程序員鼓勵師?中國科技公司裏的“漂亮女孩”們大綱

BEIJing — China’s vibrant technology scene is searching for people like Shen Yue. Qualifications: Must be attractive, know how to charm socially awkward programmers and give relaxing massages.

北京——充滿活力的中國科技行業正在尋找像申悅這樣的人。要求：必須漂亮，知道如何吸引不善於社交的程序員，會放鬆按摩。

Ms. Shen is a “programmer motivator,” as they are known in China. Part psychologist, part cheerleader, the women are hired to chat up and calm stressed-out coders. The jobs are proliferating in a society that largely adheres to gender stereotypes and believes that male programmers are “zhai,” or nerds who have no social lives.

申悅的職業在中國被稱爲“程序員鼓勵師”。這個職業兼有心理學家和啦啦隊員的性質，這些女性被僱來與程序員搭訕，緩解他們的巨大壓力。在一個很大程度上固守性別刻板印象、相信男性程序員是“宅男”或沒有社交生活的書呆子的社會中，這種工作正在不斷增加。

“They really need someone to talk to them from time to time and to organize activities for them to ease some of the pressure,” said Ms. Shen, a 25-year-old who has a degree in civil engineering from a university in Beijing.

“他們真的需要有人時不時地和他們聊天，爲他們組織活動，減輕壓力，”現年25歲的申悅說，她擁有北京一所大學的土木工程學位。

Chinese women have made great strides in the workplace. The country has the world’s largest number of self-made female billionaires, while many start-ups have women in senior roles. But at a time when the United States and other countries are directly confronting the #MeToo movement, the inequalities and biases in China are rarely discussed openly and remain firmly entrenched.

中國女性在工作場合已經取得了巨大進步。這個國家有着世界上最多靠個人奮鬥成功的億萬富翁，不少初創企業的高層人員也都是女性。但在美國及其他國家正在直面“我也是”(#MeToo)運動的時候，中國仍然根深蒂固不平等和偏見很少得到公開討論。

The country’s laws against gender discrimination are not often enforced. Many companies are direct in their job ads. Males preferred. Only good-looking women need apply. With programmer motivators, it’s more explicit, putting women in subservient positions to men.

這個國家針對性別歧視的法律常常得不到執行。許多公司的招聘啓事說得非常直白：最好是男性，僅形象氣質佳的女性可申請該職位。這種現象在程序員鼓勵師的職位中更加明顯，將女性置於奉承男性的位置上。

While China’s tech scene has produced companies that rival Facebook, Google and Amazon in power and wealth, the work culture in many ways trails even bro-dominated Silicon Valley.

儘管中國的科技界已經出現了不少在實力與財富上均可匹敵Facebook、谷歌(Google)和亞馬遜(Amazon)的公司，但其職場文化在許多方面仍跟隨以男性爲主導的硅谷。

In tech, men dominate the top ranks. Just one woman sits on the 11-member board of Alibaba, the e-commerce giant. At Baidu, a search company, none of its five board members is a woman. At Tencent, a games and social media conglomerate, there are none. By comparison, Twitter has three women on its nine-person board. At Facebook, two of its nine directors are women.

在科技業，男性主導着最高層。電商巨頭阿里巴巴由11人構成的董事會中，只有一名女性。在搜索引擎公司百度，五人董事會中無一人是女性。遊戲、社交媒體企業集團騰訊的董事會中也沒有女性。與之相對的，Twitter的九人董事會中有三名女性。Facebook的九名董事中有兩名是女性。

Like many other businesses, China’s tech companies are blunt about gender bias in their job ads. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have repeatedly published recruitment ads boasting that there are “beautiful girls” working for the companies, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights watchdog.

像其他行業一樣，中國的科技公司在招聘啓事中對性別偏見頗爲直白。根據總部位於紐約的人權觀察組織(Human Rights Watch)，百度、阿里巴巴及騰訊均多次發佈招聘啓事，誇耀公司裏有“漂亮女孩”。

In January, Alibaba said it was seeking a sales manager for Taobao, its e-commerce platform. Women were preferred, ages 28 to 35, “with a good personal image and class.”

一月，阿里巴巴表示正在爲旗下的電商平臺淘寶尋找銷售經理，要求最好是年齡爲28至35歲之間的女性，“個人形象、談吐良好。”

In November, Baidu advertised for a marketing position. Men were preferred “because of business travel” and other reasons.

11月，百度爲一個市場推廣職位打出廣告，要求由於會有“出差”及其他原因，最好是男性。

Both companies have since removed the references to specific genders in those ads.

