韩国“袋鼠族”

在韩国，有大批三四十岁的成年人依然和自己的父母同住，由父母来做饭、干家务并支付生活费，这样的人被称为“袋鼠族”。这些大龄啃老族和他们的父母都是怎么看待这种生活状态的呢？

 

Most parents want to shield their children from the hardships of the world, and in South Korea, that often means continuing to provide a home for them even after they are well into adulthood¹.

大多数父母都想在这个艰难的世界中保护自己的孩子，在韩国，这意味着甚至在孩子们早已成年后依然要给他们提供一个家。

 

"Let's be honest. How could I let my precious boy have a hard time?" Lee Young-wook, 61, said.

61岁的李英宇说：“说实话，我怎么忍心让我的宝贝儿子受苦呢？”

 

His son, Lee Jeong-kyu, is 31 and still lives with his parents in the home in which he grew up in Bundang, a suburb of Seoul. Their home is no mansion², but rather a small apartment, just big enough for the three of them.

她儿子李廷圭已经31岁了，依然和父母一起住在首尔市郊盆唐区他从小长大的家里。他们家并非豪宅，只是个小公寓，对一家三口来说仅仅是刚好够住而已。

 

Despite the tight space, the younger Lee has never moved out and lived on his own before - and he doesn't intend to get his own place anytime soon.

尽管空间有限，小李从来没有搬出去独自住过，而且他近期也没这个打算。

 

He is a member of South Korea's "kangaroo tribe" — a moniker used to describe unmarried men and women who haven't moved out of their parents' homes, even though they are in their 30s and even 40s. The name suggests the image of an overgrown marsupial³ that hasn't left its mother's pouch⁴.

他是韩国“袋鼠族”的一员。“袋鼠族”用来描述那些已经三十多岁甚至四十多岁却还未从父母家搬出去的未婚男女们。这个称谓让人联想到一只长得过大却尚未离开母亲育儿袋的有袋类动物。

 

According to a recent report from South Korea's national statistics office, more than 50 percent of unmarried adults between the ages of 30 and 40, and 44 percent of those between 40 and 44, still live with their parents.

韩国国家统计局最新报告显示，一半以上30至40岁的未婚成年人以及44%的40至44岁的未婚成年人仍然和父母住在一起。

 

The report, which was released at the end of March, caused a stir in the country, fueling the popular stereotype⁵ that the kangaroo tribe is made up of South Koreans who have failed to achieve success in life. The report noted⁶ that 42 percent of children who live with their parents are unemployed⁷, and mainstream⁸ media coverage⁹ featured images of exhausted¹⁰ older parents accompanied by carefree, unemployed adult children.

这份报告于三月底发布后，在韩国引起了不小的震动，强化了大众的刻板印象，即“袋鼠族”是由那些人生不成功的韩国人组成的。报告指出，与父母同住的孩子中有42%是无业人员，主流媒体的报道中描绘了疲惫不堪的年长父母和无忧无虑的失业成年子女的形象。

 

Despite the recent media attention, however, experts say that it's long been common for children in South Korea to live with their parents into adulthood.

尽管最近受到了媒体关注，然而，专家表示，长期以来，韩国的孩子与父母一起生活到成年是非常普遍的现象。

 

"The kangaroo tribe phenomenon is hardly a modern phenomenon in South Korea, since the percentages of adults in their 30s and 40s living with their parents in the 1980s and 2010s do not differ by much," Kye Bong-oh, a sociology professor at Kookmin University, said.

韩国国民大学的社会学教授桂奉武说：“袋鼠族现象并非什么新现象，因为上世纪80年代和本世纪10年代，三四十岁的成年人与父母同住的比例并没有太大的差别。”

 

Furthermore, while a lack of economic independence is often a factor for why children don't leave the nest, the truth is that many continue to live at home for a variety of reasons, and the kangaroo tribe phenomenon is not as simple and one-sided as often depicted¹¹ in popular culture.

此外，虽然缺乏经济独立往往是孩子们不离巢的一个因素，但实际上，许多人出于各种原因继续住在家里，“袋鼠族”现象并不像流行文化中经常描绘的那样简单和片面。

分享到：