Deadspin | Competitive Oyster Shucking Is Real, Decadent, And China's Best Party
Many people who visit Beijing take special pleasure in doing a thing they often do, but on the Great Wall.
许多来北京的人都会特别高兴做一件他们经常做的事情，不过是在长城上。
Shotgunning a beer on the Great Wall.
在长城上用霰弹枪喝啤酒。
Lighting a cigar on the Great Wall.
在长城上点燃雪茄。
Making a sandwich and then eating it on the Great Wall.
做一个三明治，然后在长城上吃。
I have personally seen a used condom on the Great Wall.
我曾亲眼在长城上看到过用过的避孕套。
In May 2018, Rudy Guo decided to try something a little different.
2018年5月，郭鲁迪决定尝试一些不同的东西。
He hauled 10 dozen oysters up the 3,000-foot hills outside of Beijing and organized a 60-person shucking competition on the Great Wall.
他将 10 打牡蛎拖上北京郊外 3000 英尺高的山丘，并在长城上组织了一场 60 人的剥壳比赛。
Shucking is the act of opening an oyster and severing its meat from the shell so that it’s ready for someone to slurp.
剥壳是打开牡蛎并将其肉从壳上分离出来的行为，以便人们可以享用。
Competitive shucking is doing this action over and over again at a lightning-fast pace in the presence of timers and judges.
竞争性脱壳是在计时器和裁判在场的情况下以闪电般的速度一遍又一遍地进行这一动作。
The Great Wall Shuck Off was doing all of this, against people from 11 different countries, many of whom were jetlagged and had just flown to Asia for the first time in their lives, on the Great Wall.
长城脱降正在做这一切，对手是来自 11 个不同国家的人们，其中许多人都在倒时差，而且刚刚在长城上有生以来第一次飞往亚洲。
Shuck offs are more common and better attended than you may think.
脱壳比你想象的更常见，也更受关注。
Many in the sport’s small, die-hard community of restaurant-professionals-turned-fanatics travel internationally to compete every year.
在这项运动的小而顽固的社区中，许多人每年都会出国参加比赛，这些社区由餐厅专业人士转变为狂热分子。
Oyster-shucking contests have existed informally since God knows when among the rocky coasts of fishing villages, but in recent years, they’ve become more international, more boozy, more likely to be sponsored by champagne labels or big hot sauce brands.
不知道什么时候，剥牡蛎比赛就在渔村的岩石海岸上非正式地存在了，但近年来，它们变得更加国际化，更加酗酒，更有可能得到香槟品牌或大型辣酱品牌的赞助。
And, as befits something undergoing international corporatization, the competitions are more likely to be in China.
而且，与正在进行国际公司化的事物相适应，竞争更有可能在中国进行。
Beijing is increasingly international, but parts of it are still just lawless enough that you can offload a horde of day-drinkers for a contest that heavily involves knives on a UNESCO World Heritage Site and no one will give a shit.
北京越来越国际化，但它的部分地区仍然无法无天，以至于你可以让一群白天喝酒的人在联合国教科文组织世界遗产地参加一场涉及刀具的比赛，但没有人会在意。
This is what Guo did.
郭就是这样做的。
He and his team packed crates full of fine, imported oysters—the kind with French names that you can sell for $10 a pop or include on a pricey tiered seafood platter—and hauled them up hundreds of stairs.
他和他的团队装满了精美的进口牡蛎——这种带有法国名字的牡蛎，每只可以卖 10 美元，或者放在昂贵的分层海鲜拼盘上——然后把它们拖上数百级楼梯。
And Guo did all of this just for the sake of putting on an exhibition contest.
而郭所做的这一切，只是为了举办一场表演赛。
What the competitors were really in town for was the China Shuck Off World Cup, which was scheduled for the following day.
参赛者真正来到城里的是定于第二天举行的中国世界杯。
The scores from the Great Wall Shuck Off may not have counted for anything, but the day has lingered heavily in shucker lore ever since.
长城脱壳的分数可能没有任何意义，但从那时起，这一天就在脱壳传说中深深地存在了。
Yes, competitive oyster shuckers have lore.
是的，竞争性的剥牡蛎者有传说。
They have a culture.
他们有一种文化。
And the next day, the Wall having been conquered, they brought this with them to the World Cup, where, amid flowing champagne and a bacchanalian disregard for oyster waste, the shucking champion would be crowned.
第二天，柏林墙被攻克后，他们把这个带到了世界杯，在那里，在流淌的香槟和对牡蛎浪费的疯狂漠视中，剥壳冠军将加冕。
“On the count of three!” the emcee bellowed into the microphone.
“数到三！”主持人对着麦克风吼道。
He stood on stage alongside four men, who hovered tensely over trays full of oysters, tiny knives in hand.
他和四个男人一起站在舞台上，他们手里拿着小刀，紧张地盘旋在装满牡蛎的托盘上。
“Three, two, one …
“三、二、一……
SHUCK!
嘘！
SHUCK!
嘘！
SHUCK!”
