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Crying on command isn't easy, but Liu Jun-Lin is hired to do it every day, at funerals for people she never knew. She's Taiwan's best-known professional mourner - a time-honoured tradition in her country that may be dying out.
奉命而哭不是一件容易的事情，但是每天都有人雇刘君琳（音译）在她素不相识的人的葬礼上哭丧。她是台湾最著名的职业哭丧人，在台湾这是由来已久的传统，而这样的传统有可能面临消失。
Crying for a living is controversial, seen by some as the commercialisation of grief, but mourners like Liu say their profession has a long history in Taiwan, where according to tradition the deceased needs a big, loud send-off to cross smoothly into the afterlife.
用哭丧来谋生是一件容易引起争议的事情，在有些人看来这是商业化的哀伤。但是据刘君琳这样的哭丧人说，她们的职业在台湾由来已久，根据台湾传统亡故之人需要用大声的哭丧来把他们平安地送入到后世。
"When a loved one dies, you grieve so much that when it finally comes time for the funeral, you don't have any tears left," says Liu."How are you going to suddenly switch your mood to show all that sorrow?" Liu is there to help strike the right tone.
“当亲人亡故之后你会非常悲伤，最终到了葬礼上你已经没有眼泪了，”刘君琳说，“你怎样才能做到把你的情绪一下子调到极度悲伤？”于是刘君琳会到场相助，以使葬礼有合适的气氛。
In earlier times, daughters often left home to work in other cities, and transport was limited, she explains. If someone in the family died, they often couldn't make it home in time for the funeral, so the family would hire what's known as a "filial daughter" to lead the family in mourning.
她解释说，从前女儿们常常会离家到其它城市里去工作。当时交通条件有限，如果家里有人亡故，她们常常不能及时赶到家里参加葬礼，于是家人会雇佣一些被称为“孝女”的人在葬礼上引导家人。
Traditional Taiwanese funerals are elaborate, combining sombre mourning with louder, up-tempo entertainment to fire up grieving spirits.
传统上台湾的葬礼是精心安排过的，阴沉的哀悼与喧哗的快节奏娱乐结合在一起以送走悲伤的亡灵。
For the entertainment portion, 30-year-old Liu and her Filial Daughters Band wear bright costumes, and perform almost-acrobatic dance numbers. They do the splits, back-bends, and somersaults. Her brother, A Ji, plays along on traditional stringed instruments.
在娱乐部分，30岁的刘君琳和她的孝女乐队穿着鲜亮的服装，表演几乎像杂技一般的舞蹈。她们做着分叉、后弯和筋斗等动作，她的兄弟阿吉用传统的弦乐器来伴奏。
Later, Liu will change into a white hood and robe, and crawl to the coffin on her hands and knees. There, in time to her brother's organ playing, she performs her signature wail.
稍后刘君琳会换上白色的丧袍，戴上头罩爬到棺材边上，这时在他兄弟乐器的伴奏下她开始她的招牌哭丧。
Her sounds are long and drawn out, somewhere between crying and singing. At home, she demonstrates a typical wail for me. "My dear father, your daughter misses you so much!" she cries. "Please, please come back!"
她的声音绵长而竭力，有时游走在哭泣和歌唱之间。她在家里为我表演了一种典型的哭泣：“我亲爱的爹爹啊，你女儿多么想念你，”她哭喊道，“请你，请你回来吧！”
I ask Liu how she manages to manufacture tears at will. But she insists all her crying is real. "Every funeral you go to, you have to feel this family is your own family, so you have to put your own feelings in it," she says. "When I see so many people grieving, I get even sadder."
我问刘君琳她是怎样做到制造眼泪的，她坚持说她所有的哭泣都是真实的。“你去到每一个葬礼上，你会感到这家人家就是你自己的家人，所以你就会把自己的感情放进去，”她说，“当我看见有这样多的人都很伤心，我就更伤心了。”
With her long eyelashes, dimples, and sing-song voice, Liu seems much younger than her 30 years. At home, she wears an orange jogging suit and sparkly nail polish. I'd sooner believe she was a nursery school teacher than a professional in the grief business.
刘君琳长着长长的睫毛，脸上带着酒窝，有着歌唱般的嗓音，她看上去比实际年龄30岁年轻得多。在家里的时候她身穿着一套橘红色的运动装，涂着鲜亮的指甲油，我很快就觉得她像是一位幼儿园老师而不是职业的哭丧人。
Funeral director Lin Zhenzhang, who has worked alongside Liu for years, says that's a big part of her appeal.
葬礼导演林正章（音译）与刘君琳一起工作有许多年了，他说这正是她的引人之处。
"Traditionally, we think of this as a job for women a generation older," he says. "But Jun-Lin is so young and beautiful. That contrast makes people very curious."
“传统上我们认为做这样的工作都是上一代的妇女，”他说，“但是君琳却是如此年轻美貌，这样一种反差使人们感觉很诧异。”
Liu's grandmother and mother were both professional mourners. As a young child, she would play outside the funeral homes while her mother worked. At home, she mimicked her mother and older sister as they rehearsed.
