“催婚”让很多单身人士害怕春节回家，因为饭桌上，七大姑八大姨聊得话题除了生孩子就是结婚。
那我们看看外媒是怎么报道的，顺便学习一些有趣的表达。
Marriage pressure
Itching to hitch ’em Chinese singles face the heat over the holiday
结婚压力：面对媒婆们“强烈猛攻”，单身同胞成了春节焦点
◆itching to 这里是渴望…的意思
◆hitch 这里是非正式用语 结婚，get hitched=get married
In the weeks leading up to the lunar new year on January 22nd, millions of people travelled back to their home towns to celebrate the country’s biggest holiday. Some have not been home for two years, thanks to pandemic travel curbs. There have been joyful reunions, fireworks and banquets. But, for single people of a certain age, there have also been awkward questions.
春节前，几百万人启程回家庆祝最大的节日。由于疫情旅行限制，有些人已经两年没回家了。春节期间一家人吃着团圆饭、放着烟花庆祝。但是，对一定年龄的单身人士来说，他们还要面对一些艰难的问题。
◆travel curb 旅行限制
The holiday is a chance for parents, aunts, uncles—even distant cousins—to press their young relatives to get married. Such nagging occurs in most countries. In China, though, the pressure is intense.
趁着春节聚会，父母、七大姑八大姨和远方亲戚正好给未婚年轻人施加点压力。这种唠叨不限国籍。但是在这里，这种催促尤为紧迫。
◆nagging 唠叨，念叨
Online searches for cuihun (urging someone to wed) peak every year at this time, according to data from Baidu, a search engine. Beleaguered 20 and 30somethings are flooding social media with complaints. “I used to like the atmosphere at new year, but now I hate it more and more,” said one person on Weibo, a Twitterlike platform. “If you are not married, you’re urged to get married. If you are married, you’re urged to have children.”
每年春节期间“催婚”都是网络热门话题。被“催”的20-30岁的年轻人在网络上大倒苦水。“我以前很喜欢过年，但现在我越来越讨厌它了。” “如果你没结婚，别人就催你结婚；如果你结婚了，别人就催你生孩子”。
◆beleaguered 围困的，包围的
Nowadays the pressure comes from the state, too. young people have been marrying later—or not at all. The average age of a firsttime newlywed was 28.7 in 2020, about four years higher than it was a decade ago. China registered 7.6m marriages in 2021, the lowest number on record.
这种压力不光来自家庭，还来自国家。适龄青年结婚的年龄越来越晚，有些甚至终生不婚。2020年，初婚的平均年龄是28.7，比十年前晚了4年。2021年，注册结婚的人有760万，是历年最低。
Fewer marriages have meant fewer births. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China had 1.412bn people at the end of last year, down by 850,000 on the year before. It is the first time the population has declined since 1962, after millions died in a famine. A shrinking, ageing population is bad for economic growth and will create a huge burden of care. But incentives for couples to have children, such as cash handouts and tax cuts, have had little effect.结婚人数降低意味着生育率的降低。据国家统计局数据，至去年底，人口为14.12亿，比前一年减少了85万人。这是自1962年大饥荒造成数百万人死亡后，人口数量第一次下降。
人口减少、不断加深的老年化对经济发展和养老都会造成沉重的负担。然而，现金奖励、减税等鼓励多生育的刺激政策效果却不理想。
There are several reasons behind this demographic crunch. Young people are better educated than previous generations and more likely to spend their 20s pursuing careers. This is especially true of women. Owning a car and a house is seen by many as a basic requirement for settling down—and many young people have neither. In cities, a grueling work culture leaves little time for marriage and kids. In rural areas, a hefty bride price can get in the way of a match.
“人口荒”背后的原因很多。现在的年轻人比祖辈们受教育程度更高，在20多岁的时候，大部分都在求职中。
女性尤其如此。车、房被看做是成家的基本条件，但是很多年轻人却无法满足这两个条件。
在城市中，痛苦的职场文化剥夺了人们结婚和生育的时间。在农村，高额的彩礼也成了婚姻的一道障碍。
◆demographic crunch 人口短缺
Parents don’t care for such excuses. Some singles have come home to find that a string of blind dates has been set up for them. Others provide cuihun countermeasures. One netizen suggested telling parents that it is tough to find a partner worthy of them. An article published two years ago in Chongqing Daily, a local newspaper, advised feigning deafness or going on the attack by interrogating aunts and uncles about their own children’s marital status.
原因重重，但做父母的才不管这些。有些年轻人回到家，发现被安排了一大堆相亲。其他人则不甘心“被摆布”，于是想出了好多“反制措施”。
一名网友建议告诉父母-“自己太好了，没人值得托付终生”。两年前《重庆日报》的一篇文章建议那些被催婚的人发过来质问催他们的七大姑八大姨自己子女的婚姻状况。
Another solution is to rent a boyfriend or girlfriend for new year. Some actors provide such a service. But the ruse was easier to pull off when the holiday was celebrated over video.还有一个解决方法——租个男友或女友回家过年。一些演员成了租赁对象。但是当过年不回家，打个视频就没这么多麻烦了。
ruse 策略，计策，诡计
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