【经济学人】珍惜女儿丨2017.01.21丨总第788期

“I CRIED when I heard,” writes one blogger, recalling the moment she learned that her baby was a boy. Those were bitter tears. The woman was “so envious ” of a mother who had just given birth to a daughter. She was not at all unusual. South Koreans of reproductive age now prefer girls to boys. They have created a new term, “ddalbabo”—“daughter crazy”—for men who go loopy over their female offspring.

一个博主回忆当她知道她怀的是个男孩儿的时候，写道:“当我听到这个消息的时候我哭了”。这是苦涩的泪水，这个妈妈嫉妒那些刚刚生了女儿的母亲。这并不是特例。现在韩国生育年龄阶段的人们喜欢女孩多过于男孩。他们创造了一个新词，"ddalbabo"——女儿狂——那些疯狂喜欢女儿的父亲们。

• bitter ['bɪtə] :adj.苦的，痛苦的

• envious ['envɪəs] :adj.嫉妒的

• loopy ['luːpɪ] :adj.多圈的，呆头呆脑的

韩寒和女儿小野

Until the early 20th century failure to bear a son was grounds for divorce. Koreans greatly preferred boys, who could not only support their parents financially but also carry out ancestral rites. When ultrasound technology became widespread in the 1980s, many South Koreans used it to detect female fetuses and then have them aborted. Sex ratios became skewed. In 1992 twice as many fourth babies were boys as were girls.

直到20世纪初，未能生育男丁才不再是离婚的理由之一。朝鲜民族非常偏爱男孩，男丁不但可以经济上赡养父母，还能延续先祖的宗法。当超声波技术在20世纪八十年代广泛应用时，许多韩国家庭借此检查胎儿的性别，打掉女孩。因此性别比率出现了倾斜。 （期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）

• Ultrasound ['ʌltrəsaʊnd] ：超声波

• Fetuses ['fiːtəs] ：胎儿

In response to these trends the South Korean government made it illegal for doctors to reveal the sex of a fetus. It produced pro-girl slogans: “There is no envy for ten sons when you have one well-raised daughter.”

韩国政府为了应对这些趋势，将医生向准父母告知胎儿性别列为非法行为，并提出了支持女孩的口号：“养好一个女儿，胜过十个男孩”。

• Make it illegal [ɪ'liːg(ə)l] :列为非法，使非法

• Reveal [rɪ'viːl] ：揭示，揭露