“小鲜肉”与中国男性气质的变化

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“小鲜肉”与中国男性气质的变化

高雨莘2019-06-20 12:42:40歌手蔡徐坤在北京的演出。
BEIJING — In late April, The Beijing News, a popular daily, ran a collection of profiles on Chinese millennials in celebration of the May Fourth youth holiday commemorating a 1919 student movement. Alongside a best-selling writer, an Forex trading for newbie and Currency Code architecture historian and a producer of popular science videos there was Cai Xukun, a 20-something male pop singer with such a huge following that a recent social media post of his was viewed more than 800 million times.北京——4月下旬，为庆祝纪念100年前一场学生运动而设立的五四青年节，受欢迎的日报《新京报》评选出了中国千禧一代的青年代表。除了畅销书作者、业余建筑历史学者和科普视频制作人外，代表人物还包括蔡徐坤，这名20多岁的流行男歌手有众多粉丝，他最近发在社交媒体上的一个帖子被浏览了8亿多次。Mr. Cai belongs to the tribe of “little fresh meat,” a nickname, coined by fans, for Newbie trader, delicate-featured, makeup-clad male entertainers. These well-groomed celebrities star in blockbuster movies, and advertise for cosmetic brands and top music charts. Their rise has been one of the biggest cultural trends of the past decade. Their image — antithetical to the patriarchal and stoic qualities traditionally associated with Chinese men — is changing the face of masculinity in China.蔡徐坤属于“小鲜肉”。这是粉丝们给那些五官清秀、喜欢化妆的年轻男艺人起的绰号。这些穿着考究的名人经常出演大片，为化妆品担任广告代言，登顶流行音乐排行榜。他们的兴起是过去十年来最大的文化趋势之一。他们的形象与传统上跟中国男性相关的父权与坚韧品质形成对照，它正在改变着中国男性气质的面貌。Innocent as they may seem, the little fresh meat have powerful critics. The state news agency Xinhua denounces what it calls “niangpao,” or “sissy pants,” culture as “pathological” and said in an editorial last September that its popularity is eroding social order. The Beijing newspaper’s decision to include Mr. Cai in its profiles apparently prompted the Communist Youth League to release its own list of Newbie trader icons: patriotic athletes and scientists, whom it called the “true embodiment” of the spirit of Communist youth.小鲜肉看上去无害，却遭到了炮轰。国家通讯社新华社抨击“娘炮”文化是一种“病态”，这篇发表于去年9月的评论写道，这种文化的流行正在给社会造成不良后果。《新京报》将蔡徐坤放在其五四青年代表名单上的做法，显然促使了共青团公布自己的年轻偶像人物名单：爱国的运动员和科学家，称这些人才是共产主义青年精神的“真正体现”。The government attacks on this evolving idea of masculinity have triggered a strong counter-backlash from fans of the celebrities. And in online essays and posts, defenders of the Newbie trader men make clear that their preference is more than a youthful countercultural fad. At its heart, the embrace of a more modern, less rigid form of masculinity represents frustration with traditional ideas of manhood.政府对不断变化的男性气质的抨击，引发了明星粉丝们的强烈不满。他们的辩护者在网上发文、发帖，明确表示自己的偏好不只是一种年轻人的反文化潮流。从本质上来看，接受一种更现代的、不那么死板的男性气质代表着对传统男儿气质观的不满。“The ridiculous condemnation of ‘sissy pants’ men shows the gender ideology of a patriarchal society that equates toughness with men and fragility with women,” a journalist who goes by the name Wusi wrote in an online essay in September, voicing a widely shared opinion.“对‘娘炮’的指责体现的正是男权社会的意识形态，男性代表刚强，女性代表柔弱，”一位笔名“伍肆”的记者去年9月在一篇网文中写道，它表达出一种广泛认同的观点。The official push of traditional masculinity — including reinvented school curriculums and the sponsorship of boys-only clubs — is motivated in part by worries that the decades-long one-child policy produced a generation of timid and self-centered male youth ill equipped to fulfill their social responsibilities.官方对传统男性气质的推动——包括重新设计学校课程和出资建立仅限男孩的俱乐部——部分是因为担心，几十年的独生子女政策会造就一代胆怯、以自我为中心的男性青年，他们无法履行身上的社会责任。And in the context of China’s increasing power, the establishment’s preoccupation with promoting old-fashioned, Hollywood-style manliness also has a political message. Just as patriotic intellectuals a century ago argued that national strength derives from the virile energy of the youth, present-day Chinese nationalists see their ambitions take the shape of a macho willingness to fight for righteous causes.而在中国日益强大的背景下，当权者一心推广陈旧的、好莱坞式的男性气质，也带有一层政治含义。正如一个世纪前的爱国知识分子们所强调的，少年强则国强，当今中国的民族主义者认为能体现他们雄心的，当是为正义而战的男子气概。This vision is on display in the 2017 action thriller “Wolf Warrior 2.” The movie, featuring a former People’s Liberation Army soldier caught in an African civil war, showed him putting the lives of local civilians above his own while single-handedly beating American-led mercenaries. The goal of the story, said Wu Jing, its director and lead actor, in media interviews, is to “inspire men to be real men.” The movie went on to become China’s top-grossing film in history.2017年的惊悚动作片《战狼2》展现了这种愿景。