Why Russians Aren't Smiling at You in Sochi
When Ed Leigh arrived in Sochi to cover the Winter Olympics, something struck him as odd: None of the Russians there returned his smiles.当艾德·利到索契报道冬季奥运会时，他感到有些奇怪：那儿的俄罗斯人没人对其笑脸回以微笑。
When Leigh asked a native why that was, the man told him, "In Russia only two types of people smile: idiots and rich people—and rich people don't walk on the street."
艾德·利询问一位当地人时，那人告诉他，“在俄罗斯只有两种人微笑：傻瓜和富人，而富人是不会在街上步行的”。
For Russians, a smile in public is not the polite expression that Americans reflexively offer strangers on the street. A smiling person must have a good reason for doing it, and it should be obvious what that reason is. When people smile without hesitation—for no reason—Russians find those grins artificial or insincere. And they think those people have a few screws loose.
对俄罗斯人来说，当众微笑不是一种礼貌的表达方式，与美国人在街道上和陌生人打招呼不同。微笑的人必须有微笑的理由，而且理由要显而易见。当人们无缘无故又毫不犹豫报以微笑时，俄罗斯人认为这是肤浅或不真诚的，认为这些人有毛病。
Americans, on the other hand, seem to smile for any reason at all. The "American smile" has a long-standing bad reputation in Russia, explained Michael Bohm, the opinion-page editor of The Moscow Times, in an in-depth 2011 story on the matter.
而美国人似乎会因各种理由微笑。在其2011年的一篇颇有深度的文章中，莫斯科时报观点版面的编辑迈克尔·鲍姆解释说，长久以来，“美国式微笑”在俄罗斯名声很坏。
National distrust of the Westernized grin dates back to the early Soviet era, when anti-U.S. propaganda abounded. Later, in the 1980s, Soviet media regularly blasted reports called "Their Customs," explaining that Americans, a power-hungry people, smiled to deceive others. Behind that smile was an "imperialist wolf revealing its ferocious teeth." One prime example of that, Bohm writes, came in 1990, when then-Secretary of State James Baker used his "charming, cunning Texas smile" to trick former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev into agreeing to a unified Germany in exchange for the U.S. halting NATO's eastward expansion.
自前苏联时代，俄罗斯国内就不信任西方式的露齿而笑，当时反美宣传大张旗鼓。后来的20世界80年代，苏联媒体经常批评“他们的习惯”，认为美国是一个权力欲极强的国家，美国人微笑是为了欺骗他人。微笑的背后是“露着凶残利齿的资本主义豺狼”。鲍姆写到，一个明证是，1990年，当时的美国国务卿詹姆斯·贝克用其“迷人、狡猾的德克萨斯式微笑”，欺骗苏联前领导人米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫同意东西德国合并而换取美国停止北约东扩。
Russia's poker face "has little to do with Dostoevsky or the cold climate," Bohm says, and much more to do with centuries of government oppression and corruption. The very form of government can dictate how its people control their expression of emotions, according to David Matsumoto, an expert on micro-expressions, gesture, and nonverbal behavior. In collectivist nations, like Russia and China, people tend to neutralize happy expressions, blending in with the rest of the population. In contrast, members of individualist societies, like the United States, crack smiles freely and often, reflecting the openness of their political climate. The 2008 World Values Survey found that freedom of choice strongly affects people's happiness.
“这儿有很多让人高兴的事情！”苏联政府告诉其民众，工作和住房有保障，教育免费，足以保护苏联的核战资金。但是，当民众排队购买面包或牛奶时，却眉头紧锁，并不认同。 俄罗斯人僵硬的表情与陀斯妥也夫斯基或寒冷的气候没多大关系，鲍姆说，更多是和几百年的政府压迫和腐败相关。微观表达、手势和非语言行为研究专家大卫· 松本指出，政府能左右其民众的情感表达方式。在集体主义至上的国家，如俄罗斯和中国，人们倾向选择中性方式表达高兴的心情，从而让自己融入集体。相反，生活在个人主义至上社会的人们，如美国，经常想笑就笑，这反映出其政治气候的开放性。2008年世界价值观调查发现，选择的自由度会深刻影响民众的幸福感。
Everyday life for Russian people has historically been grueling, a fight for existence. Their hardships were reflected in their expressiveness, and deep concern, along with a tangle of worry lines, became entrenched on their faces. Russia ranked 167th out of 178 countries on a "World Map of Happiness," a 2007 survey of 80,000 people worldwide that measured a nation's level of happiness by factors most closely associated with the emotions, such as health, wealth, and education.
长期以来，俄罗斯人在日常生活里充满疲惫，人们为生存而挣扎着。他们生活的艰辛可以从从其表情反映出来，忧虑伴着杂乱的烦恼线清楚地刻在脸上。在“世界幸福指数地图”上，俄罗斯在178个国家中排名第167位。“世界幸福指数地图”是2007年由来自世界各地共80,000人参与的一项调查，旨在通过考察与人们情感关系最密切的因素，如健康、财富和教育等，来衡量一个国家的幸福指数。
All this research makes it sound like Russians are perpetually unhappy people, doomed for depressing lives. They're not. Take it from this native Russian reporter.
