如果你不是当官的儿子，或者手头没钱，生活将会非常艰辛# Returnee - 海归
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1 楼
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — Liu Yang, a coal miner’s daughter, arrived in the capital
this past summer with a freshly printed diploma from Datong University, $140
in her wallet and an air of invincibility.
北京— 刘扬是一位矿工的女儿，今年夏天怀揣大同大学新近颁发的毕业文凭和1000元
人民币来到北京时，眼前似乎没有战胜不了的困难。
Her first taste of reality came later the same day, as she lugged her
bags through a ramshackle neighborhood, not far from the Olympic Village,
where tens of thousands of other young strivers cram four to a room.
到达北京当天下午，她拖着行李走过奥利匹克村不远处脏乱的社区，才第一次体会到现
实生活滋味。这里住着成千上万奋斗中的年轻人，4个人挤在一间屋子里。
Unable to find a bed and unimpressed by the rabbit warren of slapdash
buildings, Ms. Liu scowled as the smell of trash wafted up around her. “
Beijing isn’t like this in the movies,” she said.
眼前，仓促而就的楼房像兔窝一样的房子令人生厌，身边四处是垃圾的臭味，又无法找
到床位，刘小姐皱起了眉头，“北京跟电影看到的完全不同。”
Often the first from their families to finish even high school,
ambitious graduates like Ms. Liu are part of an unprecedented wave of young
people all around China who were supposed to move the country’s labor-
dependent economy toward a white-collar future. In 1998, when
Jiang Zemin
, then the president, announced plans to bolster higher education,
Chinese universities and colleges produced 830,000 graduates a year. Last
May, that number was more than six million and rising.
像刘小姐这样雄心勃勃的大学生往往是家里第一个上过高中以上学校的人，他们是中国
全国范围内前所未有的年轻人潮中的一部分，这一代人寄托着中国从依靠苦力的经济形
态转型到白领未来的梦想。1998年，时任国家主席的江泽民宣布了快速发展高等教育的
计划，是年，中国各类大学毕业生人数为83万。今年5月，这个数字超过600万，并且还
在升高。
It is a remarkable achievement, yet for a government fixated on
stability such figures are also a cause for concern. The economy, despite
its robust growth, does not generate enough good professional jobs to absorb
the influx of highly educated young adults. And many of them bear the
inflated expectations of their parents, who emptied their bank accounts to
buy them the good life that a higher education is presumed to guarantee.
这是令人瞩目的巨大成就，但是对于一个特别钟情于稳定的政府来说，这些数字同时也
令人担心。经济尽管在强劲增长，但无法产生足够数量良好的专业工作机会来吸纳大量
涌入的受过高等教育的成年人。这些人当中，许多人背负着父母过高的期望，父母们掏
空所有银行积蓄企图给孩子买来据说高等教育可以保障的美好生活。
“College essentially provided them with nothing,” said Zhang Ming, a
political scientist and vocal critic of China’s education system. “For
many young graduates, it’s all about survival. If there was ever an
economic crisis, they could be a source of instability.”
政治学家张鸣是一位中国教育体制的激烈批评者，他说，“大学基本上没有这些孩子任
何东西”。"对于许多年轻毕业生来说，生活的全部为了生存。如果发生一次经济危机
，他们就是不稳定的根源。"
In a kind of cruel reversal, China’s old migrant class — uneducated
villagers who flocked to factory towns to make goods for export — are now
in high demand, with spot labor shortages and tighter government oversight
driving up blue-collar wages.
在一种无情的倒退中，中国老一代的移民阶层——没有受过教育而涌入工业城镇加工出
口产品的农村人——现在却非常吃香，原因是现场劳动短缺，还有，由于政府加强了监
管，蓝领工人的工资得到提高。
But the supply of those trained in accounting, finance and computer
programming now seems limitless, and their value has plunged. Between 2003
and 2009, the average starting salary for migrant laborers grew by nearly 80
percent; during the same period, starting pay for college graduates stayed
the same, although their wages actually decreased if inflation is taken into
account.
但是，接受过会计、金融及电脑编程方面教育的专业人才的供应似乎源源不断，没有尽
头，他们的价值一跌千丈；与此同时，大学毕业上的起薪却保持不变，如果考虑通货膨
胀的因素，他们的实际工资降低了。
Chinese sociologists have come up with a new term for educated young
people who move in search of work like Ms. Liu: the ant tribe. It is a
reference to their immense numbers — at least 100,000 in Beijing alone —
and to the fact that they often settle into crowded neighborhoods, toiling
for wages that would give even low-paid factory workers pause.
