The crest on the cover? The colour of the booklet? Those intricately designed inner pages? There’s a reason for every element of your passport’s aesthetic.
可憐的護照。儘管只是為出國旅行所需要、為出入境證明我們是這個國家的人，卻註定大多數時間束之高閣以策安全，而苦心設計的內頁，除了不厭其煩的海關官員，實際沒有人會認真細看。
Pity the poor passport. Essential though it is for travel abroad, and for proving that we are who we are at home, it’s fated to spend its time hidden away for safe keeping, its pages rarely scrutinised by anyone but weary bureaucrats.
護照具有雙重任務，要同時簡潔表明持有者和發行國的身份，但通常護照會讓我們對自己照片上那副尊容感到難堪，也對封面上國徽和鍍金文字所傳達的陳舊國家意識感到困惑。不過，護照畢竟是一件充滿視覺和歷史敘述的人工作品，在強調國與國間的邊界區隔之同時，也彰顯出國與國間的普遍相似和雷同。
Its twin tasks are to distil the identity of both bearer and issuing nation, but it often leaves us cringing at our own photographic likeness and puzzling over the antiquated sense of nationhood that crests and gilt lettering convey. And yet, the passport is an artefact rich in visual and historic narrative – one that gestures to our universal similarities even as it highlights borders.
傳統上，護照的設計很少會引起人們的好奇心。要知道，這些新護照封面的設計師想像力都很豐富，圖案有飛鳥、蝴蝶，甚至米飯堆得滿滿的飯碗，而且顏色也很豐富，有粉紅、紫色、黃色、橙色及其他。這讓我們思考一個更廣泛的問題：為什麼全世界的護照，必須是現在這種樣式？
Traditionally, passport design has rarely invited curiosity.
Nevertheless, the sheer exuberance of the designers』 re-imaginings, ranging from birds and butterflies to heaped bowls of rice, all adorning covers of pinks and purples, yellows and oranges, raises a broader question: why must passports look the way they do?
From vellum to booklets 從牛皮紙到小本子 護照並非一直如我們今天使用的硬殼小本本。
Passports haven’t always been the stiff-backed booklets that we use today.
最早提到類似護照的旅行文件，出現在聖經的《尼希米記》（Book of Nehemiah），記述約公元前450年前後，先知尼希米從波斯國王阿達薛西斯一世那裡恩準得到通行證。欽賜的通行證指示幼發拉底河以外地區的統治者們，讓尼希米一路安全回到已滅亡的猶大王國舊都耶路撒冷。
The earliest reference to a passport-like travel document occurs in the Bible’s Book of Nehemiah, which describes how, in around 450BC, the prophet was granted letters from Persia’s King Artaxerxes I, requesting that rulers of lands beyond the Euphrates grant him safe passage to Judah.
隨後是古印度一部用梵語寫的治國術論文《政事論》（Arthashastra），提到當局收費發行護照，如果沒有護照，國民就不能進出國境。《政事論》被認為成書於公元前2世紀到公元3世紀之間。
The Arthashastra, an ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft thought to have been written sometime between the 2nd Century BC and the 3rd Century AD, also refers to passes issued for a fee, without which no native of the country may leave or return.
我們不知道這些古老的證件長什麼樣，很有可能像世界上僅有於世的最古老護照。這是一個用清晰華麗的字體，手寫在牛皮紙上的護照，上面有英國國王查理一世的籤名，其尺寸很小，遠沒有口袋那麼大，而且被摺疊過很多次。護照是1636年頒發給託馬斯·利特爾頓爵士（Sir Thomas Littleton），允許他 「離開我國領地，前往海外」。爵士獲準有權帶著四個僕人、50英鎊以及他的 「行李箱和必需品」 上路。
We can’t know what these documents looked like, but it’s quite possible they resembled the world’s oldest surviving passport. Written on vellum in a clear, ornate hand, it included England’s King Charles I signature, and, being far from pocket-sized, has been folded many times. It was issued in 1636 to Sir Thomas Littleton, permitting him 「to passe out of this our realme into the part beyond the Seas」. He was entitled to take with him four servants, £50 and his 「trunckes and necessaries」.
With the outbreak of World War I, governments looked to passports as a way of preventing foreign spies from entering their border. The first recognisably modern British passports were issued in 1915. Made of a single sheet of paper, these documents were folded into a cardboard cover bearing the UK’s royal coat of arms. That same unicorn and lion – which represent Scotland and England, respectively – grace today’s passports, along with its two motoes (in French, since they date back to a time in history when Norman French was common currency among the English elite): dieu et mon droit (God and my right) and honi soit qui mal y pense (shame on he who thinks evil of it).
