新闻佳作赏析：中国大学生吃禁果挑战校规

《华盛顿邮报》，2003年2月20日，记者Philip P. Pan，实习生张璟

Forbidden Love Challenges Rules in China

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 20, 2003; Page A01

CHONGQING, China -- He was the son of poor farmers from a small village in southern China, a shy computer student as thin as a stick. She was the daughter of Communist Party officials in Beijing, a bubbly law major with a rosy, round face. On a mountain campus in this huge city in central China, they fell in love.

They flirted in the dining hall, held hands at the movies, enjoyed romantic strolls along the lumbering Yangtze River. Like college sweethearts around the world, Louis Lin and Mary Ma eventually lost their virginity together, too.

Then in October, Ma discovered she was pregnant. Her doctor notified the college, and officials enforced a long-standing policy at universities across China: Students caught having sex before marriage must be expelled.

Instead of breaking up and returning home in shame like countless young couples before them, Ma and Lin decided to fight back. They called reporters and took their college to court.

In doing so, these 19-year-old sophomores at the Chongqing University of Post and Telecom touched off a rare public debate about sex, privacy and traditional values in this rapidly modernizing society. On television and the Internet, in newspapers across the country, people in China have been discussing what one sympathetic commentator described as "a simple story of love and courage."

"At first, we were worried about going public," said Ma, who has not been named by Chinese media and asked that she and her boyfriend be identified by the English first names they use with foreigners to protect their privacy. "But China is changing. With economic development comes social progress, so it's natural that people's views on sex should change, too. The problem is the university isn't keeping up."

"I don't think there's anything improper about what we did," Lin added, his hand grasping his girlfriend's as he spoke. "And anyway, it's a private affair. The school shouldn't be involved at all."

Thousands of people, young and old, have responded to the couple's story by flooding newspapers with letters and phone calls and plastering the Internet with messages. Some condemned "the Western sexual revolution" and argued that "college shouldn't be a sexual amusement park." But the vast majority supported the couple and blasted the school for being unreasonable and old-fashioned.

"Hey, wake up! It's the 21st century already!" said Christine Liang, 23, a graduate student at Beijing University.

"What's the point of expelling them? Everyone knows young people are doing this kind of thing," said Liu Xiaoli, 52, a cab driver with a teenage daughter in Chongqing, 930 miles west of Shanghai. "And at college, when you have so many healthy young people together, it's natural."

For centuries, such views were unthinkable in China. Although liberal attitudes about sex prevailed during much of the Tang Dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907, conservative sexual mores have dominated for more than 500 years. At one time, unmarried men and women were not permitted even to shake hands. After the Communist revolution in 1949, the party added a political element, labeling recreational sex a decadent pastime and "a bourgeois evil." Communes sometimes required husbands and wives to live apart and adultery became a serious offense.

Since the economic reforms of the 1980s, however, China has been experiencing a sexual revolution, fueled by an opening to the outside world and the party's retreat from people's personal lives. Couples are no longer afraid to hold hands or kiss in public. Form-fitting fashions have replaced drab Mao suits. Prostitution and pornography, all but eradicated in the 1950s, are back in force.

Several studies, some conducted by the party's Communist Youth League, show premarital sex on the rise, too. A 1992 survey found 25 percent of Chinese men and 20 percent of women had had sex before marriage. By the late 1990s, 70 percent to 80 percent of couples in Shanghai and Guangzhou reported during pre-marriage physical exams that they were sexually active.

Even here in Chongqing, far from the more prosperous and progressive east coast, a study published last month found that 24 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the city's colleges have had sex, up from 11 percent and 8 percent six years ago.

Such rapid change has caused significant social strains, because a deep conservative streak still runs through much of Chinese society, especially its government and educational institutions. Sex education, as it is understood in the West, is virtually unheard of here. Condom ads are banned from public places in many cities. And party officials regularly launch campaigns against "spiritual pollution."

The ambivalence is perhaps best illustrated by the brisk business many Chinese hospitals do in a procedure to "repair" a woman's hymen and make it appear she is a virgin. Do-it-yourself hymen repair kits are also sold in many of the more than 2,000 shops specializing in sexual aids that have opened in China. One shop here in Chongqing reported selling 30 to 40 kits every week.

"Most people in society have begun to change their views about sex, but there is a tension because many of the people in charge, especially at the local level, have not," said Ma's father, Ma Zheng, a government lawyer.

Ma said he was surprised and angry when his daughter called and told him she was going to be expelled for having sex. But he eventually came around to her arguments and now expresses pride in her courage. He even agreed to represent her and her boyfriend in court.

"It's a sign of progress for China that an ordinary person like my daughter can now challenge the authorities," he said. "When I was a college student, no one would have dared do anything like that."

Though the courts and the media remain firmly under the control of the Communist Party, officials have granted judges and journalists a limited degree of independence, especially in handling matters outside politics. And the state-run press has sided with Ma and Lin.

