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【vol.26】花式英语加长版|一个苏联老电影《马戏团》
W:OK, so this is a film called, The Circus. It's kind of like the Russian version of It's a Wonderful Life. It's that classic black and white movie that comes on TV all the time, that's heartwarming, that everybody knows. But then when I saw what was happening, I was like, what is happening? Um, yeah, I'm going to hit Play.
M:OK.
W: So there's this beautiful blonde woman. She's singing in the center of the circus tent. She's an American who has come to Russia to perform. And then this man just starts screaming, stop the show, stop the show.
W: So let me explain who he is. He's German. To be honest, he looks a little like Hitler-- the mustache, or whatever.
M:Oh, and it's 1936, so Hitler's on the rise.
W:Yes. And he's in love with this American circus star, but she's rejected him. And so to get revenge, he is going to reveal her secret to the world, the secret that she's been keeping throughout the entire film. And then he brings out this black baby.
M:Then the baby's, like, a toddler size.
W:Yeah, maybe two. And then the German, he runs up the stairs, and he holds the baby up, almost like Simba. And he starts shaking the baby and screaming, she slept with a Negro.
W:She gave birth to a black child.
M：You're reading the subtitles?
W:Now, he's shaking this child over and over again. He's like, a black child, a black child.
W:And then this guy comes up to him, this Russian guy in the audience. And he's like, what's the problem? And the German guy says, it's a black child. A white woman gave birth to a black child.
M:And while the Russian guy just literally shrugged his shoulders.
W:Yeah, he shrugged his shoulders. And he says, so what?
W:And the German guy goes off on this speech and puts the baby down. And the toddler, he just sort of walks off. And people in the audience, they sweep the baby up in their arms.
M:To protect the baby from this guy.
W:Yeah. And so they're passing this black kid around, all of these white Russian folks.
M:And they're laughing at the guy.
W: Yeah. He's like, why are you laughing? Why is this funny? Remember, it's 1936. In the US, we're more than 30 years before interracial marriage is legal everywhere.
I mean, it's Jim Crow. Black people are still being lynched. And to see this scene where this guy is being told, by all these white people, mind you, you're crazy, this is no big deal, I'm like, what is happening here? And as I started to do more research, I learned that this was part of Soviet propaganda for decades-- this message, America is racist, WE are not.
In the 1920s and 1930s, African-Americans, they actually moved to the Soviet Union because it was promising a better life. The boy in the film, that black baby, is actually the son of an African-American who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
英文来源：This American Life
https://shortcut.thisamericanlife.org/#/clipping/694?_k=x7qajz
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W:OK, so this is a film called, The Circus. It's kind of like the Russian version of It's a Wonderful Life. It's that classic black and white movie that comes on TV all the time, that's heartwarming, that everybody knows. But then when I saw what was happening, I was like, what is happening? Um, yeah, I'm going to hit Play.
M:OK.
W: So there's this beautiful blonde woman. She's singing in the center of the circus tent. She's an American who has come to Russia to perform. And then this man just starts screaming, stop the show, stop the show.
W: So let me explain who he is. He's German. To be honest, he looks a little like Hitler-- the mustache, or whatever.
M:Oh, and it's 1936, so Hitler's on the rise.
W:Yes. And he's in love with this American circus star, but she's rejected him. And so to get revenge, he is going to reveal her secret to the world, the secret that she's been keeping throughout the entire film. And then he brings out this black baby.
M:Then the baby's, like, a toddler size.
W:Yeah, maybe two. And then the German, he runs up the stairs, and he holds the baby up, almost like Simba. And he starts shaking the baby and screaming, she slept with a Negro.
W:She gave birth to a black child.
M：You're reading the subtitles?
W:Now, he's shaking this child over and over again. He's like, a black child, a black child.
W:And then this guy comes up to him, this Russian guy in the audience. And he's like, what's the problem? And the German guy says, it's a black child. A white woman gave birth to a black child.
M:And while the Russian guy just literally shrugged his shoulders.
W:Yeah, he shrugged his shoulders. And he says, so what?
W:And the German guy goes off on this speech and puts the baby down. And the toddler, he just sort of walks off. And people in the audience, they sweep the baby up in their arms.
M:To protect the baby from this guy.
W:Yeah. And so they're passing this black kid around, all of these white Russian folks.
M:And they're laughing at the guy.
W: Yeah. He's like, why are you laughing? Why is this funny? Remember, it's 1936. In the US, we're more than 30 years before interracial marriage is legal everywhere.
I mean, it's Jim Crow. Black people are still being lynched. And to see this scene where this guy is being told, by all these white people, mind you, you're crazy, this is no big deal, I'm like, what is happening here? And as I started to do more research, I learned that this was part of Soviet propaganda for decades-- this message, America is racist, WE are not.
In the 1920s and 1930s, African-Americans, they actually moved to the Soviet Union because it was promising a better life. The boy in the film, that black baby, is actually the son of an African-American who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
英文来源：This American Life
https://shortcut.thisamericanlife.org/#/clipping/694?_k=x7qajz