考研英语双语新闻｜当代中国女性生存指南
双语新闻
How Chinese Women Embraced a Fuzzier Definition of Family
Pets enjoy a high, if sometimes fraught, status in contemporary Chinese society. For all the stories of household animals being confiscated for being too big, stolen and sold for food, or killed in the name of “pandemic prevention,” the value Chinese attach to pets — and the companionship these animals provide — has arguably never been higher. Online, people joke about being “slaves” to their cats; offline, growing numbers of dog owners are fighting to make the country safer for their beloved companions. Many non-pet owners are even getting in on the act, living vicariously through the social media feeds of people with pets — a practice so common it has a name: “smoking cats.”
宠物在当代中国社会享有很高的地位，尽管有时令人担忧。尽管家养动物因体型过大而被没收、被偷盗、被卖作食物或以“大流行预防”的名义被杀害，但中国人对宠物的重视——以及这些动物所提供的陪伴——可以说从未如此之高。在网上，人们开玩笑说自己是猫的“奴隶”；离线状态下，越来越多的狗主人正在为保护他们心爱的同伴而努力。许多非宠物主人甚至参与了这项活动，他们通过社交媒体为有宠物的人提供信息——这种行为非常普遍，有一个名字叫“吸烟猫”。
In fact, calling these creatures “pets” is no longer that accurate. More precisely, they’re companion animals: if not necessarily the equal of their ostensible owners, they remain deeply valued and respected. Nationwide, the number of households with companion animals jumped from 69.3 million in 2013 to 99.8 million in 2018, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. That year, China was home to approximately 67 million cats, 74 million dogs, and 110 million pets of other species, and the pet industry was worth a whopping 172.2 billion yuan ($24.3 billion).
事实上，将这些生物称为“宠物”已经不再那么准确了。更准确地说，它们是伴侣动物：如果不一定与它们表面上的主人平等，它们仍然深受重视和尊重。根据Frost&Sullivan咨询公司的数据，在全国范围内，有伴生动物的家庭数量从2013年的6930万户增加到2018年的9980万户。那一年，中国有大约6700万只猫、7400万只狗和1.1亿只其他种类的宠物，宠物产业价值高达1722亿元人民币（合243亿美元）。
One of the defining characteristics of this market is its highly gendered nature. In 2018, the China Pet Industry White Paper reported that 87.5% of dog owners and 89% of cat owners were women, and most of them college graduates born in the 1980s or later.
这个市场的一个决定性特征是其高度性别化的性质。2018年，《中国宠物行业白皮书》报告称，87.5%的养狗人和89%的养猫人是女性，其中大部分是20世纪80年代或更晚出生的大学毕业生。
Perhaps unsurprisingly, people have adopted more caring attitudes toward their companion animals. So-called cat slaves like to say they treat their companion animals better than they treat themselves. One Shanghai-based cat shop owner told me she feeds her cat before she feeds herself. “The masters (zhuzi) should eat first,” she said.
也许毫不奇怪，人们对伴侣动物采取了更关心的态度。所谓的猫奴喜欢说他们对待同伴动物比对待自己好。一位上海的猫店老板告诉我，她喂猫之前先喂猫。“主人（诸子）应该先吃，”她说。
Why do educated, middle-class urban women, in particular, invest so much time, energy, and love into their companion animals? To start, the animals are status symbols. In the early years of the “reform and opening-up” policy, urban Chinese were growing richer, and many urbanites acquired expensive animals as symbols of their newfound wealth. The price of a particular pet depended on its breed, the purity of its bloodline, its appearance, and its fertility status, but the price for a top-grade dog was in the six figures. Preferred breeds included golden retrievers, standard poodles, and Japanese spitzes. These were both expensive and needed plentiful room to exercise. Since expansive spaces require expensive real estate, the bigger the dog, the more obvious a status symbol it was.
尤其是受过教育的中产阶级城市女性，为什么要在伴侣动物身上投入如此多的时间、精力和爱？首先，动物是身份的象征。在“改革开放”政策的最初几年，中国城市居民变得越来越富有，许多城市居民购买昂贵的动物作为他们新发现的财富的象征。一只宠物的价格取决于它的品种、血统的纯度、外表和生育状况，但一只高档狗的价格是六位数。首选的品种包括金毛寻回犬、标准贵宾犬和日本狼犬。这些都很昂贵，而且需要充足的运动空间。由于广阔的空间需要昂贵的房地产，狗越大，其地位象征就越明显。单词
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Why do educated, middle-class urban women, in particular, invest so much time, energy, and love into their companion animals? To start, the animals are status symbols.
爱传播英语小助手小小（aichuanbo2023）👇
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