單身族廣告回擊春節"逼婚"

"You must marry!"

“你必須結婚！”

It's a phrase many single Chinese are steeling themselves to hear from well-meaning but busybody relatives during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Feb. 7.

春節期間，中國衆多單身男女將從善意但愛管閒事的親戚們那裏聽到這句話。今年春節假期從2月7日開始。

So great is the social pressure to marry that the phrase "bihun!" or "must marry," is a meme here, a joke, even. Not marrying and producing offspring is considered unfilial and Chinese society traditionally views the unmarried as less than full adults. That places unbearable pressure on people who have been unlucky in love and especially on young women, for whom the pressure to marry may begin as young as 20, the legal marrying age for women.

結婚的社會壓力太大，使“逼婚”在中國成了一個熱詞，甚至成爲人們的談資。按照中國社會的傳統，沒有婚姻的人生是“不完整”的，不結婚和不生娃就是“不孝”。這給情路坎坷的單身族帶來不可承受之重，尤其是年輕女性，對她們來說，結婚壓力在剛達到20歲的法定婚齡時就開始了。

Reflecting all that, "bihun" has given rise to a thriving matchmaking industry for singletons who may prefer to rent a partner for the holiday to deceive their relatives rather than face the badgering. It even provided the theme for a popular 24-part television series, "Renting a Girlfriend to Go Home for New Year."

因此，“逼婚”成就了“男女友租賃”這一紅火行業，他們爲想租個“戀人”回家過年的人服務。這些單身族寧可欺騙親戚，也不願聽家人嘮叨。很受歡迎的24集電視劇《租個女友回家過年》素材就來源於此。

This year, a group of like-minded friends decided to push back and paid for an ad extolling singlehood to go up on Thursday at the busy Dongzhimen subway station in Beijing, where it can be seen by millions over the month it will be there.

今年，一羣志同道合的年輕人決定回擊。他們掏錢製作了一個廣告讚揚單身的好處。本週四該廣告投放在人流熙攘的北京東直門地鐵站，未來一個月數百萬人會看到。

Only one, though. At 38,000 renminbi, for a 3-by-4.5-foot ad, the group of about 10, who include students, artists and civil society workers who met via social media, cannot afford more, said Coby, 27, a nongovernmental worker who, fearing the impact on her private life if her Chinese name were published, asked to be identified only by her English name.

但廣告只有一幅，因爲1米*1.5米的廣告需要3.8萬元人民幣，這個由學生、藝術工作者和社會工作者通過社交媒體結識的小組約有10人，只能負擔這麼多。27歲的小組成員、社會工作者“科比”接受電話採訪時，擔心個人私生活收到影響，要求不透露中文姓名。

"We're just a few friends who got together before Spring Festival," as Lunar New Year is also called, "and just thought, the pressure is too much. It's at its worst at this time. It's so big!" Coby said in a telephone interview. "So we thought we'd put up an ad in the subway where a lot of people would see it."

她說，“幾個朋友春節前聚會，只是覺得壓力太大了，春節期間尤其糟糕。壓力山大!所以我們覺得或許能在地鐵站登個廣告，讓很多人看到它。”

Making that happen involved submitting designs to an advertising company, which vetted them with the local branch of the Beijing Industry and Commerce Bureau.

這需要向廣告公司提交設計方案，還需要北京工商局的審覈批准。

The company and the officials rejected an initial design that showed a defiant young woman with her hands crossed above her head in a "no!" gesture, the sun shining fiercely behind her, the characters for "bihun" crossed out on her T-shirt.

廣告公司和相關官員沒有同意該小組提交的初稿。初稿設計中， 一名面露挑釁神色的年輕女性雙手交叉於頭上，擺出“不”的姿勢。陽光從她身後直射而來，身穿的T恤衫上寫的“不婚”被打叉。

No reason was given, said Xiong Jing, another member of the group.

小組另一名成員熊晶(音)說，具體原因不得而知。

"So we chose a gentler design," Coby said.

科比說，“所以我們選擇了更溫和的設計方案。”

Here's the final product:

下面是終版廣告：

It reads:

文字：

"Dear Daddy, Mommy, don't worry.

親愛的爸爸媽媽別擔心，

The world is so big.

世界那麼大，

There are so many different ways for people to live.

人生有很多種，

Singletons can also be very happy."

單身也可以很幸福。

And this is followed by a hotline for singles.

下面還有一條給單身族的熱線電話。