双语 | 获特朗普提名交通部长 赵小兰超励志的传奇人生（附采访视频）
当地时间11月29日，特朗普过渡团队官员向媒体表示，当选总统特朗普计划提名首位进入美国政府内阁的亚裔女性、前劳工部长赵小兰(Elaine Chao)为交通部长。
现年63岁的赵小兰曾在小布什政府时期担任劳工部长，是美国历史上第一位进入内阁的华裔，同时也是内阁中的第一位亚裔女性。她从2001年起担任劳工部长直至2009年，是美国自二战以来担任此职位最长的部长，也是小布什政府中唯一任满8年的内阁成员。
从穷困的移民成为美国政坛响当当的华裔女性领导，如此彪悍的人生充满了传奇色彩。译世界今天就来给你讲一讲她的故事↓
Childhood & family
童年及家庭
An immigrant to this country, Elaine L. Chao arrived in this country at the age of eight, speaking no English.
身为移民，赵小兰8岁来到美国，当时还不会说英语。
Her parents are Americans of Chinese descent. Her father, Dr. James S. C. Chao, was born in a small farming village in Jiading District outside Shanghai. His parents emphasized the value of education. An able student, Dr. Chao won many scholarships. He was also a popular student leader and an outstanding athlete. Her mother, Ruth Mulan Chu, was born in Anhui province, to a distinguished and progressive family that believed in the education of women. Ruth and her sisters were educated at the well-known Ming De Christian Middle School for Girls in Nanjing.
赵小兰的父母都是美籍华裔。父亲赵锡成博士非常重视教育，他生于上海嘉定区的一个村庄，一直是一名优秀学生，多次获得奖学金。他还是受人欢迎的学生干部和出色的运动员。母亲朱木兰生于安徽一个享有名望、重视女性教育的进步家庭，与其姐妹均在南京明德女子中学读书。
Both her parents grew up in an era marked with political turmoil, societal upheaval, foreign invasions and civil war where life was fraught with hardships, instability, and uncertainty. All they sought was peace and safety. The war destroyed everything.
赵小兰的父母在动荡的年代长大，经历过政治动乱、社会剧变、外国侵略和内战，生活充满艰辛、颠沛与迷茫。他们一心向往和平与安定，然而战乱摧毁了一切。
1岁时的赵小兰与父母
Subsequently, her parents separately relocated to Taiwan. There, they met again, got married and started a new life together. In 1958, Dr. Zhao shattered all previous records in Taiwan by achieving the highest score ever on the Master Mariner Examination. This accomplishment singled him out for further studies in America.
于是，他们分别迁移到台湾，在那里重聚、结婚，共同开始新的生活。1958年，赵锡成参加高等航海特考，取得第一名的好成绩，并打破了台湾的所有记录，为他赢得了去美国深造的机会。
The family was separated for three long years before James was able to bring Mrs. Chao and their daughters, Elaine, Jeanette, and May to America.
与家人分别三年后，赵锡成将妻子和女儿们接到美国。
Adapting to American life was difficult for the Chao family and third-grader Elaine. They didn’t know anyone and had no friends or family to turn to. Every day, Elaine went to school and sat quietly, not understanding anything her teacher or the other students said. When the teacher wrote information on the blackboard, Elaine dutifully copied the strange-looking letters into her notebook. Every evening, after a long day’s work, Dr. Chao would sit with his eldest daughter, patiently going back over each day’s lessons. And that’s how Elaine Chao learned English.
对赵锡成一家人来说，适应美国生活难度很大，没有熟人，也没有亲朋，求助无门。每天赵小兰在学校静静地坐在椅子上，听不懂老师和同学讲话的内容。老师在黑板上写东西时，她就一字不落地把那些样子奇怪的字母抄在笔记本上。每晚赵锡成结束一天的工作回到家里，就耐心地陪伴赵小兰复习当天的功课。就这样，赵小兰学会了英语。
Despite many challenges, James and Ruth Chao never lost their steadfast belief in the promise of America. Throughout their lives, Dr. and Mrs. Chao emphasized the importance of family, faith, education, hard work, self -discipline, self-sacrifice, self-reliance, determination, service and contribution to their community and Society. Dr. and Mrs. Chao are lifelong inspirations to their daughters – Elaine, Jeanette, May, Christine, Grace and Angela.