中国社会学家对像刘小姐这样出来找工作的受过教育年轻人起了一个新的词汇：蚁族。
这个词汇形容他们巨大的数量——光北京就至少有10万人——同时还指他们常常居住在
拥挤的社区，辛辛苦苦挣到的工资甚至不如工厂里工资微薄的工人。
“Like ants, they gather in colonies, sometimes underground in basements
, and work long and hard,” said Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at
Renmin University in Beijing.
“像蚂蚁一样，他们住在一起，有的住地下室，工作艰辛而且时间漫长，”人民大学社
会学教授周孝政说。
The central government, well aware of the risks of inequitable growth,
has been trying to channel more development to inland provinces like Shanxi,
Ms. Liu’s home province, where the dismantling of state-owned industries a
decade ago left a string of anemic cities.
中央政府深知不均衡增长带来的危险，一直在努力将更多发展机会转移到刘小姐家乡山
西这样的内陆省份，那些10年前大量国营工业企业的拆除留下一连串要死不活的城市。
Despite government efforts, urban residents earned on average 3.3 times
more last year than those living in the countryside. Such disparities — and
the lure of spectacular wealth in coastal cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and
Shenzhen — keep young graduates coming.
尽管政府做了多方努力，去年，城市居民的平均收入依然是住在农村居民的3.3倍。这
种差别加上上海、天津和深圳等沿海城市巨大财富的诱惑，使年轻人源源不断地涌来。
“Compared with Beijing, my hometown in Shanxi feels like it’s stuck in
the 1950s,” said Li Xudong, 25, one of Ms. Liu’s classmates, whose father
is a vegetable peddler. “If I stayed there, my life would be empty and
depressing.”
“跟北京相比，我们山西家乡还处在上世纪50年代，” 刘小姐的同学刘旭东说。他的
父亲是个蔬菜商贩。“如果我继续呆在那里，我的生活会空虚沮丧。”
While some recent graduates find success, many are worn down by a
gantlet of challenges and disappointments. Living conditions can be
Dickensian, and grueling six-day work weeks leave little time for anything
else but sleeping, eating and doing the laundry.
虽然有一些新近毕业的学生取得了成功，但是多数人在挑战与失望的双重打击下疲敝不
堪。生存条件可以跟狄更斯时代一样，每周极其辛苦地工作六天，留下来的时间只有睡
觉、吃饭和洗衣。
But what many new arrivals find more discomfiting are the obstacles that
hard work alone cannot overcome. Their undergraduate degrees, many from the
growing crop of third-tier provincial schools, earn them little respect in
the big city. And as the children of peasants or factory workers, they lack
the essential social lubricant known as guanxi, or personal connections,
that greases the way for the offspring of China’s nouveau riche and the
politically connected.
然而更让许多新来者感到不舒服的是光靠拼命工作无法克服的障碍。他们的大学毕业文
凭许多是从成立不久的三流省级学校颁发的，在大城市几乎得不到尊重。还有作为农民
或工厂工人的孩子，他们缺少基本的社会润滑剂关系，或人际联系。这种关系为中国暴
富一族和政治上有关系的子女成长提供了方便。
Emerging from the sheltered adolescence of one-child families, they
quickly bump up against the bureaucracy of population management, known as
the hukou system, which denies migrants the subsidized housing and other
health and welfare benefits enjoyed by legally registered residents.
这些青少年在独生子女家庭呵护的环境中长大的年轻人，刚走上社会很快就碰到人口管
理官僚体制的障碍。这种被称为户口制度的体制使移民享受不到合法注册居民享有的住
房补贴、医疗及其它福利。
Add to this a demographic tide that has increased the ranks of China’s
20-to-25-year-olds to 123 million, about 17 million more than there were
just four years ago.
此外，就是巨大的人口浪潮，中国20-25岁的年轻人从仅仅4年里增加了1700万，上升到
现在的1.23亿。
“China has really improved the quality of its work force, but on the
other hand competition has never been more serious,” said Peng Xizhe, dean
of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“中国劳动力的质量确实有了提高，但是另一方面，竞争从来没有现在这么激烈，”上
海复旦大学社会发展及公共政策学院院长彭希哲说。
Given the glut of underemployed graduates, Mr. Peng suggested that young
people either shift to more practical vocations like nursing and teaching
or recalibrated their expectations. “It’s O.K. if they want to try a few
years seeking their fortune, but if they stay too long in places like
Beijing or Shanghai, they will find trouble for themselves and trouble for
society,” he said.