所有这些研究让人听起来好像俄罗斯人是永远不幸福的人群，过压抑的生活似乎命中注定。事实上并非如此。以下是一个当地俄罗斯记者的报道。
Russians smile for genuine happiness—fair health, a pleasant mood, prosperity. All good reasons.
俄罗斯人因为真正的幸福而微笑——健康的身体、愉悦的心情、富足的生活——所有美好的理由。
When two Americans make eye contact in a crowded restaurant, they smile out of habit. Russians look away instead, since smiling at strangers is a cultural taboo. The Russian cashier ringing you up at the grocery store won't offer a smile because he doesn't know you, and he won't mimic your pleasant expression.
当两个美国人在拥挤的餐馆眼神交流时，他们对视而笑往往是出于习惯。俄罗斯人则会把目光移开，因为在俄罗斯文化里对陌生人微笑是禁忌。百货店的俄罗斯收银员收款时不会对你微笑，因为他不认识你，所以也不会对你愉快的表情做出相应的反应。
That cashier is also working, and Russians stay especially tight-lipped while on the job. Work, simply put, should not be fun or taken lightly. Russian President Vladimir Putin may look markedly sullen while standing next to his American counterpart, but it's usually not because he is angry or upset—he's just doing his job.
再说，那位收银员在工作，尤其在俄罗斯人们工作时更是双唇紧闭。简言之，工作本身不应该当作是乐趣，更不应该随便应付。俄罗斯总统普拉米 · 普京在和美国总统站在一起时，可能看起来脸色阴沉，但是通常情况下，这不是因为他生气或不高兴——恰恰是因为他在工作。
When Russians do crack a smile in public, it's usually directed at someone they know. Still, they tend to smile only with their lips, revealing only a hint of the upper row of their teeth if the grin widens. Any more, and that smile comes off as unpleasant or even vulgar.
当俄罗斯人当众微笑时，对象往往是他们认识的人，而且也只是轻启朱唇，仅露出上排牙齿而已。此外，他们的笑容会让人感觉好像不开心、甚至有些粗俗。
The biggest and most natural smiles come out at home, where Russians laugh and joke like any American would, with close friends and family members. But when someone brings out a camera, the corners of their mouths turn down again. The permanence of photographs makes the images somehow less personal and more public; they reflect how Russians appear to everybody else, including strangers on the street. Entire family photo albums capture not one smile. My Russian parents appear stone-faced in black-and-photos from their young adulthood, during beach trips and barbecues, at weddings and parties. They are not the same people who today, after 16 years in the United States, smile widely, flashing their white teeth, in front of the camera.
俄罗斯人最开怀也最自然的微笑出现在家里，他们和好朋友、家庭成员在一起，往往又说又笑，和美国人没有什么两样。但是，倘若有人拿出相机拍照，他们的嘴角就会收拢合上。他们认为，照片的恒久会让人的形象失真且更公开化。这反映了俄罗斯人对包括街头陌生人在内的其他人示人的方式。他们的家庭影集里没有微笑着的照片。我的俄罗斯父母，无论是他们年轻时的、海边度假烧烤时拍的照片，还是婚礼和派对上拍的照片，都是黑白底色，表情凝滞。他们不是在美国生活了16年后今天的他们：面对镜头，不仅朱唇大启，畅意微笑，而且皓齿尽露。
Russian culture is full of quirks many Americans would find strange, from making long and complicated toasts to never, ever throwing away a plastic bag. In 2011, singer Alina Simone offered a terrific explanation for why Russians hate ice cubes. This week, BuzzFeed's Ellie Halldocumented their love of dill.
俄罗斯文化里充满了令美国人感到奇怪的怪癖：从敬酒的繁琐冗长到从不扔塑料袋。2011年，歌手艾琳娜·西蒙妮解释了为何俄罗斯人憎恨冰块。本周，美国新闻聚合网站的艾利· 豪尔讲述了他们对莳萝的热爱。
So, smiling in Sochi is a surefire way to reveal you're an outsider—and probably annoy a native Russian—but, in modern times, it's relatively harmless. Whatever you do, don't play the "got your nose" game with a Russian. That hand gesture, a fist with a thumb between the middle and index fingers, is a lot less playful and a lot more offensive over there.
因此，在索契微笑是一个表明你是外来者的有效方式——可能会让当地人厌烦——但是，就当今时代而言，没有什么恶意。无论你做什么事，都不要把大拇指放在食指和中指之间攒成拳头，和俄罗斯人玩字面意思是“得到你鼻子”的游戏，因为它不仅没什么乐趣，而且会冒犯他人。
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