虽然挑战重重，但赵锡成夫妇始终没有放弃对美国前途的信心。他们一直强调家庭、信念、教育、勤奋、自律、自我牺牲、自立、坚韧以及服务社区、奉献社会的重要性，女儿们受用终身。
Early Career 1983-89
早期职业生涯 1983-89
After graduating from Harvard Business School, Elaine Chao embarked upon a career as a banker with Citicorp in New York City. While at Citibank, she learned about the prestigious White House Fellowship program. She applied to the White House Fellowship program because she wanted to learn about the government in her new country. From among a very competitive nationwide field, she was selected as one of 12 White House Fellows, assigned to work at the White House, and thus was able to observe first-hand how our federal government functioned at the highest levels.
从哈佛商学院毕业后，赵小兰在纽约的花旗银行开启了职业生涯。在此期间，她知道了颇负盛名的“白宫学者”计划。为了了解美国政府，她申请了该计划。在通过全国范围的激励竞争后，她成为了12名“白宫学者”中的一员，被分配到白宫工作，从而可以直接观察到联邦政府是如何高水平运转的。
After her White House Fellowship, she was appointed to be the Deputy Administrator of the Maritime Administration. Elaine was the first woman and the first Asian Pacific American to achieve this high a position in the Department’s history.
在结束“白宫学者”计划后，赵小兰被任命为交通部航运署副署长。她也成为了在交通部历史上获得如此高职位的首位女性及首位亚太裔美国人。
Grateful for the opportunities her adopted nation offered, Elaine Chao had a prodigious work ethic, often clocking long hours and taking assignments others sometimes dismissed as insignificant. But she persevered because she remembered the sacrifices of her parents for the family and wanted to blaze new opportunities for her community.
为感谢国家提供的工作机会，赵小兰对工作抱有极大的责任心，她经常加班并且承担一些他人看来没有意义的工作。她坚持不懈，因为她始终记得父母为家庭的牺牲，她还希望为团体赢得新机遇。
By 1988, Elaine Chao had proven so effective at the Maritime Administration that President Ronald Reagan appointed her to become Chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission. Again, Elaine was the first Asian Pacific American and youngest chairman in the Agency’s history. During her tenure, she established a strong record of enforcement against unfair trade practices overseas.
1988年，赵小兰在航运署的工作受到肯定，罗纳德·里根总统任命她为联邦海事委员会主席。她再次成为这一机构历史上首位亚太裔主席，也是最年轻的的主席。在任期间，她强力打击了海外不公平交易行为。
里根与赵小兰
By 1989, Elaine Chao's abilities and diligence brought her increasing recognition as a rising young star and a position with even greater responsibility in the administration of President George H. W. Bush as Deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation.
1989年，作为一名年轻的后起之秀，赵小兰的能力和勤奋让她受到了更多的赏识。乔治·布什总统的政府也给了赵小兰更高的职务——交通部副部长。
Peace Corps 1991-92
美国和平工作团 1991-1992
Elaine Chao’s tenure as Peace Corps Director coincided with a particularly eventful period in world history as the Baltic nations threw off the yoke of domination and the former Soviet Union Empire was imploding of its own weight. She is the first Asian Pacific American Peace Corps Director.
赵小兰担任和平工作团团长时，正是世界历史上的多事之秋，波罗的海国家摆脱了统治的枷锁 ，同时前苏联解体。她是美国和平工作团的第一个亚裔团长。
With the advent of the dramatic rise of new emerging democracies in that part of the world, Elaine Chao established the first Peace Corps programs in the newly liberated Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union to help its peoples adapt to the new free enterprise economic system.