嘘！
The crowd hoisted their fists in the air and chanted, “SHUCK!” until they were out of breath, stopping to sip gin and tonics or IPAs or chardonnay.
人群高举拳头，高呼“Shuck！”直到他们气喘吁吁，停下来喝杜松子酒和补品、IPA 或霞多丽。
Then they’d return to full-throated shouting, as if they were at Bonnaroo for oyster nerds.
然后他们又会放声大喊，就像是在博纳罗的牡蛎爱好者那里一样。
The men on stage grimaced as they picked oysters like locks, twisting their wrists, sweating.
台上的男人们一边捏着牡蛎，一边扭着手腕，满头大汗。
As heats and competitors shuffled on and off the stage, fans and contestants skulled beers and tipped their wine glasses to one other.
当预赛和参赛者在舞台上走来走去时，球迷和参赛者互相倒着啤酒，互相倾斜酒杯。
A bearded man with a vaguely European accent flitted around the party, offering tequila shots off a plastic tray to the masses in novelty T-shirts.
一名蓄着胡须、带着隐约欧洲口音的男子在派对上走来走去，用塑料托盘向穿着新奇 T 恤的群众提供龙舌兰酒。
One group wore matching shirts that read “Get Shucked.” Others said “Shuck It Up!” One man’s shirt simply indicated that he was the fastest oyster shucker in Maine.
其中一组穿着配套的衬衫，上面写着“Get Shucked”。其他人则表示“闭嘴吧！”一名男子的衬衫简单地表明他是缅因州最快的牡蛎剥壳者。
The people gathered there that day were mostly restaurant and food professionals, who the emcee described as “the rockstars of the shellfish world.”
那天聚集在那里的人大多是餐厅和食品专业人士，主持人将他们描述为“贝类世界的摇滚明星”。
I had been quietly sipping champagne on the sidelines and sneaking selfies with a six-foot cardboard cutout of an oyster when one of the rockstars from Canada approached me.
当一位来自加拿大的摇滚明星向我走来时，我正在场边静静地喝着香槟，并偷偷地用六英尺厚的牡蛎纸板自拍。
Because it was 2 p.m.
因为当时是下午 2 点。
and we were both drinking, he pointed to my glass and said, “Nice.” He raised his fist in a signal I recognized from parties back home.
我们都在喝酒，他指着我的杯子说：“很好。”他举起了拳头，这是我从家乡的聚会上听出来的信号。
I responded instinctually.
我本能地回应道。
I curled my thumb around my forefingers.
我将拇指卷曲在食指上。
I pressed them to his.
我把它们压在他的身上。
Our comradeship confirmed, we downed our drinks.
我们的友谊得到了证实，我们喝完了酒。
A spectator would later tell me: “I never heard the phrase ‘oyster community’ before today, but now I’ve heard it a million times.” This was the moment I stepped inside that community.
一位旁观者后来告诉我：“今天之前我从未听说过‘牡蛎社区’这个词，但现在我已经听过一百万次了。”这是我踏入那个社区的那一刻。
The thing is, none of the people who competed in the World Cup that year are really the fastest shuckers in the world.
问题是，那一年参加世界杯的人都不是世界上速度最快的人。
Shucking’s true, unsung speedsters are the middle-aged women who work at the massive oyster canneries that line the Yellow Sea.
Shucking 真正的无名速度者是在黄海沿岸大型牡蛎罐头厂工作的中年妇女。
But they’ve never heard of the Shuck Off World Cup, Guo tells me, and if they had, their bosses wouldn’t let them come anyway.
但郭告诉我，他们从来没有听说过“甩掉世界杯”，即使听说过，他们的老板也不会让他们来。
They’re busy producing 80 percent of the world’s farmed oysters.
他们正忙于生产世界上 80% 的养殖牡蛎。
Oysters come in two classes in China: There’s the everyman’s oyster, whose shells are grilled and topped with garlic chunks, more likely to be guzzled down with local beer than fine wine.
在中国，牡蛎分为两类：一种是普通牡蛎，其壳经过烤制，上面撒上大蒜块，更适合搭配当地啤酒而不是上等葡萄酒。
They’re a barbecue meat, and China’s original fast food–Chinese people began selling them from carts, like hot dogs on Coney Island, as long ago as the Qing dynasty.
它们是一种烧烤肉，也是中国最初的快餐——早在清朝，中国人就开始用推车出售它们，就像康尼岛上的热狗一样。
These are the ones shucked by, as Guo puts it, “insanely fast lady shuckers.”
正如郭所说，这些人是“速度极快的女士脱壳者”。
Then there’s the upper class of oysters: raw, on the half shell, imported.
然后是上层牡蛎：生的、带半壳的、进口的。
Ten years ago, Guo was a restaurateur in Shanghai who could hardly get anyone in China to care about this kind of oyster.
十年前，郭是上海的一位餐馆老板，他在中国很难让任何人关心这种牡蛎。
Guo was born in Fujian, a southern coastal province, where the local oysters are fried up in omelets and dunked in broths.
