(本文选自《经济学人》20201003期)
背景介绍：
提起湖南湘潭，我们首先想到的便是槟榔，湘潭有着槟榔之乡的美誉，槟榔在湘潭有着悠久的历史。据称，1779年（乾隆四十四年），湘潭发生了一场大疫，湘潭城内的居民纷纷患上了臌胀病，县令白景将药用槟榔分发给患者嚼之，随后人们的臌胀病便好了，自那以后，湘潭人便逐渐养成了嚼槟榔的习惯。那么，让人越嚼嚼上瘾的槟榔究竟是毒药还是解药呢？
A risky stimulant thrives in China’s capital of chewing
Despite the danger to health, the betel-nut industry is booming
Betel nuts
assail
the nostrils before they thrill the tongue. At a shop in Xiangtan, a city in the central province of Hunan, they are sold in a dried form—dark and wrinkled in blue-and-white porcelain bowls, with flavourings of spice, mint, orange and cinnamon oil. They sell for a few yuan apiece (under $1).
当一颗槟榔入口，首先感受到其滋味的不是舌头，而是鼻子。在中国中部湖南省湘潭市的一家商店里，一个青花瓷瓶子里装着炒干的、发黑的、皱巴巴的、辅以香料、薄荷、陈皮、肉桂油等佐料的槟榔。每颗槟榔的售价不过几块钱（不到1美元）。
A local song celebrates their ability to induce a bit of a buzz: “The more you chew the betel nut, the livelier you’ll feel...Spit one out and pop another in.” People in Xiangtan exchange them in greeting. From teenagers to elderly
mah-jong
players, the city’s residents
chomp
furiously to get their fix of the nut’s main stimulant, arecoline.
当地一首民谣更是展现了槟榔让人“上头”的能力：“槟榔越嚼越有劲，这口出来那口进。”湘潭人打招呼的方式便是递上一颗槟榔。从朝气蓬勃的年轻人到爱打麻将的老年人，这座城市的人们在槟榔碱（槟榔中一种主要的兴奋剂成分）的刺激下疯狂地嚼着槟榔。
In 2017 China’s regulators named arecoline as a
carcinogen
(long after the World Health Organisation had done so). Also that year doctors in Hunan published findings that oral submucous fibrosis, a disease from chewing betel nuts that often leads to cancer, was “widespread” in the province, with rates much higher than elsewhere in China.
2017年，中国监管机构将槟榔碱列为致癌物质（比世卫组织晚了几年）。同年，据湖南的医生公布的一项研究结果显示，口腔黏膜下纤维化病变（一种因嚼槟榔而导致的疾病，严重者甚至会发展为癌症）的发生在湖南省“非常普遍”，其发病率远高于中国其他地区。
They predicted oral-cancer cases would become a “humanitarian
catastrophe
” in Hunan, rising from almost 25,000 in 2016 to 300,000 in 2030. Something to chew on, you would think.
他们预测，湖南省口腔癌患者的人数或将从2016年的近2.5万例激增至2030年的30万例，并最终将演变成一场“人道主义灾难”。你可能会想，这东西有什么好嚼的呢。
Yet demand for the nut is swelling. Sales at the largest firms are growing at a yearly rate of 10%, according to the Hunan Betel-Nut Association in Xiangtan, where the industry took off in the 1980s (it was already well-established across the Asia-Pacific).
然而，人们对槟榔的需求量却越来越大。据位于湘潭的湖南省槟榔协会的数据显示，最大的槟榔生产商的年销售额正在以10%的速度增长。湘潭的槟榔产业于上世纪80年代起步，如今已在整个亚太地区占据了主导地位。
The business employs over 2m of Hunan’s 41m working-age adults. Most of them are involved in processing the betel nuts, which are the berries of areca palm trees. These are mainly grown on Hainan, a tropical-island province 1,000km away (where a peddler selling fresh nuts is pictured).
在湖南省的4100万劳动适龄人口中，有200多万人从事槟榔产业的相关工作，其中大多数人参与了槟榔的加工。槟榔是槟榔树的果实，其主要生长在距离湖南1000公里开外的热带岛屿省份海南岛上（图中所示正是一位售卖新鲜槟榔的小贩）。
In February, as cases of covid-19 soared in China, the National Health Commission even included betel nuts in a
prescription
based on traditional Chinese medicine for removing “dampness in the lung”. Firms in Hunan province handed out mask-and-betel-nut care packages to taxi drivers and street cleaners.
今年2月，随着新冠肺炎疫情的爆发，国家卫健委甚至将槟榔列入一份祛除“肺湿”的中医处方中。湖南省一些槟榔生产企业还向出租车司机和环卫工人发放含有“口罩和槟榔”的防疫健康包。
The head of a betel-nut association on Hainan island told state media a story often recounted in Xiangtan: a monk there survived a plague in the 17th century by continuous chewing of the nut.
海南省槟榔协会的负责人向官方媒体讲述了一个在湖南湘潭广为流传的故事：17世纪，湘潭的一个僧人正是靠着不断嚼槟榔而在一场瘟疫中活了下来。
The sector is adept at
deflecting
concerns. In March 2019 the association in Xiangtan said it was banning advertisements by local betel-nut firms. That seemed encouraging—until it emerged that, even under questioning by state media about the purpose of the move, the group would not admit to health concerns.
该行业善于解除人们的顾虑。2019年3月，湖南省槟榔协会表示，将禁止当地槟榔生产企业投放广告。这似乎还算不错——直到有消息传出，即使在官方媒体质疑此举目的的情况下，该协会仍绝口不提槟榔的健康问题。
Compliance with the order was
patchy
. Since August a comedy show, “Deyun Laugh Club”, has been watched 500m times. Among its sponsors is Wu Zi Zui (“Five Drunk Men”), one of Hunan’s biggest betel-nut producers. Opening ads for its goji-flavoured betel nut promise that chewing it will make watching the show “even more fun”.
而企业也并非都会执行禁令。自去年8月以来，喜剧综艺节目《德云斗笑社》的播放量已超过5亿，作为其赞助商之一的“伍子醉”正是湖南省最大的槟榔生产商之一。其在节目开场广告中毫不避讳地宣传着它的枸杞味槟榔——嚼槟榔，听相声“更乐一点”。
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
槟榔在湖南有着悠久的历史，而湖南槟榔最早始于湘潭。在湖南湘潭，有许多关于槟榔的民谣，“湘潭人是个宝，口里含根草”、吊吊手，街上走，嚼槟榔，交朋友”、“槟榔越嚼越有劲，这口出来那口进，交朋结友打园台，避瘟开胃解油性”，从这些广为流产的民谣中不难看出湘潭人对槟榔的热爱。即使越来越多的研究提出了槟榔可能存在的健康危害，但湘潭的槟榔却仍在蓬勃发展。
重难点词汇：
assail
[əˈseɪl] vt. 攻击；质问
mah-jong
[ma:'dʒɔŋ] n. 麻将
chomp
[tʃɑːmp] vi. 咬响牙齿；切齿
carcinogen
[kɑːrˈsɪnədʒən] n. 致癌物质
catastrophe