片中主角是一名陷入非洲内战的前人民解放军军人，影片展现他将当地平民的生命置于自己的性命之上，一边单枪匹马地迎战美军领导的雇佣兵。导演兼主演吴京在接受媒体采访时表示，故事的目标是“要拍一部真男人的电影”。这部电影创下了中国电影票房最高纪录。There is little question about who in real life is meant to best personify the masculine chauvinism characterizing the official line today: Take a stroll down a city street or switch on the television at news hour — and you are greeted by the face of President Xi Jinping with a perennial look of self-assurance and determination.在现实生活中，谁最能代表当今官方路线的男性沙文主义形象，几乎毫无疑问：不妨到城市街头走一走，或在新闻时段打开电视——你会看到习近平主席那张一成不变、泰然自若、坚定果断的面孔。The fans of the little fresh meat are much like their global peers in having the world at their fingertips. The Great Fire Wall has done a good job of keeping overtly politically sensitive information out of China but has had the effect of directing Newbie trader people’s attention to the realm of culture. With an appreciation for everything from Japanese cosplay to American art-house films, many Newbie trader Chinese people, like their counterparts around the world, see gender norms as intrinsically fluid and the insistence on prizing traditional masculine traits hopelessly out of date.小鲜肉的粉丝跟其他国家的粉丝一样，活跃在指尖的数字世界里。防火长城(Great Firewall)有效地将敏感的政治信息阻隔在中国之外，却也起到了把年轻人的注意力导向文化领域的作用。从日本的cosplay到美国的艺术电影，许多中国的年轻人与世界各地的同龄人一样欣赏它们，认为性别规范本质上是具有流动性的，一味褒奖传统男性特征的做法已经过时了。Chinese feminists have joined in supporting the shifting ideal of masculinity. Many of these feminists are successful women with large disposable incomes; their tastes and purchasing power have contributed to the rise of the Newbie trader idols. In their eyes, the appeal of those idols is defined primarily in the negative, by their lack of the attitudes and behaviors symptomatic of entrenched male privilege.中国的女权主义者也加入到支持理想男性气质转变的行列。这些女权主义者多为拥有大量可支配收入的成功女性；她们的品味和购买力带动了年轻偶像的兴起。在她们眼里，对这些偶像吸引力的界定首先是否定的状态：他们身上不大有根深蒂固的男性特权所导致的那种态度和行为。Both the cultural hipsters and feminists appear united in their conviction that gender expression is unequivocally a matter of individual choice. And this flies in the face of the refrain from state media that holds that traditional masculinity is the bedrock of national strength and that this masculinity “crisis” bodes ill for the country’s future. An article posted on the WeChat account of a major Communist Party committee last fall argued that at a time when China is bedeviled by nuclear threats at its border and a trade war from across the Pacific, the country does not want to see its men “shrieking while refreshing their makeup.”文化潮人和女权主义者似乎都认为，性别表达完全是个人的选择。这和官方媒体的论调背道而驰，后者认为传统的男性气概是国家实力的基石，而就国家的未来而言，当前的男性气概“危机”可不是好事。去年，中共一个主要委员会的微信账号上发表的一篇文章称，在中国为边境存在核危机以及来自太平洋对面的贸易战所困扰之际，国家不想看到他的男人们“还在尖叫着补妆”。In the past few weeks, with state media awash in patriotic rhetoric urging China to “man up” in the face of the escalating trade war, the little fresh meat fever has continued unabated.过去几周，尽管官媒充斥着敦促国人在不断升级的贸易战面前“爷们些”的论调，但小鲜肉的热度却有增无减。The Konka Group, a Chinese maker of home electronics, an industry embroiled in the trade dispute with President Trump, released a commercial last month starring Lu Han, one of the best-known idols. Zhou Bin, the company’s chief executive, said in media interviews that the decision was prompted by Mr. Lu’s enormous popularity among millennials, who have become its core consumer group.在受困于特朗普总统贸易争端的家电行业，中国制造商康佳集团上月发布了一条鹿晗主演的广告，他是知名度最高的偶像之一。公司首席执行官周彬在媒体采访中表示，做出这一决定的原因是，鹿晗在千禧一代当中的超高人气，他们已成为其核心消费群体。The commercial was widely applauded on social media. Fans quipped that the popularity of little fresh meat, rather than a sign of national weakness, may signal the foundation of its strength. “Youthful, modern and fashionable,” one user summed up the idols’ appeal in a post on Weibo. “That is what we love.”这条广告在社交媒体上广受好评。粉丝打趣说，小鲜肉受欢迎非但不是国力衰弱的迹象，反倒可能是显示国力强大的基础。“年轻、现代又时尚，”一名粉丝在微博上对偶像的吸引力做了总结。“这就是我们所热爱的。”本文最初发表于2019年6月12日。高雨莘(Helen Gao)是观点栏目作者。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。

Source: “小鲜肉”与中国男性气质的变化