In her tinny flat, which she shares with two cats and a flock of porcelain owls, Chi Yingying describes her parents as wanting to be the controlling shareholders in her life. Even when she was in her early 20s, her mother raged at her for being unmarried. At 28 Ms Chi took “the most courageous decision of my life”and moved into her own home. Now 33, she relishes the privacy—at a price: her monthly rent of 4,000 yuan ($625) swallows nearly half her salary.
　　在她和她的兩只貓以及一堆貓頭鷹瓷器共同居住的蝸居里，Chi Yingying將她的父母描繪成一直想要控制她生活的“大股東”。盡管早在她20歲的時(shí)候，她老母就為她未婚一事大動(dòng)肝火。但是chi小姐還是在28歲時(shí)做了“生命中最勇敢的決定”——搬出去自己住�，F(xiàn)在她33歲了，可她任然享受隱私——當(dāng)然這是要付出代價(jià)的——她每個(gè)月要拿出4000元人民幣(625美元)來(lái)付房租，這個(gè)數(shù)目將近工資的一半了。
　　In many countries leaving the family home well before marriage is a rite of passage. But in China choosing to live alone and unmarried as Ms Chi has done is eccentric verging on taboo. Chinese culture attaches a particularly high value to the idea that families should live together. Yet ever more people are living alone.
　　在許多國(guó)家，在結(jié)婚之前離開(kāi)家庭自己住是一個(gè)必由之路。但是在中國(guó)，像chi小姐這樣不結(jié)婚卻選擇獨(dú)守空房的行為卻是在禁忌中的古怪行為。中國(guó)人將家人們住在一起視為無(wú)上光榮。然而越來(lái)越多的人選擇單獨(dú)住。
　　In the decade to 2010 the number of single-person households doubled. Today over 58m Chinese live by themselves, according to census data, a bigger number of one-person homes than in America, Britain and France combined. Solo dwellers make up 14% of all households. That is still low compared with rates found in Japan or Taiwan (see chart), but the proportion will certainly increase.
　　在2010年之前的十年之中，單身狗窩的數(shù)量已經(jīng)翻倍。根據(jù)人口普查資料，現(xiàn)在已有超過(guò)5800萬(wàn)的中國(guó)人自己住，超過(guò)了美國(guó)，英國(guó)和法國(guó)的單身住戶(hù)的總和，占總戶(hù)口本數(shù)的14%。當(dāng)然與日本和臺(tái)灣相比還是偏低，但是這個(gè)比例還在增長(zhǎng)。
　　The pattern of Chinese living alone is somewhat different from that in the West, because tens of millions of (mainly poor) migrant workers have moved away from home to find work in more prosperous regions of China; many in this group live alone, often in shoeboxes. Yet for the most part younger Chinese living alone are from among the better-off. “Freedom and new wealth”have broken China’s traditional family structures, says Jing Jun of Tsinghua University in Beijing.
　　中國(guó)的獨(dú)居模式與西方還是有不同之處，因?yàn)閿?shù)千萬(wàn)(主要是貧困地區(qū))“農(nóng)民工”從家鄉(xiāng)到繁榮之地尋覓工作。這個(gè)群體中很多人就住在一個(gè)小隔間里。對(duì)于大多數(shù)年輕人來(lái)說(shuō)他們可以說(shuō)是黃金單身漢了�！白杂珊托沦F”，已經(jīng)破壞了中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)的家庭結(jié)構(gòu)，北京清華大學(xué)的景軍說(shuō)。
　　The better-educated under-30-year-olds are, and the more money they have, the more likely they are to live alone. Rich parts of China have more non-widowed single dwellers: in Beijing a fifth of homes house only one person. The marriage age is rising, particularly in big cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, where the average man marries after 30 and the average woman at 28, older than their American counterparts. Divorce rates are also increasing, though they are still much lower than in America. More than 3.5m Chinese couples split up each year, which adds to the number of single households.
　　在30歲以下的年輕人越是接受過(guò)良好的教育，賺的錢(qián)越多，他們?cè)娇赡茏约荷�活。中�?guó)富裕地區(qū)有更多的非喪偶單身住戶(hù)：在北京將近五分之一的家庭里面只有一個(gè)人。結(jié)婚年齡在上升，尤其是在上海和廣州這樣的大城市，平均來(lái)說(shuō)男人在30歲，女人在28歲以后結(jié)婚，都老過(guò)同樣在做這事的美國(guó)佬了。離婚率也在上升，但還是美國(guó)老大更高，可喜可賀。每年超過(guò)350萬(wàn)的中國(guó)夫婦勞燕分飛，這對(duì)于單身住戶(hù)的數(shù)量增長(zhǎng)來(lái)說(shuō)是極好的。
　　For some, living alone is a transitional stage on the way to marriage, remarriage or family reunification. But for a growing number of people it may be a permanent state. In cities, many educated, urban women stay single, often as a positive choice—a sign of rising status and better employment opportunities. Rural areas, by contrast, have a skewed sex ratio in which men outnumber women, a consequence of families preferring sons and aborting female fetuses or abandoning baby girls. The consequence is millions of reluctant bachelors.
