口译：张伟·《“孩奴”，一个被庸常算计裹挟的流行词》

如果我们承认流行词汇是风向标，那么，正被许多人挂在嘴边的“孩奴”，代表着一种令人忧虑的倾向。它说明，我国的整整一代人都开始为要不要为人父母而犹豫不决。它甚至能说明，在一个长久以来将亲子之情视作基石的社会里，生儿育女头一次在大范围内被认为是一种负担而不是一种幸福。

这可不是个好消息。

关于“孩奴”的讨论已经开始占据报纸和网站的显要位置，“生孩子要理性”的专家观点颇带暗示意味地传播，“养个孩子要一百万万”的恐慌悄悄蔓延。据说，在很多家庭的饭桌上，要不要生孩子，已经是一个不可回避的严肃话题。

我们承认，单个家庭在生育问题上无论作何选择，都应受到尊重。但当这种选择表现出一种整体的方向性并开始传染时，就不得不严肃对待。我们也承认，养育孩子的成本正在变得高昂，但这却不足以成为将孩子视作负担的理由。

生活成本，尤其是城市生活的成本，让许多人感到压力太重。这是我们正面临的现实，它部分是我们为文明发展付出的代价，部分则是我们社会结构失衡的恶性后果。将“孩奴”一词挂在嘴边的这代人，许多刚独立挑起生活重担。他们面临一个正被贫富分化、心态失衡等因素慢慢撕裂的社会，并在对美好生活的期望与现实的落差间挣扎。他们习惯性地将这一切主要归因于外部不公，充满牢骚和抱怨。

看起来，这些压力无可避免地感染到他们对于生儿育女的评判。这种压力是现实存在的：在北京街头，在上海街头，或者在广州街头，随便拉住一位劳碌的为人父母者，你都会发现，孩子是他（她）奋斗的动力，也是他（她）焦虑的根源。

然而当一对夫妇忙于用奶粉、尿布和学费的价格来衡量生育的价格，并将为承担这种价格的奋斗视为“奴役”时，我们可以确定，一定是哪里出了问题。

养育后代从来不只是一个经济命题。它包含亲情之美、伦理之常。它的利弊，不应该只通过计算器上敲出的数字来评判。

亲子之爱、天伦之乐，不仅是我们社会长久以来珍惜保存的传统价值，也是深藏于人性深处不可回避的永恒主题。个体会因种种原因作不同选择，但这种根植于文化和人性本身的传统，并不应该被冷冰冰的成本核算所否定。

在“孩奴”这一词汇流行的背后，我们感受到一种危险。我们担心，被过分强调的集体抱怨，会演化成无法控制的强大潮流，损害我们珍视的亲情传统，从而裹挟许多人的思考，并伤害我们传统的生育观念和家庭观念。

将生儿育女视为劳役，并与买房、买车相提并论的观念，是草率而不负责任的。它是对世界的消极逃避而不是积极面对。而急匆匆地将这种观点加以传播，并津津乐道，则是一种鲁莽的冒险。

作为理性的经济人，我们也应该承认，精确地计算养育孩子所可能的花费，并据此规划自己的人生节奏，是明智的行为。但是，这种明智绝不是抱怨这种花费之巨大，并借此发泄自己对于生活成本高昂的不满。要知道，在历史上，即使是最艰难最贫穷的时刻，人类也不曾放弃对于子女的抚育和爱护。

“孩奴”这个称呼，叫我们心存不安。这种不安，源于我们对民生艰难的体味——如果面对抚育后代这样基本的选择，社会成员也被迫精打细算而犹豫不决，这说明这种艰难已经到了某种必须正视的程度。这种不安，也因这类流行词汇背后所揭示的传统价值的脆弱而起——凭借那些价值，我们才得以将社会共同体延续至今。

我们希望那些恐惧成为“孩奴”的人，静下心来进行一次深思熟虑，而不是急于跟从一个符号，放任自己随波逐流。我们希望对“孩奴”的恐惧早日平息，这既需要靠整个社会系统尽快地良性化发展，也需要已为人父母或将为人父母者，以更良性的心态，体会生育和养育后代的美妙。

Behindthe Vogue Term “Child’s Slave”

Zhang Wei

If vogue words are weathercock ofsociety, the much-mouthed term “child’s slave” is indicative of a disquietingtendency: a whole generation of our country is hesitant about whether to becomeparents or not. The implication is: For the first time ever, parenting isregarded on a large scale as a heavy burden rather than a blessing in oursociety where parent-child love has long been valued as its cornerstone.

