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Returning students
归来的学子
Plight of the sea turtles
“海龟”们的困境
Students coming back home helped build modern China. So why are they now faring so poorly in the labour market?
学子们归国帮助中国现代化。为什么他们会在劳动力市场里步履维艰？
“I LEFT in 1980 with only three dollars in my pocket,” recalls Li Sanqi. He was one of the first allowed to study overseas after the dark days of the Cultural Revolution. Like most in that elite group, he excelled, rising to a coveted position at the University of Texas, while launching several technology firms. Now he is a senior executive at Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, enticed back by the chance to help build a world-class multinational.
"我在1980年离开的时候口袋里只有3美元"—李三琦回忆说。他曾是文化大革命那段灰暗时期后头一批准许出国留学的人之一。和这群精英中的大多数人一样，他脱颖而出。不仅升学至令人眼红的德州大学，还在这期间创立了几家科技公司。当初，他被帮助建立世界一流跨国公司的机遇吸引回国。如今，他是中国电信巨头——华为的高级行政主管。
Mr Li seems the perfect example of a sea turtle, or hai gui , long applauded in China for bringing back advanced skills. In the past such folk reliably reaped handsome premiums in the local job market, but no longer. Sea turtles are not universally praised, the wage differential is shrinking and some are even unable to find jobs. Wags say they should now be called hai dai, or seaweed. This is a startling turn, given their past contributions.
李三琦就好像是一个“海龟”的完美范例。“海龟”亦即“海归”，长久以来，因带回先进技术而为国人所赞不绝口。在过去，这类人在国内的就业市场毫无悬念地，能够获取可观的报酬。然而，好景不再。“海龟”们不再受到人们一致的称赞，大家的工资差距也在缩小，有的“海龟”甚至找不到工作。有人还开玩笑说他们应该被称作“海带”。回想起之前他们所作的贡献，就会发现，这真是一个惊人的转变。
Mr Li ：本来翻译成李先生，但我认为，这种翻译是死板的翻译。地道的中文文章里并不会这样”礼貌“地称前面出现过的人物。而多是采用全名。英语中常常为了避免重复啰嗦，改用单词，或使用代词来使文章更为简洁、地道。
Wang Huiyao of the China Western Returned Scholars Association, which celebrates its centenary this year, observes that sea turtles have returned in five waves. The first, in the 19th century, produced China’s first railway-builder and its first university president. The second and third, before 1949, produced many leaders of the Nationalist and Communist parties. The fourth wave, which went to the Soviet bloc in the 1950s, produced such leaders as Jiang Zemin and Li Peng.
欧美同学会今年将迎来其百年会庆，联谊会副会长王辉耀指出，到现在已经迎来五波“海龟”的归潮了。第一波是在19世纪，培养出了中国第一位铁路建造者和第一位大学校长。第二波和第三波是在1949年之前，培育出许许多多民族主义领袖和共产党领导人。第四波是在19世纪50年代前往苏联集团的人。培育出像江泽民、李鹏这样的领导人。
The present wave began in 1978, and is by far the biggest. Since then, about 2.6m Chinese have gone abroad to study. The exodus has grown of late to about 400,000 per year. The majority stay overseas, but the 1.1m who have come back have made a difference. Mr Wang argues that whereas the first three waves revolutionised China and the fourth modernised it, the fifth wave is globalising the country.
当下的这一波开始于1978年，这也是目前为止人数最多的一波。从那时起，约有两百六十万中国人走出国门念书。有关这样大规模出国，其人数的最新增长情况是大约每年增加40万人。他们中大多数人留在国外，而回国的这一百一十万人则带来了改变。王辉耀说，前面三波人给中国带来了革命，第四波人让中国实现了现代化。如今，第五波人正在让中国走向全球化。
Sea turtles are helping to link China’s economy to the world. They founded leading technology firms such as Baidu. Many are senior managers in the local divisions of multinational firms. They are helping to connect China to commercial, political and popular culture abroad.
“海龟”们正在帮助中国经济接轨全世界。他们创立了像“百度”这样的科技公司的领头羊。很多“海龟”是跨国公司各地方分部的高级管理人员。他们正在帮助把中国和国外的商业、政治、以及大众文化连接起来。
Why then is their importance declining? Several studies show that sea turtles on average must now wait longer to find a less senior post at a smaller salary premium over local hires. The weakening job market for all graduates is one reason. Another is that, as China’s domestic market has taken off, industries such as e-commerce have evolved in ways unfamiliar to those who spent years abroad. Gary Rieschel of Qiming Ventures, a venture-capital firm, says that investors who a decade ago would have funded only those returning from Silicon Valley are now backing entrepreneurs from local universities, who are more familiar with local consumption patterns, computer-gaming habits and social media such as Weibo and Weixin.
那么，为何他们的重要性会日益下降呢？几项研究表明，现在”海龟“们要找的一份工资奖金小，职务也比较低的工作通常要比本地求职者等待更长的时间。对于毕业生们来说，持续衰弱的就业市场是原因之一。另外一个原因是，随着中国国内市场的起飞，像电子商务之类的产业已经在许多方面发展成了对于那些海归们来说陌生的产业。风险投资公司——启明创投的盖里·瑞斯彻说，投资者们在十年前只会投资给从硅谷归来的人。如今，他们资助着来自国内大学的创业者们，这些创业者更加清楚当地的消费方式、玩电脑游戏的习惯、以及社交媒体，例如微博和威信。
As China has boomed, its managers have started to shed their inferiority complex. A senior executive at Tencent, a Chinese social-media giant, says he still poaches sea turtles from foreign firms, but finds they have difficulty managing local engineers. A European investment banker says turtles often cling to quaint Western notions like transparency, meritocracy and ethics, which puts them at a disadvantage in China’s hyper-Darwinian economy, where locals are more willing to do whatever the boss or client wants.
