中国“猫爸”软实力悄然超“虎妈”

李星玥

All over the world, the middle classes take temporary leave of their senses when they bear their first child and especially when junior is ready to start school. We all know about China’s Tiger Mums, but as far as I can see, other countries have ferocious felines too
世界各地都一样，当中产阶层的父母养育第一个孩子时，尤其是当孩子准备开始上学时，都会一时丧失理智。我们都听说过中国的虎妈，不过据我所知，其他国家也不乏这种凶猛的“猫科动物”。
Chinese mums are not the only ones loading their tiny ones up with after-school classes, to make sure they do well in college entrance exams (China’s own version of this — the dreaded gaokao — finishes on June 9).[NB CHINA’S COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMS RUN JUNE 7-8 IN MOST PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, HENCE THE REFERENCE TO HOW IT HAS “JUST FINISHED” ON JUNE 9]
并不是只有中国妈妈会带着小孩去上补习班，确保孩子在大学入学考试中取得好成绩。就在6月9日，可怕中国的大学入学考试——高考，刚刚结束。
sent my first daughter to pre-school at 20 months, convinced that if she waited to start with all the other two-year-olds, she would never get into Harvard.
我大女儿1岁8个月大时，我就送她去了幼儿园。当时我相信如果等她两岁再跟其他孩子一起入托，她肯定永远考不进哈佛大学(Harvard)。
By that time, she had already completed courses in baby music, baby swimming, baby gymnastics, baby Chinese (and doubtless some other dumb thing that I have since forgotten about). Last week she finished sitting final exams for her first year of high school. I am not prepared to disclose the results but I think I can safely say that I could have waited on the whole pre-school thing — at least until she could talk.
其实在入托前她已经上完了许多课程，包括婴儿音乐、婴儿游泳、婴儿体操、婴儿汉语……我肯定还为她做了其他很蠢的安排，不过我已经想不起名字了，因为实在太蠢了。上周她刚考完了高一最后一门期末考试。我并不准备公布她的成绩，但我可以肯定地说，我其实没必要那么早送她去幼儿园——至少应该等她能说话时再送。
It seems I am not the only one having a rethink on the idea of academic training for toddlers though, even in China. One of the most popular series on Chinese television recently was Tiger Mum and Cat Dad, about that perennially tortured topic: does ferocity or meekness produce the best gaokao scores? The child in the series has a nervous breakdown due to too much homework pressure: I guess that is your answer. It seems it is no longer so obvious that it is a good idea to start cramming kids for university entrance in the same week you take them out of nappies.
现在看来，即便是在中国，反思幼儿学习培训的观念的人并不只有我一个人。最近中国的一部热播电视剧《虎妈猫爸》探讨了一个长期困扰着家长们的话题：到底是该严厉还是温和，才能让孩子取得最好的高考成绩？我猜人们会回答，这部电视剧里的孩子由于作业太多，压力太大而患上抑郁症。对于家长来说，让刚摘掉尿布的婴儿早早开始填鸭式高考教育，似乎不再是个好主意。