虎妈猫爸育儿方式较量

 　　Move over Tiger Mother - there's a new cat on the block.

　　虎妈靠边儿，育儿领域来了“猫爸”。

　　Perhaps you're familiar with the super-strict mum who pushes her kids to be the best at school, sport, and music - no matter what the cost. It's a parenting style made famous in 2011 by the Chinese-American author Amy Chua and her best-selling book "The Battle Hymn¹ of the Tiger Mother". Well, there's another feline² in the parenting world: Cat Dad.

　　您或许对这种超级严格的妈妈很熟悉，无论付出什么代价，她都要让自己的孩子成为学习上、体育上和音乐方面的佼佼者。2011年，美籍华裔作家蔡美儿和她的畅销作品《虎妈战歌》让这种育儿方式闻名全世界。不过，在父母育儿领域又出现了另一种“猫科动物”：猫爸。

　　Cat Dad takes a more softly, softly approach to parenting - preferring to be emotionally sensitive, gentle and relaxed about rules and discipline, in the belief that it will make their offspring³ self-sufficient and independent. The term has been trending on the micro blogging site Sina Weibo because of a hit Chinese television programme, "Tiger Mom Cat Dad". The two lead characters are, as the title suggests, a fierce Tiger Mom and a chilled-out Cat Dad. Their styles collide⁴ as they try to raise their young daughter.

　　猫爸在育儿方面采取的方式更为温和，情感细腻、温柔，在规则和纪律上更宽松，他们人物这样能让孩子自信独立。随着电视剧《虎妈猫爸》的热播，“猫爸”一词已 在新浪微博上流行开了。正如剧名所示，剧中的两位主角，一位是严厉的虎妈，另一位是从容的猫爸。在抚养女儿的问题上，二人的教育风格发生了冲突与碰撞。

　　虎妈猫爸育儿方式较量

　　While Cat Dad may not be as well known as Tiger Mother, he's actually been around nearly as long. One of the original Cat Dads was Chang Zhitao, a father from Shanghai who went head to head in a debate with Chua shortly after her book was published. Despite having vastly different approaches to parenting, both Chua and Chang had daughters who were accepted into Harvard University.

　　虽然猫爸可能没有虎妈出名，但实际上，猫爸几乎是与虎妈同时存在的。来自上海的常智韬是最早被称做猫爸的父亲之一，在蔡美儿出书后不久，他曾与蔡美儿进行了一次正面交锋。尽管蔡美儿与常智韬有着极为不同的育儿方式，但两人各自的女儿都被哈佛大学录取。

　　And as if the Tiger-Cat fight wasn't enough, there's also another animalistic parenting persona coming from China. Wolf Dad is even stricter than Tiger Mom and is epitomised by Xiao Baiyou, a father who believes that "beating kids is part of their upbringing."

　　似乎虎猫打架还不够，中国还有另一种颇具“兽性”的育儿角色——狼爸。狼爸比虎妈更严厉，其代表人物是萧百佑，他相信“打孩子是教育的一部分”。

　　"Just as their names suggest, Cat Dad prefers a gentle approach to children's education, while Tiger Mom and Wolf Dad believe that education is a painful process," says Vincent Ni of BBC Chinese. "It's been a long time since Chinese TV aired such a drama that captured the two seemingly⁵ conflicting education philosophies so well. While closely following the drama, Chinese audiences also took to social media to discuss, share and voice their different opinions of the way to raise kids."

　　BBC 中文网的文森特?倪说：“从名字可以看出来，猫爸更喜欢采取温和的方式来教育孩子，而虎妈与狼爸则坚信教育孩子是个痛苦的过程。中国电视界很久没出过这么 一部电视剧了，这部剧很好地抓住了这两个看似冲突的育儿理念。在紧追这部剧的同时，中国观众也在社交媒体上讨论、分享和表达各自不同的育儿方式。”

　　More than 80m people tuned⁶ into "Tiger Mom Cat Dad" and the series finale attracted tens of thousands of comments on Weibo. Some defended Cat Dad: "I think there is too much bullying⁷ going on in their household. It's completely disrespectful. There's no consideration whatsoever⁸ towards the man," one user commented. Others saw the dad as a weak character who wasn't compatible⁹ with his wife: "I think the tiger mother and the cat dad should divorce," one viewer wrote. "I really hope a wolf dad and tiger mother can be together. This type of 'warm man' (Cat Dad) is a not real man."

　　超过八千万观众收看了《虎妈猫爸》，该电视剧的大结局也在微博上吸引了数以万计的评论。一些人在评论中为猫爸辩护，一位用户说道：“我觉得他们家太霸道了， 毫无尊重可言。对男性的想法几乎没有任何考虑。”另一些人则认为剧中的父亲性格脆弱，配不上他的妻子，一位观众评论说：“在我看来虎妈和猫爸应该离婚。我 真希望狼爸与虎妈能在一起。这种‘暖男’（猫爸）不算大丈夫。”

　　Tong Dawei, the actor who plays the Cat Dad in the TV show, posted an image of himself and his daughter to his personal Weibo account with the tongue-in-cheek caption¹⁰: "Mum went out when the water pipes were broken. Daddy held back his tears and mended it before she came back." It got a huge reaction - over 63,000 likes and 5,000 comments - including the remark "As a man, I could in no way be like the 'Cat Dad'" - proof that even when life imitates art, being a Cat Dad still hasn't really caught on inChina.

　　佟大为在该剧中饰演猫爸，他在微博上放了一张自己与女儿的照片，并配上一句半开玩笑的话：“妈妈出门坏了的水管，爸比含着泪也要在她回来前修好。”这条微博的反响巨大——有6.3万个赞和五千多条评论，其中一条说：“作 为男人，我绝不会像这位‘猫爸’那样”，这说明，就算生活效仿艺术，可在中国，猫爸仍不能真正被接受。

　　Vocabulary

　　self-sufficient:自立的

　　tongue-in-cheek: 开玩笑的

1 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

2 feline   

adj.猫科的

参考例句：

• As a result,humans have learned to respect feline independence.结果是人们已经学会尊重猫的独立性。
• The awakening was almost feline in its stealthiness.这种醒觉，简直和猫的脚步一样地轻悄。

3 offspring   

n.子女，子孙，后代，（动物的）崽

参考例句：

• Jack is her only offspring.杰克是她唯一的后代。
• This device is the offspring of his inventive mind.这一装置是他那长于发明的头脑的产儿。

4 collide   

vi.碰撞，互撞，冲突，抵触

参考例句：

• The interests of the two countries collide.两国的利益发生冲突。
• The tides slide on the tidy wide beach and collide each other.海潮在整洁宽阔的海滩上滑行并相互碰撞。

5 seemingly   

adv.从表面上看起来，似乎是

参考例句：

• Seemingly,we can do nothing to prevent this from happening.我们似乎没有什么办法阻止这件事发生。
• For several seemingly interminable seconds no one spoke.有几秒钟没有人讲话，这几秒钟似乎十分漫长。

6 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

9 compatible   

adj.兼容的；能和睦相处的，合得来的

参考例句：

• You should choose a roommate more compatible to your tastes.你应该挑个和你意气更相投的人同住一室。
• Health and hard work are compatible.健康与努力工作是一致的。

10 caption   

n.说明，字幕，标题；v.加上标题，加上说明

参考例句：

• I didn't understand the drawing until I read the caption.直到我看到这幅画的说明才弄懂其意思。
• There is a caption under the picture.图片下边附有说明。