俗话说：“远亲不如近邻”，邻里之间如果能够保持和谐相处，慢慢就会成为相互帮助的朋友。
但是如果你碰到一家花式作的邻居，那就另当别论了……
比如前段时间，就有人在楼道里给祖先烧纸钱，因为没收拾好灰烬引发了火灾，导致楼上91岁的老太太身亡。
在楼道里烧纸有极大的安全隐患，非常不负责任地将自己和其它邻居都置于火灾的危险之中。
而且居民楼里户与户之间的距离很近，一看到就在自家附近烧纸钱，也会觉得有点头皮发麻，心里不舒服。
Disputes with your apartment neighbors don’t have to get ugly
Imagine that every morning, as you open the door of your apartment to go to work, you see a dozen of your neighbor's shoes scattered around the hallway. And when you are trying to walk down the stairwell, you have to be very careful not to stumble on deserted furniture, old cardboard boxes and toys stacked up on the stairs.
想象一下，每天早上，准备去上班的你一打开门，就看到邻居的一堆臭鞋子摆在楼道里；然后你准备下楼的时候，还得小心翼翼，避免被堆在楼梯间里的废弃家具、旧纸箱和玩具之类的东西绊倒。
Even though I am troubled by such situations every day, I have chosen to keep silent because I don't want to upset my neighbors and start a war with them. But when I complained to some of my friends recently, I found that this is quite common in Shanghai apartments, many of which are densely populated and limited in storage space.
我每天都得面对这样的状况，但是为了避免惹恼邻居，挑起邻里争端，我还是选择了沉默。 最近和一些朋友说起这些事情时，我发现在上海一些人口密集而且储存空间有限的居民楼里，这种状况其实非常普遍。
But the bad behavior of many local residents extends beyond leaving their stuff out. I also often encounter cigarette smokers in our elevator despite the big "No Smoking" sign on the door. Some leave stinking piles of trash bags in the corridor for several days, while others just throw rubbish out of their windows into the green space below.
而且许多邻居都是花式使坏：电梯里明晃晃地挂着“禁止吸烟”“的牌子，总是有人视而不见；把垃圾袋放在走廊里好多天也不拿去扔掉；还有人直接从窗户把垃圾扔到楼下绿地上。
Worse of all are those apartment owners who completely renovate their property every spring. They hire noisy, inconsiderate construction crews to start working at dawn; they drill and jack-hammer all day until late at night, despite municipal laws against doing so.
最可气的是那些一到春天就进行大翻修的业主。他们的施工队天蒙蒙亮就开始干活了，电钻气锤连敲带凿，一直干到深夜，根本不拿相关的住宅装修规定当回事。
Last month - ironically right before China's Qingming Festival - a 91-year-old Shanghai resident was killed in a fire caused by her 64-year-old neighbor, who burned paper money as ancestral offerings in the passageway of their apartments without sweeping up the ashes after.
就在今年清明节的前几天，一位64岁的女子在楼道里给祖先烧纸钱，因为烧纸处理不当而引发了火灾，导致楼上91岁老太太身亡。
I had a similar experience in my own apartment building recently. I smelled smoke and thought something was on fire. It turned out that someone living upstairs was burning paper money right in the corridor.
这让我想起来我前不久在自己住的居民楼里发生的一件事情。某一天，我突然闻到了一股烟味儿，还以为是什么东西着火了。后来才发现，是因为住在楼上的人正在楼道里烧纸钱。
I have no objection to such traditions and I respect people who wish to express their grief in this way. However, doing so inside an apartment is just asking for trouble or worse, injury and death. Do it at a cemetery or outside on the sidewalk! It is quite tricky to deal with neighborhood relationships. In many cases, keeping silent about a neighbor's misbehavior is the only way to maintain harmony.
我尊重这种传统，也理解人们想借这种方式表达哀思的心情。但是，在居民楼里祭祀烧纸完全就是在制造麻烦啊，严重点还会造成伤亡。想烧纸就去墓地或者是路边烧啊！处理邻里关系其实挺难的。在很多情况下，对邻居的不文明行为睁一只眼闭一只眼是保持邻里关系和谐的唯一方式。
Living in a big Chinese city filled with apartment towers, we face our neighbors in the hallways and elevators almost every day, so it's important to avoid conflicts. Moreover, we often don't really know who is living next door to us. It could be a nice family or not.
住在楼盘林立的大城市里，我们几乎每天都得在走廊或者电梯里和邻居碰面，所以避免冲突非常重要。况且，我们无从得知，住在隔壁的究竟是什么人，有可能是很和气的人家，也有可能不是。
Ugly scenes between neighbors often arise out of seemingly trivial conflicts. According to a 2017 report by Xinhua News Agency, a man in East China's Jiangsu Province used a special "thumping" machine to create noise on his neighbor's walls as revenge, eventually forcing them to move out. Such machines are readily sold on Taobao.
邻里之间一些看似琐碎平常的冲突，经常会发展到不可收拾的地步。据新华社2017年的一篇报道，江苏省一位男子为了报复邻居，曾经在家里用“”震楼“神器来制造噪音，逼得邻居不得不搬走。而这种所谓的“神器”，在淘宝上很轻易就能买到。
However, I personally feel that if you have an issue with your neighbor, rather than approaching them in a hostile way, instead you can offer them a small gift or invite them over for dinner, during which time you can gently broach the topic and work out a solution.
然而，就我个人而言，如果和邻居有了矛盾，可以借由小礼物或者请他们吃顿便饭这种温和的方式来和他们商量，而不是采取那种恶意满满的方式去解决问题。
Property management companies are also responsible for mediating disputes between neighbors. Blocking exits and passageways with personal stuff or stacking flammable materials in public space are all against municipal fire codes, so such issues should be easy to solve with just one phone call to your apartment building manager.
物业公司也应该帮助协调邻里争端。另外，在公众场所堆放用私人物品和易燃物是违反城市关于消防管理的规定的，所以给公寓的物业公司打个电话，他们就来了。
An ancient Chinese proverb says that a close neighbor is better than a distant relative. This is true. If any emergency happens in your apartment, neighbors are often the first to respond and offer assistance. More importantly, a cheerful neighborhood community will help brighten everyone's daily lives, which big cities like Shanghai certainly need more of.
中国有句古话：远亲不如近邻。其实很有道理。楼里发生任何紧急事件，邻居都是能够第一时间做出反应而且给予帮助的人。更重要的是，和谐的邻里关系还能够点亮你每一天的生活，这是生活在上海这样的大城市里所需要的。
原文/翻译：Wu Xixi
图：Chen Xia、网络
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