由于就业不足毕业生供过于求，彭先生建议，年轻人要么转向护理、教育这样更为实际
的职业，要么就要重新调整自己的期望。“如果他们想花几年时间试试财运，这样还行
，但是他们想在北京或上海的地方呆的时间更长，他们将为自己找更多麻烦，也会给社
会带来麻烦。”他说。
A fellow Datong University graduate, Yuan Lei, threw the first wet
blanket over the exuberance of Ms. Liu, Mr. Li and three friends not long
after their July arrival in Beijing. Mr. Yuan had arrived several months
earlier for an internship but was still jobless.
袁磊，另一位大同大学的毕业生给刘小姐、李先生和7月来到北京不久三个朋友兴奋的
心情浇了第一瓢凉水。袁先生比他们早到北京几个月，来这里实习，但依然没有工作。
“If you’re not the son of an official or you don’t come from money,
life is going to be bitter,” he told them over bowls of 90-cent noodles,
their first meal in the capital.
“如果你不是当官的儿子，或者手头没钱，生活将会非常艰辛。” 他告诉这些来北京
吃第一顿90美分一碗面条的朋友。
As the light faded and the streets became thick with young receptionists
, cashiers and sales clerks heading home, Mr. Yuan led his friends down a
dank alley and up an unsteady staircase to his room. It was about the width
of a queen-size bed, and he shared a filthy toilet with dozens of other
tenants and a common area with a communal hot plate.
天色暗淡时，大街上到处挤满了回家的年轻接待员、出纳即和销售员，袁先生带着朋友
穿过一条潮湿的小巷，沿着一个摇摇晃晃的梯子来到他的房间。这间房子只有能放下一
张大床的宽，他和其他几十个租户共用一间肮脏不堪的厕所，有一个公共地方放着公用
电炉。
Mr. Li smiled as he took in the scene. Like most young Chinese, his life
until that moment had been coddled, chaperoned and intensely regimented. “
I’m ready to go out into the world and test myself,” he said.
李先生看着眼前的情景笑了笑。向大部分年轻人一样，此刻以前他的生活一直是被娇惯
的，呵护的，并严格监管的。“我做好了走入世界考验自己的准备。”他说。
The next five months would provide more of a test than he or the others
had expected. For weeks Mr. Li elbowed his way through crowded job fairs but
came away empty-handed. His finance degree, recruiters told him, was
useless because he was a “waidi ren,” an outsider, who could not be
trusted to handle cash and company secrets.
接下来的五个月给他的考验超过了他和其他人的预料。一连数周他天天在人才市场里挤
来挤去，回家却是两手空空。招聘人员告诉他，他的金融文凭是没有用的，因为他是“
外地人”，难以得到信任经手现金，掌握公司秘密。
When he finally found a job selling apartments for a real estate agency,
he left after less than a week when his employer reneged on a promised
salary and then fined him each day he failed to bring in potential clients.
后来他找到一个替房地产公司销售楼房的工作，可不到一周就离开了。雇主背弃承诺的
工资待遇，一天没有带来潜在的客户就得罚款。
In the end, Mr. Li and his friends settled for sales jobs with an
instant noodle company. The starting salary, a low $180 a month, turned out
to be partly contingent on meeting ambitious sales figures. Wearing purple
golf shirts with the words “Lao Yun Pickled Vegetable Beef Noodles,” they
worked 12-hour days, returning home after dark to a meal of instant noodles.
李先生和朋友最终在一家方便面公司找到了做销售的工作。起薪的每月180美元后来部
分地与完成高额的销售量挂钩。穿着印有“老云腌菜牛肉面”字样的紫色高尔夫衬衣，
他们每天得干12个小时，天黑后才回家吃一顿方便面。
“This isn’t what I want to be doing, but at least I have a job,” said
Mr. Li, sitting in his room one October evening. Decorated with origami
birds left by a previous occupant, the room faced a neighbor’s less than
two feet across an airshaft. The only personal touch was an instant noodle
poster taped over the front door for privacy.
