Gender roles are changing but prejudice persists, even in the privacy of a household and among the highly educated.

性别角色不断发生变化，但即便使是在家庭内部或是受过高等教育的群体当中，性别歧视依旧存在。

Lin Shaohua, a noted translator of Japanese literature, gave a lecture to a class of master of public administration students the other day. In the question-and-answer session, a student asked him how he managed his time well enough to be so prolific in translation and writing, on top of his job as a university teacher. Lin said the trick is in "not doing any household chores".

知名日本文学翻译家林少华不久前为公共管理硕士做了一场讲座。在问答环节，一名学生问林教授是如何规划时间，才能够在翻译与写作以及他的本职工作——大学教师中取得如此丰硕的成果。林教授表示，诀窍在于“不做任何的家务活。”

As he described it in his microblog, the male students all laughed while the women kept silent. So he turned to the latter and said the wear and tear on men of cleaning pots and pans would remove their manliness and ambitions, turning them into effeminate creatures, at the same time turning women into tomboys.

当他在微博中发布这一观点后，学生中出现“男笑女默”的情况。为此，他向女生们解释称，男性长期承担刷锅洗碗的工作将会殆尽他们的男子气概，消磨他们的雄心抱负，导致男性越来越娘炮，而同时女性越来越像女汉子。

The remark was so tongue-in-cheek that, without the benefit of an audible voice, it is difficult to determine whether it was meant to be sarcastic. Since Lin deleted his post in the aftermath of swarms of critical responses, I figure that it was intended as a sincere explanation and, possibly, a piece of advice on the rigorous division of gender roles.

这话听起来像半开玩笑半认真，但未能亲耳听到林教授说出这些话的情况下，我们很难判定这句话是否是用来讽刺挖苦的。当这一观点遭到围攻后，林少华删除了该条微博。因此，我认为他发表这条微博的初衷可能是出于真诚的解释目的，是对性别角色严格分界给出建议。

Now I don't believe China is an extremely male-chauvinistic society. Since the Enlightenment Movement, otherwise known as the May Fourth Movement of 1919, Chinese society has struggled to free itself from the shackles of feudalism, which includes institutional discrimination against women. While we cannot claim that women in China have achieved equality in every field, they have proved that they can hold their place next to men with no preferential treatment whatsoever. In fact there are so many fields and professions in which women are beating their male peers hands down that affirmative action, as it is known in North America, is often reserved for men who have turned out to be the weaker party in fair competition.

我认为现在的中国并不是一个极端男性沙文主义社会。封建主义存在着对女性的制度性歧视，但自五四运动以来，中国社会一直在奋力挣脱它的束缚。尽管我们无法断言中国女性在各个领域都实现了平等，但她们确实证明了现在可以在男性身边顶半边天，不需要享受任何优待。实际上，在许多领域和专业，女性可以轻而易举地打败她们的男同胞，因而，后者变成为公平竞争中弱势一方，更加需要如北美洲的平权法案的帮助。

There has been discussion over the past decade about the sources of male weakness. Some point to the lack of military-style training in schools and others reckon male children are more pampered because they are supposed to carry on the family lineage. The fashion trend has clearly swerved to the epicene man. The fashion du jour is embodied by androgynous styling, an appearance firmly established as the paragon of metro sexual beauty.

在过去的十年里，缺乏男子气的原因一直是大家探讨的焦点。有些人指出，这是由于学校缺乏军事化训练，另一些人则认为由于现在的孩子被看作是家族血脉的延续，就变得越来越骄纵。中性人成为时下的潮流趋势。当下的这一潮流体现在这种人的风格可男可女，而这种长相是建立在完美展现性别美之上的。

Some see this as a threat to the traditional notion of masculinity, and some educators and parents want to turn the tide, or at least put a brake on it. They send boys to boot camps where the youngsters can presumably toughen their bodies and minds. I don't know whether they also lament the disappearance of after-class fistfights that were such a fixture in coming-of-age movies of yore.