随着中国的蓬勃发展，国内的管理人员已经开始摆脱其自卑感。中国社交巨头——腾讯的一位高级主管说，他现在仍旧从外国企业里”挖“海龟。但是他发现，这些”海龟“们在管理本地工程人员时困难重重。一位欧洲投资银行家说，”海龟“们常常秉持西方国家独特的观念，诸如透明性、英才教育和伦理道德。这使得他们在中国这样一个”超达尔文“经济体中处于不利位置。在这里（比起他们）本地人更愿意做上司或者客户所要求的事。
inferiority complex ： 自卑情结；自卑感 poach sb from XX ：把谁从XX挖走 The Hunan TV poached Zhu Dan from Zhejiang TV.湖南卫视从浙江卫视挖走了朱丹。
Even foreign firms in China are getting pickier about whom they hire. Yannig Gourmelon of Roland Berger, a German management consultancy, believes the broader profit squeeze at multinational firms that killed off gilded expatriate packages has also sharply reduced the salary premium offered to sea turtles.
虽然中国的外企在挑选雇员时愈发挑剔。德国管理咨询公司——罗兰伯格的古默龙（Yannig Gourmelon）认为，跨国公司利润的大幅度减少，使雇请“海龟“的计划泡了汤，也是让海龟们获得更少薪金的原因。
C grade turtles
C级海龟
There is another explanation: many of the latest wave are of lower quality. In the past, only the very best were allowed to go out and so competition for government scholarships was fierce. But as incomes have risen, many families of mediocre Chinese students have spent a fortune on degrees from universities of dubious quality that do little to enhance their job prospects. Worse yet, partly because of the downturn in Western economies, many have come back without work experience.
现在还有另外一个解释：许多最近归国的海龟们（和之前相比）质量较低。过去，只有那些精英中的精英才被允许出国留学，因此，政府奖学金的竞争异常激烈；但是现在，随着人们收入的增加，许多中国家庭资质平庸的学生也在文凭上花了大钱，这些学校质量不可信，对提高学生的就业前景没有任何帮助。更遭的是，（造成这种局面的）一部分原因来自于西方国家的经济衰落，很多海龟归国时全无工作经验。
Even as hordes of less employable expatriates return, the brightest remain abroad. A study funded by America’s National Science Foundation found that 92% of Chinese with American PhDs still lived in that country five years after graduation. For Indians, the figure was 81%, for South Koreans 41% and for Mexicans 32%.
即便不大适合被雇佣的海龟成群归来，最明智的却仍旧留在国外。美国国家科学基金会赞助的一项研究发现，92%拥有美国博士学位的中国人在毕业五年后仍旧生活在美国。印度人是81%，韩国人是41%，墨西哥人则是32%。
To lure such superstars back, the Chinese government is pouring pots of money into a scheme called 1,000 Talents, which offers generous subsidies and other perks. The powerful Organisation Department of the Communist Party is urging regional leaders and university heads to meet quotas for securing talent. In a forthcoming paper, Mr Wang and David Zweig of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology argue that China has been “perhaps the most assertive government in the world” in such efforts.
为了吸引这些”超级明星“回国，中国政府正在向一个叫做”千人计划“的项目倾注巨额资金。此项计划将提供充裕的资金补贴，以及其它特权。职能强大的中共组织部正在敦促宗教领袖和大学领导为保障此计划安排足够的份额。
Will it work? It seems doubtful. Despite the policies, returning entrepreneurs hit many problems. Labour and land costs are rising, the theft of intellectual property is still rampant and corruption is widespread. Few top-tier scientists have returned. Mr Wang and Mr Zweig’s paper explains why: “If China wants to bring back the best, it needs a fundamental reform of its academic and scientific institutions” to break the power of politicised administrators over hiring and funding.
这样行得通吗？看起来有些可疑。无论政策如何，这些归国的企业家们遇到的问题比比皆是。劳动力和土地的成本正在不断上涨，盗用知识产权的行为依旧猖獗，贪污腐败的现象也广泛存在。顶级的科学家选择回国的更是凤毛麟角。王辉耀和崔大伟的文章道出了原委：”如果中国想要带回最好的人才，就需要通过学术和科学机构的根本性改革，打破政治色彩浓厚的行政人员雇请人员与提供资助的权利。“
The hard truth is that Chinese abroad often have ambivalent attitudes towards their homeland. The wife and children of Huawei’s Mr Li, the seemingly archetypal sea turtle, still live in America. Rather than just shovelling out subsidies, Chinese officials might do better to strengthen the rule of law, root out corruption and clean up China’s air, water and food. Sea turtles would be sure to notice.
铁一般的事实是：海外华人对于自己祖国的态度时常是有着矛盾的。李三琦似乎就是这样一位典型的”海龟“，他的妻儿仍都住在美国。中国官员们要做的不能仅仅是调用津贴，他们也能够在加强法制建设，祛除贪污腐败，净化空气、水和食物的领域里做的更好。海龟们呢，肯定会注意到的。
补充：插入法：
指把难以处理的句子成分用破折号、括号或前后逗号插入译句中。这种方法主要用于笔译中。偶尔也用于口译中，即用同位语、插入语或定语从句来处理一些解释性成分。
如：
如果说宣布收回香港就会像夫人说的"带来灾难性的影响"，那我们要勇敢地面对这个灾难，做出决策。
If the announcement of the recovery of Hong Kong would bring about, as Madam put it, "disastrous effects," we will face that disaster squarely and make a new policy decision.
