| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| Births are falling. The population is aging. The work force of the world’s second-largest economy is shrinking. |
| 出生率在下降。人口正在老龄化。世界第二大经济体的劳动力正在萎缩。 |
| China’s latest once-a-decade census, which was conducted last year, showed the slowest population growth since the 1960s, confirming that the country is in the midst of an urgent demographic crisis. |
| 中国去年进行的最近一次十年一次的人口普查显示，人口增长速度是20世纪60年代以来的最低水平，证实了中国正处在一次紧迫的人口危机之中。 |
| The results may push the government to loosen its family planning restrictions, which have shaped the most intimate aspects of Chinese society — marriage, childbirth and child-rearing — for decades. But the stark need for change has also underscored how reluctant the authorities have been to fully let go of control. |
| 普查结果可能会促使政府放宽计划生育限制，几十年来，这些限制已影响中国社会最涉及个人隐私的方面——婚姻、生育和抚养孩子。但对改变政策的赤裸裸需求也凸显出，当局一直以来是多么不请愿完全放开控制。 |
| Here are some major takeaways from the census. |
| 以下是这次人口普查的一些主要结果。 |
| Young Chinese aren’t having babies, and the country is graying. |
| 中国的年轻人不想生孩子，国家正在老龄化。 |
| Perhaps the most highly anticipated question was about the future of childbirth in China, as the country ages rapidly. The answer was striking: On average, Chinese women are expected to have just 1.3 children each over the course of their lives. |
| 随着中国快速老龄化，人们最期盼的答案也许是关于中国生育率未来的问题。答案惊人：中国女性平均一生只生1.3个孩子。 |
| That would be one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. In 2019, only five countries had lower rates — South Korea, Singapore, Malta, Ukraine and Spain — according to World Bank data. Last year, just 12 million babies were born in China, the lowest official number since 1961, as the country was emerging from a devastating famine. |
| 这让中国成为世界上生育率最低的国家之一。据世界银行的数据，2019年，只有五个国家——韩国、新加坡、马耳他、乌克兰和西班牙——的生育率低于这个值。去年，中国只出生了1200万个婴儿，这是1961年以来最低的官方数字，当时中国正在从一场毁灭性的饥荒中恢复过来。 |
| Experts cautioned that the pandemic may have been a major factor, but births have now declined for four consecutive years. |
| 专家们提醒，尽管新冠病毒大流行可能是一个主要因素，但出生率现已连续四年都在下降。 |
| The numbers make clear that China’s aging crisis will not be resolved anytime soon. As older Chinese people occupy a greater share of the population, while the younger work force who would support them declines, China’s pension funds and underdeveloped facilities for older adults are sure to feel strain. Adults above 60 now make up 18.7 percent of the population, compared with 13.3 percent in 2010. |
| 这些数字表明，中国的老龄化危机不会很快得到缓解。随着中国老年人在人口中所占比例越来越大，同时，能为抚养老年人提供资金的年轻劳动力减少，中国的养老基金和不发达的养老设施肯定会感受到更大的压力。60岁以上的成年人现已占总人口的18.7%，而2010年时只占13.3%。 |
| Liang Jianzhang, a demography expert at Peking University, said he expected that the government would lift its remaining limits on fertility soon. Five years ago it ended its one-child policy and allowed families to have two children, but families who have more can still be penalized or denied benefits. |
| 北京大学人口学家梁建章说，他预计政府很快会取消尚存的生育限制。五年前，中国停止了独生子女政策，允许家庭生两个孩子，但是，生更多孩子的家庭仍可能受到惩罚或被拒绝福利。 |
| The Chinese government’s latest five-year plan, an economic blueprint issued this year, promised an even more “inclusive” policy toward childbirth, leading some unmarried women and gay couples to hope that they, too, could win greater rights and more access to reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization. |
| 中国政府今年发布了最新的五年计划，并在这份经济蓝图中承诺对生育采取更“包容”的政策，让一些未婚女性和同性恋伴侣有了他们也能获得更多权利、更多获得体外受精等生殖技术的希望。 |
| “If you have a pro fertility policy, by default, you should remove restrictions,” Professor Liang said. |
| “如果有支持生育的政策，不用特别做决定，就应该取消限制，”梁建章说。 |
| But despite their rhetoric, officials have at times imposed greater restrictions on certain groups. In the western region of Xinjiang, officials are forcing women to have fewer babies as part of an effort to control the Muslim ethnic minorities there. |
| 不过，尽管官员们嘴上说要放宽生育，但有时仍将更大的限制强加于对某些群体。在西部新疆地区，作为控制当地穆斯林少数民族努力的一部分，官员们正在强迫女性少生孩子。 |
| China’s gender gap is shrinking, but discrimination remains. |
| 中国的性别差距在缩小，但歧视依然存在。 |
| One of China’s most persistent problems in recent decades has been its excess of men, a product of the one-child policy that had encouraged families to abort female fetuses or abandon baby girls. Tuesday’s data showed that the practice is starting to ebb. Among newborns, males outnumbered females 111.3 to 100. Ten years ago, that ratio was 118.1 to 100. |
| 中国近几十年来最持久的问题之一是男性过多，这是独生子女政策的后果，该政策导致家庭打掉女胎或遗弃女婴。周二公布的普查数据显示，这种做法开始减少。2020年出生人口中的男性高于女性，性别比为111.3比100。10年前，出生人口中的男女性别比是118.1比100。 |
