CNN新闻英语第 66 课：Musical Prodigy Vanessa Mae 音乐天才陈美-1

ANCHOR 主播
This week, an Asian prodigy, who's known for putting some electricity into the classical violin. Vanessa Mae was born in Singapore to a Chinese mother and a Thai father. Her mother brought her to England at the age of five when she was already winning awards for playing the piano. 本周的嘉宾是一位亚裔音乐天才，她因把电子音乐融入古典小提琴而闻名。陈美出生在新加坡，母亲是中国人，父亲是泰国人。她在5岁的时候，被母亲带到英国，当时她弹钢琴已经获过奖。

But by age eight, it was the violin Vanessa Mae knew she wanted to play professionally. By age 14, she was featured soloist with the London Mozart Players. And at age 16, her first album, The Violin Player, was on the top 40 charts in dozens of countries. 8岁的时候，她就知道将成为一名职业小提琴手。14岁的时候，她就是"伦敦莫扎特演奏家"中的主要独奏者。16岁的时候，她的第一张专辑《小提琴手》就排名在数十个国家的前40名。

ANCHOR 主播
Then and now, Vanessa Mae's sexy image has caused some classical music purists to choke on their pipe smoke. And her quest to fuse pop and classical elements has won her fans, critics, and imitators. Well, Vanessa Mae is about to reach the wise old age of 24, she's already done more than some musicians do in a lifetime. But she's taking some time out to talk with us today. Vanessa Mae, welcome to "Talk Asia". Thank you so much for coming. 陈美的性感形象经常把那些嘴含烟斗的古典音乐纯粹主义者噎得够呛。但是，对她融合流行与古典音乐的追求，既有人追捧，也有人批评，还有人模仿。嗯，陈美快满24岁了，一个智慧的年龄。她做的事情比某些音乐人士一辈子做的还多。而今天她抽空和我们聊聊天。陈美，欢迎到《亚洲名人聊天室》节目。感谢你的光临。

ANCHOR 主播
You have been in Hong Kong a few times, we were saying. The last time, or one of the other times, was performing for the handover here in Hong Kong. Was that special to you as it was to so many people? 据说你到过香港数次。上次，或许是其中一次，你是在这儿为香港回归而演奏。你是否和大多数人一样感觉这场演出很特别？

Vanessa Mae 陈美
Oh absolutely! I mean, that was in '97, and I remember I was in the middle of making an album. But when I got the invitation, I was just thrilled, because I thought, "Wow! How could I be invited to such a special event?" And you know, be invited to perform, at midnight, at Happy Valley Race Course. So I decided I really wanted to do a special work for that, so together with my producer, in the studio, we worked on something together. 哦，当然。我想那是1997年，我记得我当时正在制作一张专辑。当我收到邀请的时候，我很激动，因为我想，"哇，我怎么会被邀请参加一项这么不同凡响的活动？""被邀请午夜子时在跑马地赛马场演奏。于是我决心一定要为此献上我的绝活，于是我和我的制片人一同在摄影棚开始为此做准备。

Vanessa Mae 陈美
And premiered it at the handover. But I just felt that it was really cool, because I had grown up in a very cross-cultural environment, you know, being born in the Far East, moving to England. So in a way it was a really nice occasion to be a part of because, you know there was something kind of bittersweet about it, but optimistic. And I felt it was great to be invited at such a special time, so I was exactly, you know like everybody else out there, I was incredibly thrilled. 在香港回归仪式上初次公演。我感觉非常"酷"，因为我是在一个具有东西方双重文化的环境中长大的，我生在远东，后来移居英格兰。从某方面来说，参加这次活动真是很美妙，其中有苦也有乐，当然是乐观的。我觉得在这么特殊的时刻收到邀请非常棒。我同当时在场的其他人一样，无比地激动。

ANCHOR 主播
At the tender age of four or five, I mean you were pretty young, did you ever figure you were slightly different from the other kids? 在你4、5岁的时候，我的意思是你很小的时候，你曾经想感觉到你与其他孩子有所不同吗？

Vanessa Mae 陈美
Different? No, because I felt that I really enjoyed my time at school. You know it was just a pure academic school that I went to, so music was not the focus of my life until I was about eight years old. But it was a bit odd, how, you know teachers started paying me a bit more attention, you know the musical teachers, and started calling my parents up. 不同？没有，因为我真的喜欢在学校的时光。我上的是一所重学术教育的学校，因此在我8岁之前，音乐不是我生活的中心。不过有点奇怪，老师开始注意我了，音乐老师打电话要我父母到学校去。

You know I thought I was getting into trouble or something, but they were just saying things like, "We really think you should enroll your child in more classes, because we think she's got some potential." So that was incredibly rewarding for me, and I was an only child so, you know, when my parents started to focus on me, I felt kind of proud of myself. 我原以为我惹麻烦了，但是他们说了一些诸如"我们认为，你们真的应该让孩子上更多的音乐课，因为我们觉得她有潜力"之类的话。这对我是极大的鼓舞，我是家里的独生女，当我的父母开始把注意力放到我身上的时候，我为自己感到自豪。