但護照內頁則大不相同。雖然1915年的護照是第一個要求附有照片的版本，但那些早期護照的面部照片，與今天有嚴格規定的數碼肖像沒有多少相似之處。想想100年前阿瑟·柯南·道爾（Arthur Conan Doyle，就是大偵探福爾摩斯的創作者）的護照照片吧，在這張照片上，他和妻子，以及兩個兒子坐在一輛狗車裡。當時全家人出國旅行可以用一張護照。
Inside, it’s very different. While the 1915 version was the first to require a photograph, those early mugshots bear scant resemblance to today’s strictly regulated digital portraits. Consider Arthur Conan Doyle’s passport photo of a hundred years ago, in which he appears alongside his wife, with their two sons seated in a dog cart (an entire family could travel on a single passport).
同一時代的坎特伯雷大主教蘭德爾·戴維森（Randall Davison），他的護照像是穿著全套主教禮儀服裝，還包括儀式上所用的禮儀聖器。查閱這些古董護照，你會看到形形色色的照片，有的人在花園或海邊擺姿勢，手裡拿著香菸、報紙和樂器。沒有今天任何證件照的一本正經，但其個性卻因此更加生動。
In the same era, Randall Davison, then the Archbishop of Canterbury, got away with full formal attire, including his ceremonial staff. Scroll through antique passports and you』ll find people posed in their gardens or at the seaside, toting cigarettes, newspapers and musical instruments. There is nothing official about them – and their sense of character is all the more piquant for it.
當然，用這樣的照片證明持證者的身份，並非總是有效。學者克雷格·羅伯遜(Craig Robertson) 在其著作《美國護照》（The Passport in America）中，講述了一個有鬍鬚的丹麥人去德國旅行的故事。這個丹麥人抵達德國後，聽說他太像也蓄有鬍鬚的德皇威廉二世，因此就把自己的鬍鬚剃掉了，當他要離開德國時，檢查護照的官員把他攔了回去，因為他看起來不再像護照上的那個人，更像一個臭名昭著的騙子。
These images weren’t always effective as proof of identity, however. In his book The Passport in America, academic Craig Robertson relates the tale of a moustachioed Dane who travelled to Germany. While there, he learnt that large moustaches were considered too reminiscent of the Kaiser Wilhelm and so shaved his off. When he attempted to leave, passport officials turned him back because he no longer looked like his passport photo, resembling instead a notorious swindler.
1920年一戰結束後，為維護世界和平，國際聯盟提出：護照應有統一的國際標準，規定內頁為32頁，要使用至少兩種語言，封面頂部印國名，中間為國徽，底部印「護照」一詞。國聯的規定已經成為現代護照設計的統一模式。
如今，聯合國下屬機構國際民用航空組織（International Civil Aviation Organization）負責發布護照標準，包括封面尺寸、格式和技術等。但沒有規定封面應該是什麼顏色。
Today, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, a branch of the UN, is responsible for issuing passport standards governing the likes of cover size and format as well as technology. But nothing in its regulations stipulates what colour the cover should be.
世界上大多數護照為三種顏色：紅色、藍色和綠色。
Most of the world’s passports are three colours: red, blue or green.
那麼，為什麼護照封面的顏色只是有限的幾種？普遍的解釋是，藍色護照受到新世界的美洲和大洋洲國家的青睞，紅色護照籤發國有些過去或現在是共產黨國家，而綠色通常是伊斯蘭國家。
So, why the restricted palette? It’s generally accepted that blue passports are favoured by New World countries, red alludes to a Communist past or present and green often indicates Islamic nations.
還有一種感覺是，例如，一本櫻桃粉色封面的護照，可能作為旅遊局的一個很好廣告，但也意味著輕浮不嚴肅。因此無論輕鬆活潑多受歡迎，但不會有任何國家願意在護照上表現出這種特性。斯洛維尼亞的護照可能最接近活潑這種性格，其護照如同一本手翻動畫書，快速連續翻動，就會看到一個騎馬疾馳的人越過其內頁的邊緣部分。
There’s also a feeling that a cerise-pink passport, for instance, might make an excellent tourist board advertisement, but could imply frivolity – a trait that no nation state cares to project, however much the world could use it. (Slovenia perhaps comes closest, its passport doubling as a flip-book thanks a horse-mounted figure that gallops up the side of its pages.)