　　對(duì)某些人來(lái)說(shuō)，獨(dú)自生活是結(jié)婚、再婚以及重組家庭的必經(jīng)之路。但對(duì)于不斷增長(zhǎng)的單身人士來(lái)說(shuō)，這可能是永久狀態(tài)。在城市中，很多吃過(guò)幾年讀書(shū)飯的女性公民們將保持單身視為一個(gè)積極的選擇——可以獲得更高的地位以及更好的工作機(jī)會(huì)。然而相反的是，在鄉(xiāng)下，存在著嚴(yán)重的性別比例失衡——男性數(shù)量遠(yuǎn)高于女性，這都是一些家庭重男輕女從而對(duì)女?huà)肓鳟a(chǎn)的惡果。結(jié)果就是逼人為狗。
　　In the past, adulthood in China used, almost without exception, to mean marriage and having children within supervised rural or urban structures. Now a growing number of Chinese live beyond prying eyes, able to pursue the social and sexual lives they choose.
　　在過(guò)去，中國(guó)成年人無(wú)一例外的在農(nóng)村與城市二元結(jié)構(gòu)的限制之下，結(jié)婚生子�，F(xiàn)在更多的中國(guó)人逃離被掌控的生活，追求他們選擇的社會(huì)和性生活。
　　In the long run that poses a political challenge: the love of individual freedom is something that the Chinese state has long tried to quash. Living alone does not have to mean breaching social norms—phones and the internet make it easier than ever to keep in touch with relations, after all. Yet loosening family ties may open up space for new social networks, interest groups, even political aspirations of which the state may come to disapprove.
　　從長(zhǎng)期來(lái)看這構(gòu)成了政治威脅：對(duì)個(gè)人自由的稱(chēng)贊是天朝長(zhǎng)期想要宣布無(wú)效的。雖然獨(dú)自生活并不意味著打破社會(huì)規(guī)范——畢竟手機(jī)和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)讓保持溝通更容易了，但是失去家庭聯(lián)系或許可以為新的社會(huì)網(wǎng)絡(luò)，興趣小組，甚至是天朝所不待見(jiàn)的政見(jiàn)團(tuán)體創(chuàng)造空間。
　　For now those who live alone are often subject to mockery. Unmarried females are labelled “l(fā)eftover women”; unmarried men, “bare branches”—for the family tree they will never grow. An online group called “women living alone” is stacked with complaints about being told to “get a boyfriend”.
　　目前“單身狗”們還是處于被鄙視的狀態(tài)。未婚少女被稱(chēng)為“剩女”，未婚男人被稱(chēng)為“光棍兒”——估摸著他們也沒(méi)指望長(zhǎng)成樹(shù)了。一個(gè)被稱(chēng)為“獨(dú)自生活的娘們們”的網(wǎng)絡(luò)小組中充滿(mǎn)著被告知“找一個(gè)男朋友”的牢騷。
　　Even eating out can be a trial, since Chinese food culture is associated with groups of people sharing a whole range of dishes. After repeated criticism for dining alone, in 2014 Yanni Cai, a Shanghai journalist, wrote “Eating Alone”, a book on how singletons can adapt Chinese cuisine to make a single plate a meal in itself. According to tradition, even a frugal Chinese meal comprises “four dishes and one soup”. A single diner is likely to find that rather too much to stomach.
　　甚至下館子也成了一個(gè)問(wèn)題，中國(guó)的飲食文化是與一群人共享佳肴聯(lián)系起來(lái)的。在無(wú)數(shù)次被批評(píng)一個(gè)人吃飯之后，在2014年一個(gè)上海的記者Yanni Cai寫(xiě)了一本名為《吃獨(dú)食》的書(shū)。該本書(shū)旨在為單身吃貨如何在中國(guó)的烹調(diào)下為自己做上一餐盤(pán)可口的飯菜提供指導(dǎo)。根據(jù)中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)，最“共產(chǎn)黨員“的料理也應(yīng)該有”四菜一湯“。但對(duì)于單身人士來(lái)說(shuō)，吃這么多菜他們有可能會(huì)消化不良。