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 Hymn of the Tiger Mother". Well, there's another feline 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 offspring 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 collide 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 seemingly 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 tuned 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 bullying going on in their household. It's completely disrespectful. There's no consideration whatsoever towards the man," one user commented. Others saw the dad as a weak character who wasn't compatible 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 caption: "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