人生方向標 21歲——人生新境界

In Western culture, 21 was the age at which young people traditionally received a key to their parents’ door, as a symbol of entering adulthood.
在西方傳統文化中，年輕人到了21歲便可獲得進入父母房間的鑰匙，象徵着他們開始進入成人世界。

Now, the age of 21 is a time when people ask themselves: where do I go from here?
如今，很多步入21歲的人都會自問：“我要去向哪裏？”

Jiang Fangzhou’s 21 years have been filled with the kind of success most young people wouldn’t dare hope for in a lifetime. She published her first book at the age of nine and has written many more since then.
蔣方舟21年的成長曆程裏取得的成功，是大多數年輕人一輩子都不敢奢求的。9歲時便出版自己的處女作，此後又發表了大量作品。

She is regarded as a spokesperson for her generation. However, her hopes and concerns for the future appear decidedly normal.
蔣方舟被認爲是同齡人的代言人。而她對未來流露出的希望和擔心，也與一般人並無二致。

Not that Jiang herself sees it that way. The pressures that she feels as a 21-year-old are fairly abstract, while the worries of her peers are more to do with practical issues.
並不單單隻有蔣方舟如此憂心忡忡，其他21歲年輕人也有類似的問題，不同點在於，她面臨一種無形的壓力，而她的同輩們擔心的是一些現實問題。

She explains that while her fellow students are chiefly concerned with getting a job or buying an apartment, she frets over how she can excel in her work despite having little experience of the world.
她解釋道，身邊的同伴們都關心求職和買房問題，而她所煩惱的則是，如何在社會經驗有限的基礎上，在寫作之路上再創佳績。

“Over the past 10 years what I lacked was not skills, but the ability to perceive society,” says Jiang. “Having lived in China for so long, I’m worried many of my values are not objective anymore. They might have been *assimilated, or compromised, by my surroundings.”
“在過去10年裏，我缺乏的不是技能，而是洞悉社會的能力，”蔣方舟說，“在中國生活了這麼長時間，我擔心自己的許多價值觀受周圍事物同化或影響，不再像原來那樣客觀。”

However, Jiang, now a senior at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, notes that her peers face intense pressure and competition at school. They are expected to excel in their field of study despite limited experience, just as Jiang is expected to shine in the literary world.
蔣方舟現在是清華大學新聞與傳播學院大四年級的學生，她表示，在學校，同學們承受巨大的壓力，面臨激烈的競爭，正如蔣方舟希望在文學界再有所建樹一樣，他們也期待着在經驗缺乏的前提下，在學業上取得突破。

Although Jiang believes this level of pressure means young people in China have never “*reveled, been *hippies or lived a bohemian lifestyle”, she notes that young Chinese live in an exciting time; in an era in which social transformation is occurring and in which “possibilities arise and roll on with full force”.
蔣方舟認爲，雖然這種壓力意味着中國的年輕人無法過着狂歡尋樂、我行我素或者放蕩不羈的生活。但他們生活在一個激動人心和社會變革的時代，任何機會的出現都有可能改變命運。

Young people, she says, have been forced to open their eyes to the world around them. Jiang’s world has opened up, too. She’s more at ease with herself at 21, compared with when she began college.
蔣方舟說，年輕人不得不放眼周圍的世界，她本人亦是如此。相比剛踏入校園時，如今21歲的她感覺更遊刃有餘了。

“My horizon has broadened and I’m more tolerant,” she says. “As a freshman, I was desperate. I stopped people around me and asked: ‘Is there anything in the world still worth hoping for?’ But now I don’t do that.”
“我的視野變得開闊了，更加包容了,”她說，“大一時，我很絕望。我試着與世隔絕，並問自己‘世上還有什麼仍值得我期望的？’但現在我不會那樣了。”

Jiang says that she may not pursue writing as her main future career because she wants to try “other lifestyles” – overseas travel and study touring sound particularly inviting to her. But she is concerned that many foreigners have skewed perceptions about China.
蔣方舟說她也許不會把寫作作爲未來發展的主要職業，因爲她想嘗試“其他生活方式”——出國遊學對她的吸引力非常大。但她也擔心許多外國人對中國有偏見。

“A few days ago I overheard a conversation between two foreigners sitting next to me on a flight,” says Jiang. “They were having a heated discussion about the number of beggars in China. And how Chinese always go for ‘petty profits’. In fact, they had been in China for only a week.”
“幾天前，我在飛機上聽到身邊兩個外國人的對話,”蔣方舟說，“他們熱火朝天地談論着中國乞丐的數量以及中國人如何佔“小便宜”。但實際上他們只在中國待了一週的時間。”

Jiang believes prejudice is inevitable, but she also maintains that Chinese and Westerners, for example, share much common ground.
蔣方舟相信偏見是不可避免的，但她認爲中國人與西方人也有許多共同點。

“We share the same principles, such as integrity and a willingness to help others,” says Jiang. “The differences between peoples are not that huge.”
“我們有同樣的處事原則，比如誠懇正直和樂於助人，”蔣方舟說，“其實民族間的差異並不是那麼大。”