中國農民在自制潛艇裏找到新生活

In the village where he was born, a Chinese chicken breeder emerged from a lake of green to tell of his life beneath the waves in a homemade orange submarine.

一位中國養雞戶在他家鄉碧綠的湖水中，坐着自制的橙色潛艇，冒險沉入水下。

Tan Yong bolted together his two-tonne craft, christened the "Happy Lamb" after a popular cartoon character, in just nine months and has steered it down to depths of eight metres.

譚勇將自己固定在他兩噸重的潛艇裏。他用了一個流行卡通人物的名字——“喜羊羊”來命名自己的潛艇。只用了9個月製作的潛艇，已經能夠深入8米水下。

The 44-year-old is one of the growing ranks of rural Chinese do-it-yourself inventors whose individualism contrasts with the collective farming of past decades.

44歲的他是新興的中國農民自創發明家中的一員，這種個性思想與過去幾十年間集體務農生活形成了鮮明對比。

In his electric vessel, gauges and air pressure dials were screwed to the cabin wall above plastic piping that would look appropriate beneath a kitchen sink, while handwritten operating instructions were stuck up with sticky tape. Electric cables spewed from an array of fuseboxes, and a gas canister was positioned on the floor.

在他的電力潛艇中，用螺栓將儀表和空壓計固定在艙壁上，下面是塑料管道，看上去剛好處在一個廚用水槽下方，手寫的操作說明用膠帶粘在上面。保險絲盒中的電線頭四散開來，地面上還擺放着一個瓦斯罐。

"This is the air pump, it's used for going up and down," Tan explained, adding nonchalantly: "I haven't installed any kind of escape device."

“這是空氣泵，用來控制上浮和下沉”。譚解釋道，並且毫不在意補充道：“我沒有安裝任何逃生設備。”

Tan was born just two years after the Beatles released their 1968 hit Yellow Submarine, but he grew up in rural poverty and says he does not know any songs about coloured underwater vessels.

譚出生的前2年，正值披頭士樂隊發佈1968年大碟黃色潛水艇，但他在貧苦的農村長大，從沒聽過什麼關於彩色潛水器的歌曲。

At a national level China has increasing naval ambitions and Tan, who makes his living selling chickens, first hatched the idea of building a submarine two years ago, launching a prototype in March.

從國家層面，中國的發展海軍的雄心日益增強。而對於依靠養雞生活的譚，第一次萌發出製造潛艇的想法還是在兩年前，今年三月才完成了船的雛形。

"I never studied this in school, I've based everything on my imagination," he said. "I can stay underwater for 45 minutes."

“上學時我從未學過這些，我只能憑藉自己想象來做”，他說道，“現在我的潛艇能在水下待上45分鐘。”

He scraped an extra layer of sealant around the portholes before waving cheerily as he closed the hatch, emblazoned with a red Communist-style star.

潛艇艙門上鑲嵌着一枚象徵共產主義的紅色五角星，關上艙門前，他又在舷窗邊緣塗上一層密封膠，並向人們熱烈地揮了揮手。

The craft -- powered by five car batteries -- chugged away from the banks of the Danjiangkou reservoir, with a friend aboard and many more of them cheering as they looked on from beneath a grove of orange trees.

這艘船由五塊車用電池驅動，轟鳴着離開丹江口水庫的岸邊。譚的朋友等在岸邊的橘子林中，很多人翹首期盼，發出歡呼聲。

The engine whirred and bubbles rippled the lake's still surface as it gently descended, leaving a barely visible outline before disappearing entirely.

發動機呼呼地噴出氣泡，靜靜的湖面上出現一片漣漪，潛艇緩慢下沉，留下一道痕跡，之後完全消失在水中。

But his mother stayed away from the demonstration.

但譚的母親距離人羣遠遠的。

"He's had a habit of making things since he was small. Toys, boats, model guns and things like that," said Wang Mingfeng, 65.

“他從小就愛好做東西。做些玩具、船、槍模等，只要他喜歡就做。”65歲的王明峯說。

"I don't dare to watch, I'm too scared it's unsafe."

“我不敢看，我害怕太危險。”

'Peasant Da Vincis'

農民達芬奇

Launching himself into the life aquatic, Tan is one of a number of amateur inventors -- dubbed "Peasant Da Vincis" -- who have in recent years bashed together home made planes, helicopters and even tanks, apparently with little consideration of practical value.

