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| SEOUL — Jung Seong-hoon, 22, shared the frustrations of young South Koreans looking at a bleak future: Jobs are scarce, rent is high, and debt is climbing. So last month, he ran for a spot on his local city legislature and won. | 首尔——22岁的郑相熏（音）和许多韩国年轻人一样，对惨淡的未来感到沮丧：工作机会少、房租高、债务攀升。因此，上个月，他参加了当地市议会的竞选并且获胜。 |
| Mr. Jung exemplifies the young blood entering South Korean politics in droves after lawmakers this year lowered the minimum age limit for political office to 18 from 25. That led to a record number of people under 40 running in local elections in June — 416 candidates, up from 238 in 2018. Among the 4,131 people who won their races, 11 were under 24 years old, including the youngest election winner in the country’s history, a 19-year-old. | 韩国立法者今年将担任公职的最低年龄限制从25岁下调至18岁后，郑相熏成了大批年轻血液进入韩国政坛的典范。今年6月参加地方选举的40岁以下人士达到了创纪录的416人，较2018年的238人有所增加。在赢得选举的4131人中，有11人年龄在24岁以下，其中包括该国历史上最年轻的选举获胜者，一名19岁的年轻人。 |
| But even before their terms began on Friday, they encountered problems as old as politics itself. They say they face a political ecosystem dominated by politicians in their 50s and 60s who are out of touch, a prohibitively high bar for fund-raising and an opaque network of party officials whose favor they must curry to stand a chance. | 但是，在这群人任期于周五开始之前，他们已经遇到了和政治本身一样古老的问题。他们说，自己所面对的政治生态系统主要由五六十岁、与外界脱节的政治人物组成；筹款的门槛高得让人望而却步；党内官员组成的网络不透明，年轻人必须讨好这些官员才能获得机会。 |
| They must navigate strict cultural barriers (one’s social standing is determined in large part by one’s age) and deal with an older electorate that sometimes dismiss them as “inexperienced” and “gullible,” some complain. | 一些人抱怨说，他们必须跨越严格的文化障碍（一个人的社会地位在很大程度上取决于其年龄），还要应对年长的选民，后者有时会认为他们“缺乏经验”和“容易受骗”。 |
| “There is an expectation that young people will contribute to bettering the world, but a lot of people raise concerns about our young age,” said Lee Ja-hyung, 23, who was elected to the assembly in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul. “They’re concerned that our sense of judgment hasn’t been fully developed and we might be too easily swayed by people around us.” | “人们期待年轻人为改善世界做出贡献，但很多人对我们的年轻感到担忧，”现年23岁、在首尔附近的京畿道当选为国会议员的李子亨（音）说，“他们担心我们的判断力还不成熟，我们可能太容易被周围的人左右。” |
| That makes it harder for the young hopefuls to receive the nomination of a major political party, which often requires them to be personally acquainted with party officials. In the conservative People Power Party, local party council chairs hold the power to nominate a candidate. In the liberal Democratic Party, candidates must not only be nominated, but also win in primaries to stand in the election. | 这使得满怀希望的年轻候选人更难获得一个主要政党的提名，这样的提名往往需要他们认识党内的官员。在保守派的国民力量党中，地方议会主席拥有提名候选人的权力。在自由派的共同民主党中，候选人不仅要获得提名，还要赢得初选才能参加选举。 |
| “There was a fixed idea that politics is for adults, according to a long-established Confucian culture,” said Noh Woong-rae, 64, a member of the National Assembly. | “在根深蒂固的儒家文化中，有一种固定的观念，认为政治是成年人的事，”64岁的国会议员卢雄来说。 |
| The age limit for national political candidates is 25 in many Asian countries, including Japan, India, the Philippines and Thailand. In Hong Kong and Singapore, the limit is 21, and in Taiwan, it is 23. In the United States, a person must be 30 or older to be a senator and 25 or older to be a representative. Only a few teenagers have been elected to American state legislatures or have run for seats in City Councils. A handful of countries, including Germany, allow 18-year-olds to run for a national legislative chamber. | 在日本、印度、菲律宾、泰国等许多亚洲国家，国家政治候选人的年龄下限是25岁。香港和新加坡的下限是21岁，台湾是23岁。在美国，一个人必须年满30岁及以上才能成为参议员，年满25岁及以上才能成为众议员。只有少数十几岁的青少年当选为州议会议员或竞选市议会席位。包括德国在内的少数几个国家允许18岁的年轻人竞选国家议会议员。 |
| In South Korea, Mr. Noh was among the lawmakers who campaigned to lower the minimum age limit for candidates, arguing that the candidacy age should match the voting age, which had been 20 since 1960. Others wanted to remove age limits altogether. | 在韩国，卢雄来是游说降低候选人最低年龄限制的议员之一，他认为候选人年龄应该与投票年龄相匹配。自1960年以来，投票年龄一直是20岁。还有人希望完全取消年龄限制。 |
| The movement to change the law was tied to the student-led democratic protests of 1987. Activists said they wanted to dispel the notion that political participation should be reserved for the elite, an idea dating to the military dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. | 修改法律的运动与1987年学生领导的民主抗议活动有关。活动人士表示，他们希望消除政治参与应该留给精英阶层的观念，这种观念可以追溯到朴正熙的军事独裁时期。 |
| The effort succeeded in stages: The voting age was lowered to 19 in 2005. In 2019, the National Assembly approved lowering it again, to 18. Then this year, lawmakers lowered the age limit to run for office. | 这一努力取得了阶段性成功：2005年，投票年龄降至19岁。2019年，韩国国会再次批准投票年龄降至18岁。今年，立法者降低了竞选公职的年龄限制。 |
