民工分离撕裂中国家庭(Rural Exodus for Work Fractures Chinese（在线收听）

   第一次在纽约时报上看到这篇文章，记得是在一个晴朗冬日的午后。懒懒的阳光穿过图书馆陈旧的木窗，洒落在一排排报纸杂志上，我正犹豫着该拿份什么报纸消遣这个下午，纽约时报头版的这篇关于中国农村报道吸引了我。

    拿起报纸一气把这篇长文看完，心却似被什么东西紧紧揪住，要不是因为还有别人在，当时真想大喊几声以抒胸中恶气。虽然那些“上嘴皮靠着天，下嘴皮贴着地”的经济学家总是占据着媒体的主要目光，但我们的眼光却不得不透过那些浮华的数字，看到八亿农民的艰辛生活。也许我们无法直接为农民兄弟们做些什么，但至少下次在公车上相遇，请不要再对背着大包小包的他们侧目而视。因为他们肩上所背负的，是一家人的希望；而他们所付出的，是健康乃至生命。

 
SHUANGHU, China - Yang Shan is in fourth grade and spends a few hours every day practicing her Chinese characters. Her script is neat and precise, and one day, instead of drills, she wrote letters to her parents and put them in the mail.

双湖，中国 - 杨珊（音译）上小学四年级，每天花几个小时练习写字。她写的字干净、整洁。有一天，她不再只是练习，而是给自己的父母写了封信，并且把信发了出去。

"How is your health?" she asked.

Shan, who is 10, then added a more pointed question: "What is happening with our family?"

“你们身体怎么样？”她写到，随后，这个10岁的小姑娘又提出了一个尖锐的问题：“我们家为什么会这样？”

Her parents had left in March. Their absence was not new in Shan's short life. Her father, Yang Heqing, has left four times for work. He is now in Beijing on a construction site. Her mother, Ran Heping, has left three times. She is in a different city as a factory worker.

才三月，她的父母就走了。虽然杨珊才10岁，但面对这样的离别已不是第一次了。她的爸爸杨和清现在在北京的一个建筑工地，这已经是他第四次离家打工了。她的妈妈阮和平在另一座城市的工厂打工。

  
Over the years, Shan's parents have returned to this remote village to bring money and reunite the family. They leave when the money runs out, as it did in March. Her father had medical debts and needed cash to see another doctor. Shan's school fees were due, and her grandparents also needed help.

每一年，杨珊的父母个都会带着赚到的钱回到这个偏僻的乡村，一家人团聚。到了三月，随着钱的告罄，他们再外出打工挣钱。她爸爸看病欠下了些债，而且继续医治还需要钱。杨珊学费要缴，她的爷爷奶奶也需要接济。这一切都需要钱。

"I think they are suffering in order to make my life better," Shan said of her parents. She added a familiar Chinese expression: "They are eating bitterness."

“我想他们这么做，是为了让我的生活好起来，”杨珊用一句我们所熟悉的中文说：“他们在吃苦。”

 
For the Yang family and millions of others in the Chinese countryside, the only way to survive as a family is to not live as one. Migrant workers like Shan's parents are the mules driving the country's stunning economic growth. And the money they send home has become essential for jobless rural China.

对于杨家和数百外其他中国农村家庭来说，分离是生存下去的唯一办法。如杨珊的父母这样的农民工，正是推动中国经济高速增长的引擎。而他们汇回家的钱则是贫困农村的必要生活来源。

Yet even that money is no longer enough. Migrant wages have stagnated, education and health costs are rising, and the rural social safety net has collapsed - a crushing combination that is a major reason the income divide is widening so rapidly in China at the expense of the rural poor.

即使如此，钱还是不够。民工的工资一直停滞不前，而教育和医疗的花费却节节攀升，农村社会保障体系已然不存。这种牺牲农村的发展方式，也正是中国城市农村收入差距不断加大的关键原因。

Migration also has meant that urban and rural children in China are growing up in starkly different worlds. In cities, upwardly mobile couples call their precious only child xiao taiyang, or "little sun," as in center of the universe. Children are indulged with clothes, toys and snacks: childhood obesity is a new urban ill.

民工的外出，也意味着中国的城市和农村孩子成长在一个完全不同的世界。在城市中，经济能力日益提高的父母们把自己宝贝的独生子女称作“小太阳”。娇宠的孩子有着数不尽的衣服、玩具、快餐，而且儿童肥胖已经成为一种新的城市病。

  
In the countryside, the new vernacular phrase is liu shou, or "left behind" child. Millions of children like Shan are growing up without one or both parents. Villages often seem to be missing a generation. Grandparents work the fields and care for the children.

而在农村，一种新的说法是“留守儿童”。上百万像珊珊一样的孩子只有单亲或者根本没有父母陪在身边。农村就像是缺了一代人：祖父母在田间干活且照顾孙辈。

"We are a triangle, three people in three different places," said Mr. Yang, 36, the father. "The pain of missing one another is very difficult. All parents are the same in this world. All parents care about their children."

“我们家像是个三角形，三人各处一地，”36岁的杨和清说：“思念的痛苦是难熬的。世界上的父母都一样，所有的父母都牵挂自己的孩子。”

But Shan's parents, strapped with debt and obligation, are among the untold millions of people in rural China caught in a brutal cycle. Studies show that medical costs are the leading reason that people fall into poverty in China. Many city residents still have some health benefits, but peasants now fall under a pay-for-service system. Sickness can mean bankruptcy.

话虽这么说，但杨珊的父母依然像中国乡村成百万农民工一样，在债务和义务的驱使下外出打工。研究显示，庞大的医疗费用，是致使中国人陷入贫穷的主要原因。城里人还有一些医疗保障，但农村人看病全靠自己掏钱。生病，对他们来说意味着破产。

Mr. Yang went to Beijing in part to earn enough money for medical treatment. He was warned four years ago that he needed treatment for prostate problems, but he could not afford it. Now, his health has worsened on his construction job. He has missed days and is jeopardizing the pay he needs to see a doctor.

杨和清去北京打工，挣钱给自己治病也是一个目的。四年前，医生已经警告他身患前列腺疾病，但他无钱医治。如今在建筑工地的工作恶化了他的病情；而因为病痛，他已经几天没工作，这又威胁到他赖以治病的工钱。

  
His wife, Ms. Ran, 33, wants to visit her daughter in February for the Lunar New Year, when migrant workers traditionally go home. But she said her factory in the city of Baoding will fine her $72 - roughly six weeks' pay - if she does not work straight through to July. Shan's school fees are due soon, and the family needs more money.

杨和清的妻子，33岁的阮和平一直盘算着二月春节能回家看女儿，这段时间也正是民工们返乡的时候。但她在保定打工的工厂规定，如果工人不能一直工作到明年七月，就要被扣掉差不多一个半的工资－－600块钱。珊珊的学费就要缴了，家里也需要更多的钱。

Shan has never left this village in mountainous central China, a few hours' drive from the Three Gorges along the Yangtze River. She is still a child, but she understands the pressures on her family and how her own future depends on getting an education. She grew worried when the school began asking for next semester's tuition.

珊珊从来没有离开过中国中部山区的这个村庄，他们的村庄离三峡只有几个小时的车程。她很懂事，知道自己家庭的重压，也懂得自己的未来靠的就是接受教育。但当学校开始征收下学期的学费时，她又担心了起来。

"I love school," she said.

“我喜欢学校。”她说。