| “It’s positive, because it indicates a shift toward changing attitudes in gender roles and the value of girls versus boys,” said Stuart Gietel-Basten, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who studies demography. But that ratio is still higher than normal, suggesting a lingering preference for boys, he added. |
| “这是好事，因为它表明，对性别角色的看法以及女孩相对男孩的价值正在发生转变，”香港科技大学研究人口统计学的教授贝斯图(Stuart Gietel-Basten)说。但他也补充说，中国的新生儿性别比仍高于正常水平，表明重男轻女的问题依然存在。 |
| The advancement of women faces more official obstacles, too. In an effort to address the fertility crisis, officials in recent years have sought to push women back into traditional gender roles. Feminist activists have been detained or censored online. |
| 女性的进步也面临着更多的官方障碍。近年来，官员们在应对生育危机的努力中，已试图让女性重返传统的性别角色。女权活动人士被拘留，或在网上受到审查。 |
| Education levels rose. Opportunities haven’t always kept up. |
| 教育水平提高了。机会并没有随之跟上。 |
| China has made huge strides in increasing education accessibility. From 2010 to 2020, the number of people with a university education leapt 73 percent, from 8,930 out of every 100,000 people to 15,467. More than 218 million people now have a university education. |
| 中国在普及教育方面已取得了巨大的进步。接受过大学教育的人数十年里增长了73%，从2010年的每10万人中有8930人，到2020年的每10万人中有15467人。接受过大学教育的人口现已超过2.18亿。 |
| That rate, about 15 percent of the population, still lags behind many developed countries. (On average in 2019, 39 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 in countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development had some form of tertiary education.) But it is a tremendous accomplishment for a country that in 1997 had fewer than 3.5 million undergraduate and graduate students. |
| 中国人口中约有15%受过高等教育，这个比例仍低于许多发达国家。（2019年，经济合作与发展组织[Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development]成员国的平均值是，39%的25岁至64岁的成年人接受过某种形式的高等教育。）但对中国来说，这是一项巨大的成就，中国1997年时的本科生和研究生加起来还不到350万。 |
| Still, experts have noted that the surging numbers of college graduates may bring a new problem: a dearth of well-paid jobs to employ them. China’s economy is still largely reliant on blue-collar labor. Ning Jizhe, the head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, acknowledged the gap at a news conference about the census on Tuesday. |
| 尽管如此，专家们指出，大学毕业生数量的激增可能带来一个新问题：高报酬工作岗位不足。中国经济在很大程度上仍依赖于蓝领劳动力。中国国家统计局局长宁吉喆在周二的人口普查主要数据结果新闻发布会上承认了这个差距。 |
| “Employment pressure on college students is increasing,” he said. “The pace of industrial transformation and upgrading needs to speed up.” |
| “大学生就业压力加大，”他说。“产业转型升级步伐需要加快。” |
| Unless the new crop of educated young people can find stable jobs, Professor Gietel-Basten said, the fertility rate may drop even further. “If you’ve got a situation where you have graduate unemployment and it’s difficult to access these good jobs,” he said, “why would you have more babies?” |
| 贝斯图说，除非新一批受过高等教育的年轻人能找到稳定的工作，否则生育率可能会进一步下降。他说，“如果大学毕业生找不到工作，或很难找到好工作，他们怎么会生更多的孩子呢？” |
| Wealthier centers are continuing to grow, while poorer areas lag. |
| 较富裕的城市中心人口继续增长，同时，较贫穷的地区继续落在后面。 |
| From 2010 to 2020, the percentage of people living in the northeastern region of China dropped 1.2 percent, while the share in the highly developed eastern region grew 2.15 percent. |
| 从2010年到2020年，居住在中国东北地区的人口占总人口的比例下降了1.2%，而居住在高度发达的东部地区的人口在总人口中的比例增长了2.15%。 |
| Northeastern China, which includes Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces, is often called China’s Rust Belt: A once-vibrant industrial hub that has seen its economic fortunes flag. As the region has declined in recent years, its population has too. But places like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong Province and Zhejiang Province have continued to boom. |
| 包括辽宁、吉林和黑龙江在内的中国东北经常被称为中国的“铁锈地带”：东北曾是生机勃勃的工业中心，但当地经济正在走向衰落。近年来，当地的人口也随经济的衰落而减少。但北京、上海、广东和浙江等地的人口继续上升。 |
| Some of the growth may stem from rapid urbanization. The census showed that the urban population share increased 14.2 percent in the past decade, to nearly 64 percent. |
| 这些上升中的部分可能来自快速的城市化。人口普查结果显示，城市人口在过去十年里增加了14.2%，已占总人口的近64%。 |
| But experts said the unfavorable economic conditions had trapped northeastern China in a downward spiral in which people did not want to have babies and also were moving out of in search of better opportunities and social benefits. |
| 但专家们说，不利的经济条件也让中国东北陷入了一种恶性循环，人们不想生孩子，也有人为了寻找更好的机会和社会福利而离开。 |
| “Education, pensions, health care — the regional difference is enormous,” said Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. As the northeast continues to empty out, those disparities may become even more pronounced, he added. |
| “教育、养老、医疗等方面的地区差异巨大，”加州大学尔湾分校(University of California, Irvine)社会学系教授王丰说。随着东北地区人口继续减少，这些差距可能会变得更加明显，他补充说。 |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们