【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

贝克汉姆和女儿小七

That may have helped, but not as much as economic change. Following the Asian financial crisis of 1997, many women took part-time jobs to supplement the family income. Parents noticed, and began to invest more heavily in educating girls. In 2015 three-quarters of South Korean female secondary-schoolers went to university, compared with two-thirds of their male peers.

那或许有些帮助，却不如经济变化的作用大。随着1997年亚洲金融危机的到来，许多妇女通过做兼职工作来补贴家用。父母们都意识到了，并且加大对女孩们在教育方面的投资。到2015年，已经有四分之三的中学女生进入大学深造，相比较而言中学男生大学升学率是三分之二。

• Asian financial crisis：亚洲金融危机[ˈeʒən] [faɪ'nænʃ(ə)l] ['kraɪsɪs]

• Supplement ['sʌplɪm(ə)nt]：v.增补，补充

• Secondary-schoolers ['sek(ə)nd(ə)rɪ] ['skuːlə]：中学生

• Peer [pɪə]：同龄人

Aborting girls simply because they are girls has become so unthinkable that the law has been relaxed. Since 2009 expectant parents have been allowed to know the sex of their baby after 32 weeks’ gestation. Many will have found out before, from doctors who trust that parents’ attitudes have changed.

仅仅因为怀的是女孩而堕胎，已经变得无法想象，因此上述法律也被放宽了。自2009年，准父母在怀孕32周后可以知道他们孩子的性别。许多准父母也能更早的从医生那里得知，这些医生相信父母们的观点已经改变。

• Gestation [dʒe'steɪʃ(ə)n]：n.怀孕 怀孕期

翻译 ▍人文三组

审核 ▍白夜叉

编辑 ▍璃儿