After midnight, amid a war, the D.J. hyped the crowd.

这是一个战火弥漫的国度。午夜已过，夜店里的DJ正在卖力地调动人群的情绪。

“Are you ready to party?” he yelled into the mic, adding an expletive for emphasis.

“你们准备好开派对了吗？”他对着麦克风大喊，还加了一句粗口来加强语气。

The partygoers of Pioneer Plus, the most exclusive nightclub in the war-torn nation of Myanmar, were ready. The D.J. had come all the way from Croatia, after all. Young women gyrated onstage. Johnnie Walker flowed, but only Blue Label because that is the way these high-rollers roll. A private table for the evening — with hookah, imported fruit and pyramids of frosted shot glasses — costs hundreds of dollars to book.

缅甸这个饱受战争蹂躏国家里最顶级的夜店Pioneer Plus的派对客们当然准备好了。毕竟，这位DJ可是从克罗地亚远道而来的。年轻女孩们在舞台上扭动身体。尊尼获加威士忌不断供应，但只有蓝牌，因为这些豪客就是这么讲究。一张当晚的私人包桌——包括水烟、进口水果以及磨砂酒杯金字塔——预订费用高达数百美元。

In the bathrooms, and on the dance floor in stolen moments between flashes of the strobe, some denizens of Pioneer Plus swallowed pastel tablets that tinged their breath with vanilla or grape candy. The kick from these methamphetamine and caffeine concoctions, branded with the names of local drug syndicates, lasts for hours.

在洗手间里，以及舞池中频闪灯光掠过的间隙，一些Pioneer Plus的常客吞下彩色小药丸，这些药丸让他们的呼吸带有香草或葡萄糖果的味道。这种由冰毒和咖啡因调制而成的混合物以当地贩毒集团的名字作为品牌，它们带来的“劲头”可以持续数小时。

Myanmar, which five years ago descended into full-scale civil war after a military junta overthrew the elected government, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is in desperate need of a diversion, a respite, a prolonged high.

五年前，军政府推翻了由昂山素季领导的民选政府，缅甸随即陷入全面内战。如今，这个国家迫切渴望某种消遣、一丝喘息，或者一种持续的飘然状态。

在Pioneer Plus，一张私人包桌（包括水烟、进口水果以及磨砂酒杯金字塔）的预订费用高达数百美元。

No one in Myanmar is unaffected by the conflict, which has turned more than half the country into a battlefield but has largely spared the cities. Half the population is now impoverished. Drones, fighter jets and land mines bring horror to civilians. A military draft applies to both men and women. The Myanmar government is again an international pariah, just like it was during earlier decades of military rule.

缅甸没有人能够置身于这场冲突之外。战事已将全国一多半土地变成战场，但大城市基本幸免。如今，全国半数人口已陷入贫困；无人机、战斗机和地雷给平民带来恐惧；征兵令同时适用于男女。缅甸政府再次沦为国际弃儿，一如此前数十年军事统治时期。

But even in war, life goes on. The partying class must party, and their consumption is conspicuous.

但即使在战争中，生活仍然继续。爱派对的阶层依然要寻欢作乐，他们的消费依然张扬。

International sanctions imposed by Western governments on military leaders and their business cronies — weapons dealers, drug lords, natural resource magnates, middlemen for Chinese enterprises — may have halted shopping jaunts to New York, Paris and London. Still, there’s always Dubai, Shanghai and Bangkok.

西方政府对军方领导人及其商界盟友——军火商、毒枭、自然资源大亨、中国企业的中间人——实施了国际制裁，这也许阻断了他们去纽约、巴黎和伦敦的购物之旅。但还有迪拜、上海和曼谷可以去。

Yone Lay — the stage name means Little Bunny — is a regular at Pioneer Plus, which is in a tony district of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. He raps (“Stupid,” “Someone Who Was Unlucky in Love”), he acts (“Original Gangster,” “Underground”) and he lends his star power to military galas. He once made a music video praising U Min Aung Hlaing, the former military chief who orchestrated the coup five years ago and became Myanmar’s president in April.

