the lanky white guy； Tiananmen天安門(事件/屠殺 ) 、(the) Tiananmen (massacre)

在英文脈絡下， Tiananmen 多指"天安門(事件/屠殺 )......

How do you define this generation?
你如何定義這代人？
I would define this particular generation, born between 1985 and 1990, as being stuck in the middle. The generation before them came of age during the first flash of reform and opening up, whose idealism was very much crushed in 1989 with the Tiananmen massacre. The generation of students after them know nothing except a more confident, brash China. The transition between these two states is embodied in the lives of the generation I write about, whose childhoods were defined by the crackdown after Tiananmen.

我會把生於1985至1990年間的這代人定義為夾縫中的一代。他們前邊的那代人在改革開放初期長大成人，其理想主義在1989年被天安門事件碾得粉碎。他們後邊的那代學生，只看到一個更加自信和躁動的中國，對其他東西一無所知。上述兩種狀態之間的過渡，就體現在我書裡寫的這代人的生活中。天安門事件過後的壓抑塑造了他們的童年。

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Vogel calls Tiananmen a “tragedy,” and quotes Deng brushing aside doubts from colleagues that using troops to smash the uprising would disturb foreigners;
傅高義稱天安門事件是一場“悲劇”，還提到鄧的同事提出質疑，說使用軍隊鎮壓起義會惹怒外國人，鄧對此不以為然：“西方人會忘記的。”實際上，年輕 一代的中國人對這次在300多個城市爆發的示威只有模糊的認識，因為他們的歷史課上沒有提到這件事。

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You are the same age as the people you write about, but were there difficulties winning their trust?
你和你書裡寫的這代人年紀相仿，但要贏得他們的信任也有困難吧？

Instead of just having formal interviews, I hung out with them, went to KTV with them, traveled with them. Of course, I was always the lanky white guy in the karaoke, literally and figuratively, and my background is different from most of their backgrounds.
我並未進行正式的採訪，而是和他們一起玩，去KTV，一起旅行。當然了，我在他們眼裡始終是那個K歌的瘦高個白人——這是比喻，也是實情。我的背景和他們大多數人截然不同。

譯評；the lanky white guy 既然"是比喻，也是實情"，所以"瘦高個白人"只是"實情，而"比喻"是指white 的它義，可能"臉色發白"，或者"選歌極為保守；(政治的に)超保守的な，反動的な，王党派の，反革命的な，反共主義の"。