“这压根不是我想做的事情，可至少我有了一份工作，” 10月的一天晚上他坐在自己
的房间里说。房间里依然留有以前住户用折纸鸟的装饰，房子离邻居的通气孔还不到两
英尺。唯一的个人风格是贴在前门上的方便面宣传广告，遮去外人的目光。
Because he had sold only 800 cases of noodles that month, 200 short of
his sales target, Mr. Li’s paltry salary was taking a hit. And citing the
arrival of winter, “peak noodle-eating season,” his boss had just doubled
sales quotas.
因为本月只销售了800箱方便面，离完成销售任务还差200箱，李先生微薄的工资又要受
到打击。冬季到了，老板看到了“吃面季节高峰”，又将销售任务提供了一倍。
Mr. Li worried aloud whether he would be able to marry his high school
sweetheart, who had accompanied him here, if he could not earn enough money
to buy a home. Such concerns are rampant among young Chinese men, who have
been squeezed by skyrocketing real estate prices and a culture that demands
that a groom provide an apartment for his bride. “I’m giving myself two
years,” he said, his voice trailing off.
李先生担心的是如果他无法争购足够的钱买房子，还能不能陪他一起北京的心爱的高中
同学。这种忧虑普遍存在重中国年轻男人当中，他们一直被压榨在天价房地产和新郎为
新娘买房子文化传统之下。“我给自己两年的时间，”他声音低沉地说。
By November, the pressure had taken its toll on two of the others,
including the irrepressible Liu Yang. After quitting the noodle company and
finding no other job, she gave up and returned home.
到11月，另外两个人终于被压垮了，包括难以征服的刘阳。辞掉在方便面公司的工作后
，找不到其它工作，她终于放弃了，回家去了。
That left Mr. Yuan, Mr. Li and their girlfriends. Over dinner one night,
the four of them complained about the unkindness of Beijingers, the high
cost of living and the boredom of their jobs. Still, they all vowed to stick
it out.
剩下了袁先生、李先生和他们的女朋友。晚上吃饭时，四个人都抱怨北京人没良心，生
活费用高昂和工作的单调乏味。不过，他们仍然发誓要坚持到底。
“Now that I see what the outside world is like, my only regret is that
I didn’t have more fun in college,” Mr. Yuan said.
“现在我知道外面的世界时什么样子了，只后悔当初在大学没有好好玩。”袁先生说。
BEIJING — Liu Yang, a coal miner’s daughter, arrived in the capital
this past summer with a freshly printed diploma from Datong University, $140
in her wallet and an air of invincibility.
北京— 刘扬是一位矿工的女儿，今年夏天怀揣大同大学新近颁发的毕业文凭和1000元
人民币来到北京时，眼前似乎没有战胜不了的困难。
Her first taste of reality came later the same day, as she lugged her
bags through a ramshackle neighborhood, not far from the Olympic Village,
where tens of thousands of other young strivers cram four to a room.
到达北京当天下午，她拖着行李走过奥利匹克村不远处脏乱的社区，才第一次体会到现
实生活滋味。这里住着成千上万奋斗中的年轻人，4个人挤在一间屋子里。
Unable to find a bed and unimpressed by the rabbit warren of slapdash
buildings, Ms. Liu scowled as the smell of trash wafted up around her. “
Beijing isn’t like this in the movies,” she said.
眼前，仓促而就的楼房像兔窝一样的房子令人生厌，身边四处是垃圾的臭味，又无法找
到床位，刘小姐皱起了眉头，“北京跟电影看到的完全不同。”
Often the first from their families to finish even high school,
ambitious graduates like Ms. Liu are part of an unprecedented wave of young
people all around China who were supposed to move the country’s labor-
dependent economy toward a white-collar future. In 1998, when
Jiang Zemin
, then the president, announced plans to bolster higher education,
Chinese universities and colleges produced 830,000 graduates a year. Last
May, that number was more than six million and rising.
像刘小姐这样雄心勃勃的大学生往往是家里第一个上过高中以上学校的人，他们是中国
全国范围内前所未有的年轻人潮中的一部分，这一代人寄托着中国从依靠苦力的经济形
态转型到白领未来的梦想。1998年，时任国家主席的江泽民宣布了快速发展高等教育的
计划，是年，中国各类大学毕业生人数为83万。今年5月，这个数字超过600万，并且还
在升高。
It is a remarkable achievement, yet for a government fixated on
stability such figures are also a cause for concern. The economy, despite
its robust growth, does not generate enough good professional jobs to absorb
the influx of highly educated young adults. And many of them bear the
inflated expectations of their parents, who emptied their bank accounts to
buy them the good life that a higher education is presumed to guarantee.
