殖民时代的高尔夫球场能解决香港的住房难题吗？
香港——香港高尔夫球会是一个有129年历史的特权飞地，它安静的球道曾接待过香港的英国殖民统治者，但是现在，它的停车场满是中国富有精英的特斯拉和保时捷。
More recently, this sprawling golf club, with 54 holes, has become something else: the focal point of a raging, citywide debate about how to use Hong Kong’s scarcest and most valuable resource, land.
最近，这个庞大的54洞高尔夫球场成了全城热议的焦点：如何利用香港最稀缺、最宝贵的土地资源。
“Golf is a plaything of the Brits,” said Ng Cheuk-hang, 23, a spokesman for the Land Justice League, an activist group that wants the golf course redeveloped into low-rent public housing.
“高尔夫球是英国人的玩意，”土地正义联盟的发言人、23岁的吴卓恒说。该组织希望该高尔夫球场能重新开发为廉租公屋。
“It’s not a grass-roots sport,” he said. “It’s not a sport for the people, and it creates a lot of social injustices.”
“它不是一个草根运动，”他说，“不是平民运动，而且制造好多社会的不公义。”
Yoshihiro Nishi, 51, the president of the Hong Kong Golf Association, a group representing four private golf clubs in Hong Kong, thinks the activists are unnecessarily politicizing the issue.
香港高尔夫球总会主席、51岁的西吉弘(Yoshihiro Nishi，音)认为，这些活动人士在不必要地将这个问题政治化。该协会代表着香港的四家私人高尔夫俱乐部。
“All the members of the Hong Kong Golf Club understand the housing needs in Hong Kong,” said Mr. Nishi, who works as a private banker by day. “We just want to make sure that we get to say what we want to say. Don’t turn it into a little bit of fight between the haves and don’t-haves.”
“香港高尔夫球会的所有成员都了解香港的住房需求，”西吉弘表示。他的正职是私人银行家。“我们只是想确保，我们能说出我们想说的话。不要把它变成富人和穷人之间的斗争。”
The problem is that property prices in Hong Kong have soared to the highest levels in the world; blue-collar and middle-class families are priced out of the market. And so the city is searching everywhere for places to build — the edges of public parks, a few remaining farms, land reclaimed from the sea and so-called brownfield sites, like former container yards.
问题在于，香港的房地产价格已飙升至全球最高水平，令蓝领和中产阶级家庭难以负担。所以，这座城市在到处寻找可以盖楼的地方——公园的边缘，仅存的少量农场，填海造地和所谓的棕色地带，比如从前的集装箱堆放场。
It’s an affordable-housing crisis whose effects have rippled across the broader economy and inflamed political tensions in a society already divided over Beijing’s refusal to allow free elections.
这场廉租屋危机的影响已波及到更广泛的经济领域，加剧了香港社会的政治紧张局势——因为北京拒绝接受自由选举，它本已出现分裂。
Much of this mountainous, densely populated territory of more than seven million has already been filled with high-rises, shopping centers and concrete sprawl. Hong Kong’s golf courses and other private recreation clubs — long given special treatment as the city strove to be an attractive hub for global bankers and executives — are increasingly seen as one of the quickest solutions to the land shortage.
这个人口密集的多山区域居住着700多万人口，到处都是高楼大厦、购物中心和混凝土建筑。香港的高尔夫球场等私人娱乐俱乐部长期以来享受特殊待遇，以便成为一个吸引全球银行家和高管的中心，现在这些球场越来越多地被视为解决土地短缺问题的最快捷办法。
But as the golf courses and clubs face growing calls to be redeveloped into public housing, they also are facing angry protests linking the crisis over land use to the city’s broader problems of economic inequality and declining social mobility.
但是，随着高尔夫球场和俱乐部面临越来越多要求重新开发为公共住房的呼声，它们也面临着愤怒的抗议，这些抗议将土地使用危机与该市的经济不平等和社会流动性下降等更广泛的问题联系起来。
In late March, protesters stormed the Hong Kong Golf Club, in the far-flung suburb of Fanling just two train stops from the Chinese border. Chanting “Land for all!” and “We want public housing! Take back the golf course!” they marched down the neatly manicured lawns before occupying a putting green.
3月底，抗议者冲入位于偏远郊区粉岭的香港高尔夫球会，那里离中国边境仅有两站地铁远。抗议者高喊：“土地归于人民!”“立即增建公屋!收回粉岭高球场!”他们走下修剪整齐的草坪，然后占领了一片果岭。
When protesters reappeared a month later, they scuffled with security guards who barred them from entering. A golfer who was not a member of the club was seen grabbing a protester by the neck and throwing him to the ground.