郭出生在南部沿海省份福建，当地的牡蛎被煎成煎蛋卷，泡在肉汤里。
But he came of age in Toronto, where yuppies slurp them on the half shell, and where he says his buddy’s restaurant invented the “buck-a-shuck,” the original dollar-oyster happy hour.
但他在多伦多长大，那里的雅皮士们喜欢吃半壳牡蛎，他说他朋友的餐馆发明了“buck-a shuck”，即最初的一美元牡蛎欢乐时光。
Guo noticed Chinese customers loved the deal.
郭注意到中国客户喜欢这笔交易。
They’d “come in, order 100 oysters and two warm waters, and eat and go,” he said.
他们“进来，点 100 个牡蛎和两杯温水，吃完就走，”他说。
He moved back to China to launch its first-ever Western-style oyster bar.
他回到中国，开设了第一家西式牡蛎吧。
When he arrived in Shanghai, mainland China’s most Western, international city, there was only one company importing one variety of oysters from the U.S. If you wanted another kind, you had to smuggle it across the Hong Kong border.
当他到达中国大陆最西端的国际城市上海时，只有一家公司从美国进口一种牡蛎。如果你想要另一种牡蛎，就必须通过香港边境走私。
Not that anyone wanted them.
并不是说有人想要它们。
An oyster filters 50 gallons of water each day, and here Guo was telling people in the world’s most polluted country to eat them raw.
一只牡蛎每天可以过滤 50 加仑的水，郭在这里告诉世界上污染最严重的国家的人们生吃牡蛎。
He began hosting promotions and small festivals to “spread oyster culture,” and things started to change.
他开始举办促销活动和小型节日来“传播牡蛎文化”，事情开始发生变化。
And as he promoted raw oysters, Shanghai got richer.
随着他推广生蚝，上海变得更加富裕。
As Shanghai got richer, its upper-class diners were starting to look down on any food produced in their own country, and suddenly importers started bringing more oyster species to Shanghai.
随着上海变得更加富裕，上流社会的食客开始看不起自己国家生产的任何食品，突然进口商开始将更多的牡蛎品种带到上海。
Meanwhile, back in Canada, a weird sport was kicking off.
与此同时，在加拿大，一场奇怪的运动正在拉开帷幕。
Oyster shucking as sport began in 1954 with the first Galway International Oyster Festival in Ireland, but as the competition grew to include more people from around the world, shuckers complained that the use of local oysters put non-Irish competitors at a disadvantage.
剥牡蛎这项运动始于 1954 年爱尔兰首届戈尔韦国际牡蛎节，但随着比赛规模不断扩大，来自世界各地的参与者越来越多，剥牡蛎的人抱怨说，使用当地牡蛎使非爱尔兰竞争对手处于不利地位。
So alternative shucking competitions began sprouting up elsewhere, and the Canadians ended up running with it.
因此，另类的脱壳比赛开始在其他地方兴起，而加拿大人最终也参与其中。
By the 2010s, shuck offs in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal were drawing thousands of spectators.
到了 2010 年代，温哥华、多伦多、渥太华和蒙特利尔的比赛吸引了数千名观众。
Daniel Notkin, a friend of Guo’s, was drawing between 4,000 to 6,000 spectators to his annual Montreal Shuck Off.
郭的朋友丹尼尔·诺特金 (Daniel Notkin) 每年一度吸引了 4,000 至 6,000 名观众参加蒙特利尔 Shuck Off。
Guo saw an opportunity to ratchet up the enthusiasm for his own festivals by tapping into the Canadian market.
郭看到了通过进军加拿大市场来提高自己的节日热情的机会。
In 2015, his restaurant group flew in a few Canadian shucking champions to compete in China, and by 2018 Guo was organizing China’s first World Cup.
2015年，他的餐厅集团派了几位加拿大脱壳冠军来中国比赛，到2018年，郭正在组织中国首届世界杯。
The sport found patronage in the luxury hotels mushrooming across the country.
这项运动在全国范围内如雨后春笋般涌现的豪华酒店中得到了青睐。
I first met Guo when a hotel PR person introduced him as “Rudy the Oyster Legend” at a press event for me and my fellow local magazine editors, mostly expats who drink too much.
我第一次见到郭是在一次新闻发布会上，一位酒店公关人员向我和我的当地杂志编辑同事介绍他为“牡蛎传奇鲁迪”，他们大多是酗酒的外籍人士。
I can sum up Beijing’s past few decades by telling you that the hotel where this happened was in a neighborhood that was once dominated by state-owned factories, but now is home to more free-flow brunch deals than smokestacks.
我可以总结一下北京过去几十年的情况，告诉你，发生这件事的酒店所在的街区曾经是国有工厂占主导地位的，但现在这里的早午餐交易比烟囱还多。
It is easy, as a foreigner in China, to end up in circles far more luxurious than you have any business being in, and the visiting shuckers were no exception.
