[ 美国 外交官 ] 早早结束的青春—中国的少女妈妈 [美国媒体]

China's TeenageMothers
Youth, interrupted

中国的少女妈妈
过早结束的青春



By Yuhong Pang May 21, 2018
A Chinese mother breast-feeds her baby atthe Children's Hospital in Beijing (Sept. 22, 2008).Image Credit: AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel

北京儿童医院里妈妈们正哺乳

Lin Xiao firstreplied to my messages at 4 a.m. in China. I received the messages at 4 p.m. inNew York.

初次接到小林的回复是在中国时间凌晨4点，当时纽约时间是下午4点钟。

I had contactedher through QQ, a Chinese instant messaging app, to explain my interest inwriting a story about teenage moms in China, a group that has traditionallyhidden in plain sight – that is, until their lives were recently put under thespotlight by CCTV, the country’s state broadcaster.

我是通过即时聊天软件QQ与她联系上的，我对她说我想写一篇关于中国未成年妈妈的故事。这类群体一直隐藏在人们的道德视线中-也就是说，直到受到中国央视关注她们的生活状况才浮出水面。

Lin, 18, wasguarded during our first conversation and asked for many things to verify myidentity: a copy of my press card, a link to my website, a snapshot of the busymorning here in New York. Our conversations continued in spurts over the nextseveral days. But Lin’s messages always came at 4 a.m.

在我们的第一次谈话中，18岁的林表现的很警觉，她要求我提供很多东西来验证自己的身份，比如我的记者证，网站链接，在纽约的工作照等。接下来的几天里，我们一直保持着联系。但小林的回复总是在（中国时间）凌晨4点。

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping at this time?” Iasked one day.

有一天我问“这个时候难道不是你睡觉的时间吗”

“My daughteroften wakes up at night, so I have to pat her until she falls asleep again,”Lin replied, sending a picture of a tiny yellow lamp lighting the darkness ofher bedroom, along with the emoji for “exhaustion.”

林回应道 “晚上我女儿经常醒来，所以我不得不拍着她，直到她再次入睡”。她还给我发了张照片，昏暗的卧室内挂着一盏鹅黄色小灯，还附有一个表达“精疲力竭”的表情符号。

According toresearch conducted by All-China Women’s Federation on “China’s Happy Marriageand Family,” the average marriage age for women in China was 26 in 2015. Lin’slife doesn’t fit this mold. She married at 16, ten years earlier than theaverage.

根据《中华全国妇女联合会》关于“中国幸福家庭婚姻”的调查，2015年，中国女性平均结婚年龄为26岁。林不属于这种情况，她16岁结婚，比平均结婚年龄整整早了10年。

She met herhusband in 2015 at their high school in Huazhou, a small town in southwest Guangdongprovince. She became pregnant by accident a year later. At that time, Lin wasliving with four younger siblings in the nearby rural village of Maoming. Hermother had just given birth to her youngest sister when Lin found out she waspregnant herself.

2015年，广东西南部的一个小镇中学，化州高中，她遇见了她的丈夫。一年后她意外怀孕了。当时，林和她的四个弟弟妹妹住在茂名附近的农村。当林发现自己怀孕时，她的妈妈刚生下了她最小的妹妹。

There were loadsof arguments in her family over whether or not she should keep the baby. Linwanted to have her child from the very beginning, but her then-boyfriend wantedher to get an abortion because he felt they were too young to raise a child.Lin hesitantly agreed – but she quickly changed her mind after a prenatalexamination. It was a girl.

家里对她是否留下孩子争论不休。而林从一开始就想生下孩子，但她当时的男朋友想让她堕胎，因为男朋友觉得他们岁数还小，养不好孩子。林再三犹豫后同意了，但经过产前检查后，小林立刻改变了主意。因为那是个女孩。

“I can feel herheartbeat,” she said. “How can I deprive her right to be in this world?”

“我能感觉到她的心跳”她说，“我怎么能剥夺她来到这个世界上的权利呢？”

She went back todiscuss the matter with her boyfriend and his family. This time, hermother-in-law pledged financial support and said she would help them raise thechild.

她回去和男朋友还有他的家人讨论了这件事。这一次，她的岳母答应提供经济支持，而且还会帮助他们抚养孩子。

It was a boldchoice for Lin to keep the child. Underage pregnancy has always been deeplystigmatized in China. In Lin’s hometown, a girl marrying before she turns 18 isregarded as a disgrace, so Lin’s parents secretly sent her to her boyfriend’shome 50 kilometers away for the delivery. But this was only the first hurdlefor Lin and her baby.