護照設計一致性，這股力量不容低估，只要想想英國護照最近變顏色的故事就略知一二。英國脫歐公投之後，英國政府宣布護照封面將恢復原來的藍色。事實上，從一開始就沒有任何歐盟法律要求英國護照使用酒紅色。英國是在是在1988年自願修改為酒紅色，以配合歐盟的其他會員國。
The power of design conformity is not to be underestimated. Just consider the saga of the UK’s recent colour change. In the wake of the Brexit vote, the British government declared that the passport would be returning to its original blue. In fact, no EU law existed requiring it to remain burgundy in the first place. It was changed willingly in 1988, to fit in with other member states.
各國護照也越來越多地在內頁，盡力傳達更多本國特色，頁面上充滿國家紀念碑、自然奇觀，以及令國人自豪的國家英雄，搞得護照就像是國家公民教育的初級讀本似的。
Within their covers, passports increasingly try to convey more of a local flavour, packing their pages with national monuments, natural wonders and noteworthy citizens, as if they were civics primers.
英國2020年將換成藍封皮護照，舊的酒紅色護照內頁有英國雕塑家安東尼·葛姆雷（Anthony Gormley）的雕塑作品 「北方天使」（Angel of the North）的線條素描；有英國19世紀風景畫家約翰·康斯特勃，以及英國女數學家（也是世界第一位電腦程式員）埃達·洛夫萊斯（Ada Lovelace）。而且每一頁還嵌入了莎士比亞的頭像水印。
Until the plainer blue passports came in this year, the UK’s inner pages included line drawings of Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North sculpture; the painter John Constable; and the first computer programmer, mathematician Ada Lovelace. Shakespeare’s head was embedded on each page as a watermark.
日本的新護照上，有浮世繪大師葛飾北齋的浮世繪《富嶽三十六景》中至少24景。美國完全重新設計於2007年新發布的護照，內頁有激發美國國歌《星光燦爛的旗幟》一役的雕塑，還有拉什莫爾總統山、長角牛和一艘飛剪式帆船。
Japan’s new passport features no fewer than 24 works from Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic woodblock series, Thirty-six views of Mt Fuji, and America’s most recent complete redesign, released in 2007, includes an engraving of the battle that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner along with Mount Rushmore, long-horned cattle and a clipper ship.
有時，這些精心設計的內容，可能會傳遞出未經意識到的信息。比如美國已婚女性能夠獲得自己的護照獨自旅行，已經近一百年。她們不會因為無法獨自出入國境而一定要跟隨丈夫旅行。
Sometimes, these carefully curated contents can send unwitting messages: it’s almost a century since married American women have been able to get their own passports, rather than travelling on (and therefore always with – they couldn’t cross a border solo) their husbands』.
然而，美國護照目前的設計引用了13句美國偉人的勵志名言，但只有一句出自一位女性，即著名的非裔美國學者安娜·茱莉亞·庫珀（Anna Julia Cooper）。
However, among the 13 inspirational quotes from influential Americans that fill the pages of the current design, only one is attributed to a woman, prominent African-American scholar Anna Julia Cooper.
On the personal information page is the Preamble to the US Constitution, because we can’t expect our citizenry to know the We The People bit??
The rest of the passport is for Important Information and visa stamps; on each set of pages is a quote, listed in order below. If this were clickbait, I』d include the phrase YOU WON』T BELIEVE SOME OF THESE, MY FAVORITES WERE #7, 11 & 12:
The principle of free governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains. — Daniel Webster 這與加彭護照大不相同。加彭護照在重新設計生物特徵之前可能是世界上最以女性為中心的護照，因為封面上有一位袒胸哺乳的母親照片。
It’s a far cry from Gabon’s passport which, up until its biometric redesign, might just have been the world’s most gynocentric passport, thanks to a cover displaying an image of a bare-breasted mother nursing an infant.
儘管看起來相當愛國主義，但護照絞盡心機設計這些花樣的主要動機不是美學，而是安全性。簡而言之，護照的內頁設計得越複雜，偽造的難度就越大。現在最新護照的一些最神奇的特點也是出於安全考慮，可以加拿大2015年的重新設計為例。用紫外線照射加拿大護照內頁，平淡無色的圖像就會突然變為閃爍著鮮豔煙火的天空，明亮的星座和彩虹。
Yet patriotic though they seem, these design features are dictated by a prime driver of passport design: not aesthetics but security. Simply put, the more elaborate a passport’s pages, the harder it is to forge. Some of the whizziest features of the modern passport are also due to security concerns; consider, for instance, Canada’s 2015 redesign. Shine a UV light on its pages and the skies above its otherwise fairly standard scenery flare with vibrant firework displays, bright constellations and a rainbow’s arc.