As a result, much of China is familiar with the details of their romance: how they met freshman year while doing charity work, how they hit it off and gradually began dating, how their relationship deepened despite their many differences.

Newspapers also recounted how Lin took Ma to the campus hospital in October after she fainted with abdominal pains. Doctors diagnosed internal bleeding caused by an ectopic pregnancy, a dangerous condition in which a fertilized ovum develops outside the uterus and cannot be carried to term.

Lin stayed at Ma's bedside as she recovered from surgery, and school officials checked on her and told her to rest and take care of herself. They told Lin to watch after his girlfriend, and added that they shouldn't worry about the punishment yet, he recalled.

"Up until then, we didn't even think there would be a punishment," he said.

But days after Ma was discharged from the hospital, college officials summoned them and told them to write confessions detailing where, when and how many times they had had sex. They also advised them to admit they had engaged in "morally degenerate and disgusting conduct and improper sexual activity." If they confessed, the students said, the college would consider allowing them to withdraw from school without the violation being recorded in their permanent records. But expulsion was almost a certainty, they said.

"So we said no," Ma recalled. "Why should we confess when we had done nothing wrong? I didn't agree that what we did was immoral. Sex is a matter of emotion, not morality."

At first, the couple was embarrassed and worried about being ostracized. But their classmates went out of their way to express support, and some posted a petition protesting the school's decision on the campus computer network.

Officials quickly deleted it. In a statement distributed to Chinese journalists, the school defended its decision as "cautious and correct" and consistent with the policies of other Chinese colleges.

"Punishing this type of improper sexual activity is not only a school's right, it is also a legal duty and requirement of the spiritual culture and moral construction of universities and the entire nation," the school said. It also blamed Ma's father for "making trouble" by supporting his daughter and her boyfriend, noting that "his words and actions are widely divergent from his position as a party member."

Reached by telephone, a Chongqing government spokeswoman expressed surprise at the school's decision to expel the two students. But later, she denied requests for interviews with school or city officials. "It's not the right time," she said. "Everything has not been decided."

The courts have already rejected the students' lawsuit twice. They continue to appeal, but acknowledge that their chances of success are slim. In the meantime, Ma has been studying English on her own and plans to apply to universities abroad. But she is worried about the cost of tuition and about her boyfriend, who cannot afford to go overseas.

"We may not win, but it's important to take a stand," she said. "We may be sacrificing ourselves, but China is changing and, eventually, this kind of thing won't happen anymore."

Researcher Zhang Jing contributed to this report.

-------------------- ~不说了~

你欺负我看不懂啊 -------------------- 学校派来的谈判专家气喘吁吁地爬上综合楼的天台，我把手中的沙鹰使劲地往人质的太阳穴顶了顶，他吓得后退了两步，“请不要伤害人质，有什么要求，我们可以考虑！”“很简单，把印院的破路修一修，校内的超市管一管，食堂的饭菜好好搞一搞，宿舍熄灯时间往后延一延，呱呱的菜价往下压一压……”“好的好的，你等等，我回去请示一下。”谈判专家下楼去了。大约一支烟的功夫，他回到天台，远远地喊道：“你还是开枪吧，我们不会起诉你的……”

晕～
～～～～我诸段翻译～～～～ [ 2004-08-29 22:04:20 rainlakes 修改 ]

CHONGQING, China -- He was the son of poor farmers from a small village in southern China, a shy computer student as thin as a stick. She was the daughter of Communist Party officials in Beijing, a bubbly law major with a rosy, round face. On a mountain campus in this huge city in central China, they fell in love.

在重庆市——他——羞涩的骨瘦如柴计算机专业学生，中国南部小山村一个贫苦农民家庭的儿子，她——活泼，桃面的法律系学生，北京一个党的干部家庭的女儿，这座中国中部都市一所与山为伴的大学坠入了爱河。


nnd 不好翻～

--------------------
~不说了~


[ 2004-08-29 22:24:19 rainlakes 修改 ]

They flirted in the dining hall, held hands at the movies, enjoyed romantic strolls along the lumbering Yangtze River. Like college sweethearts around the world, Louis Lin and Mary Ma eventually lost their virginity together, too.
共享就餐时的欢声笑语，出入影院牵手的亲密，长江畔徜徉的浪漫，如世上所有大学爱侣一样林和马最终也丢掉了童贞。
-------------------- ~不说了~

Then in October, Ma discovered she was pregnant. Her doctor notified the college, and officials enforced a long-standing policy at universities across China: Students caught having sex before marriage must be expelled.
之后在十月份，马发现自己怀孕了。医生告知了校方，而官方则针对全国高校出台了一项长期性的政策：学生被发现有婚前性行为者开除。

