishes people eat and all the smells. She says it is really like being in Abidjan.”

Years of conflict have severely⁶ hurt Ivory Coast and the Yopougon of Marguerite Abouet’s childhood. But the writer praises the strength of Ivorians who lived through those dark times, especially the mothers. The Aya movie was made in honor of them. I’m Christopher Cruise.

And I’m June Simms. You are listening to As It Is from VOA Learning English.

Lebanon’s Arts District Brings Back the Silver Screen

The Hamra neighborhood of Beirut was once the intellectual capital of the Lebanon. In the 1950s and 1960s, Arab writers and artists from across the Middle East traveled to the area. There they could watch the latest American movies in more than 20 neighborhood theaters. But, the 15-year Lebanese civil war, that began in 1975, led many writers and artists to flee the area. And many of the movie houses closed down. By the end of the war in 1990, even the small theaters had closed.

But, now theater life has returned to Hamra with the opening of the first neighborhood movie theater in the district in about 10 years. The Prime on Bliss⁷ Street is just across the street from the American University of Beirut. The theater has large, modern screens and the latest, high-quality sound equipment.

The theater’s manager, Jean Elhelou, says moviegoers like the surround-sound and big screens that capture the special effects of the major action films.

“Customers are now are different from the customers from the past, because in the past there were no technologies. The people in the past were coming to watch a movie, to watch and listen to the story. There were no technologies in the movies. But right now we have a lot of technologies.”

But one thing has not changed -- the types of movies that are being shown. The films at the Prime are mainly American or European instead of Arab films. But, Jean Elhelou says this is what the moviegoers want.  

“The Lebanese people love to know everything about the European and the American style and they want to live like the European guys or the USA guys so that’s why they are addicted⁸ to see people how they are acting⁹ outside Lebanon and they want to act like them.”

Local people say they used to go to the Hamra theaters during the civil war to forget their troubles. This latest generation of moviegoers may now do the same.

That’s As It Is for today. I’m June Simms. Thanks for joining us.

Stay tuned¹⁰ for VOA world news at the beginning of every hour Universal Time.

And remember, we want to hear about the issues and ideas that matter to you, in your world, As It Is.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

3 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 clement   

adj.仁慈的；温和的

参考例句：

• A clement judge reduced his sentence.一位仁慈的法官为他减了刑。
• The planet's history contains many less stable and clement eras than the holocene.地球的历史包含着许多不如全新世稳定与温和的地质时期。

6 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

7 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

8 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》