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November 11, a day represented by four digits of 1, has been dubbed "Bachelor Day" by young single Chinese.
11月11日,因其由四个阿拉伯数字“1”构成,于是便被中国的年轻单身族称为“光棍节”。
Among Chinese in the 22 to 49 age bracket, males outnumber females by 16.97 million, which means tens of millions of single Chinese in this age group.
在22岁至49岁这个年龄段中,中国男性的人数比女性多出了1697万人,这就意味着这个年龄段里会有上千万的光棍出现。
The "Bachelor Day" has been initiated by single college students and, although enjoys no holiday leave, has become a vogue of the day among single white collars.
“光棍节”兴起于单身的大学生们,尽管这天不放假,这天仍旧成为单身白领圈的时尚节日。
When explaining the reasons for being single 40 percent interviewees believe growing self-consciousness among the young has raised the bar for selecting the other half. 20 percent netizens believe it is because social environment has become more tolerant and being single is facing less pressure of public opinion.
当问起光棍增多的原因,40%的受访者表示年轻人对自身感受的重视增加了寻找另一半的难度。而20%的网民则认为宽松的社会环境和公众压力的减少导致了光棍的增多。
男光棍不敢娶
Bachelor Carl Weisman got fed up of being classified as a playboy, a loser or a commitment-phobe so he set out to find out exactly why he and a growing number of eligible men were steering clear of marriage.
单身汉卡尔·维斯曼再也无法忍受被当作花花公子、落魄男人或“恐婚症”患者,所以他开始研究自己以及越来越多不错的男人为什么不愿意结婚。
Weisman, 49, conducted an online survey of 1,533 heterosexual men.
49岁的维斯曼对1533位异性恋男士开展了一项在线调查。
He concluded that most men were not afraid of marriage--but they were afraid of a bad marriage.
他从调查中得出结论,多数男人不是害怕婚姻,而是害怕不幸的婚姻。
"Men are 10 times more scared of marrying the wrong person than of never getting married at all," Weisman said.
维斯曼说:“对于男人而言,娶错人比打‘光棍’可怕十倍。”
"This is the first generation of people who have grown up with bad divorces. People assume there is something wrong if you don't marry but these are men who have made a different choice and not given in to social pressures."
“这是第一代在成长过程中目睹了很多不幸婚姻的人。在人们看来,你不结婚,可能是你有什么问题。但这些男人却做出了不同的选择,他们没有屈服于社会压力。”
Weisman said U.S. figures showed that in 1980 about 6 percent of men aged in their early 40s had never married but this number had now risen to 17 percent.
维斯曼说,美国有数据表明,在1980年,40岁出头的男人中有6%没结过婚,而现在这个数字已升至17%。
Weisman said his online survey found there are three groups of bachelors--about 8 percent who never want to marry, 62 percent want to marry but of which half won't settle for anything less than perfection, and about 30 percent who are on the fence.
维斯曼开展的在线调查发现,目前有三种类型的单身汉——约8%的人从没想过要结婚,62%的人想结婚,但其中一半的人要找到理想的伴侣才肯结婚,约30%的人正在观望。
Four out of 10 bachelors did not want children compared to three out of 10 wanting to be a father. The rest were undecided.
调查发现,在单身男士中,40%的人不想要孩子,30%的人想当爸爸,其他人态度不明朗。
But while 72 percent of respondents said they were not afraid of marriage, about half of them said the situation that scared them most was marrying the wrong person.
尽管72%的受访者称自己不惧怕婚姻,但其中一半的人称他们最害怕娶错人。
"It's so important to these men to get it right. My best advice to single women after bachelors is to be patient. If you're in a hurry to get married you'll be frustrated," he said.
维斯曼说:“对于这些男人来说,找对人十分重要。而对于那些正在追求这些单身汉的单身女士来说,我能给的最好建议就是,要有耐心。你越着急,事情会越糟糕。”
Weisman also found that financial issues, both positive and negative, played a large part in men's fear of commitment.
除害怕娶错人外,维斯曼发现,经济状况也是男人害怕结婚的一个重要原因,无论他们的经济状况是好还是坏。