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  3. "Leftover Women" are increasingly visible in today’s China. They are the

"Leftover Women" are increasingly visible in today’s China. They are the

游客2024-11-06  3
问题         "Leftover Women" are increasingly visible in today’s China. They are the ladies who are nearly or above 30 years old and still remain single. To their parents’ surprise, many of the "leftover women" are not particularly eager to get married, which is in great contrast to the traditional Chinese belief. The following article provides detailed information about this issue. Read it carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should:
        1. summarize briefly the article;
        2. give your comment on this phenomenon, especially on what major reasons are leading to this phenomenon.
                                                                China’s "Leftover Women", Unmarried at 27
        Huang Yuanyuan is stressing out about the fact that the next day, she’ll turn 29. "I’m nervous because I’m still single. I have no boyfriend. I’m under big pressure to get married," she says.
        Huang is a confident, personable young woman with a good salary, her own apartment, an MA from one of China’s top universities, and a wealth of friends.
        Still, she knows that these days, single, urban, educated women like her in China are called "sheng nu" or "leftover women"—and it stings.
        She feels pressure from her friends and her family, and the message gets hammered in by China’s state-run media too.
        "Ever since 2007, the state media have aggressively disseminated this term in surveys, and news reports, and pictures, basically for educated women over the age of 27 or 30 who are still single," says Leta Hong-Fincher, an American doing a sociology PhD at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
        Even the website of the government’s supposedly feminist All-China Women’s Federation featured articles about "leftover women"—until enough women complained.
        "It’s caught on like a fad, but it belittles older, unmarried women—so the media should stop using this term, and should instead respect women’s human rights," says Fan Aiguo, secretary general of the China Association of Marriage and Family Studies.
        National Bureau of Statistics data shows there are now about 20 million more men under 30 than women under 30. Census figures for China show that around one in five women aged 25-29 is unmarried. The proportion of unmarried men that age is higher—over a third. But that doesn’t mean they will easily match up, since Chinese men tend to "marry down", both in terms of age and educational attainment. Some local governments in China have taken to organising matchmaking events, where educated young women can meet eligible bachelors.
        The goal is to get as many men paired off and tied down in marriage as possible—to reduce, as far as possible, the army of restless, single men who could cause social havoc, believes Fincher.
        But the tendency to look down on women of a certain age who aren’t married isn’t exclusively an attitude promoted by the government.
        Chen, who works for an investment consulting company, knows this all too well. She says her parents are ashamed that they have an unmarried 38-year-old daughter. "They’re afraid their friends and neighbours will regard me as abnormal. And my parents would also feel they were totally losing face, when their friends all have grandkids already."
        A 29-year-old marketing executive, who uses the English name Elissa, says being single at her age isn’t half bad. "Living alone, I can do whatever I like," she says. "I love my job, and I can do a lot of stuff all by myself—like reading, like going to theatres." Sure, she says, her parents would like her to find someone, and she has gone on a few blind dates, for their sake. But, she says, they’ve been a "disaster". Elissa says she’d love to meet the right man, but it will happen when it happens.
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答案                                                                 On "Leftover Women"
        As the article points out, "leftover women" in China are under great pressure to get married nowadays. The derogatory term used to describe those older unmarried ladies has been widely adopted by China’s state-run media since 2007, which inevitably leads to prejudice against them. What’s worse, traditional parents tend to feel ashamed of their unmarried daughter, which will make their daughter’s life even harder. However, living a single life is not necessarily hard. As I see it, the so called "leftover women" are confident girls with handsome salaries and the emergence of this group can be attributed to two main factors.
        First and foremost, females are now better exposed to job opportunities and normally they and their male counterparts enjoy equal pay in the same job, which has empowered females to be financially independent. In this regard, ladies have more say in a relationship, which might hurt the macho feelings harbored by many Chinese men. That is why they tend to avoid ladies who are earning the same money, if not more, as they do.
        Furthermore, as the society evolves itself, China is now more tolerant of when and how people get married. Ladies may choose to get rid of all the trivial rituals and have a western style wedding. Similarly, they can also choose not to get married even when they come of age. It is true that some of the "leftover women" are constantly subject to the nagging of their parents. But if you really want to stay out of the wedlock, your parents cannot tie the knot for you. The outdated concepts of arranged marriage and "marry sooner than later" have been eliminated by social progress.
        In conclusion, there is no need to cry for "leftover women", because they are not the abandoned girls, but loaded ladies in two senses—financially and spiritually. Instead, we should celebrate for "leftover women", because they are symbolic of the gender equality and tolerant attitude towards marriage choices.
解析         材料开篇以一位收入丰厚、自信的未婚大龄女性的焦虑为例，指出现如今“剩女”面临着极大的压力（under big pressure）。
        随后文章简要谈及“剩女”面临极大压力的体现：首先从2007年开始，中国主流媒体（state-run media）开始广泛使用“剩女”这个略带贬义的词（belittles older,unmarried women），遭到女性的抱怨；一些地方政府甚至因此举办了一些相亲活动（match making events）；看轻适龄未婚女性的趋势不仅有政府宣传的作用（the tendency to look down on women…isn’t exclusively an attitude promoted by the government），还有来自父母的作用：适龄未婚女性的父母们往往为自家女儿未婚感到丢脸（are ashamed），甚至担心女儿会被认为是不正常的（abnormal）。
        然而，并不是所有“剩女”都急着结婚，有未婚女性就觉得单身生活也不错（isn’t half bad）。
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