永莱（这个艺名意为“小兔子”）是Pioneer Plus的常客，这家夜店位于缅甸最大城市仰光的一处高档区域。他是说唱歌手（代表作有《愚蠢》、《情路不顺的人》等），也演戏（《原始黑帮》、《地下》），他还利用自己的明星影响力为军方举办的盛会助阵。他曾拍过一支音乐视频，赞美五年前策划政变并于今年4月成为缅甸总统的前军方首领敏昂莱。

艺人永莱（这个艺名是“小兔子”的意思），摄于仰光。永莱播放自己执导的支持军方的音乐视频。

When Mr. Yone Lay saunters into the nightclub, entourage in tow, security guards envelop him like a sheath of fine Myanmar silk. The cordon isn’t for show. Some celebrities who publicly cast their lot with the junta, rather than protesting the military’s killing of unarmed protesters, have found themselves targets of urban guerrillas. In 2023, one of Mr. Yone Lay’s acquaintances, Daw Lily Naing Kyaw, a singer who socialized with the generals, was killed by a bullet to the head in Yangon. Months before, Mr. Yone Lay was accosted by a man with a knife but escaped injury. A year later, a bomb exploded in his vehicle. No one was in the car at the time.

每当永莱带着随行人员来到这个夜店，保安便像裹上一层精美的缅甸丝绸般将他围住。这道防线并非作秀。一些名人公开支持军政府而非抗议军方杀害手无寸铁的示威者，他们已成为城市游击队的目标。2023年，永莱的一位熟人、与将军们交往密切的歌手莉莉·奈因觉在仰光被子弹击中头部身亡。几个月前，永莱曾遭一名持刀男子拦截袭击，所幸未受伤。一年后，他的座驾被炸弹炸毁，事发时车内无人。

“Those people, they want to show that if you’re famous and connected to the military, we can kill you,” Mr. Yone Lay said one recent evening. “From the outside, people don’t realize that people like me are also oppressed.”

“那些人想要表明，如果你是名人，又和军队关系密切，我们就可以杀了你，”永莱在不久前的一个晚上说，“外人不明白，像我这样的人其实也受到压迫。”

Mr. Yone Lay, 40, said that it is easy to forget how much Myanmar has changed during his lifetime. Less than two decades ago, there was almost no internet. In secret, Mr. Yone Lay listened to Eminem, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on bootlegged cassette tapes. But the advent of economic and political reforms in the 2010s, including elections in 2015 that ushered in a semi-civilian government, seemed to modernize the nation at warp speed. Mr. Yone Lay rapped about his concerns of that era: “Girls and parties and bling bling.”

40岁的永莱说，人们很容易忘记缅甸在他有生之年发生了多大变化。不到20年前，这里几乎没有互联网。他偷偷用盗版磁带听Eminem、Dr. Dre和Snoop Dogg的音乐。但2010年代开始的经济和政治改革——包括2015年选举后成立的半文官政府——似乎以惊人的速度使国家现代化。那时，永莱的说唱歌曲表达的是那个时代关注的话题：“女孩、派对和珠光宝气。”

在饱受战火蹂躏的缅甸，Pioneer Plus是最顶级的夜店。仰光一家酒店门前的法拉利。

Now, he said, his worries are existential. He travels with bodyguards. The stress, he said, makes decompressing at the blingiest nightclubs mandatory.

如今，他说，他的忧虑关乎生死。他带着保镖出行。他说，压力使得他必须去最奢华的夜店放松。

“We have to find ways to be happy,” Mr. Yone Lay said. “Why can’t we just love all our leaders and live peacefully?”

“我们必须找到让自己快乐的方法，”永莱说。“为什么我们不能爱我们所有的领袖，然后平静地生活呢？”

Yangon, buzzing during the reform years with new construction and advertisements for investment opportunities and business English classes, has largely reverted to a state of decay. Western businesses have mostly left; billboards that once showed off American soft drinks and German sedans now display local instant coffee mixes and bathroom piping.

仰光在改革年代曾生机勃勃，到处都是新建筑、投资机会和商务英语课程的广告，如今已基本回到衰败状态。西方企业大多撤离，曾经展示美国软饮和德国轿车的广告牌如今换成了本土速溶咖啡和浴室管道产品的广告。

Still, with enough squinting or blinkering, it is possible to pretend that life in Yangon is not so different from before the coup, at least for a privileged set. At The Yangon Restaurant, partly owned by the son of Mr. Min Aung Hlaing, the menu is showy European and studded with foie gras and caviar. With enough advance notice, a maître d’ said, a sommelier can be flown in from Singapore.

