【英语语言学习】中国养老制度

 Welcome again to the daily magazine show As It Is. For VOA Learning English, I’m Mario Ritter.

 

In this program, we hear about China’s slowing economy and what that means for some of its neighbors. But first, we told you in one of our earlier programs about a new Chinese law that requires adults to care for their aging parents. Today we report on some of the issues facing 200 million Chinese over the age of 60. Jim Tedder¹ has more.

 

A new law in China requires adults to provide mental and financial support to their aging parents. If adults fail to honor this responsibility, they face fines and other punishment. The measure became law earlier this month. It is placing hardships on children who struggle to live up to traditional values of family loyalty².

 

Until recently, it was common to find several generations of Chinese families living in one house. But, the need to find jobs, follow a career path and become financially independent is forcing many young people to leave home. Often, older parents are left behind.

 

Han Yujing directs the Qianhe retirement³ home in Beijing. He believes that it is easy for younger generations of single children to lose contact with their parents.

 

“They live in a transition⁴ time where have both older and younger generations to look after. Here they have their work and their career. They have to try and manage elder parents, family and work, allocating⁵ the right amount of energy and resources.” 

 

The retirement home opened for business this year. About 50 older adults live there now. Mister Han says the home eases the concerns of men and women who want their parents to receive the kind of physical and emotional care they can no longer give. He says they want their parents to live in dignity and not face loneliness while they are living somewhere else. For this, the children are willing to pay about $650 a month.

 

Lu Jiehua is a professor of population studies at Peking University. He says 90 percent of older adults live off their family’s support. However, as the number of children shrinks because of family planning policies, there are few supporting resources for the elderly.

 

By the end of the year, China will have more than 200 million people over the age of 60. With the new law requiring adults to support their aging parents, many see business possibilities. Websites like Taobao, an online store, are offering services to visit older people in place of their children. Since the beginning of July, more than 100 elderly care service providers have been registered on the website. 

 

The providers offer families a different way of showing family loyalty at prices that go from about two dollars to more than $300. However, Professor Lu Jiehua says caring for the emotional needs of parents is usually more difficult than providing for their material well-being⁶.

 

“People who work in a different city send money home to their elder parents and provide material support. But the biggest problem is when they get ill. Who is going to look after them? These children live miles away and the elders also suffer emotionally.” 

 

There are also moral questions the law cannot fix. Professor Lu says the issue of family loyalty and taking care of parents involve moral issues that cannot be solved by enforcing a law. While the measure can make a difference, it can also cause families to pull away from each other and the elderly.

 

A woman in Jiangsu province was the first to take action against her daughter under the law. A court ordered the young woman to give money to her mother and visit her every two months.

 

To free younger adults from being the only ones responsible for their parents, China’s government is now urging more community and institutional support for the elderly.

 

Slowing Growth in China Could Affect Its Neighbors

 

Economists⁸ are warning that China’s slowing economic growth may be something for neighboring countries to worry about. Milagros Ardin has more.

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Last week, China reported that its economy grew seven and a half percent between April and June, compared to the year before. The growth rate was generally what economists expected. But it was far less than nearly 10 percent rate that China experienced for many years.

 

The slowdown is partly the result of continuing weakness in the international economy and the policies of China’s central government. Chinese officials have been working to cool some areas of the economy by making it harder to borrow and by permitting the value of the country’s money, the yuan, to rise.

 

The slowing Chinese economy has increased concern across East Asia and the Pacific. China’s continued growth has helped the area survive the international economic crisis⁹ since 2008. 

 

Donghyun Park is an economist⁷ with the Asian Development Bank. He says the slower growth shows China’s past policy of “growth at all costs” may have passed.

 

“The Chinese authorities are more than prepared to swallow or accept slower growth in exchange for greater stability¹⁰ down the road.”

 

In recent years, China’s government has provided support to investors¹¹ and lenders to keep the economy growing at almost 10 percent a year. Such growth lifted millions out of poverty. But the expanding economy also led to rising concerns about its environmental and social effect.

 

Now that China is willing to control growth, nearby countries are predicting slower growth in their most important industries. For years, Australia and Indonesia have profited from China’s demand for raw, unprocessed, materials. Mr. Park says the outlook for economies in Asia and the Pacific is a mixed one. But in the end, what is good for China is also good for the rest of the area.

 

I’m Milagros Ardin.

 

We hope you enjoyed today’s show. Let us know what you think by visiting our website, learningenglish.voanews.com.

1 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

2 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

3 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

4 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。

5 allocating   

分配，分派( allocate的现在分词 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• Administrative practice generally follows the judicial model in allocating burdens of proof. 在分配举证责任方面，行政实践通常遵循司法模式。
• A cyclical multiplexing technique, allocating resources in fixed-time slices. 以固定的时间片分配资源的循环复用技术。

6 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

7 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

8 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

10 stability   

n.稳定，稳固

参考例句：

• The situation is tending towards stability.局势趋于稳定。
• She lacks emotional stability.她的情绪不稳定。

11 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会