纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英只生一个好到三胎更比二胎强口号里的中国生育政策

 For decades, China harshly restricted the number of children couples could have, arguing that everyone would be better off with fewer mouths to feed. The government’s one-child policy was woven into the fabric of everyday life, through slogans on street banners and in popular culture and public art.

几十年来，中国严格限制夫妇生育子女的数量，认为少养活几张嘴，大家都会过得更好。通过街头标语、流行文化和公共艺术，政府的独生子女政策融入了人们的日常生活。

Now, faced with a shrinking and aging population, China is using many of the same propaganda channels to send the opposite message: Have more babies.

现在，面对人口萎缩和老龄化，中国正在利用许多同样的宣传渠道来传递相反的信息：多生孩子。

The government has also been offering financial incentives for couples to have two or three children. But the efforts have not been successful. The birthrate in China has fallen steeply, and last year was the lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

政府还为生育两个或三个孩子的夫妇提供经济奖励。但这些努力未见成效。中国的出生率急剧下降，去年是自1949年中华人民共和国成立以来的最低水平。

Instead of enforcing birth limits, the government has shifted gears to promote a “pro-birth culture,” organizing beauty pageants for pregnant women and producing rap videos about the advantages of having children.

政府不再实施计划生育，而是转而推广“生育文化”，为孕妇组织选美比赛，制作说唱视频，宣传生孩子的好处。

In recent years, the state broadcaster’s annual spring festival gala, one of the country’s most-watched TV events, has prominently featured public service ads promoting families with two or three children.

近年来，作为全国收视率最高的电视节目之一，中央电视台每年的春节联欢晚会上都有宣传二孩或三孩家庭的公益广告。

In one ad that aired last year, a visibly pregnant woman was shown resting her hand on her belly while her husband and son peacefully slept in bed. The caption read: “It’s getting livelier around here.”

在去年播出的一条广告中，一名明显怀了孕的女性把手放在肚子上，而她的丈夫和儿子正在床上安静地睡觉。配文写道：“越来越热闹。”

The propaganda effort has been met with widespread ridicule. Critics have regarded the campaign as only the latest sign that policymakers are blind to the increasing costs and other challenges people face in raising multiple children.

这种宣传努力遭到了广泛的嘲笑。批评人士认为，这种宣传是政策制定者对抚养多个孩子的成本不断上升和其他挑战视而不见的最新迹象。

They have also mocked the recent messaging for the obvious regulatory whiplash after decades of limiting births with forced abortions and hefty fines. Between 1980 and 2015, the year the one-child policy officially ended, the Chinese government used extensive propaganda to warn that having more babies would hinder China’s modernization.

中国几十年来一直通过强制堕胎和巨额罚款来限制生育，但最近政府发出了明显的监管突变信号，他们对此也表示嘲笑。从1980年到独生子女政策正式结束的2015年，中国政府进行了广泛的宣传，警告称生育更多孩子会阻碍中国的现代化。

Today the official rhetoric depicts larger families as the cornerstone of attaining a prosperous society, known in Chinese as “xiaokang.”

如今，官方的说辞将大家庭描述为实现繁荣社会的基石，也就是中国所说的“小康”。

For officials, imposing the one-child policy also meant they had to challenge the deep-rooted traditional belief that children, and sons in particular, provided a form of security in old age. To change this mind-set, family planning offices plastered towns and villages with slogans saying that the state would take care of older Chinese.

对官员来说，实施独生子女政策也意味着他们必须挑战根深蒂固的传统观念——孩子，尤其是儿子，可以为老年生活提供一种保障。为了改变这种观念，计划生育办公室在城镇和村庄贴满了政府会照顾老年人的标语。

But China’s population is aging rapidly. By 2040, nearly a third of its people will be over 60. The state will be hard pressed to support seniors, particularly those in rural areas, who get a fraction of the pension received by urban salaried workers under the current program.

但中国的人口正在迅速老龄化。到2040年，中国近三分之一的人口将超过60岁。国家在支持老年人方面将面临很大压力，尤其是农村的老年人，根据现行方案，他们领取的养老金只是城市工薪阶层的一小部分。

Now the official messaging has shifted dramatically, highlighting the importance of self-reliance and family support.

现在，官方传达的信息发生了巨大的变化，强调自力更生和家庭支持的重要性。

Under the one-child policy, local governments levied steep “social upbringing fees” on those who had more children than allowed. For some families, these penalties brought financial devastation and fractured marriages.

在独生子女政策下，地方政府对超生家庭征收高额“社会抚养费”。对一些家庭来说，这些惩罚带来了经济损失和婚姻破裂。

As recently as early 2021, people were still being fined heavily for having a third child, only to find out a few months later, in June, that the government passed a law allowing all married couples to have three children. It had also not only abolished these fees nationwide but also encouraged localities to provide extra welfare benefits and longer parental leave for families with three children.

甚至在2021年初，仍有人因为生第三个孩子而被处以高额罚款，但几个月后，也就是6月，政府通过了一项法律，允许所有已婚夫妇生三个孩子。它不仅在全国范围内取消了这些收费，而且还鼓励各地为有三个孩子的家庭提供额外的福利和更长的育儿假。

The pivot has prompted local officials to remove visible remnants of the one-child policy. Last year, local governments across various provinces systematically erased outdated slogans on birth restrictions from public streets and walls.

这一转变促使地方官员清除独生子女政策的可见残余。去年，各省地方政府系统地清除了公共街道和墙壁上过时的限制生育标语。

In a village in Shanxi Province in northern China, government employees took down a mural with a slogan that promoted the one-child policy.

在北方山西省的一个村庄，政府工作人员拆除了一幅宣传独生子女政策的壁画。

But the slogans that the government would like to treat as relics of a bygone era are finding new resonance with young Chinese.

政府希望将这些口号视为过去时代的遗物，但它们却在中国年轻人中找到了新的共鸣。

On social media, many Chinese users have shared photos of one-child policy slogans as witty retorts to what they described as growing societal pressure to have larger families. Some of the posts have garnered thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

在社交媒体上，许多中国网友分享独生子女政策口号的照片，诙谐地反驳他们心目中来自社会不断增长的生育压力。其中一些帖子获得了数以千计的点赞和数百条评论。