还是翻译难～ -------------------- ~不说了~

[ 2004-08-30 15:09:35 lijiannan_1981 修改 ]

Instead of breaking up and returning home in shame like countless young couples before them, Ma and Lin decided to fight back. They called reporters and took their college to court.
与众多带着羞辱分手返乡的情侣不同的是，马和林决定反抗。他们拨响了记者的电话并把校方送上了法庭。

In doing so, these 19-year-old sophomores at the Chongqing University of Post and Telecom touched off a rare public debate about sex, privacy and traditional values in this rapidly modernizing society. On television and the Internet, in newspapers across the country, people in China have been discussing what one sympathetic commentator described as "a simple story of love and courage."
这样，两个重庆邮电大学19岁大二学生的行为在飞速现代化的社会中引爆了一场特殊的关于性，个人隐私与传统价值观的公众化讨论。在全国范围的电视，因特网，报纸上，国民谈论着某位心怀同情的评论员所称的“一个爱与勇气的简单故事”

U've done a good job, rainlakes~
Salute! --------------------

thanks[em079] i'll go on
spliting the blood in making the bulletin better~~haha~~ -------------------- ~不说了~

"At first, we were worried about going public," said Ma, who has not been named by Chinese media and asked that she and her boyfriend be identified by the English first names they use with foreigners to protect their privacy. "But China is changing. With economic development comes social progress, so it's natural that people's views on sex should change, too. The problem is the university isn't keeping up."
为了保护他们的隐私国内媒体没有提及他们的名字，国外媒体则按要求用姓氏加英文名来称他们。“起初，我们担心把事情公开，”马说，“不过，中国正在改变。经济在发展，社会在进步，所以很自然人们的性观念也应当有所改变。问题是大学并未与时代同步。”

"I don't think there's anything improper about what we did," Lin added, his hand grasping his girlfriend's as he spoke. "And anyway, it's a private affair. The school shouldn't be involved at all."
“我不认为我们做得有什么不对，”拉着男朋友的手，林又说，“无论如何，这也是个人隐私。学校就根本不应该干预。”

确实不太好翻，看起来容易翻译难，努力啊，long way to go，还有十几段呢。
来不及的话我跟你一起翻？ -------------------- 我一个人吃饭旅行到处走走停停
也一个人看书写信自己对话谈心

好呀～一人一段～
往下翻

They flirted in the dining hall, held hands at the movies, enjoyed romantic strolls along the lumbering Yangtze River. Like college sweethearts around the world, Louis Lin and Mary Ma eventually lost..

应该是食堂里眉来眼去，哈哈哈

Thousands of people, young and old, have responded to the couple's story by flooding newspapers with letters and phone calls and plastering the Internet with messages. Some condemned "the Western sexual revolution" and argued that "college shouldn't be a sexual amusement park." But the vast majority supported the couple and blasted the school for being unreasonable and old-fashioned.


不少男女老少通过向报刊发去信函、致电和网上留言来对这一对青年的遭遇表示回应。一些人强烈谴责“西方的性解放运动"并指责"学校不应沦为性取悦的场所"。然而绝大多数人还是支持这对青年男女并谴责学校不应如此不合人情和古板。 --------------------

"Hey, wake up! It's the 21st century already!" said Christine Liang, 23, a graduate student at Beijing University.

"What's the point of expelling them? Everyone knows young people are doing this kind of thing," said Liu Xiaoli, 52, a cab driver with a teenage daughter in Chongqing, 930 miles west of Shanghai. "And at college, when you have so many healthy young people together, it's natural."


“嘿，清醒点儿吧！都21世纪了！”23岁的北大研究生Christine Liang说。

“为什么要开除他们？人人都知道年轻人都是如此的。”距上海930英里的52岁重庆计程车司机Liu Xiaoli说。她有一个年轻的女儿。“并且在大学这是很正常的，那里有这么多健康而年轻的人。” --------------------

For centuries, such views were unthinkable in China. Although liberal attitudes about sex prevailed during much of the Tang Dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907, conservative sexual mores have dominated for more than 500 years. At one time, unmarried men and women were not permitted even to shake hands. After the Communist revolution in 1949, the party added a political element, labeling recreational sex a decadent pastime and "a bourgeois evil." Communes sometimes required husbands and wives to live apart and adultery became a serious offense.


这样的观念在中国几世纪来都是不可思议的。虽然公元618至907年的唐朝盛行自由的性观念，然而保守的性道德还是占据了500多年的统治地位。曾经未婚男女之间连握手都不被允许。1949年解放后，中国共产党发布的一项政策宣告“娱乐性的性行为”已成为资产阶级腐朽没落的过去。公社曾要求社员夫妻分居，通奸更是非常严重的罪行。
-------------------- 我一个人吃饭旅行到处走走停停
也一个人看书写信自己对话谈心

Since the economic reforms of the 1980s, however, China has been experiencing a sexual revolution, fueled by an opening to the outside world and the party's retreat from people's personal lives. Couples are no longer afraid to hold hands or kiss in public. Form-fitting fashions have replaced drab Mao suits. Prostitution and pornography, all but eradicated in the 1950s, are back in force.