That is by no means blessing.

Arguments are making newspaperheadlines and dominating websites. Consequently, the experts’ view hinting that“One should not rush into parenthood” is spreading widely; and the panic that “Theexpense of bringing up a child amounts to one million yuan” is creeping intopeople’s hearts. Thus, parenting has become an unavoidable serious topic overdinner of many families, as it is said.

We admit that any choiceconcerning childbearing made by individual families should be respected.However, once the choice is channeled into one orientation that is getting contagious,we can’t take it lightly. We admit at the same time that the cost of rearing achild is skyrocketing, which, however, cannot justify the opinion that regardschildren as a burden.

The cost of living, especially incities, is becoming a pressure too heavy to bear for many people. This is thereality we have to face up to. The high cost of living is, in part, the pricewe have to pay for the development of civilization, and in part, theundesirable consequence of the imbalance of our social structure. Many of thegeneration for whom “child’s slave” has become a pet phrase have just begun tobe on their own feet. What confronts them is a society torn by the widening gapbetween the rich and the poor and imbalanced mentality of the people, in whichthey are struggling in the discrepancy between their great expectations of ahappy life and the harsh reality. They habitually attribute all this to theunfairness of society, thus complaining and grumbling all the time.

Such pressure surely affects theway they view parenting. The existence of this pressure is reality: Anyone whohappens to be a busy parent you stop in the street of Beijing, Shanghai orGuangzhou will tell you that the child is the very motivation that drives themto work hard but it is also the cause of their anxiety.

However, when a couple hurries tojudge the value of childbearing with the sum expense of milk powder, diapersand tuition, and regards their struggle to bear such expenses as being “enslaved”,we are sure that something must be wrong.

Rearing a family is more than aneconomic issue. It embraces the beauty of family affection and convention ofethics. Its merits and demerits cannot be merely judged by the figure shown inthe calculator when you have keyed in all the expenses.

Parent-child love or domesticbliss embraces not only a time-honored tradition highly valued by our society,but also an eternal them lying deep in human nature that cannot be avoided. Thetradition deep-rooted in the Chinese culture and human nature should not be negatedby the indifferent estimation of cost, although an individual may decide for oragainst parenting for various reasons.

What worries us is, behind thepopularity of the term of “child’s slave”, the exaggerated collective complaintmay build up into a torrential trend that might shape many people’s independentthinking to the detriment of our treasured family love and of our traditionalnotion concerning rearing a family.

It is rash and irresponsible toview parenting as enslavement and mention it in the same breath as the purchaseof one’s own flat or private car. This view reveals a passive escapement fromrather than an active face-to-face encounter with the world. It is a recklessrisk to propagandize and enthuse over it.

We must also admit that it issensible for any rational “economist” to accurately calculate the possible expenseof rearing a family and coordinate one’s tempo of life accordingly. However,the sensibility doesn’t lie in complaining about the enormous expenses andventing one’s discontent with the high cost of living. After all, even in thehardest and poorest times in history, mankind never shunned its responsibility ofraising and caring for its offspring.

The term “child’s slave” inflictsus with disturbance, which roots from the hard livelihood of the people—if membersof a society are forced to calculate meticulously and hesitate when confrontingsuch a basic choice as raising offspring, it means the hard livelihood must betaken up in real seriousness. Such a disturbance also hints at the vulnerabilityof our traditional values, through which our social community maintains toexist till today.

We sincerely hope those who arein fear of becoming “child’s slaves” will calm down to think carefully insteadof allowing themselves to follow a code and drift along with the tide. We alsohope that the fear of becoming “child’s slaves” will be allayed as soon aspossible. This requires the whole social system develop in a fine way and allparents and would-be parents regard the bliss of childbearing and rearing witha more positive and healthier attitude.

（王昌玲 译，陈德彰改）