陕西安监局长微博谈手表 网民不买账

Chinese officials faced with public controversies in the era of social media have tended to choose one of two strategies: 1) say nothing; or 2) have the local government issue a comically murky statement on their behalf that essentially says nothing.

在社交媒体时代，身陷舆论漩涡的中国官员往往选择这样两条策略中的一条：一、什么都不说；二、让当地政府代表他们发表一条语焉不详让人觉得滑稽的声明，实际上还是什么都没有说。

With the clock possibly ticking down on his career, one beleaguered bureaucrat in the northwestern province of Shaanxi - Provincial Work Safety Administration head Yang Dacai decided on Wednesday to break new ground.

在从政生涯可能时日无多的时候，陕西省引发争议的安全生产监督管理局局长杨达才周三决定打破成规。

Rather than fall silent, Mr. Yang shocked observers by engaging with his critics in a live chat.

杨达才没有选择沉默，相反，他通过在线访谈和批评者交流，这让观察人士颇感意外。

The official's thinking in opting for such a rare move might be explained by his having recently achieved the equally rare feat of being given not one, but two, Internet nicknames in the space of a few days.

这位官员选择这样一种罕见举动的原因，可能是他最近取得了同样罕见的“成绩”：才几天的时间，网民就给他取了两个绰号。

Internet users gifted Mr. Yang with the first of those nicknames 'the smiling official' on Monday, after a photographer snapped a shot of the well-fed leader cracking a smile while standing at the site of a fiery collision between a bus and a tanker truck that killed 36 on Sunday.

网民周一送给杨达才第一个绰号：“微笑帝”。这是因为周日发生一辆大巴和一辆罐车相撞、造成36人死亡的惨烈事故之后，这位大腹便便的领导人站在现场时被摄影记者拍到面露笑容。

The second, 'Watch-Wearing Brother,' emerged after Internet users trying to identify Mr. Yang from the crash site photo a process known in China the 'human flesh search' discovered, not only his identity, but also a trove of new images showing him wearing at least five different luxury watches.

第二个绰号是“戴表哥”。网民在辨认车祸现场照片中的杨达才的身份（这在中国叫“人肉搜索”）时，不仅认出了他是谁，还找到一大堆新的图片，显示他至少曾戴过五只不同的豪华手表。（中文“戴表”与“代表”读音相同，考虑到中国领导人喜欢戴着价格不菲的名表来代表人民群众，这个同音相当意味深长。）

(The phrase 'wearing a watch' in Chinese sounds similar to the word 'representative,' a homophone rich with meaning considering the penchant among China's leaders for doing the work of representing the masses while sporting expensive time pieces.)

周三夜间在新浪微博做访谈期间，网友提交问题约6,000个，杨达才回答了其中的12个问题，对两类争议都做出了回应。

Mr. Yang addressed both controversies while answering 12 out of roughly 6,000 questions submitted during his live chat late Wednesday night on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service.

他先回应了微笑问题。杨达才首先对受害者家属表示“诚挚道歉”，然后解释说，当时他听不懂当地干部的口音，想让他们放松些。他写道：现场气氛其实很压抑，有些基层同志向我介绍情况的时候，都显得特别紧张，有的同志口音比较重，有些话我听不太清楚。我让他们放松些，可能一不留神，神情上有些放松。现在回想起来，我也很内疚。

First tackling the issue of his smile, the official began by offering 'sincere apologies' to the victims' family members. He then went on to explain that he had been having trouble understanding the accents of local cadres and was trying to get them to relax. 'Everyone was wound up. Some comrades' accents were very strong, and some of what they were saying I couldn't quite get,' he wrote. 'I was trying to get them to relax a little, so maybe, in an unguarded moment, I got a little too relaxed myself. When I think about it now, I'm filled with regret.'

在手表问题上，杨达才承认在过去10多年用自己的合法收入购买过五块手表，并表示已经就此向纪检部门做了汇报。然后他进一步详细介绍了自己最贵的一块手表（一只价值3.5万元的万宝龙(Montblanc)），并透露其他手表大都在2万元左右。

On the watches, Mr. Yang acknowledged buying five at different times over a period of 10 years 'using my own legal income' and said he'd already reported the purchases to disciplinary authorities. He then went a step further, offering details on his most expensive watch a Montblanc worth 35,000 yuan ($5,500) and revealing that most of the rest had cost around 20,000 yuan.

为防有人说他找托儿问问题，杨达才还回答（算是回答吧）了知名公民记者张世和的提问。又称“老虎庙”的张世和希望杨达才解释中国人为什么这么容易对共产党官员产生质疑。

And lest anyone accuse him planting questions, Mr. Yang also even chose to respond sort of - to a query from well-known citizen journalist Zhang Shihe, also known as Tiger Temple, who challenged him to explain why Chinese people seemed so quick to doubt Communist Party officials.

杨达才说：我想，作为公务人员，被网友这样监督是合理的正常的。之所以这次被网友这样关注，首先还是因为我自身有不谨慎的地方。

'The reason Internet users paid attention to me in this way is first and foremost because I was imprudent in some areas,' he said. For Internet users to monitor officials in such a way was 'reasonable and normal,' he added.

那么对于这种透明与互动的初步尝试，微博网友们是怎么看的呢？

So what did social media users make of this tentative stab at transparency and engagement?

的确有些人对此感到印象深刻。一名微博用户在回复杨达才关于万宝龙手表的情况介绍时说，我有些感动，你是个实诚人。另一位用户说，杨局长的危机管理能力不错。

Some, to be sure, were impressed. 'I'm a kind of a little bit moved. You're honest,' wrote one Sina Weibo user in response to the official's revelation about his Montblanc. 'Director Yang's crisis management skills are not bad,' observed another.

但大多数人似乎还是不信。

Most, however, seemed unconvinced.

在官员工资普遍不高的中国，似乎很少有人相信杨达才的手表真像他所说的那样，是他自己掏钱买的。一位怀疑派写道：大家等着杨局长公布10多年来合法收入吧！另一位用户开玩笑说：合法收入买了表，其他的全用非法收入买！

In a country where officials typically make modest salaries, few seemed to believe Mr. Yang's claim to have paid for his watches using his own money. 'Everyone's waiting for director Yang to reveal how much he makes legally in 10 years,' one skeptic wrote. 'If he used his legal income to buy watches, then he had to use illegal income to buy everything else,' quipped a second.

网上对杨达才所说内容的怀疑在周四进一步发酵。从当天网民新上传的图片来看，杨达才除了已经承认的那些，似乎还戴过另外四五块手表。“中国实时报”(China Real Time)栏目无法验证这些照片的真实性。

Doubts about Mr. Yang's story swelled further on Thursday, when Internet users posted new images that appeared to show him wearing as many as four or five additional watches beyond those he'd admitted to buying, though China Real Time could not verify the authenticity of those photos.

音乐人赵天明借用杨达才的话说，我们一不留神发现你戴了九块表。

'In an unguarded moment, we caught you wearing nine watches,' musician Zhao Tianming wrote on Weibo, turning Mr. Yang's words against him and slapping on a laughing emoticon for good measure.

到周四晚间，杨达才尚未利用微博回答网民的最新一轮指控。

By late Thursday evening, the official had yet to take to Weibo to answer the latest round of accusations.

在批评者不仅没有沉默，反倒越嚷越凶的时候，杨达才可能又采取了什么都不说的老办法。