Highly effective people’s republic

Why self-help books are so popular in China

為什么勵(lì)志書籍在國(guó)內(nèi)這么盛行

詞匯

self-help book/英英釋義

Self-help books are books written with the intention to instruct readers on a number of personal problems. They take their name from Self-Help, the Victorian best-seller, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help.【該詞源于一本名為《self-help 》的書籍，旨在幫助人們解決一些個(gè)人問題，這里我們可以理解為勵(lì)志書籍；自我提升書籍，自救/自助書籍。反正大概就這意思?】

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To cope with rapid change, some people crave pointers

為了應(yīng)對(duì)高速的變化，有些人渴望得到指示

?本文部分特殊詞匯有替換，但不影響原文

Nov 14th 2020 |?

BOOKSHOPS IN CHINA?are replete with works offering advice on self-betterment. Topics range from coping with shyness (“How to Make Friends with Strangers in One Minute”) to succeeding in business (“Financial Management in Seven Minutes”). The title of one recent bestseller urges: “Don’t Opt for Comfort at the Stage of Life that is Meant to be Difficult”. Their popularity and contents reflect the stresses of a society in rapid flux—one in which paths to wealth are opening up in ways barely imaginable a generation ago and competition is fierce (see article).

中國(guó)的書店里充斥著提供自我改善建議的書籍。話題范圍從應(yīng)對(duì)害羞(《如何在一分鐘內(nèi)與陌生人交朋友》)到商業(yè)成功學(xué)(《七分鐘理財(cái)》)。最近一本暢銷書的書名敦促道:“不要在注定艱難的人生階段選擇舒適”。它們的流行程度和內(nèi)容反映了一個(gè)快速變化的社會(huì)所面臨的壓力——財(cái)富之路正在以一代人之前難以想象的方式開放，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)也十分激烈。

詞匯

?Replete/ 充滿的；裝滿的

self-betterment/自我提高

?Flux/變遷；不穩(wěn)定

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Reliable statistics on China’s book market are hard to find. But according to a study by Eric Hendriks-Kim, a sociologist at the University of Bonn, self-help books may account for almost one-third of China’s printed-book market. In America they make up only 6% of adult non-fiction print sales, reckons NPD?Group, a research firm.

很難找到關(guān)于中國(guó)圖書市場(chǎng)的可靠統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)。但波恩大學(xué)社會(huì)學(xué)家埃里克·亨德里克斯-金的一項(xiàng)研究顯示，自助書籍可能占據(jù)了中國(guó)印刷版圖書市場(chǎng)的近三分之一。據(jù)NPD集團(tuán)(一家研究公司)估計(jì)，在美國(guó)，電子書只占成人非小說類書籍銷量的6%。

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Although China’s leaders keep stressing the need for China to be “self-reliant”, seekers of advice on how to succeed often turn to American books for guidance. In China last year the top ten self-help sellers included translations of several American works, such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” and “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”.

盡管中國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人不斷強(qiáng)調(diào)中國(guó)必須“自力更生”，但尋求成功建議的人往往會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)向美國(guó)書籍尋求指導(dǎo)。去年在中國(guó)，自助暢銷書的前十名包括幾本美國(guó)著作的翻譯，如《如何贏得朋友和影響他人》、《頂峰:專業(yè)新科學(xué)的秘密》和《高效能人士的七個(gè)習(xí)慣》。

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Chinese readers appear more eager for such imports than people in many other countries that are culturally closer to America. That may be because both China and America are “hyper-competitive and materialistic regimes”, argues Mr Hendriks-Kim, who has described this in his book “Life Advice from Below: the Public Role of Self-Help Coaches in Germany and China”. In the early 2000s a Chinese translation of “Who Moved My Cheese?”, a motivational book by an American, Dr Spencer Johnson, became so popular that a play based on it toured theatres and the Chinese word for cheese acquired a new meaning: one’s own self-interest. Books proliferated in China with cheese in their titles.

