纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英为什么这些中国职业女性不想多生孩子

 One leads a team at a financial firm and earns more than her husband. Another is pursuing her dream of becoming a civil servant. A third is a budding influencer who aspires to be the family breadwinner.

一位女性在一家金融公司领导团队，收入超过了她的丈夫。另一位女性在追求成为公务员的梦想。还有一位女性是崭露头角的网红，希望能靠自己养家糊口。

Each woman is raising one young child and doesn’t want another — no matter what their husbands say, or what incentives the Chinese government, worried about an aging population, is dangling.

这三位女性每人都只有一个孩子，不想再生——不管她们的丈夫有什么意见，也不管担心人口老龄化的中国政府有什么激励措施。

Gone are the days of China’s one-child policy. At a recent political forum, President Xi Jinping urged women to take on greater familial responsibilities and “play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.”

中国独生子女政策的时代已经一去不返。在最近的一次与全国妇联领导的集体谈话中，国家主席习近平敦促女性承担更大的家庭责任，“要注重发挥妇女在弘扬中华民族家庭美德、树立良好家风方面的独特作用。”

These women see a different role for themselves. This generation was born into small families, with many girls growing up as only children — and getting opportunities that used to be given only to boys. Their own mothers, who didn’t have multiple children to care for, typically worked outside the home and set examples for their daughters to do the same.

这些女性认为自己可以担当不同的角色。这一代人出生在小家庭，许多女孩都是独生子女，获得了过去只有男孩才能获得的机会。她们自己的母亲没有很多孩子需要照顾，通常会在外工作，并为女儿树立了同样的榜样。

“I must have my own career.”

“我必须有自己的事业。”

Joyce Zhao, 29, Project manager

乔伊斯·赵（音），29岁，项目经理

Joyce Zhao had worked for three years as a project manager at a small tech company in Beijing and was expecting a promotion. But when she became pregnant with her son, Ming, her prospects dimmed.

乔伊斯·赵在北京一家小型科技公司做了三年的项目经理，预计将获得提拔。但当她怀上儿子小明（音）的时候，她的职业前景变得暗淡了起来。

Her boss, a woman who had been advocating for her to be given a leadership role, left the team while Ms. Zhao was on a five-month maternity leave. When she returned to work, her new boss told her that she was behind and needed to work harder.

她的老板是一位一直主张让她担任领导职务的女性，在乔伊斯·赵五个月的产假期间离开了团队。当她回到工作岗位时，新老板告诉她，她落后了，需要更加努力地工作。

“I was drowning in self-doubt, wondering whether having a child at this point in time was the wrong thing to do,” Ms. Zhao said.

“我沉浸在自我怀疑中，不知道在这个时候生孩子是不是一个错误，”乔伊斯·赵说。

But, she said, she never once thought about quitting her job and staying at home.

但是，她说，她从来没有想过辞职待在家里。

“I only have myself to rely on,” Ms. Zhao. “I must have my own career and not give it up for anything.”

“我只能靠自己，”乔伊斯·赵说。“我必须有自己的事业，不能为了任何事情而放弃。”

A few months after Ming’s first birthday, Ms. Zhao, who is 29, decided to leave her company, and landed a job at one of the biggest tech companies in China.

在小明一岁生日几个月后，29岁的乔伊斯·赵决定离开这个公司，在中国最大的科技公司之一找到了一份工作。

Her husband would like a second child, but Ms. Zhao is not interested. Her days are already grueling enough. Her four-hour commute to work and long hours mean she gets home way past Ming’s bedtime. She rises at 6:30 a.m. to have one hour to herself to read and exercise, and one hour to play and have breakfast with her son.

丈夫想要第二个孩子，但乔伊斯·赵对此不感兴趣。她的日子已经够辛苦了。她上下班总共要花四个小时，而且工作时间很长，这意味着她回家时，小明早已上床就寝。她早上6点半起床，给自己一个小时的阅读和锻炼时间，还有一个小时和儿子一起玩耍和吃早餐。

After college, Ms. Zhao set aside her dream of becoming a civil servant to pursue a higher-paying job. Now, having checked off marriage and childbearing, she plans to study for the notoriously difficult civil servant exam.

大学毕业后，乔伊斯·赵放弃了当公务员的梦想，去追求收入更高的工作。如今，在结婚生子之后，她打算参加以难度高而闻名的公务员考试。

“I divide my time, energy and money into different parts, saving the biggest part for myself, then the rest go to my parents, husband and son,” Ms. Zhao said. “I can’t let them take all of me.”

“我把时间、精力和金钱分成不同的部分，把最大的部分留给自己，剩下的留给父母、丈夫和儿子，”乔伊斯·赵说。“我不能让他们占据我的全部。”

“I see no benefits to having two children.”

“我觉得生两个孩子没有什么好处。”

Guo Chunlei, 32, Influencer

郭春蕾（音），32岁，网络红人

Before Guo Chunlei got married, she worked at a bank in the eastern city of Hangzhou, making about $2,000 a month, decent by Chinese standards. Her parents bought her a small apartment and a car, so she spent most of her paycheck on beauty, fashion and traveling.

郭春蕾结婚前在东部城市杭州的一家银行工作，每月收入约14000元，以中国的标准来看还算不错。父母给她买了一套小公寓和一辆车，所以她把大部分薪水花在美容、时尚和旅游上。

When she decided to have a baby in 2022, her husband and in-laws, who ran a booming family business in construction, encouraged her to switch to a less demanding job to have more time for the child. Ms. Guo agreed and joined a publicly traded company as an accountant. But the work was repetitive and unfulfilling, and she was earning only about a third of what she used to make.

