Two stories seeem to sit at the heart of it all. The first is technology: the explosion in self-expression that we have witnessed has only been made possible by the boom in ways of transmitting thoughts, images, feelings, ideas - the cornerstones of culture. Computer software and the internet have democratised creatively: everyone's an artist now.

    看來有兩件事是這一切的核心。第一，是技術：它使得思想、圖像、感覺和想法能夠被轉化為現實、使得自我表達的爆炸成為可能--而這一切，就是文化的奠基石。電腦軟件和互聯網賦予創造力以民主：現在人人都是藝術家了。

    But, more than that, everyone's a critic. This was the decade of the whirlwind recommendation, when a song or an image, a film clip or a piece of writing could be shared instantly and praised or attacked by anyone - right here, right now.

    但更重要的是每個人都是評論者。這是一個瘋狂推薦的十年。一首歌、一張圖、一段電影剪輯或是一段文字都可以被立刻分享、被贊頌或攻擊，人人都可以做到、就在此時、此刻。

    At the opposite end of the scale from this intangible digital world sit the other dominant figures of the decade: buildings. The rise of the big culture shrine has been as remarkable as the numbers who have turned up to look inside.

    而這個難以描述的數字世界的另一端，同時也定義著這個時代的另一特征：創造。偉大文化的神龕被樹立，于此同時，小型的文化事件同樣值得關注。

    Let us not forget Kylie Minogue's bottom, however. Or the first tweet sent by Stephen Fry. For at the same time as the serious play has flourished in the West End, this has also been a decade of froth and celebrity, one in which, at times, the whole world seemed to go pop.

    請不要忘記凱莉米洛的完美臀部曲線，還有英國傳奇演員Stephen Fry在Twitter上的第一條微博。當正統的高雅話劇在倫敦西區（滬江小編注：倫敦富人區）上演，八卦和明星也同時存在。就讓全世界一起high吧。

    2000 May: Tate Modern open

    2000年5月：泰特現代博物館開館

    When the Queen opened Tate Modern on May 11, London acquired its most important new museum since Edward VII opened the Tate Gallery at Millbank more than 100 years before. In transforming Sir Giles Gilbert Scott's Bankside Power Station into a pristine space for contemporary art, Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron lit a match that kindled a British love affair with modern art. The love affair turned obsessional and 10 years later, every single major museum in London had devoted at least one show to contemporary art.

    當女王在5月11日為泰特現代博物館剪彩開幕，倫敦就迎來了它自愛德華七世在100年前揭幕泰特藝術館以來最為重要的博物館。泰特現代由一座舊電站改建，重新賦予它生命的瑞典建筑師Herzog和de Meuron借此點燃了英國民眾對現代藝術的熱情。接下來這十年來，每一間倫敦博物館都至少舉辦過一次當代藝術展。

    2000 June: Kylie Minogue steps out in her hot pants

    2000年6月：凱莉米洛重回舞臺

    Flaunted in the video for Spinning Around, the Aussie's perfect buttocks become the pop symbol of the new millennium, in what already seems like a more innocent era.

    凱莉米洛在經歷過和乳腺癌的堅強斗爭后，依舊作為性感女神重返舞臺。這一次，粉絲們不僅僅迷戀她的曼妙身材，更愛上了她的靈魂。

    2001 March: Destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan

    2001年三月：巴米揚大佛被塔利班政權毀壞

    Historic Afghan cliff carvings are blown up after the Taliban deems them idolatrous.

    這個政府也算絕了，人家都忙不迭在保護自己國家的歷史遺產。他們倒好，直接自己炸掉。該組織領導人奧瑪爾解釋毀壞佛像的原因是伊斯蘭教義相信，所有神像，包括那些遠古時代的佛像，都是對伊斯蘭教的侮辱。而評論家普遍認為此舉旨在喚起國際社會對塔利班政權的關注，因為國際社會對塔利班政府的孤立讓他們感到絕望。

    2003 July:'The Da Vinci Code' published

    2003年7月：《達芬奇密碼》出版

    Dan Brown begins worldwide domination with monks-and-conspiracy thriller.