对小林来说，留下孩子是个大胆的选择。在中国，未成年怀孕会一直受到指责。在小林的家乡，未满18岁就结婚会被认为是一种耻辱，所以小林的父母偷偷把她送到50公里外的男友家生产。但这只是林和她的孩子所遇到的第一个难题。

Shortly afterLin had her baby, she and her husband married. Under Chinese marriage law, theminimum marriage age is 22 for men and 20 for women. Younger couples often facelegal complications and a difficult choice when they have children. Accordingto Wei Junhui, a family attorney in China, couples who marry early are unableto get the certificate needed to complete the hukou registrationfor their newborn, an essential document that allows the child to go to school,receive medical treatment, open a bank account, and buy a train ticket.

小林生下孩子后，她就和丈夫结婚了。据中国婚姻法，男性最低结婚年龄为22岁，女性为20岁。少年夫妇在面临生孩子上的问题时，往往会受到法律上的约束，以及所面对的艰难选择。据中国家庭律师魏俊晖介绍，早婚夫妇是无法获得新生儿户口落户登记的。而且还会遇到无法上学、就医、设立银行账户和购买火车票等问题。

In an onlinesupport group for young mothers in QQ, concern over the hukou isone of the most discussed topics. Some work their way around the system to gettheir children registered through personal networks, like Lin’s family wound updoing, while others without personal connections are still looking forsolutions.

QQ上的这类群体，最为关心的是户口（身份）问题。有些人会在个人网络（QQ）上给自己的孩子建立个名分，就像小林家人所希望的那样。而另一些没有关系网的人则束手无策苦苦寻觅。

Lin feelsfortunate to have a caring husband and supportive families, even though she hadto give up her education. Huang Shufen, another teenage mom in Shandongprovince, has not been so lucky. Like Lin, Huang also grew up in a ruralvillage with younger siblings. She had her baby one year later than Lin, whenshe was 17. Her marriage, however, reflects a more common phenomenon in ruralChina. She was married off, unhappily, simply in order to relieve her family’sfinancial burden.

林有个爱他的丈夫，还有家人的支持，林感到很幸运，尽管她不得不放弃学业。黄淑芬，山东省的另一位年轻母亲，她就没有那么幸运了。和小林一样，黄也是和一群小兄弟姐妹在农村长大的。她17岁就有了孩子，比小林早了一年。然而，她的婚姻反映了中国农村最为普遍的现象。只是为了减轻家里的经济负担，结婚时她很不情愿。

Huang left hometo work in Jinan, the capital of in Shandong province, at age 15. She firstworked as a babysitter but soon quit due to sexual harassment from heremployer. She then worked as a waitress in a restaurant, where she met hernow-husband, the nephew of the restaurant’s owner. They soon got married underpressure from both families in 2016. Huang had a baby, as her mother-in-lawdemanded, in 2017.

黄15岁时离开家去了济南工作。最初她是去当保姆，但很快就因雇主性骚扰而辞职。然后她在一家餐馆去当服务员，在那里她遇见了现在的丈夫，餐馆老板的侄子。2016年他们在双方父母的压力下很快就结了婚。2017年正如婆婆所愿，黄生下了一个孩子。

Adolescentmotherhood has declined in China since the government initiated its famousone-child policy in the 1980s, but it was a fundamental part of life in Chinabefore then, especially in ancient times.

上世纪80年代，中国政府发起着名的“计划生育”以杜绝早婚早育现象。但在中国建国之前，特别是在古代，早婚早育是种普遍生活状况。

“If you look atthe laws of Ming or Qing dynasty, the legitimate marriage age is usuallybetween 14 and 16 years old,” said Tian Feng, a researcher at the ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences in Beijing. In his opinion, attitudes toward theappropriate marriage age change with society’s needs. The one-child policycreated a disproportionate sex ratio, which has led to a shortage of females inthe marriage market.

“如果你看一下明清时期的法律，合法结婚年龄通常在14至16岁之间，”北京中国社会科学院研究员田锋说。他认为，人们对适婚年龄观念随着社会需求而改变。独生子女政策造成性别比例失衡，导致适婚女性减少。

As Defu Wang, anassociate professor of sociology in Wuhan University, observed in his fieldresearch of early marriage in rural China, the high cost of marriagecompetition and intergenerational responsibilities have been the leadingfactors that behind the resurgence of early marriage.

