單身男女租個伴侶回家過年

導讀：年關將至，租友風潮(rent a girlfriend)再度盛行。單身男女紛紛網上發帖高薪租賃異性朋友，帶回家應付盼兒女成家心切的父母們。就讓我們一起看看這些應對春節的難關的奇招吧！

Money can`t buy you love, but it can let you rent a girlfriend to take home for Chinese New Year.
雖然金錢買不到愛情，但你可以租個女友回家過年。

It seems modern Chinese parents still make old-world demands on their adult offspring to hurry up and marry and produce offspring. The pressure is greater in rural areas than it is in urban cities.
當今的中國父母似乎仍會將傳統觀念加在下一代身上，催促他們早點結婚生子。而在農村地區，這一壓力要往往大於城市。

So, the pressure is on to arrive home for the holiday with a girlfriend in tow. I say girlfriend because, statistically, marriageable-age men now outnumber women of that age here.
所以，當務之急就是要帶個女朋友回家過節。我之所以用“女朋友”這個詞，是因爲，據統計，適婚男性的數量遠遠超過了適婚女性的數量。

For much of the past decade, the media each year has reported on who rents girlfriends, how much it costs to rent a girlfriend and how they carry off their holiday-only charades in small towns and big cities across the country.
在過去的十多年裏，媒體每年都會針對那些租用女友的人及其費用做大幅報道，還會追蹤身在國內各地的他們是如何在重重僞裝下歡度節日的。

There was the story about the fake girlfriend who refused to return the money from "red envelope" gifts handed out at a Chinese New Year party in Zhengzhou. The police broke up their argument and persuaded the couple to split the money.
曾經有過這樣一則事例，鄭州市的一名假冒女友因拒絕交出新年聚會上獲得的紅包而引起糾紛。最終警方調解並說服他們平分錢財。

There was the story about an engineer in Shanghai who rented a girlfriend, but whose parents found out at the family reunion. There was the story from Changsha about a "girlfriend" who kept forgetting her lines, to the consternation of the young man who had hired her and trained her what to say to his parents.
另一則故事講的是，上海某工程師租女友回家，可是男方父母卻在家庭聚會中發現破綻。還有一則事例發生在長沙，冒牌女友竟忘了男生教她應付父母的話，令這位年輕僱主一陣錯愕。

One fellow told the media he attracted 400 applicants in three days when he advertised on his Internet blog for a girl to take home to Xuzhou. Daily pay rates, according to a variety of media reports, can range from 80 yuan to 3,000 yuan.
一位讀者向媒體透露，自己曾在網絡博客上發帖招女友回徐州老家，三天內就吸引了400名申請者。據各大媒體報道稱，這一租賃的日收入從800到3000元不等。

There are professional men in their 20s and 30s who tell the media they`re too busy to find a real girlfriend, or who can`t afford a girlfriend because they just graduated from college. Other young men in search of a fake girlfriend tell the media they just broke up with their real girlfriend and haven`t found a replacement in time, or that their real girlfriends refused to go home with them to meet the parents. One young man told the media he`s gay, but isn`t ready to tell his family yet.
這些男性僱主大都爲20—30歲之間的職業精英，他們或是太忙，沒有時間在現實生活中找尋正牌女友；或是認爲自己剛剛畢業，無法負擔一個女友。而另外一些需求冒牌女友的年輕人則告訴媒體，他們剛剛和正牌女友分手，一時之間找不到合適的人來代替，又或是他們的正牌女友拒絕一起回家見家長。其中也有一位年輕人表示自己是同性戀，但是還不準備告知家人。

If I were a Chinese mom I might say, "Welcome home, dear. Is this your real girlfriend or your fake girlfriend" when your son arrives home with a good-looking girlfriend of just the right age who has the perfect answers for all the anticipated questions.
如果你兒子帶女朋友回家，女孩長相漂亮且年齡相仿，並且能完美地回答可以預料到的所有問題，換做我是這位中國母親的話，我就會說：“親愛的，歡迎回家。這位女孩是正牌還是冒牌？”

If I were a Chinese mother, I might say, "Dear, I`d like a 50-50 share of the fee you paid your fake girlfriend, because I`m the one who also has to pretend she`s real in front of your father, uncles and cousins."
如果我是一名中國母親，我會問：“兒子，你付給她的酬金是不是也要分我一半？因爲我也要在你父親、叔叔以及表兄妹面前假裝她是你的正牌女友。”

I`m a mom, too, and I suspect that our lie-detector skills are universal. We start by learning what our babies` faces look like when they need to burp. After more than 20 or 30 years of practice, most of us have come to know what our children`s faces look like when they tell a lie.
同樣身爲母親，我想我們的測謊技巧大同小異。從孩子剛剛會打飽嗝時起，我們便開始觀察他們的面部表情。經過了二三十年的實踐，大多數母親都漸漸懂得看破孩子說謊時的表情。

But then, there`s dad. This is the 21st century, and the whole world has changed. No one expects young people in a tough global economy with a high cost of living to find a mate and get married right away.
但爸爸們就另當別論了。當下是二十一世紀，整個世界都發生着變化。世界經濟發展受阻，生活成本居高不下，在這樣的背景下沒有人指望年輕人能夠迅速找到對象並結婚。

Isn`t it time to tell fathers the truth about fake girlfriends and mothers who pretend to believe it? I suspect I might say, "No, not this year."
那到底要不要向那些信以爲真的爸爸們以及假裝毫不知情的媽媽們坦白，告訴他們事實的真相？我想如果換做是我，我可能會說：“不，今年還不是時候。”

【詞彙解釋】

CASIO辭海拾貝

offspring 子孫

in tow 一起

outnumber 數目超過

red envelope 紅包，壓歲錢

lines 臺詞

consternation 驚慌失措

gay 同性戀

lie-detector 測謊

burp 打嗝

mate 配偶