【雅思课外精读】马云为什么不再被“追捧”？

　　【雅思课外精读】马云为什么不再被“追捧”？  原文译文   *注：本文选自12月25日《纽约时报》  THE NEW NEW WORLD

　　新世界

　　Why China Turned Against Jack Ma

　　为什么马云会走下神坛

　　The Alibaba chief paid for pushing back against Beijing. But the shift in attitude also speaks to a growing wealth gap and diminished opportunities for the young.

　　官方对马云态度的转变也说明了国内年轻人机会正在减少

图片来源网络

　　1. In China, Jack Ma is synonymous with success. The English teacher turned internetentrepreneur is the country’s richest person. He founded Alibaba, the closest thing Amazon has to a peer and rival. After Donald J. Trump was elected president in 2016, Mr. Ma was the firsthigh-profile Chinese person he met with.

　　在中国，马云是成功的代名词，他从一名英语老师变成了中国首富。他创立了阿里巴巴，这是能和亚马逊匹敌的一家科技公司。特朗普2016年当选总统后，马云是他第一个会见的中国人。

　　2. That success has translated to a rock-star life for “Daddy Ma,” as some people online called him. He played an unconquerable kung fu master in a 2017 short film packed with top Chinese movie stars. He has sung with Faye Wong, the Chinese pop diva. A painting he created with Zeng Fanzhi, China’s top artist, sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $5.4 million. For China’s young and ambitious, Daddy Ma’s story was one to emulate.

　　网友们叫他“马爸爸“，马云成功过上了明星生活。2017年，他在一部由中国顶级电影明星主演的短片中饰演了一位不可征服的功夫大师，他还曾与中国流行天后王菲同台演唱，也曾和中国顶级艺术家曾梵志共同创作绘画作品，这幅画在苏富比(Sotheby's)拍卖会上以540万美元的价格售出。对于那些野心勃勃的年轻人来说，马云的故事是可以复制的。

　　3. But lately, public sentiment has soured and Daddy Ma has become the man people in China love to hate. He has been called a “villain,” an “evil capitalist” and a “bloodsucking ghost.” A writer listed Mr. Ma’s “10 deadly sins.” Instead of Daddy, some people have started to call him “son” or “grandson.” In stories about him, a growing number of people leave comments quoting Marx: “Workers of the world, unite!”

　　但最近，公众情绪恶化，马爸爸成了人们又爱又恨的男人，人们骂他“恶棍”、“邪恶资本家”， “吸血鬼”。一位作家列出了马云的“十宗罪”。一些人开始骂他“儿子”或“孙子”，而不是爸爸。在马云的传奇中，越来越多的人引用马克思的话:“全世界的工人们，团结起来!”

　　4. This loss of stature has come as Mr. Ma is facing increasing trouble with the Chinese government. Chinese officials on Thursday said they had opened an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, the powerhouse e-commerce company that he co-founded and over which he still holds considerable sway.

　　马云声望不佳，同时，他也面临越来越多的压力。周四，当局称已对阿里巴巴展开反垄断调查。马云是阿里巴巴的联合创始人，他在该公司仍拥有相当大的影响力。

　　5. At the same time, government officials are continuing to circle Ant Group, the fintech giant that Mr. Ma had spun out of Alibaba. Last month the authorities quashed Ant’s plannedblockbuster initial public offering, less than two weeks after Mr. Ma publicly castigatedfinancial regulators for being obsessed with minimizing risk and accused China’s banks of behaving like “pawnshops” by lending only to those who could put up collateral. On Thursday, on the same morning that the Alibaba antitrust investigation was announced, four regulatory agencies said that officials would meet with Ant to discuss new supervision measures.

　　与此同时，当局仍盯着马云从阿里巴巴剥离出来的金融科技巨头蚂蚁金服。上个月，有关部门叫停了蚂蚁金服的IPO计划。两周前，马云公开批评金融监管机构痴迷于将风险最小化，并指责中国的银行像“当铺”一样，只向那些能够提供抵押品的人放贷。周四，也就是宣布对阿里巴巴展开反垄断调查的同一天上午，四家监管机构表示，官员们将与蚂蚁金服会面，讨论新的监管措施。

　　6. On its surface, the shift in Mr. Ma’s public image stems in large part from the Chinese government’s growing criticism of his business empire. A look beneath the surface shows a deeper and more troubling trend for both the Chinese government and the entrepreneurs who powered the country out of its economic dark ages over the past four decades.

　　从表面上看，马云公众形象的转变在很大程度上源于主流对他的商业帝国越来越多的批评。但从更深层次来讲，无论是对中国政府，还是那些在过去40年里推动中国改革开放的企业家来说，都有一种更深、更令人不安的趋势。

　　7. A growing number of people in China seem to feel the opportunities that people like Mr. Ma enjoyed are disappearing, even amid China’s post-coronavirus surge. While China has more billionaires than the United States and India combined, about 600 million of its people earn $150 a month or less. While consumption in the first 11 months of this year fell about 5 percent nationally, China’s luxury consumption is expected to grow nearly 50 percent this year compared with 2019.