然而，自二十世纪80年代的经济改革以来，中国经受着性解放思想的冲击，尤其在开放政策的刺激和政府日益放开对国民私人生活的监管之后。夫妇不再害怕在公共场合牵手或接吻。各式合体的时髦衣装也日益取代了毛泽东时代的“蓝灰黑”。五十年代被连根拔除的淫秽色情业也大肆回侵。
-------------------- 我一个人吃饭旅行到处走走停停
也一个人看书写信自己对话谈心

Several studies, some conducted by the party's Communist Youth League, show premarital sex on the rise, too. A 1992 survey found 25 percent of Chinese men and 20 percent of women had had sex before marriage. By the late 1990s, 70 percent to 80 percent of couples in Shanghai and Guangzhou reported during pre-marriage physical exams that they were sexually active.
一些由共青团指导的研究也表明婚前性行为现象在增多。92年一项调查表明25%的中国男性和20%的女性有婚前性行为经历。到了20世纪90年代末，报告显示在上海和广州70%至80%的夫妻在婚前体检中被发现有过性经历。
-------------------- ~不说了~

Even here in Chongqing, far from the more prosperous and progressive east coast, a study published last month found that 24 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the city's colleges have had sex, up from 11 percent and 8 percent six years ago.

即使在远不如东部沿海地区繁华与开放的重庆，前几月发表的一项研究揭示这个城市的大学生中24%的男生和10%的女生有过性行为，见增于六年前的11%和8%。
-------------------- 姐姐，带我回家。

Such rapid change has caused significant social strains, because a deep conservative streak still runs through much of Chinese society, especially its government and educational institutions. Sex education, as it is understood in the West, is virtually unheard of here. Condom ads are banned from public places in many cities. And party officials regularly launch campaigns against "spiritual pollution."
先占个位置。翻完了再贴上去。 --------------------

       因为在中国的大部分地方还是流行保守的，特别是在政府部门和教育机构，所以吃禁果事件如此快速的增长趋势已经导致了显著的社会压力。在西方已经被理解的性教育在这里实际上是不存在的。在许多城市避孕套广告在公共场所是被禁止的，而且经常举行所谓的反“精神污染”活动。
我的翻完了。
下一位： --------------------

怎么没人往下接。气氛不太活跃啊。大家一起来提高的北刷英语水平啊。 --------------------

在许多中国医院发展迅速的处女膜修复术或许是对这一矛盾心理的最好诠释，这能让她“像个处女”。在中国各地已经开张的2000家的性用品商店也在出售这种处女膜修补产品一家在重庆的商店每周可以卖出30到40套。 -------------------- tomorrow is another day

"Most people in society have begun to change their views about sex, but there is a tension because many of the people in charge, especially at the local level, have not," said Ma's father, Ma Zheng, a government lawyer.

Ma said he was surprised and angry when his daughter called and told him she was going to be expelled for having sex. But he eventually came around to her arguments and now expresses pride in her courage. He even agreed to represent her and her boyfriend in court.

“社会上许多人的性观念已经在发生改变，但这是一种谨慎的态度，因为大多数掌权者，尤其是在基层的那些，观念并没有改变”马的父亲，马正律师说。
他说，当她的女儿告诉她自己因为同居被开除时，他感到惊奇和气愤。他最终理解了女儿的观点，并为他的勇气感到骄傲。他甚至同意为她女儿和女儿的男友出庭辩护 -------------------- tomorrow is another day

Good job!! --------------------

"It's a sign of progress for China that an ordinary person like my daughter can now challenge the authorities," he said. "When I was a college student, no one would have dared do anything like that."

Though the courts and the media remain firmly under the control of the Communist Party, officials have granted judges and journalists a limited degree of independence, especially in handling matters outside politics. And the state-run press has sided with Ma and Lin.

As a result, much of China is familiar with the details of their romance: how they met freshman year while doing charity work, how they hit it off and gradually began dating, how their relationship deepened despite their many differences.
想我的女儿这样的一个普通人想权威挑战，这在中国是一个进步。他:"我是一个大学生的年代，没人敢这么做。”
尽管法庭和媒体仍然在共产党的严格控制之下。官员想当然的做出判断，记者也只在有限的程度具有独立性，尤其是对待政治以外的问题。但这次国有的媒体站在了马和林的一边。
结果，他们的浪漫故事，甚至一些细节，被许多中国人所熟知：他们怎样在大学一年级做义工时相识,他们怎样彼此产生好感并开始约会，尽管有很多不同，他们的感情日益深厚 -------------------- tomorrow is another day