一个月后，抗议者再次出现时，与阻止他们入内的保安人员发生了冲突。一名不属于该俱乐部成员的高尔夫球手被看到拽住一名抗议者的脖子，将他摔倒在地。
The dispute has been exacerbated by Hong Kong’s political paralysis.
香港的政治瘫痪加剧了这场争端。
Bitter infighting between its unelected, Beijing-backed leadership and the pro-democracy opposition has left the city’s government unable to tackle tough problems, chief among them the lack of affordable housing. The prohibitive property prices, while a boon for the elite, have hurt the rest of the economy by raising costs for small businesses and start-ups.
获北京支持的、非选举产生的领导层，与主张民主的反对派之间的激烈内讧，导致香港政府无法解决棘手的问题，其中最主要的问题是缺乏保障性住房。过高的房价虽然有利于精英阶层，但损害了经济的其他部分，增加了小型企业和初创企业的成本。
The activists seemed to get support from a recent government report proposing that the 425-acre golf course be partly or fully redeveloped for housing and other public uses. According to the report’s estimates, the course is big enough to hold 13,200 apartment units, housing 37,000 people.
政府前不久发布的一份报告似乎支持这些活动人士。该报告提出，将这片占地425英亩(约合172公顷)的高尔夫球场部分或全部重新开发，用于修建住房等公共用途。据该报告估计，这片高尔夫球场的规模足以修建13200套公寓，容纳3.7万人。
The club is one of six golf courses and 24 private sports clubs on special government leases. Some of the others, including the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and the Hong Kong Cricket Club, also date to the 19th century, and used to serve a mostly white, colonial clientele.
该俱乐部是获得政府特殊租约的6个高尔夫球场和24个私人体育俱乐部之一。香港游艇会和香港木球会等其他俱乐部也可以追溯到19世纪，过去主要是服务白人殖民者。
Together, the clubs occupy 828 acres of land — about the size of Central Park in New York City — and serve about 56,000 members. They rent their land from the government through the special leases, so-called private recreational leases, that offer often below-market rates, drawing accusations that the government is “subsidizing the rich.”
这些俱乐部加起来占地828英亩(约合335公顷)——和纽约市的中央公园大体相当——会员人数约为5.6万。它们通过特殊的租约，即所谓的私人游乐场地契约，从政府手里租来土地。这类租约的租金通常低于市场水平。这引发了外界对政府“补贴富人”的指责。
The private recreational lease policy is a holdover from Hong Kong’s colonial days, when recreational facilities were few and far between. A policy document from 1979 said the private clubs “provide an important outlet for the upper middle class and business circles.”
私人游乐场地契约政策是香港娱乐设施稀少的殖民时期遗留下来的产物。1979年的一份政策文件称，私人俱乐部“为中上层和商界提供了一个重要的发泄途径”。
“We are lacking in golf facilities severely,” said Arnold Wong, 44, the previous captain of the Hong Kong Golf Club, an elected position in which he represented its members. Mr. Wong, the co-founder of a restaurant company, pointed out that Hong Kong has fewer 18-hole courses than Singapore, which has a smaller population.
“我们严重缺乏高尔夫场所，”44岁的香港高尔夫球会前会长黄子超(Arnold Wong)说。这个职位通过选举产生，代表全体会员。身为一家餐饮公司的联合创始人，黄子超指出，香港的18洞高尔夫球场还没新加坡多，后者人口比香港少。
“In terms of golf facilities, we are already lagging way behind as a major financial city,” he said.
“就高球场地而言，我们作为一个金融中心已经远远落后了，”他说。
As the debate has grown, the government’s Home Affairs Bureau has proposed changes to the leasing policy, like charging the golf clubs higher rent.
随着争论升级，政府的民政事务局提议修改租赁政策，比如提高向高尔夫球会收取的租金。
Last year, the Hong Kong Golf Club paid 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars (about $320,000) to the government in rent, a mere 3 percent of actual market rental value. Even so, the club had a deficit of the equivalent of $1.27 million in 2016, according to its annual report, suggesting that substantial increases in rent would pose a financial challenge.
去年，香港高尔夫球会向政府交付租金250万港币(约合200万元人民币)，只相当于实际市场租金的3%。即便如此，年报显示球会2016年的亏空相当于127万美元。这表明，大幅调高租金可能会导致其面临财务上的挑战。
As the largest of Hong Kong’s private clubs, the Hong Kong Golf Club represents the upper-class elite of the city. A corporate membership can be bought for some $2 million. Individual memberships have a one-off entrance fee of around $64,000, and monthly dues of several hundred dollars, but require personal connections and patience for a waiting list that is years long.
