【雅思课外精读】孩子随母亲姓就是女权主义了吗？

　　【雅思课外精读】孩子随母亲姓就是女权主义了吗？*注：本文摘自8月29日《经济学人》

　　Matronymics

　　母系社会

　　More Chinese children are being given their mother’s surname

　　越来越多的孩子随母姓

　　It’s not just about feminism

　　这不仅仅关乎女权主义

　　1. AS CHINA EMERGED from lockdown, a woman wrote a post on Weibo, a microblog, that has echoed through the long, hot summer. She was divorcing her husband, she said, because he would not allow her to change the surname of her child to her own. Details of the case werescant, but that did not stop it lighting up the internet, shining a new spotlight on the question of how far Chinese women have come. Phoenix Weekly, a magazine, launched an online poll that drew 47,000 respondents. Almost two-thirds said that a surname could come from either parent.

　　中国解除疫情封锁之后，一名女子在微博发了一条帖子，在这个漫长炎热的夏天，这条帖子一直处于讨论的中心。该女士称，她和丈夫正在准备离婚，因为她丈夫不准把孩子的姓改成她的姓。该离婚案的细节并没有透露多少，但还是在网上引起了轰动，让人们重新审视中国女性的进步。《凤凰周刊》发起了一项在线调查，有4，7万人参加，近三分之二的人表示，孩子可以随父母的任何一方姓。

　　2. As in most traditional societies, Chinese parents have long preferred sons, and the usual practice of handing down the father’s surname remains a powerful symbol of that (though women have always retained their surname at marriage). But with social mores changing rapidly, more parents have started to give babies the mother’s surname, especially in wealthy urban areas. A paper last month in the Journal of Population Economics found that Chinese children with young, educated mothers from areas with normal sex ratios at birth were more likely than average to be given her surname, and such offspring were healthier and better educated than average. Almost one in ten newborns in Shanghai were given their mother’s name in 2018.

　　和多数传统社会一样，长期以来，中国人都更加偏爱儿子，传父姓仍然是这一点的强有力象征（尽管中国女性结婚后可以一直保留自己的姓氏）。但是，随着社会习俗的迅速改变，越来越多的孩子开始被冠以母姓，尤其是在富裕的城市地区。上个月发表在《人口经济学杂志》上的一篇论文发现，在中国，如果母亲年轻、受过良好教育且来自出生性别比例正常的地区，那么子女随母姓的可能性比平均水平更高，而且这些孩子更健康，受教育程度也更高。2018年，上海近十分之一的新生儿被冠以母姓。

　　3. Some young couples have compromised and use both surnames in combination, somewhat like Westerners creating double-barrelled surnames (though only one of those names can be legally recognised in China). According to a survey in 2019, the surnames of more than 1.1m Chinese people now form such a combination, a ten-fold increase on 1990.

　　一些年轻夫妇选择妥协，让孩子同时使用两个姓氏，有点像西方人的双姓（这些姓氏只有在中国才是合法的）。据2019年的一项调查，现有超过110万中国人使用双姓，是1990的10倍。

　　4. Government support for matronymics has been around since the mid-1990s. Giving the mother’s surname to offspring was encouraged within the one-child policy (which was relaxed in 2016), to persuade people to be content with an only daughter. To win them over, officialsdug up Chinese texts about ancient matrilineal societies.

　　政府对随母姓的支持始于20世纪90年代。在施行独生子女政策期间，政府鼓励给孩子冠以母姓，以说服人们满足于只有一个女儿。为了赢得支持，当局利用了有关古代母系社会的中国文献.独生子女政策于2016年放宽。

　　5. Some wonder, however, whether all of this is more to do with genealogy than with feminism. Qi Xiaoying of the Australian Catholic University says that grandfathers are urging their daughters to give their surname to one of their grandchildren now that families can have more than one, because it assures the continuation of the grandparents’ line. Ms Qi calls this “veiled patriarchy”. In-laws now fight over whose name will go to the son. She says matronymics are more popular in Chinese cities not because of an assertion of women’s rights, but because a generation of maternal grandparents has more wealth to hand down, especially if they are richer than their son-in-law’s parents.

　　然而，有些人怀疑，这一切是否更多地与宗谱有关，而不是与女权主义有关。澳大利亚天主教大学的齐晓英(音译)说，现在，由于独生子女政策放款，外祖父母都在催自己的女儿给孩子冠母姓，因为这样可以延续他们的血统。齐女士把这称为“隐晦父权制”。姻亲们现在为了孩子随谁的姓而争吵不休。她说，随母姓在中国城市兴起，并不是因为女性权利的主张，而是一位内外祖父母有更多的财产可以留给孩子，尤其是外祖父母的资产比较富有的情况下。

　　6. At least the trend shows that a patronymic is not a foregone conclusion, says Ms Qi. A survey in 2017 in the south-eastern city of Xiamen found that 23% of second children in two-child families were given their mother’s surname. A couple in the city of Nanjing, surnamed An and Hui, called their children An Zihui and Hui Zi’an, both meaning “the offspring of An and Hui”. “Genealogy and feminism had nothing to do with it,” says Ms Hui. “It was just a way to show our love.”