一些人将其视为对传统男子气观念的威胁，而一些教育人士和家长想要扭转这一趋势，或者至少延缓这一趋势。他们把男孩子们送往新兵训练营，锤炼身体和意志。我不知道他们是否会怀念下课后打架的场境——这在很久以前的青春片中是一个固定的桥段。

The young male image in popular culture is largely shaped by entertainment imported from South Korea and Japan rather than from Hollywood. It is probably the racial affinity that has made male icons from China's eastern neighbors easier to identify with for Chinese youth. Action heroes from across the Pacific Ocean are welcomed as they are deemed to be in a different league, one that elicits more shock and awe than reliability.

大众文化中的年轻男性形象很大程度上是由从韩国和日本引进的娱乐节目所塑造的，而不是好莱坞。这或许是种族姻亲关系，中国东边的邻国制造的男子偶像更容易为中国青年一代所认同。而从大西洋彼岸漂洋过海而来的动作明星只是受到欢迎，但由于认为他们与我们不属于同一阵营，带来更多的是震慑和敬畏而不是可依赖性。

Lament all you want, but I feel the sociological underpinnings for the current pendulum swing toward less masculinity are peace and prosperity, allowing young men to spend time on grooming and styling. In times of war and poverty, physical prowess would count more than delicate skin or facial features. The archetypal worker or peasant as depicted in propaganda is the buffed-up body shown in old-time posters and billboards. Nowadays an urban male frequents a gym to tone his body not so he can look like a manual laborer, but rather like a white-collar worker with an enviable physique. He wouldn't be able to plow a field with the help of an ox or strike an anvil with a hammer for a day. Therein lies the difference between pragmatism and aesthetics.

为你想要的一切默哀吧，但我认为，造成当下男性气概缺失的社会根源是和平与繁荣，在这样的环境下，年轻男性才有时间花在服装造型美容美发上。在战争与贫穷之际，体能比娇嫩的皮肤和姣好的面容更重要。宣传中描绘的工人或农民的原型来自旧时海报或广告牌，他们都有一副精壮的身体。如今，城市的年轻人频繁出入健身房来锻炼身体，不然会让人看起来像一个体力劳动者，而不是一个拥有令人艳羡的体格和身材的白领。就算有头牛的帮助，他也没办法在地里干活，或者用锤子来钉铁砧。这其中就存在着实用主义和美学主义的区别。

Of course there are many other reasons people cite for the decrease in masculinity. But Lin's mention of household travail is quite unprecedented as far as I know. It is obviously built on the assumption that cleaning dishes, doing the laundry and vacuuming the apartment are the exclusive realm of women. Well, they used to be for sure when women were denied education and could work only as nannies and maids. But things have changed in the past century and in most Chinese households there is no fixed rule about who should take care of the daily chores. Usually the arrangement depends on the specific skills and schedules of the husband and the wife, or the father and the mother. Honestly, with the ubiquitous use of home appliances, cleaning up no longer means scrubbing your laundry on a washboard for hours a day. Still, every member of the family should chip in even if one is wealthy enough to hire a maid or other form of help.

当然，人们为男性气概的缺失找了许多其他原因。但是据我所知林教授提及的家务琐事还属史无前例。这显然是建立在这样的一个假设之上：即刷盘子，洗衣服，给公寓吸尘都是女性的专属工作。好吧，当然，在女性被剥夺教育权利并且只能从事保姆和仆人工作的时候确实是这样的一个情况。但是，在上个世纪，情况发生了变化，在大多数的中国家庭中并没有固定的规则对谁承担日常家务作出约定。通常情况下，这种安排取决于丈夫和妻子或父亲和母亲的职业技能及时间表。坦率而言，随着家用电器的普及，清理工作便不再意味着一天花上好几个小时去洗衣服。然而，即使有足够有钱雇佣人或是支付其他形式的帮助，家庭当中的每一个成员都要为家务出一份力。

Had Lin's remarks been a totally isolated incident, they could simply have been brushed aside. Unfortunately, he may represent the vestiges of history, the part of Chinese tradition that had better be left in the archive of undesirable cultural legacy. When the government called for a revival of traditional culture a few years ago, public interest in Confucian classics was rekindled. Amid the renewed fascination with old customs are worrying signs of simmering ashes of feudalism and bigotry. There arose private schools devoted to the teaching of "female virtues", including the principle that women must obey their husbands unconditionally even when the latter are wrong. The local government shut down the class after the media reported on it.

