中国单身妈妈们的困境.doc

Single Chinese Mothers Struggle to Overcome Social Hurdles 中国单身妈妈们的困境 When Yi Ran learned she was pregnant three years ago she was overwhelmed with fear. The 30-year-old store assistant was not married, her boyfriend was just an occasional relation and she felt at her age this could be the last chance to have a child. 三年前，当易冉（音）得知她怀孕了，她陷入了恐惧之中。那时已三十岁的她，是一名店铺助理，尚未结婚，她与他的男朋友只是偶然认识并发生了关系。她感觉到以她当时的年龄，那可能是自己最后一次生育机会。 But as she mustered courage and decided to carry on with her pregnancy, the woman fell into an invisible growing world of unwed mothers struggling to survive in tradition-dominated China. Every year the number of women giving birth out of wedlock grows by 10-13 percent, and their age becomes increasingly young, according to surveys carried by local press. 然而当她鼓起勇气决定继续妊娠将留住孩子的时候，她陷入了一个不断变大着的无形世界——在那个世界里，未婚妈妈们在传统统治下的中国竭力生存。根据一个地方媒体的调查，每年未婚生育女性的数量以10%-13%的比例在增长，并且她们的年龄越来越年轻。 Like many others, Yi Ran did not tell anybody in her entourage about the pregnancy. She chose instead to quit her job, open an online store and work from home, where she can look after her son at the same time. 像很多其他人那样，易冉没有告诉她周围的人她怀孕的事情。她选择了辞去工作，开了一个网店，在家里工作，这样她能在工作的同时照顾儿子。 She said that her heart is heavy with anxiety as she strives to make ends meet while a fine imposed on illegal births still looms large over her days. 她说，当她竭力维持生活的时候，一项针对违法生育的罚款与她如影随形，这使得她她心里充满了焦虑。 “I fear I will not be able to pay” she said. “我很怕我无法支付罚款”，她说道。 Yi Ran’s son also does not exist on China’s population records, because he has no household registration –hukou in Chinese - available only to children born within the frame of legal marriage. 易冉的儿子同样没有被列入中国的人口记录中，因为他没有户口——户口只给那些在合法婚姻状况下生育的儿童。 The plight of single mothers 单身妈妈们的困境 The question of young women giving birth out of wedlock rose to attention a month ago when firemen rescued an abandoned baby from a sewage pipe. The case made headlines in China and shocked the whole nation. 一个月之前，消防员从下水道救出一名弃婴的事件使得年轻女性未婚生育的问题引起关注。该案例成为中国头条新闻，震惊全国。 A 22-year-old waitres