作为香港最大的私人会所，香港高尔夫球会代表着香港的上层精英。公司会员资格售价约为200万美元。个人会员须一次交纳6.4万美元，然后每月再交几百港币，但需要有关系和耐心，因为要排队等候数年。
For most of its history, the club had the word “Royal” in its name, and members were predominantly British expatriates. Today, most of the 2,660 members are Hong Kong Chinese, many of whom got rich in real estate or finance after the economy took off in the 1970s. More recently, wealthy Chinese mainlanders have joined in growing numbers.
在该球会的历史上，大部分时候它的名字中都有“皇家”二字，会员也以英籍人士为主。如今，球会2660名会员中大部分是香港本地人，其中很多是70年代经济腾飞后在房地产或金融领域发家致富的。后来，越来越多的中国内地富豪加入。
The club opens its gates to nonmembers on most weekdays, though the fee of about $140 per 18-hole round puts it out of reach for many in Hong Kong, where the median monthly income is around $2,150. In recent years, the club has invested in community outreach, like teaching golf to underprivileged students and training talented young golfers.
在大部分工作日，球会都会向非会员开放，但18洞一轮大约140美元的收费，让很多香港人承受不起。这里月收入中位数在2150美元左右。近年来，球会投资扩大消费群体，比如教底层学生打高尔夫、训练有天分的年轻球手。
Yet as Hong Kong feels increasingly divided between rich and poor, the debate surrounding the golf course speaks to more fundamental questions about the future of this city, and whether it will be affordable to all, or just a playground of the rich.
但随着香港贫富阶层之间的分歧越来越大，围绕这个高尔夫球场的争论指向了更根本的问题，涉及这座城市的未来，以及它将来是所有人都用得起，还是只是富人的游乐场。
Some of the most vocal opponents of the course are young social activists who call land ownership the biggest dividing line between Hong Kong’s haves and have-nots.
对球场反对最激烈的包括一些年轻的社会活动人士。他们称土地所有权是香港富人和穷人之间最大的分界线。
Yam Chun, 24, a community organizer for the Concerning Grassroots’ Housing Rights Alliance, sees the golf course as the epitome of inequitable use of land.
关注基层住屋联席(Concerning Grassroots’ Housing Rights Alliance)24岁的组织干事任真(Yam Chun)认为，这个高尔夫球场是土地使用不平等的缩影。
Born to a working-class family, she said she grew up in cramped subdivided flats and old tenement buildings while her family sat on a long waiting list just to get into public housing.
出身工薪家庭的她说，自己在狭窄的㓥房和唐楼里长大。在那期间，她家一直排着长队，等着住进公屋。
“When my family and I were still waiting for public housing, I thought to myself, does Hong Kong really not have enough land?” she said. “Now that I’ve grown up, I realize that the real problem is the unfair distribution of land.”
“我和家人等公屋时，我自己在想，难道香港真的不够土地?”她说。“长大后，我发现原来问题其实是土地分配不公义。”
Some experts say that while the dispute has exposed deeper anxieties caused by Hong Kong’s economic rise, the golf course is not big enough to solve the housing issue.
一些专家称，尽管这场争论暴露出了香港经济崛起造成的更深层次的焦虑，但粉岭高尔夫球场不够大，无法解决住房问题。
“The golf course problem is just pure political populism,” said Richard Wong, professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong. “The golf course is peripheral, completely peripheral, to the solution to this problem,” he added. “It’s symbolic.”
“高球场问题只是纯粹的政治民粹主义，”香港大学经济学教授王于渐(Richard Wong)说。“高球场对解决这个问题无关紧要，根本无关紧要，”他接着说。“只是一个象征。”
Still, symbols can be important, and some argue that getting rid of the golf course would hurt Hong Kong’s competitiveness.
但象征也可能具有重要意义，并且一些人认为，拆除这个高尔夫球场可能会削弱香港的竞争力。
“As an international financial city you do need to balance housing needs with sporting needs,” said Mr. Wong, the club captain. “You can’t have a walled city of just concrete, with no facilities, no attractions to other investors, foreigners, expats, people of different backgrounds.”
“作为国际金融中心，必须平衡住房需求和运动需求，”前香港高尔夫球会会长黄子超说。“不能只是一座混凝土围城，没有设施，没有吸引其他投资者、外国人、侨民等背景不同的人的地方。”