作为一个在中国的外国人，很容易进入比你所从事的任何生意都奢侈得多的圈子，来访的剥皮者也不例外。
To talk to those who’ve come to the China Shuck Off since its 2015 inception is to be dunked in a bath of hedonistic nostalgia.
与那些自 2015 年举办以来一直参加“中国脱扣大赛”的人们交谈，就像沉浸在享乐主义的怀旧之中。
“Remember when we shucked at that banquet in Fujian?” one dude reminisced.
“还记得我们在福建的那场宴会上脱壳吗？”一位伙计回忆道。
“There was like a red carpet and shit.”
“就像是一条红地毯和狗屎。”
When not boozing together at shuck offs, Western shuckers gather on social media platforms that are banned in China, marking themselves in their usernames, which include: @theoystergirl, @theoysterlady, @the.art.of.the.shuck, @twogirlsoneshuck, @justforshucks, @awweshucks, @shuckbrothers.
当不一起喝酒时，西方的帅哥们就会聚集在中国被禁止的社交媒体平台上，在用户名中标记自己，其中包括：@theoystergirl、@theoysterlady、@the.art.of.the.shuck、@twogirlsoneshuck、@justforshucks、@awweshucks、@shuckbrothers。
There is even a resident troll, @shuckinhell, who posts photos of poorly shucked oysters to the community’s rapturous delight.
甚至还有一个居民喷子@shuckinhell，他发布了去壳不佳的牡蛎的照片，让社区欣喜若狂。
(Bio: “Naming and shaming restaurants who don’t give a shit about oysters.
（简介：“点名羞辱那些不关心牡蛎的餐馆。
Shuck Oysters like a shitbird to get featured on our page.”)
像拉屎鸟一样剥牡蛎，以便在我们的页面上获得推荐。”）
In the west, working in the restaurant industry can be an identity.
在西方，在餐饮业工作可以成为一种身份。
This is particularly true in Montreal, famous for bacchanalian feasts like those at Joe Beef; even the New Yorker has weighed in on the city’s hard-partying restaurant culture.
在蒙特利尔尤其如此，这里以 Joe Beef 等酒神节盛宴而闻名。就连《纽约客》也对这座城市的狂欢餐厅文化进行了评论。
A shucker from Montreal quoted a female friend who once told him: “You know you’re getting older when you’re not doing cocaine off your oyster knife anymore.”
蒙特利尔的一位剥壳者引用了一位女性朋友的话说：“当你不再用牡蛎刀吸食可卡因时，你就知道自己变老了。”
But in China, working in a restaurant is just a job.
但在中国，在餐馆打工只是一份工作。
There is a far clearer divide between those enjoying the spoils of the country’s economic boom and those holding it all together, and nowhere is this more evident than in a high-end restaurant.
那些享受国家经济繁荣成果的人和那些维持经济繁荣的人之间存在着明显的分歧，这一点在高档餐厅中表现得最为明显。
The ultra-wealthy are multiplying, and so are the slang terms that categorize them: tuhao, nouveau riche; fu’erdai, second-generation rich; guan’erdai, those wealthy from their government connections.
超级富豪不断增多，对他们进行分类的俚语也在不断增加：“土豪”、“暴发户”、“土豪”、“暴发户”等。富二代，富二代；官二代，指那些因政府关系而富有的人。
Bosses at these wealthy playgrounds—China has less of a bar-hopping or club-going culture, and so the rich often party over meals—are exacting and the hours are long.
这些富裕游乐场的老板们要求严格，工作时间也很长——中国很少有泡吧或去俱乐部的文化，所以富人经常边吃饭边聚会。
Partying is for customers, never staff.
聚会是为了顾客，而不是为了员工。
Even Li remembers the first time he shucked an oyster, because it was his first day on the job at Shanghai restaurant called The Plump Oyster: February 26, 2016.
就连李也记得他第一次剥牡蛎的情景，因为那是他在上海一家名为“肥牡蛎”的餐厅工作的第一天：2016年2月26日。
It was also his first time eating an oyster—he, like all of us, thought it tasted weird at first.
这也是他第一次吃牡蛎——他和我们所有人一样，一开始觉得牡蛎味道很奇怪。
Unlike all of us, he was begging three months later to be allowed to enter a regional shuck off.
与我们所有人不同的是，三个月后他请求允许进入一个区域性的分站。
No one thought he was good enough to enter that year.
没有人认为他足够优秀，可以进入那一年。
And he shouldn’t have been.
他不应该这样。
But when he told me his story, Li reminded me of something Guo had once said to me: “You can be a very gifted shucker.
但当他向我讲述他的故事时，李让我想起了郭曾经对我说过的话：“你可以成为一个非常有天赋的剥壳者。
Sometimes you just naturally have the touch, the twist, like a gifted athlete.
有时你只是自然而然地拥有触感和扭曲，就像一个有天赋的运动员一样。
Some people are just born to be amazing athletes.” Li came to shucking with the raw, innate talent of a legend.