千禧年之際，另一個本應被隱藏的安全識別特徵，即生物識別晶片，開始為各國護照紛紛採用之時，意味著一個新的符號會出現在任何有生物識別晶片的護照封皮上。
At the turn of the millennium, when another otherwise hidden security feature, the biometric chip, began to be added globally, it meant that a new symbol appeared on the jacket of any passport carrying one.
挪威 「新設計工作室」（Neue Design Studio）的創作，再現了傳說中的挪威景觀的主題，並有三種不同顏色的封面：白色、綠松石和朱紅色，既回應了傳統，表現又大膽新潮。內頁如你所希望的那樣，呈現北歐極簡風格，在紫外光下會出現北極光。
Norway’s 2014 redo, by Neue Design Studio, which riffs on the theme of the fabled Norwegian landscape and comes in three colours, white, turquoise and vermillion, nodding to convention while looking bracingly contemporary. Inside, they’re as Nordically minimalist as you could wish for – but a UV beam makes the Northern Lights appear.
挪威的護照可說是個例外。總而言之，不管護照代表的各自國家有多麼不同，無論是中國、美國、澳大利亞、還是伊朗的，其實彼此都非常相像。
Norway’s passports remain the exception. On the whole, no matter how divergent the nations they represent, a passport will always more closely resemble another passport than anything else in this world, whether it’s Chinese or American, Australian or Iranian.
其冷靜理性的設計，削弱了設計的根本目的，強調的不是各自國家的個性，而是彼此在深層意義上的相似，即都渴望在世界舞臺上爭高下，都祈望歷史賦予的地位。
In this way, their sober designs undermine their very purpose, accentuating not the individuality of each issuing nation but their deep similarities – a hunger for stature on the global stage, for the substance that history confers.
在一個罕見使用徽章的世界，各國護照上的國徽看起來是大同小異。植物和動物也是如此，比如日本的菊花、黎巴嫩的雪松、賴索托的鱷魚和小馬，都錯綜複雜地編織在他們各自國家的民族特徵織錦中，最重要的在象徵官式的莊重顏色上，用上金色的壓紋，結果是：這些護照看起來驚人地相似。
In a world in which crests are rarely used, one looks very much like another. Ditto the flora and fauna: while Japan’s chrysanthemum, Lebanon’s cedar, and Lesotho’s crocodile and ponies all are intricately woven into the tapestry of their country’s national identity, embossed in gold on a colour conveying officialdom above all, they can look strikingly alike.
不管護照採用的圖像是如何留戀過往的一切，世界仍繼續大步向前，不僅改變了護照所包含的技術（不知護照無紙化的時間還要多久？），也改變了護照所代表的東西。護照對不同的人包含著不同的意義。對於幸運的人來說，護照保障著他們的安全感和歸屬感，護照是一把開啟更廣闊世界的鑰匙，代表著冒險和飛行。對於那些被迫卷進移民大潮而遠走他鄉的人，這份文件象徵著顛沛流離將有一個安寧的結局，終於有了安身立命之所。
However much passport iconography harks back to the past, the world continues to hurtle forwards, altering not just the technology that these documents contain (and how long before passports go paperless?) but also what they represent. Passports have always held different meanings for different people. To the lucky ones, secure in their sense of home and belonging, it’s a key that unlocks the wider world, representing adventure and flight; to those swept up in tides of migration, that same document symbolises the promise of a restful end to all that, and being allowed to stay put.
長期以來，暗潮洶湧的國際緊張局勢，意味著一些護照比另一些護照打開的大門要多一些，但在新冠病毒疫情大爆發的當下，出國旅行對我們許多人來說都是一樣的困難重重。
Simmering international tensions have long meant that some passports open more doors than others, but with the outbreak of the current pandemic, travel has become prohibitively complex for many of us.
通過這種方式，新冠病毒給閃閃發光的護照小本子添加了另一層意義。那就是，即或不得不將這個小本本束之高閣，但我們會懷戀帶著這個小本本上路的日子，並渴望這樣的日子再次來臨。
In this way, Covid-19 has added yet another layer of meaning to that small, glittering booklet, glossing it with nostalgia and longing even as it gathers dust.
Illustration & Graphic ｜CheungTry Gosibian Today @招生 | GoSibian 網課：學英語，放眼世界。
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