(本文选自《经济学人》20201114期)
背景介绍：
走进书店，励志类书籍随处可见，并且往往被摆放在最显眼的地方。而如果登录各大电商平台，我们不难发现，励志类书籍也往往是最畅销的书籍品类。那么，不禁让人疑惑，励志类书籍为何会如此畅销？
Why self-help books are so popular in China
To cope with rapid change, some people crave pointers
Bookshops in China are
replete
with works offering advice on self-betterment. Topics range from coping with shyness (“How to Make Friends with Strangers in One Minute”) to succeeding in business (“Financial Management in Seven Minutes”).
在中国的书店里，提供自我提升建议的书籍随处可见。这些书籍涵盖了从克服害羞心理（如《一分钟和陌生人交朋友》）到发家致富（如《7分钟理财》）的各类话题。
The title of one recent
bestseller
urges: “Don’t Opt for Comfort at the Stage of Life that is Meant to be Difficult”. Their popularity and contents reflect the stresses of a society in rapid flux—one in which paths to wealth are opening up in ways barely imaginable a generation ago and competition is fierce.
《别在吃苦的年纪选择安逸》是最近畅销的一本励志类书籍。这类书籍的热卖程度及其内容反映了一个迅速发展的社会给人们带来的压力——通往财富之路正在以一代人过去难以想象的方式敞开，但同时也带来了激烈的竞争。
Reliable statistics on China’s book market are hard to find. But according to a study by Eric Hendriks-Kim, a sociologist at the University of Bonn, self-help books may account for almost one-third of China’s printed-book market. In America they make up only 6% of adult non-fiction print sales, reckons NPD Group, a research firm.
我们很难找到有关中国图书市场的可靠数据。但据波恩大学社会学家埃里克·亨德里克斯-金的一项研究显示，励志类书籍或占中国印刷书籍市场份额的近三分之一。据研究公司 NPD 集团估计，在美国，励志类书籍仅占成人非小说类书籍市场份额的6%。
Although China’s leaders keep stressing the need for China to be “self-reliant”, seekers of advice on how to succeed often turn to American books for guidance. In China last year the top ten self-help sellers included translations of several American works, such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.
尽管中国向来倡导“自力更生”，但寻求成功秘诀的人们却纷纷将目光投向了美国书籍。去年，好几本美国书籍的译本登上了中国十大畅销励志类书籍排行榜，其中包括《如何赢得朋友及影响他人》、《刻意练习：如何从新手到大师》和《高效能人士的七个习惯》等。
Chinese readers appear more eager for such imports than people in many other countries that are culturally closer to America. That may be because both China and America are “hyper-competitive and
materialistic
regimes”, argues Mr Hendriks-Kim, who has described this in his book “Life Advice from Below: the Public Role of Self-Help Coaches in Germany and China”.
相比许多在文化上更接近于美国的国家，中国读者似乎更热衷于这些外国的励志类书籍。或许正如亨德里克斯-金在他的《人生建议：励志类书籍在德国和中国的公共角色》一书中所说的那样：中国和美国的社会都“竞争激烈且信奉物质主义”。
In the early 2000s a Chinese translation of “Who Moved My Cheese?”, a motivational book by an American, Dr Spencer Johnson, became so popular that a play based on it toured theatres and the Chinese word for cheese acquired a new meaning: one’s own self-interest. Books
proliferated
in China with cheese in their titles.
在21世纪初，一本由美国人斯宾塞·约翰逊博士所写的励志类图书——《谁动了我的奶酪?》的中文译本大受欢迎，以至于由该书改编的话剧也在全国各大剧院不断演出。由此，汉语中“奶酪”一词也被赋予了新的含义：自身利益。一时间，书名中含有“奶酪”一词的书籍在中国大量涌现。
China has a long tradition of reading for practical purposes. In 2018 fiction accounted for 7% of sales, compared with more than 30% in Germany. “One of the most striking features of China’s market for books is its absolute and passionate relevance to life,” said a report in 2006 by Arts Council England.
在中国，人们长久以来有着为实践而读书的传统。2018年，小说类书籍占中国图书市场份额的7%，而在德国，这一比例超过30%。2006年，英格兰艺术委员会的一份报告指出：“中国图书市场最显著的一个特点是，书籍往往紧密贴近人们的生活。”
The exam-focused education system leaves little time to develop interpersonal skills, so people, desperate for advice on how to sell themselves, turn to self-help books instead.
以考试为中心的教育体制并不注重培养人们的人际交往能力，因此，那些迫切希望展现自我的人转而将目光投向了励志类书籍。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
据波恩大学社会学家埃里克·亨德里克斯-金的一项研究显示，励志类书籍在中国占有近三分之一的市场份额，远高于世界其他国家。在作者看来，社会迅速发展所带来的竞争压力以及以考试为中心的教育体制可能是原因所在。
replete
[rɪˈpliːt] adj. 充满的；装满的
bestseller
[ˌbestˈselər] n. 畅销书
materialistic
[məˌtɪriəˈlɪstɪk] adj. 唯物论的；金钱至上的
