年轻人不结婚怎么办？韩国地方政府举办相亲活动_OK阅读网
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
首页 |  双语新闻 |  双语读物 |  双语名著 | 
[英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替]    []        


年轻人不结婚怎么办？韩国地方政府举办相亲活动
Seeking Love, With Help From the City Government

来源：纽约时报    2023-08-11 12:20



        The hotel ballroom was filled with pink balloons, the sound of love songs and 100 singles gathering for a night of wine, getting acquainted and — fingers crossed — romance.        酒店宴会厅布满了粉色气球，播放着爱情歌曲，100名单身人士在一个晚上聚在这里共饮美酒，结识朋友——最好还能陷入爱河。
        Before Mia Kim knew it, five hours had flown by at the mixer for 50 men and 50 women, held in a city just outside Seoul. A bar after-party then lasted until 1 a.m. But Ms. Kim, 37, who works at a software firm near Seoul, said the night still “felt too short.”        这场聚会有50位男宾和50位女宾，在首尔郊外的一座城市举行。对米娅·金（音）来说，五个小时的时间很快就过去了。之后，在酒吧进行的余兴派对一直持续到凌晨1点。但在首尔附近的软件公司工作、37岁的金女士表示，这个夜晚仍然“感觉太短了”。
        Playing matchmaker was none other than the city government.        媒人不是别人，正是市政府。
        A growing number of cities across South Korea are sponsoring blind-dating events like these for singles, desperate to prod young adults onto a track for marriage and family as the country has recorded the world’s lowest fertility rate for three years in a row.        韩国的生育率已连续三年处于世界最低水平，该国越来越多的城市正在举办此类针对单身人士的相亲活动，迫切希望促使年轻人走上婚姻和家庭的轨道。
        The cities say the problem is that young people just do not want to get married — or have the babies that would follow in a country where only 2 percent of births are outside marriage.        这些城市表示，问题在于，年轻人就是不想结婚，也不想在结婚后生孩子，在这个国家，只有2%的新生儿是非婚生。
        “A negative attitude toward marriage is continuing to spread in South Korean society,” said Shin Sang-jin, the mayor of Seongnam, the city next to Seoul that recently hosted the matchmaking event. “I think it’s the local governments’ role to create the conditions for people who do want to get married to find their partners.”        “对婚姻的消极态度在韩国社会继续蔓延，”城南市市长申相镇（音）说。最近的这场相亲活动由这座毗邻首尔的城市举办。“我认为地方政府的职责是为那些想要结婚的人创造寻找伴侣的条件。”
        Many young South Koreans, though, say that the real obstacles to raising the birthrate are the staggering costs of child care, unaffordable homes, slim job prospects and crushing work hours — and that blind-dating events do little to address these issues. Women, in particular, say they have been discouraged by the prevalence of discrimination against working mothers.        不过，许多韩国年轻人表示，提高出生率的真正障碍是高昂的育儿费用、负担不起的住房、黯淡的就业前景和把人压垮的工作时长——而相亲活动对解决这些问题作用甚微。尤其是女性，她们表示，职业母亲普遍受到的歧视让她们感到犹豫。
        Others say that by trying to play matchmaker, the government is being too intrusive in personal reproductive choices.        还有一些人表示，政府试图扮演媒人的角色，对个人生育选择的干预过度。
        But the blind-dating events have proved popular. Seongnam received more than 1,000 applications for only 100 spots for its events this month. And participants have given the mixers rave reviews.        但事实证明，相亲活动很受欢迎。城南市本月仅有的100个活动名额收到了1000多份申请。参与者对这些相亲活动好评如潮。
        While the proportion of people getting married has declined worldwide, it has plummeted especially far in South Korea. There were six marriages per 1,000 people in the United States in 2021, compared with 3.8 per 1,000 people in South Korea.        全球范围内的结婚人数占比都有所下降，但韩国下降得尤其严重。2021年，美国每1000人中有六人结婚，而韩国每1000人中有3.8人结婚。
        Fewer births have come along with that statistic in South Korea. In 2022, the country’s fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman of reproductive age — declined for the seventh straight year, to 0.78, prompting officials to scramble for ways to avert a population crisis. Policy experts say they have been insufficient, and some officials’ plans have backfired.        韩国的出生人数也随之减少。2022年，该国的生育率——育龄女性平均生育孩子的数量——连续第七年下降，降至0.78，促使官员们急于寻找避免人口危机的方法。政策专家表示，这些措施还不够，同时一些官员的计划适得其反。
        Even as the pool of South Koreans interested in having children shrinks, officials are expecting interest in government-sponsored matchmaking to endure. Seongnam, a city of about one million people, has allocated about $192,000 of its budget for such events, and plans to host several more this year.        尽管对生孩子感兴趣的韩国人数量在减少，但官员们预计对政府资助的婚介活动的兴趣将持续下去。城南市是一座人口约100万的城市，已为此类活动拨出约19.2万美元的预算，并计划今年再举办几场。
        “What we liked to see was the young people smiling and blushing and feeling excited,” said Kang Mi-jeong, the head of the city team tasked with addressing the low birthrate, which organized the event.        “我们想看到年轻人微笑、脸红、兴奋的样子，”活动组织者、负责解决低出生率问题的城市小组组长姜美贞（音）说。
