【雅思课外精读】韩国“新冠抑郁者”激增，疫情反复 “心魔”难除

　　【雅思课外精读】韩国“新冠抑郁者”激增，疫情反复 “心魔”难除   原文译文 　*注：本文选自12月12日《经济学人》

　　Deepening despair渐趋绝望Suicide is on the rise among South Korean women韩国女性自杀人数激增The young are especially likely to kill themselves年轻女性更易选择自杀

　　1. AS OF DECEMBER 10th, 564 South Koreans had died of covid-19. Roughly twice that number died by suicide every month between January and September, the latest month for which data are available. Half as many again made the attempt and were saved by the emergency services.

　　截至12月10日，韩国已有564人死于新冠肺炎。但是，从1月到9月(可获得的最新数据)，每月死于自杀的人数大约是这个数字的两倍。一半的人尝试再次自杀，但是被紧急服务机构救回来了。

　　2. High as these numbers are, they are mercifully much lower than a decade ago, when the suicide rate began to decline sharply. Unfortunately, this happy trend has recently gone into reverse (see chart). The reversal is largely driven by women in their teens, 20s and 30s. Between 2018 and 2019 the number of women in their 20s dying by suicide rose by a quarter as the number of men of the same age killing themselves stayed more or less constant. Data from the first three-quarters of 2020 suggest the suicide rate among young women is rising still more. What is going on?

　　虽然自杀人数很多，但是比起十年前，这已经很低了，也就是在那时候，自杀人数才开始下降的。不幸的是，这种下降的趋势最近已经开始发生逆转了。现在十几岁、二十几岁和三十几岁的女性自杀率攀升。2018年至2019年，20多岁的女性自杀人数增加了四分之一，而同一年龄段的男性自杀人数基本保持不变。2020年前三季度的数据表明，年轻女性的自杀率仍在上升。到底是怎么了？

　　3. In most rich and middle-income countries suicide rates have been low and declining in recent years. Though South Korea had begun to follow that trend, its people are more likely to kill themselves than those of any other OECD country except Lithuania. In 2019 there were 27 deaths from suicide for every 100,000 people, almost four times the number in Britain and nearly twice as many as in America. In other respects, however, South Korea follows global patterns: men and the elderly tend to be at higher risk of suicide than women and the young—making the increase in suicide among younger women all the more puzzling.

　　在大多数富裕和中等收入国家，自杀率一直很低，近年来还在下降。尽管韩国已经慢慢步入发达国家行列，但除了立陶宛，韩国人自杀的可能性比其他经合组织国家的人都要高。2019年，每10万人中有27人死于自杀，这一数字几乎是英国的四倍，是美国的近两倍。然而，在其他方面，韩国遵循着全球模式:男性和老年人的自杀风险往往高于女性和年轻人——这使得年轻女性自杀率的上升更加令人费解。

　　4. Sociologists tend to attribute the high overall rate to social and economic upheaval. They argue that rapid economic development combined with a clash between traditional social expectations and the individualism of modern life have plunged the country into the sort of confusion that Emile Durkheim, a 19th-century sociologist, called “anomie”, in which conflicting social signals drive people to despair. That sort of tension may be particularly acute for young women in contemporary South Korea, says Timothy Kang of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Having been brought up in the same competitive academic environment as their male peers, they then encounter discrimination in the workplace, sexist standards of beauty and pressure to marry and have children.

　　社会学家倾向于把高自杀率归因于社会和经济的动荡。他们认为，快速的经济发展，加上传统社会期望和现代生活的个人主义之间的冲突，使韩国陷入了混乱，19世纪社会学家埃米尔•迪尔凯姆(Emile Durkheim)称之为“社会反常”(anomie)，在这种混乱中，相互冲突的社会观念使人们绝望。加拿大萨斯喀彻温大学的Timothy Kang说，对于当代韩国的年轻女性来说，这种冲突可能尤其严重。她们是在与男性同龄人一样竞争激烈的教育环境中长大的，然而，她们面临的工作歧视，基于美貌的性别歧视和结婚生子的压力要大得多。

　　5. South Korean feminists argue that the pressure on women has been compounded in recent years by the use of the internet to propagate misogynistic views and to disseminate illicitly obtained images of women, often from spycams hidden in toilets and changing rooms. The country’s vocal women’s movement has faced an intemperate backlash from men who object to its demands. “The relentlessness of the attacks is a big problem for women,” says Shin Min-joo, an activist who has received plenty of online vitriol herself. The suicides in 2019 of two female celebrities following months of online trolling may have added to the trauma, she suggests.

　　韩国的女权主义者认为，近年来，由于网上的仇女言论，非法女性照片的传播等，女性的压力更大了。这些非法照片往往来自隐藏在厕所和更衣室里的间谍摄像头。韩国声势浩大的妇女运动遭到了男性的强烈反对，他们反对这项运动的要求。维权人士辛敏珠(Shin Min-joo)说，“对女性来说，这些无情的攻击是一大问题。”在网上，她自己也遭到了言辞尖酸的咒骂。她表示，2019年两位女明星在网上被谩骂了几个月后自杀，这可能加剧了创伤。

　　6. Economic precariousness is another factor. Sluggish economic growth over the past few years has been harder on young women, who are more likely to be employed in the service sector and on short-term contracts. The pandemic has probably exacerbated these problems. The drop in the share of women in work this autumn compared with the year before has been three times bigger than that for men. “The economic precarity and the social isolation that it causes are major problems for young women, particularly those living on their own,” says Yun Kim Ji-yeong of Konkuk University in Seoul. In addition, women with families have borne the brunt of home-schooling kids and looking after vulnerable relatives during the pandemic. Past experience suggests that economic distress may raise the suicide rate: around the financial crisis in 2008, both young men and young women took their lives in greater numbers, with the rate among women exceeding that among men for several years.

　　经济不稳定是另一个因素。女性大多在服务行业工作，而且大多签的都是短期合同，过去几年的经济低迷对她们的影响更大。新冠疫情加剧了这些问题。与去年相比，今年秋季女性在职比例的下降幅度是男性的三倍。首尔建国大学的Yun Kim Ji-yeong说:“由此造成的经济不稳定和社会孤立是年轻女性尤其是独居女性面临的主要问题。”此外，在新冠疫情期间，已婚女性承受着教育孩子和照顾亲属的压力。过去的经验表明，经济困境可能会提高自杀率:在2008年金融危机前后，年轻男性和年轻女性的自杀人数都有所增加，其中女性自杀率连续数年超过男性。

　　7. The government is taking the problem more seriously than in the past. In a meeting on suicide prevention at the end of November, officials vowed to expand support for those at risk, particularly young women in precarious circumstances. The national suicide hotline, which has been understaffed, is recruiting more sympathetic ears. Public-information campaigns have tried to reduce the taboos around mental health in recent years, and the government has become a bit keener to combat sexism. All of this is welcome. But if rising suicide rates are indeed the result of rapid social change, a quick reprieve is unlikely.

　　政府比以往更加认真地对待这个问题。在11月底的一次关于自杀预防的会议上，当局承诺扩大对自杀风险人群尤其是处境危险的年轻女性的支持。一直人手不足的全国自杀热线正在招募工作人员。近年来，公共信息运动试图减少心理健康方面的禁忌，而政府一直在与性别歧视作斗争。所有这些都很好。但是，如果自杀率的上升确实是快速社会变革的结果，那么迅速缓解也不大可能。