遊戲《中國式家長》：讓你做一次“虎爸虎媽”

和現實生活中一樣，在《中國式家長》裡，保持良好形象是很重要的。如果孩子在親戚面前表現不好，你可能會因為“丟面子”而難過。 MOYUWAN GAMES

SHANGHAI — You want your children to do well in school. You want them to have nice friends and interesting hobbies and to not go out with creeps. You may even want them to be happy.

上海——你希望自己的孩子在學校表現出色。希望他們有好朋友和有趣的愛好，不要和討厭鬼談戀愛。你甚至可能希望他們快樂。

But in this computer game, you can always start over with a new digital child if things don't work out as planned.

但是在這個電腦遊戲中，如果事情沒有按計劃進行，你總是可以搞個新的數字孩子從頭開始。

A new game in China puts players in control of those most fearsome of characters: Mom and Dad. The mission? Raise a son or daughter from cradle to college.

中國的一款新遊戲讓玩家可以控制最可怕的角色：爸爸、媽媽。任務嗎？就是要把兒子或女兒從搖籃撫養到上大學。

In a nation of famously demanding, scolding and, yes, sometimes loving mothers and fathers, the game, Chinese Parents, is a hit. Since its release in September, it has found a huge audience on Steam, an online marketplace run by the American game maker Valve Corporation. There are no official figures for how many people have downloaded the game, but it has provoked heated discussion online, while earning tens of thousands of reviews.

中國的父母以苛求和責罵聞名，當然，有時也有愛，在這樣一個國家，這款名為《中國式家長》的遊戲大受歡迎。自從去年9月發行以來，它在美國遊戲製造商Valve Corporation運營的在線市場Steam上獲得了大量的用戶。雖然還沒有官方數據顯示究竟有多少人下載了這款遊戲，但它已在網上引發了熱烈的討論，並得到了數萬條評論。

Yang Ge Yilang, a founder of Moyuwan Games, the independent studio that developed Chinese Parents, said he hoped to produce an English version this year.The success of the game, which costs $9.99 to play, does not appear to be driven by people hoping to exact revenge for their own upbringings. Quite the opposite: Some fans have written that, by letting them experience childhood from their parents’ perspective, it had moved them to tears.

《中國式家長》的開發者是獨立工作室“墨魚玩”，工作室創始人楊葛一郎說，他希望今年能推出英文版。這款遊戲售價9.99美元，它的成功似乎並不是因為人們想用它來報復自己成長中的遭遇。恰恰相反：一些粉絲寫道，這款遊戲讓他們可以從家長的角度來體驗童年，把他們玩哭了。

“I used to not understand many things my mom made me do when I was little,” said Kang Shenghao, 19, a professional blogger in the northeastern city of Qinhuangdao. “But when I play the game and try to boost up figures for my son so he can unlock more achievements and marry the prettiest girl in school, I start to understand my parents more.”

“小時候媽媽讓我做的很多事情我都不懂，”19歲的康生浩（音）說，他是中國東北城市秦皇島的一名專業部落格作者。“玩這個遊戲，我得提高兒子的數字，讓他更有出息，娶到校花，我更理解父母了。”

All the joys and trials of raising children are here. Players choose between pushing their digital progeny to attain conventional success and allowing them some semblance of childhood innocence. They must give career guidance and endure (just barely) their teenager’s first dates. Everything leads up to the gaokao, the highly competitive college entrance exam that decides the fortunes of so many young Chinese people.

遊戲裡有養育孩子的所有歡樂和磨難。玩家可以在逼迫他們的數字後代獲得傳統的成功和讓他們保留一些童真之間做出選擇。他們需要為孩子提供職業指導，（勉強）忍受他們十幾歲的孩子的第一次約會。所有的一切都是為了高考，也就是決定許多中國年輕人命運的競爭激烈的大專院校入學考試。

Mr. Yang said he also hoped to make a smartphone version of the game that allowed players to see how their virtual offspring stack up against their friends’. Chinese parents love nothing more than boasting to their peers about how wonderful their children are.

楊葛一郎說，他還希望推出一款智能手機版的《中國式家長》，讓玩家看到自己的虛擬子女與朋友們的子女相比如何。中國家長最喜歡的莫過於向同齡人吹噓自己的孩子有多棒。

“We want to give gamers a chance to change the role from Chinese children to Chinese parents and see what would they do in the same position,” Mr. Yang, 30, said.

“我們想給遊戲玩家一個機會，把自己從中國孩子變成中國家長，看看他們在同樣的位置上時會怎麽做，”30歲的楊葛一郎說。

Parent-child relationships everywhere can swing from reverence to rebellion and back. In China, they are changing as quickly as the nation as a whole.

親子關係在任何地方都可能會從尊敬變成反叛、再回到尊敬。在中國，這種關係的變化和整個國家的變化一樣快。

For many decades, an official one-child policy meant that Chinese boys and girls carried the entire weight of their parents’ hopes for betterment. Population controls have eased (though the game’s children do not have siblings), and economic growth has created more opportunities for advancement. Scoring well on the gaokao is no longer the only ticket to a brighter future. Parents today are more likely to wonder whether unhealthy amounts of stress are turning their children into emotionally dampened automatons.But the surge in wealth has also heightened expectations for career success. And it has given the well-off new ways to keep their children ahead of the pack. The high-pressure parenting style brought to wide attention by Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” has not gone away in China. It is evolving.

