2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读十

A hit TV series in China skewers cranky old parents

一部在中国热播的电视连续剧讽刺了脾气古怪的老父母们

Defying the cult of filial piety thrills viewers

对崇尚孝道的反抗令观众们激动不已

It is no mean feat to be one of the top-ten trending hashtags on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter,for20consecutive days and counting.“All is Well”,a show on provincial television which premiered on March1st,has done just that.

连续20天成为微博（中国版的推特）十大热门话题之一并不是一件容易的事。3月1日，在省级电视台首播的电视连续剧《都挺好》做到了。

The show tells the story of a fictional Chinese family torn by internal conflict.The female protagonist,Su Mingyu,is barely on speaking terms with her widowed father and one of her two brothers.

这部电视剧讲述了一个虚构的中国家庭因内部矛盾而走向破裂的故事。女主角苏明玉和她丧偶的父亲以及两个哥哥中的一个关系不和。

The father is a nagging crank who expects his two adult sons to bankroll his lavish tastes.This leads to constant bickering between the brothers,neither of whom wants to be called unfilial.

父亲是一个挑剔的怪老头，他希望两个成年的儿子能为他奢侈浪费的生活买单。这导致两个兄弟之间争吵不断，他们两都不想被披上不孝的外衣。

Episodes of“All is Well”have been streamed more than390m times.That exceeds the online viewership of the next most popular television series by278m.From“The Simpsons”to“Game of Thrones”,dramas about bickering families are common in many countries.

《都挺好》的剧集播放量已经超过3.9亿次。其在线收视率比排在第二的最受欢迎的电视连续剧高出了2.78亿次。从《辛普森一家》到《权力的游戏》，关于家庭争论的电视剧在许多国家都很常见。

But in China,the Communist Party prefers entertainment to be unchallenging.So the questioning of blind attachment to traditional values in“All is Well”is causing a stir.Viewers are transfixed by its rare portrayal of middle-class life,warts and all.

但在中国，娱乐往往是不具挑战性的。因此，在电视剧《都挺好》中，对盲目追求传统价值观的质疑引起了人们的轰动。该剧对中产阶级罕见的写照（不论是缺点还是其他方面）让观众们感到震撼。

Many Chinese can relate to the Su family’s troubles.The daughter holds a grudge against her father,and especially against her late mother,for having mistreated her while pampering her brothers.

许多中国人都能理解苏家的烦恼。女儿对父亲抱有怨恨，对已故的母亲更是怀恨在心，因为母亲溺爱两位哥哥却对她十分刻薄。

As a child she was made to wash her brothers’clothes.Her parents turned a blind eye when one of her brothers beat her.

当她还是个孩子时，就被迫要给她的哥哥们洗衣服。当一个哥哥打她时，她的父母却视而不见。

For many female viewers born before1979,when China introduced a one-child-per-couple policy(changed to two in2016),such scenes have brought back painful memories.Some have used social media to share their own tales of sexism within the family.

对于许多1979年以前出生的女性观众来说，这些场景勾起了她们痛苦的回忆。有些人通过社交媒体分享她们自己家庭中性别歧视的故事。

But the biggest reaction has been to the drama’s critique of filial piety. Even today,the Confucian principle of unswerving loyalty to one’s parents remains hallowed.Many people say the best measure of adherence to this virtue is whether a son takes good care of his parents in old age.

但最引起热议的是该剧对孝道的批判。即使在今天，对父母忠贞不渝的儒家思想仍然是备受尊崇的。许多人认为，衡量一个人是否坚守这一美德最好的方法就是看他能否在父母年迈时照顾好他们。

A recent poll by Toutiao,a Chinese news app,found that54%of elderly people in China get more than half of their expenses covered by their adult children.

今日头条（一款中国新闻应用）最近开展的一项调查显示，中国有54％的老年人一半以上的支出由其成年子女们承担。

Partly,no doubt,this is due to a patchy pensions system.But it also reflects a culture of“never saying no to your parents”,says an“All is Well”fan in Beijing.

毫无疑问，这在一定程度上是由于养老金体系不够完善所致。但来自北京的一位《都挺好》的粉丝表示，这也反映了一种“永远不要对父母说不”的文化。

In the series,however,the widowed father does not attract much sympathy.He throws tantrums and insists that his eldest son buy him a three-bedroom apartment(the son grudgingly does so).

然而在剧中，这位丧偶的父亲并没有引起人们太多的同情。他大发脾气，并坚持让大儿子给他买一套三居室的公寓(虽然儿子很不情愿地买了)。

Commentators on social media have taken to calling the father a juying (“giant baby”)—a characteristic common among parents in real life,they say.The Su children do their duty,but the audience is supposed to applaud the resentment they express.

社交媒体上的评论者们已经把这位父亲称为“巨婴”——他们说这是现实生活中的父母们所拥有的一个共同的特征。苏家的孩子们尽到他们的责任了，但观众们还是应该为他们所表达的不满而鼓掌。

There have been mixed reviews in state media.One newspaper said that the“realistic plot and acting”had touched the“pain points”of many viewers.

官方媒体对该剧的评论褒贬不一。一家报纸写道，“贴近现实的情节和表演”触及了许多观众的“痛点”。

Beijing Daily,however,said the drama was“unrealistic”.It said it caricatured elderly parents by“unreasonably”ascribing“every possible bad quality”of old people to one character.

然而，《北京日报》则称该剧是“不切实际的”。它写道，该剧“不合理地”把老年人“可能拥有的每一种坏毛病”集于一人之身，以此来讽刺年迈的父母。(红色标注词为重难点词汇)

重难点词汇：

filial piety孝顺；孝心

premiere[pr?'m?r]adj.首位的；初次的；女主角的vi.初次公演；首次露面vt.初次公演；初次上演n.初次的演出；女主角

protagonist[pr?'t?ɡ?n?st]n.主角，主演；主要人物，领导者

bankroll['b??krol]vt.提供资金；提供财务上的资助n.资金；钞票pamper['p?mp?]vt.纵容；使…过量；给…吃得过多

unswerving[?n'sw?v??]adj.坚定的；始终不渝的；不歪的

hallowed['h?lod]adj.神圣的，神圣化的

tantrum['t?ntr?m]n.发脾气；发怒

resentment[r?'z?ntm?nt]n.愤恨，怨恨

caricature['k?r?k?t??]n.漫画；讽刺画；漫画手法vt.画成漫画讽刺