中國新族羣:蟻族和款奴

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.

你知道麼？中國其實是個族羣國家。由於中國社會日益多樣化，各種新詞彙已經遍地開花。其中最有趣的或許是各種各樣的“族”。“蟻族”這一詞彙已經深深體現出了這羣人的艱辛：新近畢業生，從其他地方搬進大城市，活得拮据，工作辛苦，幾乎總是幹着低薪的工作。相比於“蟻族”，“啃老族”或許不那麼有名：處於25到35歲之間，失業或無業，呆在家裏，靠父母過活。

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，許多這樣的“族”詞彙都描述了正在尋找伴侶的年輕人。比如“嫁碗族”，描述了尋找有穩定工作的（比如政府職員，該工作至今仍被認爲是所謂“鐵飯碗”）老公的年輕女性。再比如“閃婚族”，結婚快，有時離婚更快；這類人容易被和“隱婚族”混爲一談，與前者不同，“隱婚族”描述的是一些20來歲的女人，隱瞞自己已婚的身份，以防自己因歇產假而丟掉工作或不被晉升。資方對產假方面的一點點風吹草動都異常敏感——社會主義的兩性平等原則在現代中國的“狂野東部”的確不那麼管用。另外，如果你只能買得起一所公寓裏郵票那麼大的面積，那你很可能是“蝸居族”。

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).

你可以身屬不止一個“族”。“蟻族”的大部分成員也屬於“奔奔族”，到處奔忙，這也是大多數中國都市人的現狀。奔奔忙忙製造了大量積壓的憤怒，從而衍生出“捏捏族”，他們衝進超市，站在過道里，擠碎大量方便麪，以發泄自己的挫折感（真事如此，不開玩笑）。

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).

許多“族”同時也是“奴”。有“房奴”（同時也是貸款奴），也有“婚奴”（當然，也是貸款奴），而且，中國的廣大父母理所當然都是“孩奴”（獨生子女的奴隸）。

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.

在試圖刺激國內消費經濟的大環境下，或許中國最需要的就是“月光族”，得名於漢語中“月亮的光輝”和“花光每月所有錢”是同形詞。這羣人的父母節省每一塊錢，但對這些青少年而言，他們的日常就是花，花，花。如今，這算也是一種愛國主義消費了。