如果林教授的言论完全只是一个偶发事件的话，很快就会被人遗忘。不幸的是，他所代表的可能是历史的残余，即中国传统中那一部分最好被封印起来，不为人所欢迎的文化因素。几年前，中国政府号召振兴传统文化知识，公众对孔子的研究兴趣又被点燃。除了对重新拾起旧传统研究的着魔，人们也会对封建主义和顽固主义的残余会不会也因此死灰复燃有所担心。最近兴起的一些私人学校致力于教导“妇德”，包括无条件服从丈夫，即使他们是错的。当地政府在媒体报道后关闭了这类培训班。

China has come to the stage that, when a couple fights, one should not assume the woman is naturally the sympathetic party. The dynamics of each family is unique. But the suggestion that a man taking up housework is not manly is so ludicrous it can only be treated as a joke. And I say this with total acknowledgment of gender differences in professions. For example, as a general rule, women tend to excel in the positions of kindergarten teachers or hospital nurses. But that does not mean a man cannot be as good as his female peers if he is so disposed. Conversely, there are very few female truck drivers, but if a woman takes to it, there is no reason why she cannot be just as good.

中国现在所处的阶段是，如果一对夫妇吵架了，人们不应自然而言地认为妻子是值得同情的一方。每个家庭的情况都是独一无二的。不过，认为做家务的男性没有男子气概的建议很是荒唐，只能当做玩笑话来听。从专业领域的性别差异而言，我对此表示完全认同。例如，作为一般性规律，女性往往更能胜任幼儿园教师和医院护士这样的岗位，但这并不意味着男性无法做得像他的女性同事们一样好。相反，卡车司机中鲜少有女性，但是如果有女性从事这一工作，她完全可以像男司机一样好。

There will no doubt be some who strongly oppose my argument. I'm not of the opinion that a country's truck drivers or kindergarten teachers have to reflect the gender ratio of the whole country so that men and women can be proven equal. But I believe there should be no barriers for either sex to enter into professions they are qualified for on the basis of merit. Sure, toiling away with home routine is not a profession - unless it is for someone else's household.

毫无疑问，会有一些人对我的观点表示强烈反对。我的观点并不是说为了证明男女平等，全国的卡车司机或是幼儿园老师的数量必须反映了全国的性别比率。但我相信男性也好，女性也罢，在进入一个以实力说话的专业领域时不应该受到羁绊。当然，长年累月做家务不是一种职业——除非你是为别人家做家务。

Lin can say he is free from the drudgery because he can afford outside help or he has a wife or other family members who do not treat it as drudgery. He can even argue from an economic point of view that his time can yield a better financial payoff than whoever is responsible for the grunt work. But to hint that he is above it because of his gender is simply condescending. To extrapolate from his logic, someone sweating in a truck or on a construction site can laugh at him, a man sitting at a desk all day long, for being a sissy.

林教授可以说，他可以免于这种苦差事，因为他能支付得请外人的费用，或是他的妻子或是其他家庭成员并不认为这是一个苦差事。他甚至可以从经济角度提出，相比于从事繁重体力劳动的工作者，他的时间创造出的金钱财富更多。如果说因为自己的性别而使得自己凌驾于这样的工作之上，这就显得有点居高临下的意味了。从他的逻辑推断，那些在卡车里或是建筑工地上挥汗如雨的人也可以嘲笑他，因为他是一个整天坐在办公桌旁的“娘炮”。

（译者：Jessielanting 编辑：丹妮）