有些人天生就是出色的运动员。”李带着传奇人物的原始天赋开始脱壳。
He sidled his way into the 2016 contest after one of the contestants dropped out at the last minute, and then he won the whole damn thing.
2016 年，一名参赛者在最后一刻退出后，他悄悄进入了比赛，然后他赢得了整个该死的比赛。
I’d heard of Li before I met him, while standing around at a regional shuck off in Beijing, where the Canadian champs who’d flown in referred to him as “this one guy in Shanghai” with hushed reverence.
在见到李之前，我就听说过他，当时我站在北京的一家地区性小车站附近，飞来的加拿大冠军们带着低声的敬意称他为“上海的这个人”。
Li has now traveled to Ireland to compete at the Galway International Oyster Festival twice, though he doesn’t fare as well there as he does at home.
李现在已经两次前往爱尔兰参加戈尔韦国际牡蛎节，尽管他在那里的表现不如在国内。
The native oysters there are challenging, a kind he doesn’t have access to in China, where he practices on flat Belons.
那里的本土牡蛎具有挑战性，这是他在中国无法获得的一种牡蛎，他在中国的平坦贝隆斯练习。
He arrived in Ireland jealous of the other contestants who’d had a chance to practice, and the many contestants who’d been participating for years.
他到达爱尔兰时，嫉妒其他有机会练习的参赛者，以及许多多年来一直参加比赛的参赛者。
The word Li uses for “practice” can also be translated as “study.”
李用的“实践”一词也可以翻译为“学习”。
“It was Plump Oyster that sent me,” he told me.
“是 Plump Oyster 派我来的，”他告诉我。
“I’m not making enough to cover the expenses of going to Ireland.”
“我赚的钱不足以支付去爱尔兰的费用。”
Top shuckers travel for free across the world to compete, their expenses either paid by the restaurants they work for or the competitions themselves.
顶级脱壳者免费前往世界各地参加比赛，他们的费用要么由他们工作的餐厅支付，要么由比赛本身支付。
Guo’s restaurant group pays for the global champions to come to China every year to honor his original mission of “spreading oyster culture.” But many more are willing to pay their own way; as many as 20 contestants at the 2018 Shuck Off paid to enter the contest and put themselves up in luxury hotels.
郭的餐饮集团每年都会出钱邀请全球冠军来中国，以履行他“传播牡蛎文化”的初心使命。但更多的人愿意自己付钱。 2018 年 Shuck Off 比赛中，多达 20 名参赛者付费参加比赛并入住豪华酒店。
At a regional shuck off in Beijing, I met Ricky Chong, a shucker from Singapore, who pays out of pocket every year to fly to Galway.
在北京的一个地区机场，我遇到了来自新加坡的 Ricky Chong，他每年都要自掏腰包飞往戈尔韦。
This is how he spends his money; he works hard all year shucking in a restaurant so he can shuck more oysters on his vacations.
他就是这样花钱的；他整年都在一家餐馆努力剥牡蛎，这样他就可以在假期里剥更多的牡蛎。
Guo says the lack of funding keeps Chinese players out of the sport.
郭说，缺乏资金使中国运动员无法参与这项运动。
His restaurant group won’t pay for Chinese competitors that aren’t working in its own restaurants, and convincing other bosses to send their top shuckers on trips to compete is a losing game.
他的餐饮集团不会为不在自己餐厅工作的中国竞争对手付钱，说服其他老板派他们的顶级员工去竞争是一场失败的游戏。
Li’s family supports him how they can—though they never eat oysters around their own dinner tables, they’ll come by and watch him compete in Shanghai when they’re free.
李的家人尽其所能地支持他——尽管他们从来不在自己的餐桌上吃牡蛎，但只要有空，他们就会过来观看他在上海的比赛。
Matt Dean Pettit was emceeing in front of the 2019 China Shuck Off’s 500-person crowd, suffusing the whole event with a kindly bro energy, periodically shouting “GOOOO RAPTOOOORS” into the microphone.
马特·迪恩·佩蒂特 (Matt Dean Pettit) 在 2019 年 China Shuck Off 的 500 名观众面前担任主持人，他时不时地对着麦克风大喊“GOOOO RAPTOOOORS”，让整个活动充满了兄弟般的友善能量。
(It was the NBA playoffs; he’d woken up at 5 a.m.
（当时正值 NBA 季后赛；他早上 5 点就醒了。
China time to watch the Raptors play.) Pettit is a cookbook author and entrepreneur who blew up after his Toronto lobster roll truck went viral.
中国时间看猛龙队比赛。）佩蒂特是一位烹饪书作家和企业家，他的多伦多龙虾卷卡车走红后，他的事业爆发了。
He is currently trying to make freezer food cool again by marketing his hip line of microwaveable lobster bowls that feature millennial-friendly ingredients like kale and craft beer, and also hosts an Instagram show about bars with patios in Toronto.
