经济学人----亚洲女性们拒绝婚姻

1、Women are rejecting marriage in Asia. The social implications are serious亚洲女性们拒绝婚姻，带来严重社会影响Aug 20th 2011 | from the print editionTWENTY years ago a debate erupted about whether there were specific “Asian values”. Most attention focused on dubious claims by autocrats that democracy was not among them

2、. But a more intriguing, if less noticed, argument was that traditional family values were stronger in Asia than in America and Europe, and that this partly accounted for Asias economic success. In the words of Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore and a keen advocate of Asian values, the

3、 Chinese family encouraged “scholarship and hard work and thrift and deferment of present enjoyment for future gain”.20年前爆发过一场是否存在特定“亚洲价值观”的争论。争论的焦点主要集中在亚洲独裁者们关于民主并不在其中的含糊论调上。但是一个也许不那么惹眼却更让人感兴趣的说法是，亚洲人的传统家庭观念比美洲和欧洲人要强，而这也是亚洲经济取得如此成功的部分原因。新加波前总理李光耀积极倡导亚洲价值观，用他的话说，中国家庭鼓励“求知上进，辛勤工作，勤俭节约，吃苦在前，享乐在后”。On t

4、he face of it his claim appears persuasive still. In most of Asia, marriage is widespread and illegitimacy almost unknown. In contrast, half of marriages in some Western countries end in divorce, and half of all children are born outside wedlock. The recent riots across Britain, whose origins many b

5、elieve lie in an absence of either parental guidance or filial respect, seem to underline a profound difference between East and West.表面来看，李光耀的说法现在似乎依旧盛行。在亚洲大部分地区，婚姻是很普遍的现象，非婚生子女几乎无人知晓。相比之下，在一些西方国家，大约半数的婚姻以离婚告终，而且有一半的孩子是非婚生的。很多人认为英国近期的暴乱，就是由于父母缺乏教导或是子女不孝，这似乎也凸显了东西方之间的巨大差异。Yet marriage is changing fa

6、st in East, South-East and South Asia, even though each region has different traditions. The changes are different from those that took place in the West in the second half of the 20th century. Divorce, though rising in some countries, remains comparatively rare. Whats happening in Asia is a flight

7、from marriage (see article).然而，在东亚、东南亚和南亚，尽管各自有着不同的传统，人们对待婚姻的态度正迅速发生改变。这些变化和20世纪下半叶西方的变化不同。尽管某些亚洲国家的离婚率在上升，但相对来说还很低。亚洲的变化在于人们不愿意结婚。（见文章）Marriage rates are falling partly because people are postponing getting hitched. Marriage ages have risen all over the world, but the increase is particularly marke

8、d in Asia. People there now marry even later than they do in the West. The mean age of marriage in the richest placesJapan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Konghas risen sharply in the past few decades, to reach 29-30 for women and 31-33 for men.结婚率正在降低，这部分是由于人们推迟走进婚姻。全世界的结婚年龄都有所上升，但是亚洲最为突出。现在亚洲人甚至比西方人

9、结婚还晚。过去几十年，亚洲最富裕地区日本，台湾，韩国，香港的平均结婚年龄已大幅上升：女性是29至30岁，男性是31至33岁。A lot of Asians are not marrying later. They are not marrying at all. Almost a third of Japanese women in their early 30s are unmarried; probably half of those will always be. Over one-fifth of Taiwanese women in their late 30s are single

10、; most will never marry. In some places, rates of non-marriage are especially striking: in Bangkok, 20% of 40-44-year old women are not married; in Tokyo, 21%; among university graduates of that age in Singapore, 27%. So far, the trend has not affected Asias two giants, China and India. But it is li

11、kely to, as the economic factors that have driven it elsewhere in Asia sweep through those two countries as well; and its consequences will be exacerbated by the sex-selective abortion practised for a generation there. By 2050, there will be 60m more men of marriageable age than women in China and I

12、ndia.很多亚洲人不是晚婚，而是根本不打算结婚。三十出头的日本女性中，有近三分之一的人还没结婚，也许她们中有一半人将永远不结婚。奔四的台湾女性中，有五分之一以上是单身，大多数不会结婚了。某些地区的不婚率尤其高的惊人：在曼谷，有20%的40至44岁大龄女性没有结婚；在东京这一比例是21%。新加坡这一年龄段且拥有大学学历的女性中，有27%的人没有结婚。目前为止，这一趋势还没有影响到亚洲的两大巨头，中国和印度。但是以后可能会有影响，因为导致亚洲其他国家出现这一现象的经济因素，也已经席卷了中国和印度。而且由于这两国存在选择性堕胎现象，会使得影响更加严重。到2050年，中国和印度的适婚男女中，男性会比