2022年，当她决定在生孩子时，她的丈夫和公公婆婆鼓励她换一份没那么忙的工作，以便有更多时间照顾孩子。她的公公婆婆在建筑行业经营着一家蒸蒸日上的家族企业。郭春蕾同意了，进入一家上市公司担任会计师。但是，这是一份枯燥的工作，没有成就感，她的收入只有以前的三分之一左右。

The steep pay cut became a bigger and bigger problem. As her daughter, Tianyi, grew up, expenses began soaring. Early education classes alone ate up a third of her salary.

薪水大幅减少成了一个越来越大的问题。随着女儿天一（音）的长大，开销也开始飙升。光是早教课程就花掉了她三分之一的薪水。

Seeking extra money, and a sense of purpose, Ms. Guo started a mom-influencer account on the lifestyle app Xiaohongshu last year. A post she composed about planning a traditional Chinese birthday party for her daughter got tens of thousands of views and opened the door to brand collaborations.

为了寻求额外收入和成就感，郭春蕾去年在生活方式应用小红书上开了一个育儿账号。她写的一篇关于为女儿策划中国传统生日派对的帖子获得了数万点击，并为她打开了品牌合作的大门。

She now spends weekday evenings writing captions, editing photos and doing product research. Photo shoots with Tianyi in nearby parks have become a weekend family activity.

现在，她在工作日的晚上写文案、编辑照片、做产品研究。与天一在附近的公园一起拍照则已成为周末的家庭活动。

Ms. Guo’s account has amassed more than 10,000 followers and brings in more money from product sponsorships than her day job. She’s considering becoming an influencer full time, and would like to take over as her family’s main provider.

郭春蕾的账号已经积累了1万多名粉丝，她从产品赞助中获得的收入超过了全职工作。她正在考虑成为全职网红，并希望成为她家庭的主要经济来源。

Ms. Guo recalls her own parents sacrificing to provide for her and her younger brother. It made her determined to follow a different path.

郭春蕾回忆起自己的父母为了抚养她和弟弟而做出的牺牲。这让她下定决心要走出一条不同的道路。

“I see no benefits to having two children, for either myself or for Tianyi,” she said.

“我觉得生两个孩子对我和天一都没有好处，”她说。

“I want to make something of myself.”

“我想有所作为。”

Tang Pingjuan, 36, Financial manager

唐萍娟（音），36岁，财务经理

Like many working women in China today, Tang Pingjuan, 36, has higher expectations than did many of the women who came before her.

和当今中国的许多职业女性一样，36岁的唐萍娟比她的许多前辈有着更高的抱负。

Growing up under the old one-child policy, she got the undivided attention of her father, a train driver, and her mother, a teacher, she recalls. And like many girls in her generation, she was given opportunities that had once been reserved for boys.

她回忆说，她在以前的独生子女政策下长大，得到了父亲（一名火车司机）和母亲（一名教师）全心全意的关注。就像她那一代的许多女孩一样，她得到了曾经只属于男孩的机会。

When it came time to attend college, Ms. Tang went hundreds of miles away from home to pursue a degree in mathematics, a field dominated by men. (Nearly a third of Chinese women have college degrees now, up from fewer than 1 percent in 1990.)

到了上大学的时候，唐萍娟到离家几百公里以外的地方去攻读数学学位，这是一个由男性主导的领域。（如今，近三分之一的中国女性拥有大学学位，1990年，这一比例还不到1%）。

After graduating, Ms. Tang landed a job in finance and then, at age 25, took a year off and used her savings to travel to more than a dozen countries. Now 36, she leads a team at a private financial company in Guangzhou, the bustling metropolis where she lives with her husband and 4-year-old daughter, Ning.

毕业后，唐萍娟在金融行业找到了一份工作，在25岁的时候，她休息了一年，用积蓄去了十几个国家旅行。现年36岁的她在广州一家私营金融公司领导一个团队。她与丈夫和4岁的女儿小宁（音）住在繁华的大都市广州。

Ms. Tang earns more than her husband and makes investment decisions for the family.

唐萍娟的收入比丈夫高，并为家庭做出投资决策。

Six months after Ning was born, Ms. Tang returned to her office, leaving the baby in the care of a grandmother. On weekends, the family likes splurging on “staycations” at luxury hotels.

小宁出生六个月后，唐萍娟回到工作岗位，把孩子交给祖母照顾。周末，一家人喜欢在豪华酒店“宅度假”。

Lately, she has been considering a promising job opportunity in the nearby city of Shenzhen, which could mean being separated from her family. Her husband and in-laws oppose the move, but Ms. Tang doesn’t want to be held back. She has not ruled out a second child altogether, she said, but it is not something she is considering now.

最近，她一直考虑接受附近城市深圳一个很有前途的工作机会，这可能意味着要和家人分开。她的丈夫和公公婆婆都表示反对，但她不想被阻碍。她说，她并没有完全排除要第二个孩子的可能性，但这不是她现在考虑的事情。

“I feel selfish for putting myself before my family, but life is long and I want to make something of myself,” she said.

“把自己放在家庭前面，我觉得有点自私，但是人生很长，我想有所作为，”她说。