| “It’s nice to have some experience or knowledge, but I don’t think politics necessarily requires a huge level of it,” said Park Joo-min, 48, another assemblyman. | “有一些经验或知识是好事，但我认为政治不一定需要大量的经验和知识，”48岁的国会议员朴柱民（音）说， |
| Despite the change, Mr. Jung, the 22-year-old elected to the Yangsan city assembly in South Gyeongsang Province, said that speaking to a party official to try to get nominated “felt like beating my head against the wall.” (He campaigned on a promise to help strengthen the city’s transportation infrastructure.) | 尽管有了这种变化，现年22岁、当选庆尚南道梁山市议会议员的郑相熏说，为了获得提名而与一名党内官员交谈，“感觉就像用头撞墙。”（他在竞选中承诺帮助加强该市的交通基础设施。） |
| Fund-raising is also especially challenging, with some candidates saying they had to come up with about 20 million South Korean won (about $15,400) to run successful campaigns. | 筹款也非常困难，一些候选人表示，他们必须拿出约2000万韩元（约合10万元人民币）才能成功竞选。 |
| Lee Yechan, 22, who was elected to the Yeongdeungpo-gu district assembly in Seoul, said that when it came to campaign financing, “I used up all the savings that I had collected from an internship I did for a year and from working part time teaching students. I even took out a loan — interest rates are high.” | 现年22岁、当选首尔永登浦区议员的李业灿（音）表示，为了能拿出竞选资金，“我花光了一年的实习工作和兼职教师的积蓄。我甚至还贷了款——利息很高。” |
| Drawn to politics by a mix of idealism and conviction that they could help steer the country in a better direction, some find themselves confronting trade-offs. | 由于理想主义，以及相信自己可以帮助引导国家向更好的方向发展，这些年轻人被政治所吸引，一些人发现自己面临取舍。 |
| On the eve of taking office, Mr. Jung said: “Though I feel responsible to address young people’s issues, I don’t intend to focus on them. I think raising young people’s issues just because I’m young will invite hostility.” | 在就职前夕，郑相熏说：“虽然我觉得自己有责任解决年轻人的问题，但我不打算把重点放在这些问题上。我认为仅仅因为我年轻就提出年轻人的问题会招致敌意。” |
| For Cheon Seung-ah, 19, the youngest elected politician, winning came at a price. She had been nominated by her local party council’s chair, Kim Hyun-ah, 52, amid a push to get more young women involved with the People Power Party. (Many members had been accused of amplifying anti-feminist slogans.) | 对于最年轻的民选政治官员、19岁的千承雅（音）来说，获胜是有代价的。她是由她所在的地方政党理事会主席、52岁的金贤雅（音）提名的，当时后者正在推动让更多年轻女性加入国民力量党（该党许多成员被指推广反女权主义口号。） |
| In an interview, Ms. Cheon had described hopes of expanding enrichment programs for the city’s children and improving the municipal transit system. Then, after she won, members of her own party council, including some women who had been vying for a nomination to her seat, launched an attack. According to a complaint signed by six members of the council, she had claimed on her résumé a nonexistent title on the council’s young adult committee. | 千承雅在接受采访时曾表示，希望扩大该市儿童的援助项目，改善交通系统。然后，在她获胜后，她自己政党的理事会成员对她发起了攻击，包括一些一直在争夺她的席位提名的女性。根据六名理事会成员签署的一份投诉书，她在自己的简历上声称自己在该理事会下属的青年委员会中担任职务，而该职务并不存在。 |
| The complaint was accepted by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office. | 首尔中央地方检察厅受理了该投诉。 |
| Prosecutors are also investigating dozens of other winners from the June elections. Attacks are common against candidates whose nomination by a local party council chair played a big part in their election victory, like Ms. Cheon. It is easy to challenge their legitimacy because their win is viewed as less democratic. But few of those attacks have formally been accepted as legal complaints. | 检方还在调查6月选举的其他数十名获胜者。对于千承雅这样的候选人来说，受地方政党理事会主席提名在胜选中发挥了重要作用，因此他们受到攻击是很常见的。挑战他们的合法性很容易，因为他们的胜利被视为不那么民主。但这些攻击很少作为正式法律投诉得到受理。 |
| Ms. Cheon has denied the claim, saying, “The hardest part was the toll that the attacks took on my mental health.” | 千承雅对上述投诉表示否认，她说，“最痛苦的是这些攻击给我的精神健康造成了伤害。” |
| Ms. Kim has also rebutted the suggestion that there was anything untoward about her protégé’s title. Under the party’s rules, Ms. Kim said, she had the sole prerogative to appoint people to the council and to give them titles. “I have no obligation to ask the members of the council for permission or to notify them,” she said. | 金贤雅也否认她提携的人选在头衔上有任何不妥之处。她说，根据该党的规定，她可以全权任命他人进入理事会，并授予其头衔。“我没有义务征求理事会成员的同意或通知他们，”她说。 |
| One of Ms. Cheon’s challengers, Lee Kang-hwan, who was the council’s deputy chair, said in an interview that he had quit upon learning that she was the nominee. He also said he had hoped she would resign. | 千承雅的挑战者之一、理事会副主席李康焕（音）在接受采访时说，他在得知千承雅被提名后就辞职了。他还表示，他希望她能辞职。 |
| On Friday, Ms. Cheon began her term as the youngest city assemblywoman in Goyang. As of Monday, the prosecutors had assigned a police department to investigate her case. | 当天，千承雅开始了作为高阳市最年轻的女议员的任期。截至周一，检方已指派一个警察部门调查她的案件。 |
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