这是令人瞩目的巨大成就，但是对于一个特别钟情于稳定的政府来说，这些数字同时也
令人担心。经济尽管在强劲增长，但无法产生足够数量良好的专业工作机会来吸纳大量
涌入的受过高等教育的成年人。这些人当中，许多人背负着父母过高的期望，父母们掏
空所有银行积蓄企图给孩子买来据说高等教育可以保障的美好生活。
“College essentially provided them with nothing,” said Zhang Ming, a
political scientist and vocal critic of China’s education system. “For
many young graduates, it’s all about survival. If there was ever an
economic crisis, they could be a source of instability.”
政治学家张鸣是一位中国教育体制的激烈批评者，他说，“大学基本上没有这些孩子任
何东西”。"对于许多年轻毕业生来说，生活的全部为了生存。如果发生一次经济危机
，他们就是不稳定的根源。"
In a kind of cruel reversal, China’s old migrant class — uneducated
villagers who flocked to factory towns to make goods for export — are now
in high demand, with spot labor shortages and tighter government oversight
driving up blue-collar wages.
在一种无情的倒退中，中国老一代的移民阶层——没有受过教育而涌入工业城镇加工出
口产品的农村人——现在却非常吃香，原因是现场劳动短缺，还有，由于政府加强了监
管，蓝领工人的工资得到提高。
But the supply of those trained in accounting, finance and computer
programming now seems limitless, and their value has plunged. Between 2003
and 2009, the average starting salary for migrant laborers grew by nearly 80
percent; during the same period, starting pay for college graduates stayed
the same, although their wages actually decreased if inflation is taken into
account.
但是，接受过会计、金融及电脑编程方面教育的专业人才的供应似乎源源不断，没有尽
头，他们的价值一跌千丈；与此同时，大学毕业上的起薪却保持不变，如果考虑通货膨
胀的因素，他们的实际工资降低了。
Chinese sociologists have come up with a new term for educated young
people who move in search of work like Ms. Liu: the ant tribe. It is a
reference to their immense numbers — at least 100,000 in Beijing alone —
and to the fact that they often settle into crowded neighborhoods, toiling
for wages that would give even low-paid factory workers pause.
中国社会学家对像刘小姐这样出来找工作的受过教育年轻人起了一个新的词汇：蚁族。
这个词汇形容他们巨大的数量——光北京就至少有10万人——同时还指他们常常居住在
拥挤的社区，辛辛苦苦挣到的工资甚至不如工厂里工资微薄的工人。
“Like ants, they gather in colonies, sometimes underground in basements
, and work long and hard,” said Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at
Renmin University in Beijing.
“像蚂蚁一样，他们住在一起，有的住地下室，工作艰辛而且时间漫长，”人民大学社
会学教授周孝政说。
The central government, well aware of the risks of inequitable growth,
has been trying to channel more development to inland provinces like Shanxi,
Ms. Liu’s home province, where the dismantling of state-owned industries a
decade ago left a string of anemic cities.
中央政府深知不均衡增长带来的危险，一直在努力将更多发展机会转移到刘小姐家乡山
西这样的内陆省份，那些10年前大量国营工业企业的拆除留下一连串要死不活的城市。
Despite government efforts, urban residents earned on average 3.3 times
more last year than those living in the countryside. Such disparities — and
the lure of spectacular wealth in coastal cities like Shanghai, Tianjin and
Shenzhen — keep young graduates coming.
尽管政府做了多方努力，去年，城市居民的平均收入依然是住在农村居民的3.3倍。这
种差别加上上海、天津和深圳等沿海城市巨大财富的诱惑，使年轻人源源不断地涌来。
“Compared with Beijing, my hometown in Shanxi feels like it’s stuck in
the 1950s,” said Li Xudong, 25, one of Ms. Liu’s classmates, whose father
is a vegetable peddler. “If I stayed there, my life would be empty and
depressing.”
“跟北京相比，我们山西家乡还处在上世纪50年代，” 刘小姐的同学刘旭东说。他的
父亲是个蔬菜商贩。“如果我继续呆在那里，我的生活会空虚沮丧。”
While some recent graduates find success, many are worn down by a
gantlet of challenges and disappointments. Living conditions can be
Dickensian, and grueling six-day work weeks leave little time for anything
else but sleeping, eating and doing the laundry.