兩家公司後來都在招聘啓事中撤下了對特定性別的說法。

Alibaba said that the company has clear guidelines on providing equal opportunity regardless of gender and “will conduct stricter reviews of the recruiting advertisements to ensure compliance with our policy.” It also said that one-third of the 18 founders of Alibaba are women and that female leaders account for one-third of the company’s management positions.

阿里巴巴表示，該公司對不論性別，提供平等就業有着明確的指導方針，並且“將更加嚴格審覈招聘啓事，確保其符合我們的政策。”該公司還表示阿里巴巴18名創始人中，有三人之一是女性，並且女性領導人佔該公司管理崗的三分之一。

Baidu said that 45 percent of the company’s 40,000 employees are female, which is reflected in midlevel and senior positions. “We value the important work that our female employees do across the organization,” the company said in an emailed statement.

百度表示該公司四萬名員工中，有45%是女性，這在中層及高層職位中也得到了體現。“我們重視女性員工在各個層面的所做的重要工作，”該公司在一封郵件聲明中表示。

In a statement, Tencent said it values diverse backgrounds and apologized for the ads.

在一則聲明中，騰訊表示該公司重視多樣化背景，併爲上述招聘啓事致歉。

It is unclear how many companies employ programmer motivators. According to Baidu Baipin, a job search website run by Baidu, just seven companies are currently advertising for these jobs, mostly at smaller start-ups. There used to be more. Alibaba advertised for a programmer motivator with “recognizably good looks” in 2015 but deleted the ad after being criticized by Chinese internet users.

尚不清楚有多少公司僱傭了程序員鼓勵師。根據百度運營的找工作網站“百度百聘”，僅有七家公司目前在爲該職位進行招聘，大多數都是在規模較小的初創公司。曾經這類招聘啓事有很多。2015年，阿里巴巴曾發出廣告，試圖招聘過一名“樣貌出衆”的程序員鼓勵師，但受到中國網民的批評後將其刪除。

Ms. Shen started work at , a consumer finance company, in October. She declined to disclose her salary, but Zhang Jing, a human resources executive who hired Ms. Shen, said it was around $950 a month.

申悅10月開始在消費金融公司中望金服()工作。她拒絕透露自己的薪水，但僱傭申悅的人力資源部管理人員張晶表示薪水爲每月約950美元（約合6000人民幣）。

Ms. Shen came to Beijing from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. She has long black hair and pale skin and wears red eye shadow to the office, where she always has a ready smile for her colleagues. They call her by her nickname, Yueyue, which translates to Joy.

申悅從中國東北部的黑龍江省來到了北京。她有着長長的黑髮、白皙的皮膚，會化上紅色的眼影上班，臉上隨時帶着微笑。他們用“悅悅”這個暱稱來稱呼她，意思是快樂。

At , the bulk of her work is tending the front desk, organizing social events, ordering snacks for tea breaks and chatting with the programmers. She may call a programmer to a conference room and ask him, “Did you have to work overtime?” before listening to his various frustrations.

她在中望金服的主要工作是在前臺服務、組織社交活動、購買茶歇的小食以及與程序員聊天。她會把一個程序員叫到會議室裏，問他，“你要加班嗎？”，然後聆聽他的各種不滿。

“I thought it was really novel,” Ms. Shen said, “because I had never seen such a job before.”

“我就覺得挺新奇的，”申悅說，“因爲真的之前沒有見過這種崗位。”

On a recent Friday, she approached Guo Zhenjie, 28, who has a foldout bed next to his desk. Ms. Shen asked whether his waist was still hurting from the long hours at his desk. He said, yes, he had been working till 10 or 11 for the past few nights.

最近的一個週五，她找到了郭振杰。28歲的郭振杰在辦公桌旁放着一張摺疊牀。申悅問他，他的腰是不是還是因爲長時間的伏案工作而疼痛。他說是的，在過去的幾個晚上他都是10點、11點才下班。

“The company’s intention is for me to give you a massage, though my technique might not be great,” Ms. Shen told Mr. Guo.

“公司的意思是要給你按摩一下，但是有可能我手法不太好，”申悅對郭振杰說。

Both of them broke out in giggles.

兩人都咯咯地笑了起來。

Ms. Shen stood over a seated Mr. Guo and started kneading his shoulders.

郭振杰坐着，站在他身後的申悅開始給他按摩肩膀。

“It really does feel good,” Mr. Guo said, as Ms. Shen gently whacked his back with a massage clapper device.