投入到自己水上事業，譚成爲衆多的業餘發明家中的一員，他自詡爲“農民達芬奇”。最近幾年，這些業餘發明家遭遇到廣泛批評，因爲他們自己製作飛機、直升機甚至是坦克，明顯缺乏實用性考慮。

They include a hairdresser from Zhejiang province, who built a one-seater aeroplane with wheels from a motorised wheelchair and a seat scavenged from a go-kart.

他們中包括浙江的一名理髮師，製作了單座飛機，飛機輪子是從殘疾輪椅上拆卸下來，而座位則來自卡丁車。

In late 2012 a farmer in Hebei province grabbed worldwide headlines ahead of the supposed Mayan apocalypse with a range of "survival pods" hewn from fiberglass.

2012年底，一位河北農民登上世界各國媒體頭條，設想用玻璃纖維切削成的一組“生存艙”來實現瑪雅啓示錄。

This year, the creations took a military turn when Jian Lin, a 31-year-old farmer, drove a homemade tank through a village in Sichuan province.

今年，有些創意甚至引發軍方注意，31歲的農民林建駕駛自制坦克行駛在四川省的一個農村。

Tao Xiangli, a young man from a remote spot in eastern Anhui province who now lives in the capital, blazed a trail into the depths in 2010 with a home-made submarine featured in a Shanghai exhibition on the work of eight rural tinkerers.

陶相禮——一位安徽省東部偏僻地區的年輕人，在2010年進一步深化了這種嘗試，將八個鄉村修理工自制的潛水艇搬上了上海展覽會的展臺。目前他已經到省會生活。

"They are determined and fearless, in that they are not afraid of mockery from others," the show's curator, artist Cai Guo-qiang told AFP.

“他們執着並且無畏，實施過程中也不在乎別人的嘲笑。”此次表演的組織者，藝術家蔡國強對AFP的記者說。

"People in the countryside under the Communist regime used to collectively work and live together, and there was no room for individualism," he added.

“共產黨體制下，鄉村的人們習慣於進行集體工作和生活，而個人主義沒有發展空間。”他補充道。

"The emergence of peasant Da Vincis also implies that the creativity of peasants in China is slowly taking shape and gaining traction."

農民達芬奇的出現也預示着中國農民的創造力正在慢慢彰顯，並且吸引力在不斷增加。

'Crushed like plastic'

就像擠壓塑料

A silence hung over the lake in Hubei province as Tan lingered undetectable to those on the shore.

湖北的這片湖面一片寧靜，譚在岸上徘徊時根本無法感覺到。

Tan's underwater journeys have not always been smooth, and he told earlier of a scary moment eight metres down.

譚 的水下之旅並非一帆風順，他說 距離水下8米那個危險的時刻還早。

"There's a lot of water pressure on the steel panels, they were crushed like a plastic bottle," he said. "I was very nervous. And then there was a large banging sound.

“潛艇鋼板承載了強大的水壓，就像被壓的塑料瓶子一樣”。他說，“我非常緊張，隨後產生了巨大的撞擊聲。”

"I can guarantee its safe down to 10 metres. After that, it's uncertain."

“我能保證它可以安全的下潛到10米。更深的地方，我不敢保證。”

But minutes after diving, the submarine's red star broke surface again, and Tan reemerged. "No problem!" he said with a grin.

但只過了幾分鐘，潛水艇上的紅色五角星再次露出水面，譚也隨着潛水艇浮出來。“沒有任何問題！”他微笑着說。

He has commandeered a shed outside his parents' ramshackle farmhouse as a personal workshop, where scrap metal litters the dirt floors.

他強佔了他父母快要倒塌的農屋外的一間小棚子作爲加工車間，髒亂的地上四處丟着廢金屬板。

Tan claims materials for the submarine cost him just 30,000 yuan ($5,000), though admits the time spent on its construction put strains on his marriage.

譚稱制作潛水艇的原材料大約花了他3萬元，但坦誠將時間用在製作潛水艇上，也導致他的婚姻出現危機。

"If I make another submarine, I will get down to 30 or 50 metres without any problems, I'll just make the steel a bit thicker," he said.

“如果我再做一艘，下潛到30到50米絕對沒有問題。只需要把鋼板再加厚一點。”他說。

But his eight-year-old son Tan Junfeng added a note of scepticism. "Our family doesn't have much money, and Dad's spent it all," he said. "So I don't think he'll be making another one."

但他八歲的兒子譚峻峯卻對此表示懷疑。“我們家裏沒有多少錢，並且爸爸已經把錢全花光了。”他說道。“所以我認爲他沒法再製作一艘。”