目前，他正试图通过推广其时尚的微波炉龙虾碗系列，让冷冻食品再次变得酷起来，这些龙虾碗的特色是羽衣甘蓝和精酿啤酒等适合千禧一代的食材，他还在 Instagram 上举办了一场有关多伦多露台酒吧的节目。
You could call him a seafood influencer.
你可以称他为海鲜影响者。
“We have a couple rules here at Shuck Off,” he boomed.
“我们 Shuck Off 有几条规则，”他大声说道。
“First, we need you guys to have a cold drink in your hands at all times.”
“首先，我们需要你们手里随时有一杯冷饮。”
This is not a big ask.
这不是什么大问题。
2019 Shanghai is a thirsty city.
2019年的上海是一座饥渴的城市。
Its nightlife scene is a boozy reflection of China’s own boom, with trendier and trendier bars opening every minute, all trying to out-cocktail one another.
它的夜生活场景是中国自身繁荣的酗酒反映，每分钟都有越来越新潮的酒吧开业，所有酒吧都试图在鸡尾酒上超越彼此。
People in Shanghai drink like the bars are all about to be shut down despite this.
上海人喝酒就像酒吧都快关门了一样。
The thirsty people of Shanghai arrived in the early afternoon and began drinking immediately, supplied by cocktail tents, a prosecco stall, and craft beer taps.
口渴的上海人下午早些时候抵达，立即开始喝酒，鸡尾酒帐篷、普罗塞克酒摊和精酿啤酒龙头提供了饮料。
We were standing on a wide lawn in Shanghai’s former French Concession next to a restaurant where conspicuously dressed-down people in designer hoodies gathered for “casual” brunches of bone-in steak and lobster linguine.
我们站在上海前法租界的一片宽阔草坪上，旁边有一家餐厅，穿着名牌连帽衫、衣着朴素的人们聚集在一起，享用带骨牛排和龙虾扁面条的“休闲”早午餐。
The event was flanked by a little United Nations of oyster stalls, each marked by origin.
活动的两侧是一个小小的联合国牡蛎摊位，每个摊位都标有产地。
Each stall had a plastic spray bottle of whisky, and attendees were welcome to spritz it onto their oysters or into their mouths.
每个摊位都有一个塑料威士忌喷雾瓶，欢迎与会者将其喷到牡蛎上或嘴里。
The favorite that day was Notkin, Canada’s 2016 shucking champ and de facto ambassador for oyster culture.
那天最受欢迎的是加拿大 2016 年剥壳冠军兼事实上的牡蛎文化大使诺特金 (Notkin)。
Notkin speaks about shucking with a self-conscious humor that quickly fades to reveal his hot-blooded love for the game.
诺特金在谈到脱壳时带着一种不自然的幽默感，但很快就流露出了他对这项运动的热血热爱。
He told me about “the season, you know, the pro tour season,” laughing wryly before rattling off competitions, and, later, admitting he owns a map of shucking competitions around the world: Ottawa, Rodney’s in Toronto, the Prince Edward Island Canadians, the Montreal Oyster Fest, the PEI Shellfish Festival, something he calls “Denver, in March,” China Shuck Off, the Wellfleet Oyster Fest, and, “well, a whole bunch in British Columbia.” Now, of course, there is China.
他告诉我“这个赛季，你知道，职业巡回赛赛季”，在滔滔不绝地讲述比赛之前，他苦笑着，后来承认他拥有一张世界各地的脱壳比赛地图：渥太华、多伦多的罗德尼队、爱德华王子岛加拿大人队、蒙特利尔牡蛎节、爱德华王子岛贝类节，他称之为“三月的丹佛”、中国脱壳、韦尔弗利特牡蛎节，还有，“好吧，不列颠哥伦比亚省的一大群人。”现在，当然有中国了。
Notkin has been shucking for years—when I first reached out to him, he sent me a link to a low-budget documentary on Montreal’s shucking culture in which he stars.
诺特金多年来一直在脱壳——当我第一次联系他时，他给我发了一个由他主演的关于蒙特利尔脱壳文化的低成本纪录片的链接。
The film is about 10 years old and in it, he wears a shirt that says “iShuck.” Shucking is a family sport for Notkin: he started shucking because of his sister, who got into it after the bar she worked at had a policy against women shucking oysters.
这部电影大约有 10 年的历史，在里面，他穿着一件写着“iShuck”的衬衫。对诺特金来说，剥牡蛎是一项家庭运动：他开始剥牡蛎是因为他的妹妹，她工作的酒吧制定了禁止女性剥牡蛎的政策后，她就开始了剥牡蛎的活动。
She became the Ottawa shucking champion out of spite and then told her brother to compete.
她出于恶意成为渥太华脱壳冠军，然后告诉她的兄弟参加比赛。
Notkin is a pillar of the oyster community, and moved about the festival shaking hands with people he’d seen in previous shuck offs.
诺特金是牡蛎界的支柱，他在节日期间与他在之前的牡蛎节中见过的人们握手。
Pettit refused to introduce him onstage as anything other than “handsome Dan.” Meanwhile, Even Li was systematically demolishing his competition.