　　越来越多的人觉得，像马云这样乘上时代东风取得成功的人享受的机遇正在消失，即使是在疫情之际，人们也这样认为。虽然中国的亿万富翁比美国和印度加起来还多，但中国约有6亿人的月收入不超过150美元。虽然今年前11个月全球的奢侈品消费下降了约5%，但与2019年相比，中国今年的奢侈品消费预计将增长近50%。

　　8. Young college graduates, even those with degrees from the United States, face limited white-collar job prospects and low wages. Housing in the best cities has become too expensive for first-time buyers. Young people who have borrowed from a new generation of online lenders, like Mr. Ma’s Ant Group, have debts they increasingly resent.

　　大学毕业生即使是那些留美归国人士，也只能做一个白领，拿着微薄的薪水。对于首次购房者来说，一线城市的房价已经贵如天价。从在线贷款机构(比如马云的蚂蚁集团)借贷年轻人，也越来越不满。

　　9. For all of China’s economic success, a long-running resentment of the rich, sometimes called the wealthy-hating complex, has long bubbled below the surface. With Mr. Ma, it has emerged with a vengeance. Mr. Ma has his own flamboyant high-profile philanthropic projects, like several initiatives in rural education and a prize to help develop entrepreneurial talent in Africa.

　　尽管国内经济增长迅速，但长期以来，公众对于富人的不满情绪一直在滋长。对于马云来说，这是一种“复仇”。马云自己也有一些很出名的慈善项目，比如乡村教师支教项目和培养非洲创业人才项目等。

　　10. He is as famous for making bold statements and challenging the authorities. In 2003, he created Alipay, which later became part of Ant Group, putting his business empire square in the center of the state-controlled world of finance.

　　他以发表大胆言论和挑战当局而闻名。2003年，他创建了支付宝，这是蚂蚁金服的一部分，蚂蚁金服如今已处于中国国营金融机构的包围之中。

　　11. Regarding Ant’s business, he said on multiple occasions, “If the government needs it, I can give it to the government.” His top lieutenants repeated the line, too.

　　对于蚂蚁金服，他多次表示:“如果政府需要，我愿意献出来。“他的二副也重复了这句话。

　　12. At the time, few people took these remarks seriously. People who know him well considered them a very “Jack thing” to say. “Giving Alipay to the country? Jack Ma is just saying,” read the headline of a 2010 opinion piece in the China Business News newspaper.

　　当时，很少有人把这些话当真。凡是了解他的人都认为他只是嘴上说说而已，《第一财经日报》2010年的一篇评论文章的标题写道，把支付宝献给国家？马云只是嘴上说说而已。

　　13. Now the chances that those bold statements become real have heightened. “Given what has happened, eventually Ant will have to be controlled or even majority owned by the state,” said Zhiwu Chen, an economist at the University of Hong Kong’s business school.

　　现在，这些言论已成事实。香港大学商学院(University of Hong Kong’s business school)经济学家陈志武说,“鉴于当前情况，蚂蚁金服最终将由国家控股，国家将持有多数股权。“

　　14. The pressure on Mr. Ma signals a shift in how the Chinese government regulates the internet. It has long censored content, but in other ways it has adopted a laissez-faire approach.

　　马云面临的压力表明，国内对于监管互联网的方式发生了转变。长期以来，就电商业态来说，采取的是一种自由放任的管理方式。

　　15. Today, Alibaba and its archrival, Tencent, control more personal data and are more intimately involved in everyday life in China than Google, Facebook and other American tech titans are in the United States.

　　如今，阿里巴巴及其主要竞争对手腾讯掌控着更多的个人数据，与谷歌、Facebook和其他美国科技巨头在美国的情况相比，它们更深入地参与到人们的日常生活中。

　　16. Instead of disrupting the state system, the companies have cozied up to it. Sometimes they even help the authorities track people.

　　这些公司正让自己更好地融于社会体制中。有时候，这些科技公司甚至帮助当局追踪犯人。

　　17. China’s tech companies are not the country’s biggest monopolies, however. Those are owned by the state, which dominates banking and finance, telecommunications, electricity and other essential businesses.

　　然而，中国的科技公司只是其经济面貌的冰山一角。最大型的企业一般以国营为主，主导着银行、金融、电信、电力和其他基本业务。

　　18. “China Mobile is a monopoly. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is a monopoly,” wrote Zhang Weiying, a well-regarded Peking University economist, in 2017, “because without the government permission, you can’t enter these industries.”

　　“譬如中国移动和中国工商银行都有着举足轻重的经济地位。”北京大学著名经济学家张维迎在2017年写道，“没有拿到许可的话，你无从踏足这些行业。”