勇敢做自己 水手服爺爺美國走紅獲CNN報道

From the neck up, Hideaki Kobayashi is a middle-aged, bald man with a bushy mustache.

只看脖子以上的話，小林秀章是個一把鬍子的光頭中年大叔。

From the neck down, this Japanese man could pass for a Japanese schoolgirl as he parades all over Tokyo dressed in "Seifuku," the name for the sailor outfits worn by teenage girls.

但脖子以下，這位日本大叔看上去就跟日本女子中學生一樣，他穿着“水手服”（女學生所穿的水手服裝）走遍東京的大街小巷。

The 50-something Kobayashi started dressing up as a teenage girl about three years ago. Before that, he was a computer engineer and an accomplished photographer — careers that he's kept alive.

小林今年50多歲了，大約三年前，他開始把自己打扮成女子中學生的樣子。在這之前，他是一名電腦工程師，同時也是一位頗有造詣的攝影師，但這兩項事業他現在也都沒有放棄。

He made his debut at an art and design event, but joked about the reasons behind his decision to dress like a giddy schoolgirl.

他首次露面是在一個藝術設計展上，在談到決定穿女裝的原因時他開了個玩笑。

"That's a difficult question," Kobayashi told last year. "It's not really something I've thought too deeply about. Hrm. I guess it's because sailor suits look good on me?"

“這個問題蠻難回答的，”小林在去年接受網站採訪時說，“我對這件事想得其實不是很深刻。呃，我想也許是因爲我穿上水手服很好看？”

As he's become more comfortable in his own skin -- and the schoolgirl skirts -- Kobayashi has become more direct about his intentions.

隨着他越來越適應穿水手服的自己，小林回答這一問題時變得更爲坦率。

"Japan society is all about conforming to the other people," Kobayashi told CNN. "I just want to wear something cute."

小林對CNN說，“日本社會十分注重對他人的迎合。我只是想穿得可愛一點。”

Kobayashi is attracted to women, and identifies as a man even when he's challenging gender norms.

小林非常受到女性的歡迎，即使他挑戰性別規範，人們也認同他是一位男性。

He's proud that he's sought out by young girls who want to take pictures with him and post them online, Oddity Central reports.

Oddity Central報道說，他很得意經常有年輕的女孩子希望跟他合照並把合照放到網上。

Kobayashi's reputation has spread so far that one Japanese prep school has hired him to teach teenagers to think for themselves.

小林的名聲很響，日本的一座大學預科學院甚至聘請他來教學生們如何進行獨立思考。

But while men dressing as women is accepted in Japanese pop culture, Kobayashi says that real life reactions can be different -- he says sometimes people shout insults on the street, and notes that he's been stopped by the police as many as ten times.

雖然男扮女裝在日本是一種可接受的流行文化，小林表示在真實生活中，人們的反應還是會不一樣，有時人們會在大街上大聲侮辱他，而且他還經常被警察攔住，足有10次之多。

Despite the negative attention and discrimination, he thinks it's worth it. It's still outweighed by the positivity of the throngs of people eagerly posing with him as he skips from Shibuya to Harajuku, and by the kids he's able to reach with his message of tolerance, and how liberating being a non-conformist can be.

即使有負面評價和歧視，他認爲他還是值得這麼做。他從澀谷一路走到原宿會不斷有人想要與他合照，他可以教孩子們什麼是寬容，以及作爲一個不拘一格的人感覺是如何的自由，這些所帶來的正能量更爲重要。

"If there's something you want to do, do that," Kobayashi said. "That's my message. Be yourself."

“如果你想要做什麼事，就放手去做，”小林說，“這就是我想要傳遞的訊息。做真正的自己。”