然而，只要肯眯起眼睛或选择性无视，还是有可能假装仰光的生活与政变前并无太大不同，至少对一群特权阶层来说是这样。在敏昂莱之子参股的仰光餐厅，菜单是华丽的欧式风格，上面列满了各式鹅肝和鱼子酱。一位餐厅经理说，只要提前足够长时间预约，他们甚至可以安排侍酒师从新加坡飞过来服务。

仰光餐厅由前军政府首脑、现任总统敏昂莱的儿子参股。仰光街头的广告牌，如今上面已很少出现西方品牌。

On their social media accounts, Ma Christina Lim, 36, and her husband, Ko Thu Rayn Kyaw Moe, 38, parade their fabulous lifestyles in Yangon and beyond, at Club Med in the Maldives, at the Great Wall in China. There are color-coordinated outfits in leather and velvet, plus more than 200 brand collaborations with the likes of Samsung, Carlsberg and a local yacht club. On YouTube, Facebook and Instagram — the latter two are officially banned in Myanmar, requiring VPNs to access — the couple has garnered millions of views for baby gender reveals (a popped balloon cascading pink confetti for their firstborn, a girl) and photos with celebrities who are tight with Mr. Min Aung Hlaing’s family.

36岁的克里斯蒂娜·林和她38岁的丈夫图瑞觉莫经常在社交媒体上展示他们在仰光以及国外的奢华生活，足迹包括马尔代夫的Club Med度假村和中国长城。他们身着皮革与丝绒的同色系穿搭，与三星、嘉士伯及一家当地游艇俱乐部等进行了200多次品牌合作。在YouTube、Facebook以及Instagram（后两个平台在缅甸是官方明令禁止的，需要使用VPN才能访问）上，这对夫妇获得了数百万浏览量，他们发布了揭晓婴儿性别的视频（第一个孩子是女孩，气球爆开后洒下粉色彩纸）以及与敏昂莱家族关系密切的名人合影。

“Our content, we like to stick to positivity, like positive vibes only,” Ms. Lim said. “You want viewers to feel good after watching our videos.”

“关于内容，我们喜欢保持正能量，只发正能量，”林女士说，“我们希望观众看完我们的视频后感觉心情愉快。”

In the days after the coup, Ms. Lim, like many members of Myanmar’s English-speaking jet set, posted photos on social media of the couple joining the protesters who peacefully marched to oppose the military intervention. Millions of people had taken to the streets nationwide to support the ousted civilian leader, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.

政变后的几天里，克里斯蒂娜·林和许多缅甸说英语的精英阶层一样，在社交媒体上晒出了夫妇两人加入和平抗议队伍的照片，当时全国数百万人走上街头，支持被推翻的文职领导人昂山素季。

Within weeks, the military began killing protesters by gunshot — as well as children who happened to be nearby — and jailing dissenters. An armed resistance coalesced in the rainforests of Myanmar’s borderlands. Celebrities and influencers decried the military’s deadly crackdown. Ms. Lim posted on Facebook, the couple’s hands forming the three-finger gesture of resistance and memorializing “the martyrs who will never be able to return home.”

然而几周之内，军方开始开枪杀害抗议者——甚至包括碰巧在附近的儿童——并逮捕异议人士。随后，一场武装抵抗运动在缅甸边境地区的热带雨林中悄然集结。明星和网络红人纷纷谴责军方的血腥镇压。克里斯蒂娜·林也曾在Facebook上发布照片，夫妻二人用双手比出象征抵抗的三指手势，并纪念“永远无法回家的烈士”。

Then, the couple went silent. In early 2022, in their first post since Myanmar’s civil war flared, Ms. Lim and Mr. Thu Rayn Kyaw Moe celebrated their wedding anniversary, outfitted in matching crimson. In the years since, the pair, whose families made their fortunes in real estate, paper, imported vehicles and cold storage, has eschewed politics, instead gushing over luxury cars, breast pumps and American vitamin gummies. They extol the best dishes at the best French restaurant in town. They lavish attention on a French bulldog named Blue, as well as their two children.

然后，这对夫妇沉默了。2022年初，他们在缅甸内战爆发后的第一条社交媒体动态是庆祝结婚纪念日，两人身穿同款深红色服装。此后，这对夫妇——他们的家族从事房地产、造纸、进口汽车和冷库生意——避开政治话题，转而热衷于展示豪车、吸奶器和美国维生素软糖。他们热情推荐城里最好的法国餐厅里的招牌菜。他们把大量心思和精力都放在一只名叫Blue的法国斗牛犬以及两个孩子身上。

克里斯蒂娜·林和丈夫图瑞觉莫经常在社交媒体上展示他们在仰光以及国外的奢华生活，足迹包括马尔代夫的Club Med度假村和中国长城。一场拍摄活动，地点位于仰光一家豪华酒店的大堂。

“I feel like what happened happened,” said Ms. Lim, referring to the coup and its violent aftermath. She acknowledged that “it’s dark” — but because of chronic electricity shortages.