武汉大学社会学副教授王德福(Defu Wang)在对中国农村早婚现象实地调研发现，结婚攀比成本高昂、父母压力一直是让早婚死灰复燃的主要原因。

The report PopulationStatus of Children in China in 2015, published by UNICEF, shows thistrend. Among 75 million adolescents between 15-19 years old, 1.2 million were married,and teenage women were married at twice the rate of young men. One in every 10rural women aged 19 or below is married.

联合国儿童基金会发布的2015年中国儿童人口状况报告显示了这一趋势。即在7500万15-19岁的青少年中，有120万人已婚，少女结婚率是青少年的两倍。每10个19岁或以下的农村妇女中就有一个已婚。

Liu Tongxia, a veteranobstetrician in Shandong, said inadequate sex education in China has increasedthe likelihood of unwanted teenage pregnancies in recent years. Last yearalone, Liu met three teenage mothers who gave birth and many young girls whocame to her for abortions. Compared to the infant’s health, she worries moreabout the influence of underage pregnancy on young mothers and their family.

山东资深产科医生刘同霞表示，近年来，中国性教育不足增加了少女意外怀孕的可能性。仅去年一年，刘同霞就遇到了三名未成年母亲，而且还有不少来想找她做人流手术的年轻女孩。与婴儿的健康状况相比，她更担心的是未成年怀孕对年轻母亲及其家庭的影响。

“To have asexual life too early is not good for women’s health because their reproductiveorgans haven’t fully developed, and their pelvises are still growing. This maylead to a higher risk of cervical cancer,” she said.

她说：“过早的性生活对妇女健康很不利，因为她们的骨盆以及生殖系统还没有发育完全。可能会导致提高患有子宫颈癌风险。”

Looking back,Lin wishes she knew more about sex beyond the basic structure of human bodiesfound in her biology textbook. She enjoys the happiness and tribulations ofmotherhood, filling her phone with selfies with her daughter, but she stillfears identifying herself as a teenage mother. When she watched the CCTVsegment criticizing the videos of teenage moms circulating on Kuaishou, apopular online video platform, she felt relieved.

回过头看，小林希望在生物教科书中除人体介绍外可以对性有更多的了解。她享受着母亲的快乐和痛苦，手机里存满了女儿的照片，但对自己十几岁就当了妈妈的亲她仍为担心。当她看到央视节目中评论“快手”视频网站播放关于少女妈妈的视频时。她感到如释重负。

Huang sharesLin’s fear of public shame for being an adolescent mother, but for a differentreason: she discovered her husband was homosexual shortly after their marriage.He moved out with his boyfriend last year and now only sends money to help takecare of their son. She spends most of her time indoors caring for the child andmisses days gone by when she would spend hours watching villagers play Mahjongin the market near her home.

黄和林同样害怕做一个青春期母亲，但出于另一个原因：她发现丈夫在结婚后不久就对同性发生了兴趣（注：…已翻车…这里反复确认原文，我认为应该是fellow-villager之类形容）。去年他和男友搬出去住了，只有寄钱来照顾他们的儿子。现在她大部分时间都呆在家里照顾孩子度日，或是跑到村头市集里看同乡们打麻将。

Although theyare both mothers, Huang and Lin have child-like faces themselves. Being a mombrings joy – but also regrets for their unfinished dreams.

黄和林虽然都当了妈妈，但脸上仍带有一丝稚气。他们虽有初为人母的快乐，梦想的终结也会为他们带去遗憾。

On another dayat 4 a.m., Lin asks me whether I passed a national test for English languageproficiency. I tell her I did.

一天凌晨4点，小林问我是否考过全国英语水平考试，我告诉她我过了。

“Can you show mewhat the certificate looks like?” she asks. “I used to dream about passingthese English tests. But I will never have the opportunity to do it.”

她问道“那你能让我看看毕业证是什么样子的吗？”。“我以前经常做梦都想进这种英语考场。但我已经永远也没机会通过考试了。”

Yuhong Pang is areporter currently studying at Columbia Journalism School.

作者：庞玉红（Yuhong Pang），哥伦比亚学院实习新闻系记者