中國(guó)讀者似乎比其他許多文化上與美國(guó)更親近的國(guó)家的讀者更渴望這些進(jìn)口商品。亨德里克斯-金姆認(rèn)為，這可能是因?yàn)橹袊?guó)和美國(guó)都是“高度競(jìng)爭(zhēng)和物欲主義的政權(quán)”，他在他的著作《人生忠告:德國(guó)和中國(guó)自助教練的公共角色》中描述了這一點(diǎn)。21世紀(jì)初，《誰(shuí)動(dòng)了我的奶酪?》這本由美國(guó)人斯賓塞·約翰遜博士撰寫的勵(lì)志書大受歡迎，一部根據(jù)它改編的戲劇在各地劇院上演。在中文里，奶酪一詞有了新的含義:自我利益。在中國(guó)，標(biāo)題中帶有奶酪的書籍激增。

詞匯

?Proliferated/增殖；擴(kuò)散

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China has a long tradition of reading for practical purposes. In 2018 fiction accounted for 7% of sales, compared with more than 30% in Germany. “One of the most striking features of China’s market for books is its absolute and passionate relevance to life,” said a report in 2006 by Arts Council England. The exam-focused education system leaves little time to develop interpersonal skills, so people, desperate for advice on how to sell themselves, turn to self-help books instead.

中國(guó)有悠久的實(shí)用讀書傳統(tǒng)。2018年，小說占銷量的7%，而在德國(guó)這一比例超過30%。“中國(guó)圖書市場(chǎng)最顯著的特點(diǎn)之一是它對(duì)生活的絕對(duì)和熱情的相關(guān)性，”英格蘭藝術(shù)委員會(huì)2006年的一份報(bào)告說。以考試為重點(diǎn)的教育體系幾乎沒有時(shí)間培養(yǎng)人際交往能力，因此人們迫切需要如何推銷自己的建議，轉(zhuǎn)而求助于自助書籍。

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That may suit the Communist Party, eager as it is to promote “positive energy”. But the party would prefer native-born role models. State media have touted a book by Mr Xi, “Seven Years as an Educated Youth”, as the kind of tome people should study (see picture). It describes Mr Xi’s hard life in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. “Is there really any self-help book better than Xi’s?” asked one headline.

這或許正合?Communist Party的心意，因?yàn)樗释茝V“正能量”。但?Party更傾向于選擇土生土長(zhǎng)的榜樣。官方媒體稱Mr Xi的《知青七年》是人們應(yīng)該學(xué)習(xí)的大師級(jí)書籍(見圖)。它描述了Mr Xi在1960年代和1970年代的?Cultural Revolution?的農(nóng)村艱苦生活。”還有什么書能比Mr Xi的這本自傳書還要?jiǎng)?lì)志?”一個(gè)標(biāo)題這樣問道。

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Mr Xi is also fond of the classics, some of which are being repurposed for self-improvement purposes. Yu Dan, perhaps China’s best-known pop philosopher, has sold 11m legal copies (millions more may have been peddled in photocopied form) of “Confucius from the Heart”. Some Chinese have mocked it for making the sage sound “much like the masters of American self-help”, says Mr Hendriks-Kim.

Mr Xi也喜歡經(jīng)典,其中一些轉(zhuǎn)化為自我完善的目的。于丹，或許是中國(guó)最知名的通俗哲學(xué)家，已經(jīng)賣出了1100萬冊(cè)正版《于丹心得》(可能還有數(shù)百萬冊(cè)影印版兜售)。亨德里克斯-金先生說，一些中國(guó)人嘲笑它使圣人聽起來“更像美國(guó)自救大師”。

詞匯

?sage /圣人；賢人

Perhaps the self-help industry has come full circle. After all, China’s 6th-century-BC?masterpiece for would-be generals, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, was arguably the self-help prototype. Its title has been echoed, consciously or otherwise, in the names of countless other books of the genre. One such is Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”. Its fifth and most recent translation in China was published in 2016 by the Communist Youth League. ■

或許自我提升書籍又回到了原點(diǎn)。畢竟，中國(guó)公元前6世紀(jì)為預(yù)備將軍們創(chuàng)作的杰作《孫子兵法》可以說是自助的原型。這本書的名字有意無意地在無數(shù)同類書的名字中得到了呼應(yīng)。其中之一就是唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)的《交易的藝術(shù)》(The Art of The Deal)。它在中國(guó)的第五部也是最新的譯本于2016年由Communist Youth League出版?！?/span>

詞匯

Arguably/可論證地;可以認(rèn)為的

Prototype/原型；樣本；標(biāo)準(zhǔn)

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