佩蒂特拒绝在台上介绍他，只称他为“英俊的丹”。与此同时，Even Li正在系统性地摧毁他的竞争对手。
Many were too busy partying to notice the day’s first event, the South China Regionals.
许多人忙着参加派对，没有注意到当天的第一个活动——华南地区赛。
But a small, dedicated mob crowded around the stage to watch a poker-faced Li shuck with unbelievable speed.
但一小群专注的人群聚集在舞台周围，观看面无表情的李以令人难以置信的速度脱壳。
The little mob cheered when he finished first, but the oysters still had to be judged.
当他第一名时，小群人欢呼起来，但牡蛎仍然需要评判。
Off to the side, two judges were meticulously poking at shucked oysters, prodding them with pens and hunting for bits of shell debris.
在旁边，两名评委正在小心翼翼地戳着去壳的牡蛎，用钢笔戳它们，寻找贝壳碎片。
Judges were working through paper rubrics for each one.
评委们正在为每一项制定纸质评分标准。
Results wouldn’t be finalized until much later.
结果要等到很久以后才能最终确定。
It wasn’t a surprise when Pettit announced, 40 minutes later, that Li had won.
40 分钟后，当佩蒂特宣布李娜获胜时，我们并不感到意外。
“Oh good,” said a U.S. oyster company rep as Li was crowned regional winner.
当李获得地区冠军时，一位美国牡蛎公司代表说道：“哦，太好了。”
“I put money on that guy.”
“我把钱押在了那个人身上。”
This qualified Li for the China Shuck Off, to be held in one hour, featuring various international champs who had flown in.
这使得李娜获得了参加中国脱钩赛的资格，该比赛将在一小时内举行，届时将有多位飞来参加的国际冠军参加。
It appeared that, just one year after the first World Cup, shucking had gone mainstream.
就在第一届世界杯结束一年后，脱壳似乎已经成为主流。
The presence of hundreds of civilian attendees diluted the booze-addled passion of the bivalve geeks, who were spread thin across the festival, doing things like helpfully explaining at-home shucking techniques to spectators.
数百名平民参加者的出现冲淡了双壳类极客酗酒的热情，他们分散在整个节日中，做一些事情，比如向观众解释家庭脱壳技术。
By the time China Shuck Off began, the sun had gone down and the audience was mostly wasted.
当《China Shuck Off》开始时，太阳已经下山了，观众大部分都被浪费了。
Li was tense as he faced off against Jaret Arias, Chong, and Notkin for the title.
当李娜与贾雷特·阿里亚斯、冲和诺特金争夺冠军头衔时，他很紧张。
Pettit took his time setting up the audience for the final show: “Who will it be, this year’s champion?” he bellowed, sounding a bit like a movie trailer voiceover.
佩蒂特花了很多时间为决赛的观众做好准备：“今年的冠军会是谁？”他吼道，听起来有点像电影预告片的画外音。
“Three, two, one …
“三、二、一……
SHUCK!”
嘘！
Spectators strained to watch as the men shucked, the minutiae of their moves obscured by their smallness and their speed, the dusky light making it even harder to see.
观众们紧张地观看着这些人的脱壳，他们动作的细节因他们的渺小和速度而变得模糊，昏暗的光线使它更难看清。
Notkin finished first, pumping his fists in the air, followed a second later by Li, offering a more relaxed smile.
诺特金首先完成了任务，他在空中挥舞着拳头，紧接着李也紧随其后，脸上露出了更加轻松的微笑。
Notkin’s finish didn’t guarantee a win, of course—their trays were quickly brought over the judge, who was now holding a small light to inspect each oyster.
当然，诺特金的完成并不能保证获胜——他们的托盘很快就被带到了法官面前，法官现在拿着一个小灯来检查每一个牡蛎。
Arias and Chong finished third and fourth.
阿里亚斯和冲获得第三和第四名。
Then they were free to mill about and grab drinks while waiting for their scores to be announced.
然后，他们可以在等待分数公布的同时自由地闲逛、喝饮料。
When the results were in, Pettit tried his hardest to gather the attention of the rambunctious crowd, stalling for suspense like a Bachelor contestant about to announce his final rose.
当结果公布后，佩蒂特竭尽全力吸引喧闹人群的注意力，像单身汉选手即将宣布他的最后一朵玫瑰花一样，拖延悬念。
“WHO WILL IT BE?” Pause.
“会是谁？”暂停。
“Ladies and gentlemen, the China Shuck Off 2019.” Pause.
“女士们、先生们，2019 年中国将大放异彩。”暂停。
He gave the third and fourth place wins to Chong and Arias.
他将第三名和第四名的胜利让给了Chong和Arias。
“And the winner is…
“而获胜者是……
DANIEL NOTKIN!”
丹尼尔·诺特金！”
Li and Notkin good-naturedly shook hands before Notkin let loose a fist pump so powerful it rocked his entire body.
李和诺特金善意地握了握手，然后诺特金松开了拳头，力道之大，震动了他的整个身体。
Then he was handed champagne bottle.