13、女性多6000多万。The joy of staying single单身的乐趣Women are retreating from marriage as they go into the workplace. Thats partly because, for a woman, being both employed and married is tough in Asia. Women there are the primary caregivers for husbands, children and, often, for ageing parents; and even when i

14、n full-time employment, they are expected to continue to play this role. This is true elsewhere in the world, but the burden that Asian women carry is particularly heavy. Japanese women, who typically work 40 hours a week in the office, then do, on average, another 30 hours of housework. Their husba

15、nds, on average, do three hours. And Asian women who give up work to look after children find it hard to return when the offspring are grown. Not surprisingly, Asian women have an unusually pessimistic view of marriage. According to a survey carried out this year, many fewer Japanese women felt posi

16、tive about their marriage than did Japanese men, or American women or men.由于女性有了自己的工作，她们对于婚姻打了退堂鼓。这部分是由于，对于亚洲女性来说，兼顾工作和家庭非常困难。女性担负着照顾丈夫孩子，通常还有年迈父母的重任，即使有一份全职的工作，她们还是要继续担此重任。诚然全世界女性都是如此，然而亚洲女性的负担尤其沉重。日本女性通常每周工作40小时，此外平均还要做30小时的家务。而她们的丈夫平均做三个小时而已。那些为了照顾孩子放弃工作的亚洲女性们，则发现当孩子长大后，她们也很难再去工作了。因此亚洲女性对于婚姻的看法异常

17、悲观，这点不足为奇。据今年的一项调查，相比日本男人，或是美国男女来说，日本女人对于婚姻持乐观态度的要少得多。At the same time as employment makes marriage tougher for women, it offers them an alternative. More women are financially independent, so more of them can pursue a single life that may appeal more than the drudgery of a traditional marriage. Mor

18、e education has also contributed to the decline of marriage, because Asian women with the most education have always been the most reluctant to wedand there are now many more highly educated women.虽然工作使女性们更难维持婚姻，也给她们带来别的选择。更多的女性经济独立，因此她们中越来越多的人追求单身生活，这比单调乏味的传统婚姻更有吸引力。受教育程度更高也导致结婚率下降，因为受过最好教育的亚洲女性们通常

19、最不愿意结婚，而现在受过高等教育的女性越来越多。No marriage, no babies不结婚，没孩子The flight from marriage in Asia is thus the result of the greater freedom that women enjoy these days, which is to be celebrated. But it is also creating social problems. Compared with the West, Asian countries have invested less in pensions and

20、other forms of social protection, on the assumption that the family will look after ageing or ill relatives. That can no longer be taken for granted. The decline of marriage is also contributing to the collapse in the birth rate. Fertility in East Asia has fallen from 5.3 children per woman in the l

21、ate 1960s to 1.6 now. In countries with the lowest marriage rates, the fertility rate is nearer 1.0. That is beginning to cause huge demographic problems, as populations age with startling speed. And there are other, less obvious issues. Marriage socialises men: it is associated with lower levels of

22、 testosterone and less criminal behaviour. Less marriage might mean more crime.亚洲女性不愿结婚，是如今女性享有更多自由的结果，这值得庆祝。但是它也正造成社会问题。与西方相比，亚洲国家在养老金和其它形式的社会保障方面投入较少，因为通常认为会有家人照顾老年人以及生病的亲人。这再也不是理所当然的了。结婚率下降也导致了人口出生率下降。东亚的人口出生率已经从20世纪60年代每个女性生育5.3个孩子下降至如今的1.6个。在结婚率最低的国家，出生率已接近1.0。由于人口老龄化速度惊人，这开始造成严重的人口问题。而且还造成其他问题

23、，尽管不那么显著。婚姻使得男性更适应社会生活的需要：可以降低睾酮水平，减少犯罪行为。结婚率降低可能意味着犯罪率将增高。Can marriage be revived in Asia? Maybe, if expectations of those roles of both sexes change; but shifting traditional attitudes is hard. Governments cannot legislate away popular prejudices. They can, though, encourage change. Relaxing divor

24、ce laws might, paradoxically, boost marriage. Women who now steer clear of wedlock might be more willing to tie the knot if they know it can be untiednot just because they can get out of the marriage if it doesnt work, but also because their freedom to leave might keep their husbands on their toes. Family law should give divorced women a more generous share of the couples assets. Governments should also legislate to get employers to offer both maternal and paternal