“確實很舒服，”郭振杰說着，申悅輕柔地用一個拍打按摩器打着他的後背。

For some start-ups, having a programmer motivator on staff is one of the many perks to attract male coders, a job that is in high demand in China’s booming tech scene.

對於一些創業公司來說，職工裏有一名程序員鼓勵師是吸引男程序員的諸多福利之一。在中國蓬勃發展的科技圈中，程序員的崗位有着很大的需求。

Feng Zhiyi, 31, who works in research and development at , said he was envious when photos of female programmer motivators fanning male employees appeared on the internet.

31歲的馮志毅在中望金服從事研究和發展工作，他表示，之前看到網上那些女性程序員鼓勵師爲男員工扇扇子的照片，還挺羨慕的。

“And now we have one, too,” Mr. Feng said.

“慢慢地咱這個也有了，”馮志毅說。

Mr. Feng said Ms. Shen had improved the work environment by organizing birthday parties and getting the programmers active with games such as tug of war or sack races.

馮志毅表示，申悅通過組織生日派對，讓程序員玩拔河、套袋賽跑等遊戲，使他們更加活躍，改善了工作環境。

He said he was open to the idea of male programmer motivators but somewhat skeptical. “A man chatting with another man, it’s like going out on a date with a guy,” Mr. Feng said. “A little awkward, isn’t it?”

他說，對於男性程序員激勵師這個想法，他持開放態度，但有些懷疑。“你一個男的和男的聊天，就跟你和男孩子約會，感覺有點彆扭，是不是？”

Ms. Zhang, the human resources executive who was part of the panel that hired Ms. Shen, stressed that it is important for a programmer motivator to look good. She said the applicants needed to have “five facial features that must definitely be in their proper order” and speak in a gentle way.

人力資源的張晶是僱用了申悅的招聘組成員之一，她強調了程序員鼓勵師外貌好看的重要性。她說，應聘者“五官肯定第一要端正”，說話溫柔。

They should also have a contagious laugh, be able to apply simple makeup and be taller than 5 feet 2 inches.

她們的笑容要有感染力，能化一些簡單的妝，身高在5英尺2英寸（約合158釐米）以上。

“Her position is at the front desk, isn’t it?” Ms. Zhang said. “It may be that people won’t be able to see her if they walk in.”

“她這個職位是在前臺的，是吧？”張晶說。“要不可能一進來看不到人。”

Ms. Shen said that does not consider her job to be sexist.

申悅表示不認爲她的工作帶有性別歧視。

“Many feminist ideas are too extreme now,” she said. “I think women should be independent, self-reliant and have self-respect. And that’s enough.”

“但是現在很多就是女權主義想法都太偏激了，”她說。“我覺得女性只要獨立、自強、自重，就可以了。”

Xu Jiaolong, one of ’s few female programmers, who gets massages from Ms. Shen, did not see anything wrong with the job. The way she saw it, it was a mere “division of labor.” But, with a smile, she said the company could consider hiring a man to motivate female programmers, too.

徐嬌龍是中望金服爲數不多的幾名女程序員之一，也會找申悅按摩。她並不覺得這個工作有什麼問題。在她看來，這只是“一個分工”。但她開玩笑地說，公司也可以考慮招一個男的來鼓勵一下女程序員。

China’s tech industry is beginning to question such practices. Wang Jie, 40, the chief executive of , an app that helps people learn English, has been vocal about the “objectification” of women by other start-ups.

中國科技行業對這種行爲已經開始產生了質疑。40歲的王捷是扇貝的首席執行官，這是一款幫助人們學習英語的應用。對於其他創業公司對女性的“物化”，他表達了自己的意見。

He was so disturbed that some tech companies were using “beautiful women” to draw male programmers to their companies that he wrote a post last October on Zhihu, China’s version of Quora, the question and answer site, saying that Western companies would be sued back home if they posted similar ads.

一些科技公司使用“漂亮的女性”來吸引男程序員進公司，這讓他感到困擾。去年十月，他在中國版的Quora問答網站——知乎發帖稱，如果西方公司也發佈類似的廣告，在他們的國家是會被起訴的。

But Mr. Wang has found that attitudes are difficult to change. Several people responded to his post, saying he was making a mountain out of a molehill.

但王捷發現人們的觀點很難改變。有幾個人回覆了他的帖子，說他這是小題大做。

“The men said: ‘If there are more beautiful women, I’ll be happier in my job. What’s the issue?’” Mr. Wang said. “And some women said: ‘As a woman, I don’t think this is a problem at all.’”

“男生說，這有什麼，美女多工作比較開心有什麼問題嗎，”王捷說。“有女生說，我是女生我都不覺得這有什麼問題。”