媒體稱烏克蘭新娘或許可解決中國性別差距

"Their economy is depressed but beautiful women are running rampant," the state-run Beijing News reported Jan. 22 in a story suggesting that Ukrainian women could be the solution to China's woman shortage. The piece, illustrated with charts, bubbles, and cartoon illustrations of lonely Chinese men, was a breezy attempt to make light of China's missing women and the severe gender imbalance caused by couples aborting female fetuses in favor of boys. So widespread is the practice that it has badly skewed the country's sex ratio: The global average is around 105 boys born for every 100 girls; but in China last year, just over 115 boys were born for every 100 girls.

"他們的經濟正蕭條但是美麗的姑娘卻層出不窮," 一月二十二號出版的新京報在一個故事中提出烏克蘭姑娘可能是解決中國女性數量不足的良策.這個故事使用了圖表,數字和漫畫表現出孤獨的中國男人,輕視中國的女性短缺和由於一些家長因重男輕女思想去流產女孩導致的性別失衡.這個情況是如此廣泛的存在乃至它對國家的人口比率造成了巨大的危害:全球的平均情況是每105個男孩出生就有100個女孩出生;而在去年的中國,每100個女孩的出生要伴隨115個男孩.

The problem has been brewing since sonogram technology was introduced to China in the 1980s, allowing families to determine a baby's gender during the first few months of pregnancy. Combined with the country's restrictive family-planning policies — until recently, most urban families were only allowed a single child in order to curtail population growth — and a traditional preference for sons, the newfound ability to practice sex-selective abortion has resulted in one of the world's highest gender imbalances. The topic flared anew in the public mind after the National Bureau of Statistics announced the latest population figures on Jan. 20, noting that at the end of 2014 China had 701 million men and 667 million women, a shortfall of nearly 34 million women.* The bureau didn't provide a breakdown, but previous research shows that most of China's missing women are among those born since 1985.

自從八十年代中國引進了超聲波性別檢測,使家長可以在懷孕的第一個月就可以決定孩子的性別之後,這種問題就慢慢出現了.再加上這個國家嚴格的計劃生育政策---直到最近,爲了降低人口的增長速度,大多數的城市家庭仍舊只能生育一個孩子--由於中國傳統上的重男輕女的觀念,這種新技術就實踐於性別選擇的流產並最終導致了世界上最嚴重的性別失衡.在中國國家統計局於一月二十號宣佈了最近的人口統計數字之後,這個話題又重新出現在公衆的視野當中.截止2014年底,中國有七億零一百萬的男性和六億六千七百萬的女性,缺少了將近三千四百萬的女性.當局並沒有給出一個確定的劃分,但是先前的研究表明自從1985年開始中國的女性就處於短缺的狀況。

To address the problem, China has resorted to propaganda campaigns extolling the virtues of daughters and offering cash incentives for couples who have them. These measures have spurred more female births, but not enough — China's gender imbalance is still "the most serious in the world and has lasted for the longest time and affected the largest number of people," China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a Jan. 21 statement.

萎瞭解決這個問題,中國已經開始使用宣傳生女兒的好處和現金獎勵生女孩的家庭等方法.這些政策確實緩解了問題,但還遠遠不夠--中國的性別失衡'仍舊是世界上最嚴重的而且還將長時間影響着世界上最多的人口',中國國家衛生和計劃生育委員會於一月二十一號聲明道.

Rather than dwelling on the fact that sex-selective abortions continue despite a government ban, Chinese media interpreted the sex ratio as a threat to men, not women. On Jan. 21, web giant Sina's arm in Henan, China's most populous province, wondered aloud on social media platform Weibo whether the news was "heart-stopping" and exhorted bachelors to "start making an effort!" Meanwhile, a Beijing statistician sharing the latest figures to his Weibo account wrote, "Tomorrow I am going to get my son to hurry up and find a girlfriend at his elementary school." Beijing News even suggested that Ukrainian women could be a solution to China's problem. The story kicked off with a question: "Just how hard is it for a diaosi," slang for young bachelors of modest means, "to find a wife?" After explaining the severe imbalance that the ratio represents, it added that Chinese brides are a popular "export" to many countries such as Japan, South Korea, and the United States, a trend it said had depleted China's supply of eligible women still further. It offered a chart of the best destinations around the globe for Chinese men to find spouses. Japan and South Korea were particularly promising, the paper said, claiming that 26 percent of South Korean women who took foreign spouses in 2012 chose Chinese men. The trend is bound to grow, the argument went, since popular Korean television actress Park Chae-rim married her Chinese actor beau, Gao Ziqi, in September 2014.