刘君琳的祖母和母亲都是职业哭丧人。在她的孩提时代，当她的母亲在工作时她会在丧家门外玩耍。在家里时，当她的母亲和姐姐在排演时她会跟着模仿。
"I'd grab any object and pretend it was a microphone," she says. "Then I'd pretend there was a coffin and crawl to it."
“我会抓起任何一样东西把它当做麦克风，”她说，“然后我假装前面有一个棺材，我就爬过去。”
Both of Liu's parents died when she was young, leaving her grandmother with three children to bring up, and a heavy burden of debt. So the grandmother pulled Liu and her older brother into the family trade. Liu was just 11 years old.
刘君琳的父母在她年幼时就过世了，留下了她的祖母和三个需要抚养的孩子，还有一屁股的债务。于是祖母把刘君琳和她的哥哥带进了家族的生意里，那时刘君琳只有11岁。
She had to get up before dawn each morning to rehearse, and often had to miss school for work. When she did go to class, other children would make fun of her job and the strange costumes she wore.
每天早上她在天亮前就要起床排练，为了外出干活还常常逃课。当她去上课的时候，其他孩子会嘲笑她的工作和所穿戴的服装。
"They'd say, that's so weird, so ugly, you look so stupid!" she says. "I felt really inferior and thought other kids didn't like me."
“他们会说，你做的事情多么可怕，多么难看，你看上去多蠢！”她说，“我真的感到很自卑，我想别的孩子不会喜欢我。”
Performing wasn't much easier. Stigmas around death make many people look down on mourners. "Sometimes before we'd start the performance, the grieving family would be very sour when they talked to us," says Liu. "But after we performed, they'd cry and say thank you, thank you, thank you!"
表演也并非容易，对于死亡的不齿使许多人看不起哭丧人。“有时在我们开始表演前丧家对我们说话很刻薄，”刘君琳说，“但是在我们表演之后他们也会哭泣，并且一再对我们说谢谢，谢谢，谢谢！”
That's when Liu realised the real purpose of her job. "This work can really help people release their anger, or help them say the things they're afraid to say out loud," she says. "For people who are afraid to cry, it helps too, because everyone cries together."
这使刘君琳认识到了她工作的真正意义。“我的工作能帮助人们真正认识到他们的愤懑，或者帮助他们说出他们不敢大声说出来的东西，”她说，“对于害怕哭泣的人们来说也有帮助，因为每个人都在一起哭泣。”
Mentored by her grandmother, a tiny woman in wire-framed glasses and a tight perm, Liu trained rigorously as a performer, and developed the shrewd business skills that have lifted her family from poverty to prosperity. Liu and her siblings each have their own house, and their company charges up to $600 (￡380) for a performance.
刘君琳的祖母是一个戴着金丝边眼镜烫着头发的小妇人，在祖母的严厉指导下她成了一个哭丧人，并学会了精明的生意经，使她的家庭脱贫致了富。刘君琳和她的兄弟姐妹们都拥有自己的房屋，她们的公司对每次出演的收费为600美元。
But it's a business in decline, says Lin Zhenzhang, as the economic downturn and simpler modern tastes turn people away from lavish traditional funerals,
但是林正章说这是一个正在衰退行业，由于经济的不景气和现代人简洁的品味使许多人不再举办奢华靡费的传统葬礼。
"The tradition of professional mourners is going to slowly be eliminated," he says. "So people like Jun-Lin are going to have to find a way to reinvent their profession, or find new sources of revenue."
“传统的哭丧人正在慢慢的消失，”他说，“所以像刘君琳这样的人要设法找到一个重新创造这个行业的方法，或者找到新的收入来源。”
This hasn't escaped Liu. That's why she has recruited some 20 female assistants. They're young, good-looking women in black and white uniforms, who help funeral directors with embalming and memorial services, and they've brought Liu a lot of attention.
刘君琳也难逃这一关，这就是为什么她招聘了二十来个女助理。她们是都是年轻漂亮的女性，身穿黑白两色的制服，她们在葬礼服务上帮助葬礼导演，她们让刘君琳操了很多心。
"There was no-one else doing this in northern Taiwan, and it ended up being more successful than I'd thought," says Liu. "Within this industry, I know I need to find niches that no-one else is exploring."
“在台湾北部没有别人做这一行，结果比我想象的要更成功，”刘君琳说，“在这样一个行业里，我知道我需要去找到别人没有尝试过的东西。”
No matter what, Liu says, she won't ever leave the family trade. "This is something my grandmother struggled to build up from the ground," she says."I have to teach others what she taught me, and carry on her tradition."
不管怎样，刘君琳说她不会放弃她的家族生意。“这是我祖母从无到有艰苦创建起来的生意，”她说，“我要把她教我的东西教给别人，把她的传统继承下去。”
译者：sunset123
