中国新族群:蚁族和款奴

WHO knew China was tribal? The diversification of Chinese society has seen a flowering of a new vocabulary. Perhaps most fascinating has been the division of people into tribes (zu in Mandarin). The travails of the yi zu, or ant tribe, have been well-chronicled—recent graduates from outside the main cities who move to urban areas, live cheaply and work hard, often in low-paid jobs. Perhaps less well-known are the ken lao zu, the bite-the-old tribe, those between 25 and 35 who are underemployed or out of work, still at home and sponging off mum and dad.

你知道么？中国其实是个族群国家。由于中国社会日益多样化，各种新词汇已经遍地开花。其中最有趣的或许是各种各样的“族”。“蚁族”这一词汇已经深深体现出了这群人的艰辛：新近毕业生，从其他地方搬进大城市，活得拮据，工作辛苦，几乎总是干着低薪的工作。相比于“蚁族”，“啃老族”或许不那么有名：处于25到35岁之间，失业或无业，呆在家里，靠父母过活。

Many of the tribes, inevitably, are made up of people looking for love. There is the jia wan zu, the marry-the-bowl tribe. These are young women searching for that most stable of husbands, the one who holds a government job (still known as the iron rice bowl). The shan hun zu, or lightning-marriage tribe, marry fast and sometimes divorce faster. They should not be confused with the yin hun zu, the hidden-marriage tribe. These are women in their 20s who hide the fact that they are married, knowing they will not be hired or promoted if there is even the whiff of the possible need for maternity leave—socialist gender-equality does not offer much protection in the Wild East of modern China. And if you can only afford a postage stamp of an apartment, you're probably a member of the wo ju zu, the snail-house tribe.

可想而知，许多这样的“族”词汇都描述了正在寻找伴侣的年轻人。比如“嫁碗族”，描述了寻找有稳定工作的（比如政府职员，该工作至今仍被认为是所谓“铁饭碗”）老公的年轻女性。再比如“闪婚族”，结婚快，有时离婚更快；这类人容易被和“隐婚族”混为一谈，与前者不同，“隐婚族”描述的是一些20来岁的女人，隐瞒自己已婚的身份，以防自己因歇产假而丢掉工作或不被晋升。资方对产假方面的一点点风吹草动都异常敏感——社会主义的两性平等原则在现代中国的“狂野东部”的确不那么管用。另外，如果你只能买得起一所公寓里邮票那么大的面积，那你很可能是“蜗居族”。

You can belong to more than one tribe. Most members of the ant tribe also belong to the ben ben zu, the rush-rush tribe, to which, in fact, most urban Chinese belong. All that rushing around can create a lot of pent-up anger, giving rise to thenie nie zu, the crush-crush tribe, so named because they go into supermarkets and take out their frustration by standing in the aisles crushing packets of instant noodles (yes, really).

你可以身属不止一个“族”。“蚁族”的大部分成员也属于“奔奔族”，到处奔忙，这也是大多数中国都市人的现状。奔奔忙忙制造了大量积压的愤怒，从而衍生出“捏捏族”，他们冲进超市，站在过道里，挤碎大量方便面，以发泄自己的挫折感（真事如此，不开玩笑）。

Many tribal members are also slaves (nu in Mandarin). There are the fang nu (mortgage slaves) and hun nu (marriage slaves, who are also, by definition, mortgage slaves) and all Chinese parents are of course haizi nu (slaves to the only child).

许多“族”同时也是“奴”。有“房奴”（同时也是贷款奴），也有“婚奴”（当然，也是贷款奴），而且，中国的广大父母理所当然都是“孩奴”（独生子女的奴隶）。

Perhaps the group China needs most as it tries to stimulate its domestic consumer economy is the yue guang zu, or moonlight tribe, so named because the Chinese characters for "moonlight" sound the same as the phrase "spend all your monthly salary". Their parents saved every yuan, but life for these youngsters is just spend, spend, spend. Now, that's patriotic consumption.

在试图刺激国内消费经济的大环境下，或许中国最需要的就是“月光族”，得名于汉语中“月亮的光辉”和“花光每月所有钱”是同形词。这群人的父母节省每一块钱，但对这些青少年而言，他们的日常就是花，花，花。如今，这算也是一种爱国主义消费了。