“我觉得，发生过的事情就让它过去吧，”林女士谈及政变及其之后的暴力时说。她承认“确实很黑暗”——不过她指的是总停电。

“At the same time,” she added, “people are just going to work regularly, going to school regularly.”

“与此同时，”她补充说，“人们还是照常工作，照常上学。”

Even their mundane posts attract big audiences, but perhaps that’s the point. A Facebook video in which Mr. Thu Rayn Kyaw Moe inexpertly fried eggs and boiled instant noodles received 1.1 million views.

甚至他们那些看似平常的帖子也能吸引大量观众，或许这正是卖点所在。图瑞觉莫笨手笨脚煎鸡蛋和煮方便面的Facebook视频获得了110万次播放量。

The coup and civil war have thrown into relief the choices of Myanmar’s rich. In Mandalay, the nation’s second-largest city, the Chinese traders who once came for jade and other jewels are mostly gone. Occasionally, handmade bombs target military officers or people considered accomplices to the regime.

政变和内战让缅甸富人的选择暴露在聚光灯下。在缅甸第二大城市曼德勒，曾经来采购翡翠和其他宝石的中国商人大多已离开。偶尔，自制炸弹会瞄准军官或被视为军政府帮凶的人。

Still, Ma May Nwe Htun, an actor, singer and social influencer better known as Sweet, said she had no interest in escaping Myanmar, where her family owns a gold business. Many friends have left for safer lives overseas, she said, but this is home, with its bustling teahouses and golden pagodas.

不过，演员、歌手以及网红梅纽通（大家更熟悉她的艺名Sweet）表示，她没有兴趣离开缅甸。她的家族在缅甸经营黄金生意。她说，许多朋友已经离开，去海外寻找更安全的生活，但这里是她的家，有熙攘的茶馆，有金光闪闪的佛塔。。

演员、歌手、网红梅纽通在曼德勒给儿子办的生日派对上。梅纽通用篮球主题的蛋糕和一支跨性别艺人乐队给儿子庆生。

“We gotta have fun, baby,” Ms. May Nwe Htun said. “We have to do our best if we want to stay in the country we love.”

“我们得开心起来，亲爱的。”梅纽通说。“如果我们想留在自己热爱的国家，就必须全力以赴。”

One recent evening, she threw a birthday party for her teenage son, who goes to an international school that has now lost most of its international students. There was a basketball-themed cake and a band of transgender entertainers. Overhead, in the hot, dark sky, fighter jets roared past on sorties to rebel-held territory, where civilians are terrorized by airstrikes. By the river in Mandalay, the thud of the bombing campaigns echoes in the night.

前不久的一个晚上，她为十几岁的儿子举办生日派对，儿子就读于一所国际学校，如今大部分国际学生都走了。现场有篮球主题蛋糕，还有一支由跨性别表演者组成的乐队。头顶，战斗机在炎热漆黑的夜空中呼啸而过，飞往反政府武装控制的地区执行任务——那里平民正遭受空袭恐惧。在曼德勒河畔，轰炸行动的沉闷声响在夜晚回荡。

Back in Yangon, at Pioneer Plus, the singer-girlfriend of Mr. Yone Lay, the rapper, downed shot after shot. A member of an ethnic minority group that has a large militia at war with the Myanmar military, she is afraid, she said, of being targeted as a turncoat for dating a musician close to the army regime. She spoke to The New York Times on the condition that her name not be used.

回到仰光的Pioneer Plus，说唱歌手永莱同样为歌手的女友一杯接一杯地喝着酒。她来自一个少数民族，该族有一支正与缅甸军队交战的武装力量。她说，她害怕因为与一位与军方关系密切的音乐人交往而被当作叛徒，并成为攻击目标。她接受《纽约时报》采访时要求不公开自己的姓名。

“The people outside, they only know that the military kills, they only know one side,” she said. “I just want to be an artist, not a businessman or politician.”

“外面的人，他们只知道军方杀人，他们只看到事情的一面，”她说。“我只想做一个艺术家，不想做商人，也不想做政客。”

She stood up unsteadily, the alcohol muddling her movements. Her friends linked their arms with hers, supporting her.

她踉跄着站起来，酒精使她的动作变得迟缓。朋友们挽住她的手臂，扶着她。

“Let’s dance,” she said, reaching out a manicured hand, her mascara smudged from earlier tears. “Let’s forget everything.”

“我们去跳舞吧，”她伸出一只做过精致美甲的手说，睫毛膏因早些时候的泪水已晕染开来。“让我们忘掉一切。”