随着新兴民主国家在世界这一地区的迅速崛起，赵小兰在刚刚解放的波罗的海国家——拉脱维亚、立陶宛、爱沙尼亚和前苏联新独立的国家建立了第一个和平工作团方案，来帮助当地人民适应新的自由企业经济制度。
Other achievements as Director included streamlining the Peace Corps Volunteer recruitment and application process. As Director, Elaine Chao also sought to have a Peace Corps of volunteers and staff that reflected the racial and cultural diversity of the United States.
赵小兰担任和平工作团团长期间的其他成就还包括精简和平工作团志愿人员的招聘及申请程序。作为团长，她设法建立一个通过志愿者和工作人员能够反映美国种族和文化多样性的和平工作团。
United Way of America 1996-2001
美国联合劝募会 1996-2001
The country was shocked when the Washington Post began reporting on the financial improprieties, mismanagement and abuse under United Way’s then President in late 1991.
1991年底，当华盛顿邮报开始报道在时任会长领导下的美国联合劝募会出现财务问题、管理不当及滥用行为时，举国震惊。
The United way of America launched a nationwide search for a new leader. Out of more than 600 candidates, one name rose to the top: Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao.
联合劝募会发起了一个全国范围内的“寻人启事”——寻找一个新的领导人。 在600多名候选人中，一个名字脱颖而出：和平工作团团长赵小兰。
She had a reputation for integrity, proven skill in leading large, complex organizations, and a seemingly boundless reservoir of energetic, can-do optimism and determination.
她有着很高的信誉度，在领导大型复杂的组织方面有着娴熟技能，并且看起来永远能量充沛，对事情抱有乐观积极的心态。
As the United Way of America’s new president and CEO, Elaine Chao hit the ground running by reaching out to local organizations to build a common vision to restore integrity and public confidence in the United Way of America. To show that a new era of responsibility and integrity had begun, she cut her own salary by half, and declined all perks and special benefits.
作为美国联合劝募会的新任总裁兼CEO，赵小兰与当地组织进行联络，共同重建美国联合劝募会的诚信与公众信任。为了表明一个具有责任感和诚信感的新时代已经开始，她将自己的薪水减半，并且拒绝了所有的福利和特殊优待。
U.S. Department of Labor 2001-2009
美国劳工部2001-2009
On January 29, 2001, Elaine L. Chao became the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor and the first Asian-Pacific American woman ever appointed to the President’s Cabinet in our nation’s history. The longest serving Secretary of Labor since World War II, she was the only Cabinet member to serve the entire eight years of President George W. Bush’s Administration.
2001年1月29日，赵小兰成为第24任美国劳工部部长和美国内阁有史以来第一个亚太女性成员。同时，她不仅是二战以来在任时间最长的劳工部部长，还是唯一一个贯穿乔治·布什政府在野八年期间的内阁成员。
Elaine L. Chao focused on improving the competitiveness of America’s workforce by restructuring department programs to empower workers and modernizing regulations to respond to the realities of the 21st century workplace. Under her leadership, the U.S. Department of Labor achieved record results in protecting the health, safety, wages, and retirement security of the nation’s workforce.
赵小兰致力于通过部门项目重组激励工人，推动法规现代化以更好地适应21世纪的工作环境，进一步提高美国劳动力竞争力。在她的领导下，美国劳工部在保护美国劳动力健康、安全、薪资和退休保障方面均创造了新的记录。
Today
现在
Recognized with innumerable awards for her public and community service, Secretary Chao is the recipient of 36 honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities across the globe. Apopular speaker, she is currently a Distinguished Fellow at an educational and research institute in Washington, D.C. where she works on jobs, employment, and U. S. competitiveness issues.
赵部长荣获世界各个高等学府颁发的36个荣誉博士头衔，并荣获诸多公共社区服务奖项。目前，她不仅是一个广为人知的演讲家，也是华盛顿一家教育研究机构的杰出学者，从事工作，雇佣和美国竞争力等问题的研究。
最后，让我们再来看看早年赵小兰与家人接受采访的视频，听听她是如何讲述自己的↓
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?width=500&height=375&auto=0&vid=h0012l34wuw
英文来源：SECRETARY ELAINE L. CHAO网站
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