儘管有政府的禁令,用流產來選擇新生兒性別的做法仍在繼續,中國的媒體已經將提出性別的失衡其實對男性的危害更大.一月二十一日,在中國人口最稠密的省份河南.滿心疑惑的問 與此同時,一個北京的統計學家在他的微博上發佈了最新的統計數字''明天我就要告訴我兒子讓他在小學快些找個女朋友'' 新京報甚至提議可以考慮烏克蘭姑娘來解決中國的問題.它提供了一個圖表來顯示中國男性尋找外國配偶的最佳目的地,日本和韓國是不錯的選擇,報紙指出在2012年同外國人結婚的韓國女性中,有百分之二十六的結婚對象都是中國人.自從韓國的著名女演員樸蔡琳於2014年九月嫁給了中國演員高梓淇之後,這個潮流有愈演愈烈之勢.

Lighthearted joking filled the comments section, with most ignoring the underlying factors leading to the bachelor oversupply. Some netizens viewed the gender imbalance as a boon for the gay community, others as a useful pressure valve for those who aren't interested in marriage anyway. There are, in other words, plenty of fish in the sea, at least outside China.

輕鬆的笑話充滿了評論區，多數忽略了造成單身漢過多的潛在原因。一些網民認爲性別不平衡將會導致更多的同性戀，另一些則認爲這會對不想結婚的人造成壓力。用俗語說：天涯何處無芳草，至少在中國以外是這樣。

Therese Hesketh, a professor of global health at University College London, told Foreign Policy via email from eastern China's Zhejiang province that many ordinary Chinese believe that "aborting a girl is simply a choice made by a couple — and they are entitled to this." Hesketh said that when she lectures in China, many audience members "seem to just accept selective abortions," and she has students who admit they would abort female fetuses in favor of a boy. She added that many students attribute this stance to parental pressure.

倫敦大學學院的全球健康學教授Therese Hesketh通過一份來自中國東部浙江省的電郵告訴外交政策：普通中國民衆相信"因爲不想生女兒而墮胎"是一對夫婦個人的決定，而且他們有權利這樣做。Hesketh說當他在中國教學的時候，很多聽衆都接受"因胎兒性別而墮胎"，他也有學生承認他們會打掉一個女性胎兒。他說很多學生是迫於父母壓力而做出這種選擇。

China is not alone in these cultural predilections. Indian social scientist Ravinder Kaur wrote in an August 2013 paper that "the common response" in both China and India "when the connection between sex selection and bride shortage is pointed out is that rather than allow daughters to be born, they would resort to importing brides." Kaur also wrote that bride shortages in China and India can lead to "kidnap marriage," which includes "deception and enticement" and "luring women for marriage into high sex ratio areas."

中國不是唯一有這些文化偏好的國家。印度社會科學家Ravinder Kaur在2013年8月寫到在中國與印度對於女性短缺的"通常回應"是寧願"引進外國新娘"而不是"生多點女孩子"。Kaur 還寫道中國與印度的女性短缺會導致"綁架婚姻"，這包括了"欺騙和誘惑"與"引誘女孩子嫁去高性別比例的地區"。

For its part, the Chinese government is still campaigning against sex-selective abortions. Following the release of the latest statistics, the National Health and Family Planning Commission revealed details of its latest initiative to curb sex-selective abortion: harsher penalties for agencies and individuals who send blood samples from expectant mothers abroad for testing to determine the gender of the woman's fetus. Clinics and hospitals in China can perform sonograms on expectant mothers, but are barred from revealing the gender of the baby, a restriction that has given rise to black market sonogram testing (including providers who perform the exam in the back seat of a woman's car). Chinese agencies that offer to come to a woman's home will draw blood, pack it in dry ice, and then mail or carry the sample across the border to Hong Kong or elsewhere for testing at hospitals. The commission has promised severe punishments for anyone caught in the act. But that hardly seems like enough to solve the underlying problem, any more than Ukrainian brides.

中國政府依然在爲減少因性別而墮胎做宣傳。根據最新資料，中國計生委提出了抑制因性別而墮胎的措施：對那些把孕婦的血樣送到國外化驗以確定胎兒性別的人進行更嚴厲的處罰。中國的診所和醫院可以進行超聲波掃描，但是他們被禁止告訴父母胎兒的性別，這種限制令黑市上的超聲波掃描更爲流行（包括那些在車輛後座爲孕婦提供掃描的人）。中國代理人回來帶孕婦家中爲他們抽血，用乾冰包裹，然後寄到香港或者其他地方化驗。計生委承諾對這些人施以更嚴厲的處罰。但這看起來並不能解決根本問題，就像引進烏克蘭新娘一樣。

Correction, Jan. 28, 2015: The National Bureau of Statistics announced that at the end of 2014, China h ad 701 million men and 667 million women, creating a shortfall of nearly 34 million women. An earlier ver sion of this article mistakenly said China had 700 million men and just 667 women, resulting in a shortfa II of more than 33 million women.

更正：國家統計局宣佈在2014年末，中國有7.01億男人和6.67億女人，造成了接近3千4百萬女性數字的落差。這篇文章的早期版本錯誤的聲稱中國有7億男人和6.67億女人，造成了接近3千3百萬女性數字的落差。