虽然有一些新近毕业的学生取得了成功，但是多数人在挑战与失望的双重打击下疲敝不
堪。生存条件可以跟狄更斯时代一样，每周极其辛苦地工作六天，留下来的时间只有睡
觉、吃饭和洗衣。
But what many new arrivals find more discomfiting are the obstacles that
hard work alone cannot overcome. Their undergraduate degrees, many from the
growing crop of third-tier provincial schools, earn them little respect in
the big city. And as the children of peasants or factory workers, they lack
the essential social lubricant known as guanxi, or personal connections,
that greases the way for the offspring of China’s nouveau riche and the
politically connected.
然而更让许多新来者感到不舒服的是光靠拼命工作无法克服的障碍。他们的大学毕业文
凭许多是从成立不久的三流省级学校颁发的，在大城市几乎得不到尊重。还有作为农民
或工厂工人的孩子，他们缺少基本的社会润滑剂关系，或人际联系。这种关系为中国暴
富一族和政治上有关系的子女成长提供了方便。
Emerging from the sheltered adolescence of one-child families, they
quickly bump up against the bureaucracy of population management, known as
the hukou system, which denies migrants the subsidized housing and other
health and welfare benefits enjoyed by legally registered residents.
这些青少年在独生子女家庭呵护的环境中长大的年轻人，刚走上社会很快就碰到人口管
理官僚体制的障碍。这种被称为户口制度的体制使移民享受不到合法注册居民享有的住
房补贴、医疗及其它福利。
Add to this a demographic tide that has increased the ranks of China’s
20-to-25-year-olds to 123 million, about 17 million more than there were
just four years ago.
此外，就是巨大的人口浪潮，中国20-25岁的年轻人从仅仅4年里增加了1700万，上升到
现在的1.23亿。
“China has really improved the quality of its work force, but on the
other hand competition has never been more serious,” said Peng Xizhe, dean
of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai.
“中国劳动力的质量确实有了提高，但是另一方面，竞争从来没有现在这么激烈，”上
海复旦大学社会发展及公共政策学院院长彭希哲说。
Given the glut of underemployed graduates, Mr. Peng suggested that young
people either shift to more practical vocations like nursing and teaching
or recalibrated their expectations. “It’s O.K. if they want to try a few
years seeking their fortune, but if they stay too long in places like
Beijing or Shanghai, they will find trouble for themselves and trouble for
society,” he said.
由于就业不足毕业生供过于求，彭先生建议，年轻人要么转向护理、教育这样更为实际
的职业，要么就要重新调整自己的期望。“如果他们想花几年时间试试财运，这样还行
，但是他们想在北京或上海的地方呆的时间更长，他们将为自己找更多麻烦，也会给社
会带来麻烦。”他说。
A fellow Datong University graduate, Yuan Lei, threw the first wet
blanket over the exuberance of Ms. Liu, Mr. Li and three friends not long
after their July arrival in Beijing. Mr. Yuan had arrived several months
earlier for an internship but was still jobless.
袁磊，另一位大同大学的毕业生给刘小姐、李先生和7月来到北京不久三个朋友兴奋的
心情浇了第一瓢凉水。袁先生比他们早到北京几个月，来这里实习，但依然没有工作。
“If you’re not the son of an official or you don’t come from money,
life is going to be bitter,” he told them over bowls of 90-cent noodles,
their first meal in the capital.
“如果你不是当官的儿子，或者手头没钱，生活将会非常艰辛。” 他告诉这些来北京
吃第一顿90美分一碗面条的朋友。
As the light faded and the streets became thick with young receptionists
, cashiers and sales clerks heading home, Mr. Yuan led his friends down a
dank alley and up an unsteady staircase to his room. It was about the width
of a queen-size bed, and he shared a filthy toilet with dozens of other
tenants and a common area with a communal hot plate.
天色暗淡时，大街上到处挤满了回家的年轻接待员、出纳即和销售员，袁先生带着朋友
穿过一条潮湿的小巷，沿着一个摇摇晃晃的梯子来到他的房间。这间房子只有能放下一
张大床的宽，他和其他几十个租户共用一间肮脏不堪的厕所，有一个公共地方放着公用
电炉。
Mr. Li smiled as he took in the scene. Like most young Chinese, his life
until that moment had been coddled, chaperoned and intensely regimented. “
I’m ready to go out into the world and test myself,” he said.
