中國的蟻族與房奴

WHO knew China was tribal? The diversification of Chinese society has seen a flowering of a new vocabulary. Perhaps most fascinating has been the division of people into tribes (zu in Mandarin). The travails of the yi zu, or ant tribe, have been well-chronicled—recent graduates from outside the main cities who move to urban areas, live cheaply and work hard, often in low-paid jobs. Perhaps less well-known are the ken lao zu, the bite-the-old tribe, those between 25 and 35 who are underemployed or out of work, still at home and sponging off mum and dad.
你知道中國也有很多羣落嗎？中國社會的多元化創造了很多豐富多彩的新詞。也許最有趣的當屬公民所被劃分的羣落了（普通話稱爲“族”）。大量的文章在描繪“蟻族”的辛勞。畢業不久的大學生從外地來到大城市，他們辛勤地工作，卻掙着微薄的錢、住着廉價的房。也許另一個沒這麼有名的是“啃老族”。這些介於25到35歲間的年輕人要麼半失業，要麼完全失業。他們還賴在家裏靠着父母過活。

Many of the tribes, inevitably, are made up of people looking for love. There is the jia wan zu, the marry-the-bowl tribe. These are young women searching for that most stable of husbands, the one who holds a government job (still known as the iron rice bowl). The shan hun zu, or lightning-marriage tribe, marry fast and sometimes divorce faster. They should not be confused with the yin hun zu, the hidden-marriage tribe. These are women in their 20s who hide the fact that they are married, knowing they will not be hired or promoted if there is even the whiff of the possible need for maternity leave—socialist gender-equality does not offer much protection in the Wild East of modern China. And if you can only afford a postage stamp of an apartment, you’re probably a member of the wo ju zu, the snail-house tribe.
如人所料，很多“族”由一些尋找愛情的人組成。“嫁碗族”指一羣尋找擁有穩定工作的意中人的年輕姑娘，穩定的工作指政府公務員（依舊被稱爲鐵飯碗）。“閃婚族”——嫁得快，有時離得更快。還有我們熟知的“隱婚族”，二十多歲的年輕姑娘隱瞞了已婚的事實，深知一丁點兒要休產假的需要就會讓她們喪失僱用和晉升的機會。社會主義國家的性別平等在位於奇異東方的現代中國尚不能給她們提供足夠的保護。如果你只能負擔得起公寓裏的彈丸之地，那你就差不多算是“蝸居族”中的一員了。

You can belong to more than one tribe. Most members of the ant tribe also belong to the ben ben zu, the rush-rush tribe, to which, in fact, most urban Chinese belong. All that rushing around can create a lot of pent-up anger, giving rise to thenie nie zu, the crush-crush tribe, so named because they go into supermarkets and take out their frustration by standing in the aisles crushing packets of instant noodles (yes, really).
你可以同時屬於多種“族”。“蟻族”成員多數也是“奔奔族”，事實上，多數城市人口都算得上“奔奔族”。整日奔忙就會產生鬱積的憤怒，他們繼而變成了“捏捏族”——站在超市過道里，通過捏方便麪袋來發泄沮喪（真是這樣的）。

Many tribal members are also slaves (nu in Mandarin). There are the fang nu (mortgage slaves) and hun nu (marriage slaves, who are also, by definition, mortgage slaves) and all Chinese parents are of course haizi nu (slaves to the only child).
許多人既是“族”又是“奴”。有“房奴”也有“婚奴”，都是指爲按揭所累的人。當然，所有的中國父母都被稱作“孩奴”。

Perhaps the group China needs most as it tries to stimulate its domestic consumer economy is the yue guang zu, or moonlight tribe, so named because the Chinese characters for “moonlight” sound the same as the phrase “spend all your monthly salary”. Their parents saved every yuan, but life for these youngsters is just spend, spend, spend. Now, that’s patriotic consumption.
也許中國在極力擴大內需經濟的同時，最需要的當屬“月光族”了。中文裏“月光”聽上去和“花光了所有的月薪”一樣。父母雖省吃儉用，子女卻只懂得花、花、花。不過，現在他們是在爲了祖國而消費。