然后有人递给他一瓶香槟。
He sabered it, and the suds fell all around him.
他用剑砍断了它，泡沫落在他周围。
Do not assume, just because there is champagne and whiskey and maybe, sometimes, drugs, that these shuckers aren’t also thinking long and hard, and often poetically, about their métier.
不要仅仅因为有香槟和威士忌，有时还有毒品，就认为这些剥皮者不会对他们的职业进行长期、艰苦的思考，而且常常是富有诗意的。
There is a long, noble tradition of glorifying the oyster: M.F.K.
赞美牡蛎有着悠久而崇高的传统：M.F.K.
Fischer elevated what was, in her day, a basic bar food in her book-length hallmark of food writing Consider the Oyster, and used it as a conduit for otherwise unpublishable queer themes in her memoir, The Gastronomical Me.
费舍尔在她的美食著作《考虑牡蛎》中提升了当时基本的酒吧食品的地位，并在她的回忆录《美食的我》中将其用作其他无法出版的酷儿主题的渠道。
Oysters also command respect among the environmentally concerned, as they are a rare meat that is beneficial to the environment to eat.
牡蛎也受到关注环保人士的尊重，因为它们是一种对环境有益的稀有肉类。
(Their ability to save the environment is reduced when you’re flying jets full of them to Beijing every day).
（当你每天乘坐满载它们的飞机飞往北京时，它们拯救环境的能力就会降低）。
There are vegans who eat oysters.
有些素食主义者吃牡蛎。
There are artists who find symbolism in an oyster’s marbled, knotted shell.
有些艺术家在牡蛎大理石花纹、多节的贝壳中发现了象征意义。
Also, oysters make pearls.
此外，牡蛎还可以产出珍珠。
Many shuckers waxed poetically to me about the camaraderie within the shucking world: how shuckers aren’t just competitors, they’re friends; how they’re not just friends, they’re family.
许多剥壳者充满诗意地向我讲述了剥壳世界中的友情：剥壳者不仅是竞争对手，而且是朋友；他们不仅是朋友，还是家人。
But to really get to this level, to become the national champion of Spain or Singapore or wherever, you need to have more skin in the game than that.
但要真正达到这个水平，成为西班牙、新加坡或其他地方的国家冠军，你需要在比赛中投入更多的精力。
You can’t just be here to make friends.
你不能只是来这里交朋友。
You need to be here because you’re pathologically obsessed with the physical act of opening an oyster.
你需要来这里，因为你病态地沉迷于打开牡蛎的身体动作。
Arias, Spain’s national shucking champion, couldn’t find the exact words, but he told me that opening oysters is bliss, and then blew with his lips pursed to make a sound like voooop.
西班牙全国剥壳冠军阿里亚斯找不到确切的词语，但他告诉我打开牡蛎是幸福，然后撅起嘴唇吹气，发出“呜呜”的声音。
There are these crazy-smooth oysters from the South of France, he told me, which they serve at his bar in Spain, and their lids are so flat and even that all you need to do is stick the knife in, and in one quick motion they just, well, voooop.
他告诉我，有一种来自法国南部的超级光滑的牡蛎，他们在西班牙的酒吧里供应这种牡蛎，它们的盖子非常平坦，甚至你所需要做的就是把刀插进去，它们很快就会发出“呜呜”的声音。
“When it opens just like…” he trailed off, miming and air-slicing with a wide smile.
“当它打开的时候，就像……”他的声音逐渐减弱，脸上挂着灿烂的笑容，一边模仿一边空中切割。
“Voooop.”
“呜呜。”
Notkin’s sister once told him her reason for shucking is simple: “I just want to see what’s inside.” More than once I heard people describe the act as “like picking a lock” and “like magic.”
诺特金的姐姐曾经告诉他，她去壳的原因很简单：“我只是想看看里面有什么。”我不止一次听到人们形容这种行为“就像撬锁”和“就像魔术”。
Li still gets nervous sometimes.
李有时还是会紧张。
He is especially concerned about how he’ll do in Ireland, because he doesn’t get to practice with Irish oysters in Shanghai.
他特别担心自己在爱尔兰的表现，因为他无法在上海练习爱尔兰牡蛎。
The other shuckers all seem to have had more practice with them—and besides, many of them have attended the festival in Galway for decades.
其他的脱壳者似乎都对它们进行了更多的练习——而且，他们中的许多人已经参加了戈尔韦的节日数十年。
But some things are worth the anxiety.
但有些事情值得焦虑。
“I’m a little nervous, but it’s great to be able to open an oyster,” he tells me.
“我有点紧张，但能够打开牡蛎真是太棒了，”他告诉我。
“I love any moment I’m opening an oyster.”
“我喜欢打开牡蛎的任何时刻。”
Noelle Mateer ( @n_mateer ) is a freelance journalist living in southwestern China’s Yunnan province.
Noelle Mateer (@n_mateer) 是一位居住在中国西南部云南省的自由记者。