中國出現"橡皮人"一代 沒有夢想也沒有痛苦

Almost as soon as he wakes up at 8am each day, property agent Kevin Tu is already tired. He drags himself to work, and puts in nine hours in front of the computer and with clients. Then he goes home to his one-bedroom apartment in the south side of Beijing to stare at TV shows alone。

房地產經紀人凱文-徐(音)每天早晨8點鐘差不多一睜眼就覺得已經疲憊不堪。拖着疲乏的身子來到公司，然後坐在電腦前一呆就是9個小時。下班後回到位於北京南部的一居室小公寓，一個人盯着電視看。

A go-getting executive in a multi-national company just a few years ago, Tu, 31, now lives just "one day at a time", as he puts it. That might be the motto for a growing group of fatigued young, white-collar Chinese known as "eraser" or "plasticine" men (xiang pi ren)。

31歲的徐幾年前是一家跨國公司的管理人員，是個雄心勃勃的人，而今用他自己的話來說，日子是“過一天算一天”。這也許就是中國日益壯大的疲憊的年輕白領的座右銘，這個羣體就是衆所周知的“橡皮人”羣體。

Brow-beaten out of shape by life, they show little if any response as they are kneaded this way and that, reported a local news magazine which has popularized the term now spreading in Chinese cyberspace. Broadly defined, they are mostly white-collar workers who are somewhat numb to life, have no dreams, interests or ideals, and do not feel much pain - or joy - reported the Guangzhou-based magazine。

中國一份雜誌報道，這個羣體被生活的壓力捏成各種形態，任由涅拿玩弄，毫無反應。“橡皮人”這個詞如今走紅中國的網絡，而使之名聲大噪的正是這家雜誌。該雜誌說，廣義上講，這個羣體大多是白領，他們對生活有些麻木，沒有夢想，沒有興趣或者理想，不覺得多麼痛苦也不覺得多麼開心。

　　These "plasticine men" can be found among doctors, bank employees, teachers, journalists, traffic policemen, civil servants, actors and taxi drivers, the magazine reported. Typically, they work alone and for more than 50 hours a week. They feel as if they have expended all their energy and all they get in return is a sense of emptiness。

該雜誌還稱，“橡皮人”常見於如下職業：醫生、銀行員工、教師、記者、交通警察、公務員、演員和出租車司機等。一般來說，這些人習慣於無需分享的孤獨工作，每週工作時間超過50個小時。他們覺得似乎耗盡了所有精力，換來的只有空虛感。這個詞源於1986年一本名叫《橡皮人》的書，該書作者是至今仍然走紅的小說家王朔，該書後來被拍成電影《大喘氣》。

　　If there is a growing group of "plasticine men" among China's white-collar class, it is hardly surprising, said outspoken sociology professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University in Beijing. "We are all slaves these days. Buy a house and you're a 'house slave' (fang nu). Buy a car and you're a 'car slave' (che nu). Bear a child and you're a 'child slave' (hai nu)，" he said. The root source of these woes is the great inequality in Chinese society today, he said, noting that powerful elite interest groups keep a stranglehold on wealth。
　
　　中國人民大學一貫坦率直言的社會學教授周孝正說，中國白領階層中出現越來越多的“橡皮人”，這一點不令人吃驚。他說：“如今所有人都是奴隸。買房子的成了‘房奴’，買車的成了‘車奴’，生了孩子的就成了‘孩奴’。”他說，這些不幸的根源在於當今中國社會嚴重缺失公平，他指出有權有勢的精英利益集團牢牢把持着財富。

　　For his part, Tu is concerned less with money than about finding his zest for life again. "Maybe this numbness is just a phase," he said, thinking aloud. "Or maybe life will just be this bland for me and I'll just have to accept that this is it."

　就塗先生來說，他更擔心的是重新找到對生活的熱情，而不是賺錢。他若有所思地說：“也許這種麻木只是一個階段，又或者生活對我來說就是這般乏味，我只能接受這個事實。”