特写：中国大学生又下乡

4年前踏进大学校门时，萧立升（音译）拥有远大的抱负。他盼望在蓬勃发展的沿海大都市上海的一家出口公司拥有光明的前途。 Xiao Lisheng had big ambitions when he entered university four years ago. He expected a bright future in an export company in the booming coastal metropolis of Shanghai. 但现在，在他即将毕业并拿到国际经济贸易学位时，他的前途看来可能要系于宁夏的党委讲师团了。宁夏位于中国的西北部，偏远而贫困。 But now, as he prepares to graduate with a degree in international economics and trade, his future looks as if it may lie with the Communist party's educational league in the far-flung and impoverished north-west region of Ningxia. 全球经济放缓对中国沿海出口基地造成冲击，而今年6月中国将有600万大学生毕业，在此形势下，中国再一次将年轻的高校毕业生送向农村。 Faced with the impact of a slowing global economy on its coastal export base and 6m university students set to graduate alongside Mr Xiao this June, China is once again sending young university graduates back to the countryside. “我们鼓励大学生到城乡基层去，在西部地区担任村干部、教师和志愿者工作，”人力资源和社会保障部部长尹蔚民上周介绍政府解决大学生失业问题的计划时表示。 “We encourage graduates to serve in rural areas, taking posts such as village officials, teachers and volunteers in west China,” Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, said last week as he outlined government plans to address unemployment among graduates. 中国共产党拥有将年轻知识分子送到广大农村内陆地区的悠久传统，常常给人带来可怕的折磨，并造成灾难性的经济后果。但中国官员及分析人士坚称，此次情况不同。 The Communist party has a long tradition of sending young intellectuals into China's vast rural hinterland, often causing terrible suffering and disastrous economic consequences. But Chinese officials and analysts insist that, this time, things are different. “上世纪50年代和文化大革命期间，（知识分子下乡）是出于意识形态动机，”清华大学政治经济学研究中心主任蔡继明表示。他本人1975年从高校毕业后曾在一家农场呆过3年。“如果我们能找到办法，使之对大学生和所去地区都有利，那就具有经济意义。” “In the 1950s and during the Cultural Revolution this happened with ideological motives,” says Cai Jiming, head of the Centre for Political Economy at Tsinghua University, who spent three years on a farm himself after graduating from high school in 1975. “If we can find a way to make this benefit both the graduates and the target regions, then it would make economic sense.” 中国政府认为大学生失业问题“形势严峻”，并已明确表示，它就像担心沿海工厂上千万失业民工一样担忧大学毕业生的命运。 The government has called the unemployment problem among graduates “grave” and made clear that it is almost as worried about the fate of university graduates as it is about the millions of migrant workers who have lost jobs in coastal factories. 对许多省级政府来说，大学生的困境为它们提供了一个机遇。有些政府已派出代表团，到大城市招聘工作没有着落的大学毕业生。在宁夏政府上周末举办的此类招聘会上，近千名大学生排队应征300多个职位。这些职位工资普遍很低，位于这些大学生中很多人几年前根本不会考虑的地区。 For many provincial governments the graduates' woes are presenting an opportunity, and some have been sending delegations to big cities to recruit graduates who are failing to find work elsewhere. At such an event held by the Ningxia government last weekend, close to 1,000 students lined up to apply for more than 300 mostly low-paid jobs in a region many of them would not even have considered moving to a few years ago. 萧立升应征的职位就属于这种情况。共产党讲师团派讲师们到全国各地“重新激起人们对社会主义的激情，传播马列主义毛泽东思想”，宁夏讲师团团长高亚东表示。“具备哲学硕士学位和爱国思想”是应征的主要条件。该工作年薪约为2万元人民币。 Such is the case with the post Mr Xiao is interviewing for. The Communist party's Educational League sends lecturers around the country to “refresh the enthusiasm for socialism and spread Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought,” says Gao Yadong, the Ningxia branch head. “A masters degree in philosophy and a patriotic mind” are the main qualifications for the job, which will pay about Rmb20,000 ($2,900, €2,270, £2,100) a year. 但萧立升十分明确地表示，就他本人来说，什么工作都行。“前些年，毕业班的学生在这个时候有80%都签了约，可今年我们班签了约的只有20%。” But Mr Xiao makes it quite clear that, as far as he is concerned, any job will do. “In past years, 80 per cent of students in their final year would have signed contracts by now, but this year it's only 20 per cent in our class,” he says. “所以眼下最重要的是找到一份有薪水的工作——以后我总是可以往上升的。” “So the priority right now is to find something with a salary – I can always move on later.” 译者/何黎