李先生看着眼前的情景笑了笑。向大部分年轻人一样，此刻以前他的生活一直是被娇惯
的，呵护的，并严格监管的。“我做好了走入世界考验自己的准备。”他说。
The next five months would provide more of a test than he or the others
had expected. For weeks Mr. Li elbowed his way through crowded job fairs but
came away empty-handed. His finance degree, recruiters told him, was
useless because he was a “waidi ren,” an outsider, who could not be
trusted to handle cash and company secrets.
接下来的五个月给他的考验超过了他和其他人的预料。一连数周他天天在人才市场里挤
来挤去，回家却是两手空空。招聘人员告诉他，他的金融文凭是没有用的，因为他是“
外地人”，难以得到信任经手现金，掌握公司秘密。
When he finally found a job selling apartments for a real estate agency,
he left after less than a week when his employer reneged on a promised
salary and then fined him each day he failed to bring in potential clients.
后来他找到一个替房地产公司销售楼房的工作，可不到一周就离开了。雇主背弃承诺的
工资待遇，一天没有带来潜在的客户就得罚款。
In the end, Mr. Li and his friends settled for sales jobs with an
instant noodle company. The starting salary, a low $180 a month, turned out
to be partly contingent on meeting ambitious sales figures. Wearing purple
golf shirts with the words “Lao Yun Pickled Vegetable Beef Noodles,” they
worked 12-hour days, returning home after dark to a meal of instant noodles.
李先生和朋友最终在一家方便面公司找到了做销售的工作。起薪的每月180美元后来部
分地与完成高额的销售量挂钩。穿着印有“老云腌菜牛肉面”字样的紫色高尔夫衬衣，
他们每天得干12个小时，天黑后才回家吃一顿方便面。
“This isn’t what I want to be doing, but at least I have a job,” said
Mr. Li, sitting in his room one October evening. Decorated with origami
birds left by a previous occupant, the room faced a neighbor’s less than
two feet across an airshaft. The only personal touch was an instant noodle
poster taped over the front door for privacy.
“这压根不是我想做的事情，可至少我有了一份工作，” 10月的一天晚上他坐在自己
的房间里说。房间里依然留有以前住户用折纸鸟的装饰，房子离邻居的通气孔还不到两
英尺。唯一的个人风格是贴在前门上的方便面宣传广告，遮去外人的目光。
Because he had sold only 800 cases of noodles that month, 200 short of
his sales target, Mr. Li’s paltry salary was taking a hit. And citing the
arrival of winter, “peak noodle-eating season,” his boss had just doubled
sales quotas.
因为本月只销售了800箱方便面，离完成销售任务还差200箱，李先生微薄的工资又要受
到打击。冬季到了，老板看到了“吃面季节高峰”，又将销售任务提供了一倍。
Mr. Li worried aloud whether he would be able to marry his high school
sweetheart, who had accompanied him here, if he could not earn enough money
to buy a home. Such concerns are rampant among young Chinese men, who have
been squeezed by skyrocketing real estate prices and a culture that demands
that a groom provide an apartment for his bride. “I’m giving myself two
years,” he said, his voice trailing off.
李先生担心的是如果他无法争购足够的钱买房子，还能不能陪他一起北京的心爱的高中
同学。这种忧虑普遍存在重中国年轻男人当中，他们一直被压榨在天价房地产和新郎为
新娘买房子文化传统之下。“我给自己两年的时间，”他声音低沉地说。
By November, the pressure had taken its toll on two of the others,
including the irrepressible Liu Yang. After quitting the noodle company and
finding no other job, she gave up and returned home.
到11月，另外两个人终于被压垮了，包括难以征服的刘阳。辞掉在方便面公司的工作后
，找不到其它工作，她终于放弃了，回家去了。
That left Mr. Yuan, Mr. Li and their girlfriends. Over dinner one night,
the four of them complained about the unkindness of Beijingers, the high
cost of living and the boredom of their jobs. Still, they all vowed to stick
it out.
剩下了袁先生、李先生和他们的女朋友。晚上吃饭时，四个人都抱怨北京人没良心，生
活费用高昂和工作的单调乏味。不过，他们仍然发誓要坚持到底。
“Now that I see what the outside world is like, my only regret is that
I didn’t have more fun in college,” Mr. Yuan said.
“现在我知道外面的世界时什么样子了，只后悔当初在大学没有好好玩。”袁先生说。