　　齐女士表示，至少这种趋势表明，随父姓并非必然。2017年，中国东南部城市厦门的一项调查发现，二孩家庭中23%的二胎随母姓。南京一对姓安，姓惠的夫妇给他们的孩子取名“安子惠”，“惠子安”，寓意“安和惠的后代”。“宗谱和女权主义与此无关，”许表示。“这只是我们表达爱的一种方式。”

　　精读解析

　　篇章结构

　　P1：由一名女子因随母姓问题离婚的案子引入：中国越来越多的孩子随母姓。

　　P2：中国传统上是随父姓的，但是近年来，随母姓越来越多。

　　P3：除了随母姓，还有双姓。

　　P4：随母姓的历史：中国因独生子女政策鼓励随母姓。

　　P5：然而，随母姓还与宗谱血脉延续有关。

　　P6：随母姓和女权主义没有关系。

　　重点单词

　　matronymic/ˌmætrə'nɪmɪk/ n. 出自母亲或女性祖先的名adj. 表示母系的,母姓的

　　microblog微博

　　【例句】

　　In the age of the microblog, thousands of incensed middle-class people took up her case.

　　而在这个微博时代，成千上万愤慨的中产阶级分子声援了她。

　　surname/'sɜːneɪm/ n. 姓，姓氏；绰号，别名vt. 给…起别名；给…姓氏

　　【例句】

　　I was mistakenly assumed to be a Welshman because of my surname.

　　由于我的姓的缘故,我被误认为是威尔士人。

　　scant /skænt/ adj. 不足的；缺乏的；勉强够的vt. 减少；节省；限制

　　【例句】

　　He paid scant attention to what was said.

　　他没怎么注意听讲。

　　light up照亮；点亮

　　【例句】

　　Treat everyone kindly and light up the night.

　　善待每个人，然后照亮夜晚。

　　hand down宣布；把…传下去

　　【例句】

　　Our fathers handed down these customs to us.

　　我们的父辈把这些习俗传给了我们。

　　in combination 结合

　　in combination with 与…结合，与…联合

　　【例句】

　　These paints can be used individually or in combination.

　　这些涂料可单独或混合使用。

　　double-barrelled /ˈdʌbəlˈbærəld/ adj. 双管的；双重的

　　【例句】

　　His word was a double-barrelled compliment.

　　他的话是双重意义的恭维。

　　one-child policy独生子女政策

　　【例句】

　　In China the one-child policy increases that pressure further.

　　在中国，独生子女政策进一步加大了这种压力。

　　be content with以…为满足

　　【例句】

　　He had earned it, and he would not be content with less.

　　这是他挣来的, 差一丁点儿他都不会满足。

　　dug up挖出；掘起；开垦；发现

　　【例句】

　　I want the key dug up.

　　我想把钥匙挖出来。

　　matrilineal/ˌmætrɪ'lɪnɪəl/ adj. 母系的

　　【例句】

　　In matrilineal society, women had taken the priority of creating beauty.

　　在母系氏族社会内，女性优先获得这种创造美的自由。

　　genealogy/dʒiːnɪ'ælədʒɪ/ n. 系谱,家系,宗谱

　　【例句】

　　The historical development of the concepts of genealogy, phylogeny, monophyly and polyphyly is briefly reviewed.

　　历史地回顾了谱系、系统发育、单系、多系概念的由来和发展。

　　veiled/veɪld/ adj. 隐藏的；蒙上面纱的；不清楚的；含蓄的

　　【例句】

　　Her words sounded like a veiled warning.

　　她的话听起来像一个含蓄的警告。

　　patriarchy /'peɪtrɪɑːkɪ/ n. 父权制

　　【例句】

　　Male managers may find these books an uncomfortable read, peppered with talk of the patriarchy and gender privilege.

　　男性管理者可能会发现，这些书读起来让人不舒服，里面充斥着父权制和性别特权的言论。

　　in-laws/'inlɔ:/ n. 姻亲

　　【例句】

　　We're visiting my in-laws on Sunday.

　　我们星期天要去拜访我的姻亲。

　　fight over 为…争吵

　　【例句】

　　The fight over the Medicaid expansion involved hair-raising brinkmanship.

　　为了抵抗医保普及政策，反对者不惜铤而走险。

　　patronymic/ˌpætrə'nɪmɪk/ adj. 取自教父名的n. 源于父名的姓或名字

　　【例句】

　　I had always felt aversion to my uncourtly patronymic, and its very common, if not plebeian praenomen.

　　我一向讨厌自己这个庸俗的姓，这个非常普通的名字，就算不是平民百姓的名字也罢。

　　foregone /fɔː'gɒn/ adj. 先前的；过去的；预知的；预先决定的v. 发生在…之前

　　【短语】

　　foregone conclusion 预料之中必然发生的事情；不可避免的结局

　　【例句】

　　The victory was a foregone conclusion.

　　胜利是必然的结果。