    此書的熱賣自不用說，更令人關注的可能是由它引發的宗教討論。而丹布朗也因此開始專注他的"僧侶+陰謀"模式系列書……

    2004 December: Google announces its plan to convert 15 million books into digital format

    2004年12月：谷歌宣布新計劃，將要把150萬本圖書轉為電子版

    A fully searchable, universally accessible library available on your computer. Brilliant but scary.

    一座完全免費的圖書館就此出現在個人用戶電腦里，但由它所引發的版權問題在6年后的今天開始給谷歌找麻煩。

    2005 February: YouTube created

    2005年2月：YouTube建立

    When it began, this video-sharing website, founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, was loathed by multinational entertainment corporations as a copyright-infringing parasite. Since then it has been bought by Google, attracts more than a billion hits a day and its user-generated content makes it a major player in the Web 2.0 economy. Many of the companies who tried to sue it now distribute and promote their products through it.

    YouTube建立之初和國內某豆網站一樣是個盜版天堂。不幸的是國外法律太過健全，它很快就被Google收購，運行愈發規范。所幸它依然能每天吸引上億點擊率，并逐漸發展出如今大行其道的web2.0社區互動模式。如今已經有很多商業機構利用它推廣自己的產品。

    2006 Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature

    2006年 土耳其小說家奧爾罕·帕慕克獲諾貝爾文學獎

    Pamuk's work illuminates a country torn between a resurgent Islam and the West.

    得獎作品《伊斯坦布爾：一座城市的記憶》，描述了這個夾在中西方文化之間的奇妙城市。

    2007 January:Canongate publishes Barack Obama's 'Dreams from My Father'

    2007年1月：珂納蓋特出版了奧巴馬的《我父親的夢想》

    Small Edinburgh publisher picks up little-known American senator's memoir. Two years later…

    一家不知名的愛丁堡出版社挑選了同樣不知名的美國議員的回憶錄出版。而兩年后……

    2007 July:'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' published

    2007年7月：哈利波特系列的最后一本《哈利波特與死亡圣器》出版

    JK Rowling sends children （and adults） into a frenzy of speed-reading.

    感謝上帝，羅琳把孩子們（還有好多大人）從屏幕前拉回到書里。

    2008 August: Olympics Opening Ceremony, Beijing

    2008年8月：北京奧運會舉行

    Perhaps the spectacular audio-visual cavalcade dreamed up and choreographed by film director Zhang Yimou was little more than propaganda for a repressive regime. But it was hard not to marvel at how brilliantly he marshalled a 15,000-strong cast to tumble and move through Herzog and de Meuron's extraordinary Bird's Nest Stadium, and how dexterously he juggled drum platoons, LED paper scrolls, lip-synching singers and CGI fireworks in a militantly euphoric and made-for-television spectacle that felt like a national "coming out" to the world and an attempt to fashion a new sense of Chinese selfhood.

    不管西方評論家們如何嘰嘰喳喳，他們無法否認開幕式的輝煌壯麗。

    2009 February: 'Slumdog Millionaire' wins eight Oscars

    2009年2月：《貧民窟的百萬富翁》獲八項奧斯卡獎

    Danny Boyle's Mumbai-based fairy tale, from a script that nearly didn't get made, becomes the most feted British film since The English Patient.

    孟買童話成就了英國自《英國病人》以來最成功的電影。

    June:Michael Jackson dies

    六月：邁克杰克遜去世

    Just weeks ahead of his 50 date residency at London's O2 Arena, the one time King of Pop collapses and dies. In a process of Elvis-like deification, Michael Jackson's reputation is transformed by tragedy.

    就在他的巡回演唱會開始前幾周，一代歌王倒下了……

    December: James Cameron's 'Avatar' released

    12月：詹姆斯喀麥隆的《阿凡達》上映

    The megahyped sci-fi epic will pave （or block） the way forward for digital 3D.

    這部電影將會被載入史冊，就像某評論人說的那樣：電影史自此會被劃分為兩個時代，前阿凡達時代，和后阿凡達時代。