        Cities in other countries with low birthrates, like China and Japan, have hosted such programs, too. In South Korea, many small cities have been sponsoring similar events for years, targeting people ages 27 to 39 who live or work in their communities.        中国和日本等其他低出生率国家的城市也举办过这样的活动。在韩国，许多小城市多年来一直在赞助类似的活动，目标对象是在社区生活或工作的27岁至39岁的人群。
        The results have been mixed. Jinju, a southeastern city, has produced 11 couples throughout 12 years of hosting the events. In Gumi, an industrial city in central South Korea, 13 couples who met through the events have gotten married since 2016. In both cities, officials said they did not know how many children the event-matched couples have had.        结果好坏参半。韩国东南部城市晋州举办类似活动已有12年，共产生了11对新人。在韩国中部的工业城市龟尾，自2016年以来，有13对通过这些活动认识的情侣结婚。这两个城市的官员都表示，他们不知道这些通过活动配对结成的夫妇有多少孩子。
        The southern coastal town of Sacheon has been holding matchmaking events for the past three years. Though none has yielded any married couples, officials said not enough time had passed to produce successful matches.        南部沿海城市泗川在过去三年里一直在举办相亲活动。尽管目前还没有成功配对，但官员们表示，要得到成功的配对，时间还不够。
        Municipal matchmaking reached the greater Seoul area for the first time in Seongnam. Officials in Seoul said they were also considering hosting a blind-dating event. They had initially supported the proposal but were reviewing it because of widespread criticism on social media.        大首尔地区首次市级相亲活动出现在城南地区。首尔官员表示，他们也在考虑举办一场相亲活动。他们最初支持这一提议，但由于社交媒体上的广泛批评，他们还在考虑。
        “I don’t think it would help at all to solve the shrinking birthrate,” said Jeon Seolhee, 27, a graduate student near Seoul. “For young women,” Ms. Jeon continued, “the concern is that having children would interrupt their careers.” She herself has a boyfriend, she said, but has not decided whether she wants children.        “我认为这根本无助于解决出生率下降的问题，”27岁的全雪熙（音）说，她是首尔附近的一名研究生。“对年轻女性来说，她们担心生孩子会导致事业中断。”她说，她有男朋友，但还没有决定是否要孩子。
        Some young South Koreans have also dismissed the project as contrived and intrusive. “It feels a bit artificial,” said Park Soomin, 30, who works at a media company in Incheon, another city outside Seoul. “It’s weird that the government is trying to intervene in personal relationships.”        一些韩国年轻人也对这个项目不屑一顾，认为它太过刻意、具有侵入性。“感觉有点不自然，”30岁的朴秀敏（音）说，他在首尔附近城市仁川的一家媒体公司工作。“政府试图干预私人关系，这很奇怪。”
        Researchers who have studied South Korea’s population decline say that reduced work hours, family-friendly work culture and gender equality within the family would be more effective than matchmaking in addressing the causes of the low fertility rate, according to Jung Jae Hoon, a professor of social welfare at Seoul Women’s University.        首尔女子大学社会福利学教授郑在勋（音）表示，研究韩国人口下降的研究人员认为，在解决低生育率的原因方面，减少工作时间、关爱家庭的工作文化以及家庭内部的性别平等，会比相亲更有效。
        In Seongnam, officials said the blind-dating program was not meant to be the ultimate solution to the city’s demographic crisis. But they believed the events would satisfy a social need. Out of 200 people who arrived solo, 78 people walked out as pairs, they said.        城南市的官员表示，相亲活动并不是该市人口危机的最终解决方案。但他们相信，这些活动将满足一种社会需求。他们说，在200名单独前来的人中，有78人结伴离开。
        “Young men and women might not be in relationships, but they’re bored,” said Lee Myung-gil, a dating coach who helped run the dating event program in Seongnam, “and they say they’re lonely on the weekends.”        “年轻男女可能没有恋爱关系，但他们很无聊，”帮助运营城南相亲活动项目的约会教练李明吉（音）说，“他们说周末很孤独。”
        Hwang Dabin, 33, who works in real estate in Seongnam, said he was interested in attending one of the events hosted by his city because the pandemic had put a damper on his social life. He has been single for six years now, he added.        33岁的黄大彬（音）在城南从事房地产工作，他说他有兴趣参加城南主办的活动，因为疫情给他的社交生活带来了负面影响。他补充说，他已经单身六年了。
        “I was excited to hear that this event was going to be in person,” he said, adding that he had matched with a woman at the event. A few weeks later, he said he was still talking to her.        “听说这次活动是线下面对面的，我很兴奋。”他还说，他在活动中与一位女士配对成功。几周后，他说两个人还在聊天。
        Ms. Kim did not find a match. But she said she was not disappointed. Some fellow attendees from the event she went to were organizing a meet-up on their own, and she planned to go.        金女士没有找到匹配对象。但她说自己没有失望。她参加那次活动的一些与会者正在自己组织一个见面会，她打算去参加。
        And whether she found someone or not, she was not worried.        不管是否找到对象，她都不担心。
        “Now I’m trying to be content with just having a good time with good people,” she said. “Connections don’t happen by force.”        “现在我尽量满足于和美好的人一起度过美好的时光，”她说。“人与人之间的联系不能强求。”
                
   返回首页                  

OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们