政府實行了幾十年的獨生子女政策，這意味著中國的男孩或女孩肩負著父母嚮往美好生活的全部重任。政府對人口的控制已有所放鬆（不過這個遊戲裡的孩子沒有兄弟姐妹），經濟增長也為人們創造了更多的發展機會。在高考中取得好成績不再是通向光明未來的唯一途徑。如今的父母可能更想知道，過多的壓力是否會讓孩子變成情緒低落的機器人。但是，財富的激增也提高了人們對職業成功的預期，並為富裕家庭提供了新方式，可以讓他們的孩子跑在前面。蔡美兒(Amy Chua)的《虎媽戰歌》(Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mother)曾讓人們廣泛關注高壓教育方式，這種方式在中國並未消失，而是在慢慢改變。

In Chinese Parents, a virtual child’s life unfolds over 48 rounds. In each round, players arrange courses and activities — piano lessons, swim classes, creative writing, coding and more. You can also buy gifts: ice cream, toys, even “Learn to Speak With Jack Ma,” a book featuring the billionaire co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

在《中國式家長》中，虛擬孩子的生活在48輪遊戲中展開。在每一輪中，玩家要給孩子安排課程和活動——鋼琴課、游泳課、創意寫作、編程等等。你也可以給孩子買禮物：冰淇淋、玩具，甚至是《跟馬雲學口才》，這本書的主角是中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴的聯合創始人、億萬富翁馬雲。

祖母可能會不時出現，提供一些關於性別的過時觀點。“當初聽我的生兒子就沒這麽多事兒。” MOYUWAN GAMES

These choices shape how your child develops along six dimensions: intelligence, emotional intelligence, physical fitness, imagination, memory and charm.

這些選擇將塑造你的孩子在六個方面的發展：智商、情商、體魄、想象力、記憶力，以及魅力。

A bar on the screen reflects how much psychological pressure the child is feeling. Pile on too much schoolwork, and the child may crack. But don’t let your score for “parental satisfaction” fall too low, either. Another score captures the concept of “face,” supremely important in Chinese culture. If a child loses face by doing badly in school, a summer trip to Europe could be canceled.

螢幕上有圖表，反映孩子的心理壓力 。給他太多的功課，孩子可能會垮掉。但也不要讓你的“家長滿意度”分數降得太低。還有一個分數體現的是“面子”這個概念，面子在中國文化中極為重要。如果孩子因為在學校表現不好丟了面子，暑假去歐洲的旅行就可能會被取消。

Over time, adolescent love bubbles up. How far does that go? Let it just be said that Chinese censors do not abide video games considered less than wholesome.

孩子長大了，會有青春期的愛情問題。遊戲中的愛情走到哪一步？我們只能說，中國的審查者不會容忍被認為不健康的電子遊戲。

A child’s final scores determine what happens after she leaves home. There are more than 200 colleges, including vocational schools and elite universities, that might offer a spot. The socially adept have their pick of compatible mates. There are myriad career possibilities: taxi driver, celebrity author, e-commerce mogul, Beyoncé.

孩子的最終分數決定了離開父母后會發生什麽。遊戲中有200多所學院，包括職業學校和精英大學，孩子可能進入其中之一。善於社交的人可以挑選合適的伴侶。有各種可能的職業：計程車司機、著名作家、電子商務巨頭，還可以成為碧昂絲(Beyoncé)。

The earliest version of Chinese Parents gave players only the option of raising a son. In the current version, those who choose to have a daughter get reminders about attitudes that remain common in China. Her virtual grandmother says girls don’t need to do as well as boys in school. Her mother says that for a girl, the ultimate goal of hard work is to marry a good man.

在較早版本的《中國式家長》中，玩家只有養兒子的選擇。在目前的版本中，選擇養女兒的會得到提醒，內容是中國仍然普遍存在的觀念。女兒的虛擬奶奶會說，女孩子在學校裡用不著學得和男孩子一樣好。女兒的母親會說，對一個女孩來說，努力工作最終是為了嫁得好。

After playing Chinese Parents, Mr. Kang, the blogger in Qinhuangdao, showed it to someone who ought to be an authority on Chinese parents: his mother, Zang Wenru.He uploaded a video of his mother playing the game to the streaming platform Bilibili. It has been viewed more than 590,000 times.

玩了《中國式家長》後，秦皇島的部落格作者康生浩請了一個應該對中國父母很懂行的人來玩這個遊戲：他的母親臧文茹（音）。他把媽媽玩遊戲的影片上傳到了流媒體平台Bilibili上。這段影片的瀏覽量已經超過了59萬次。

“We want to make decisions that we think are best for our kids, and to help them avoid detours,” said Ms. Zang, 51, who works in a hotel. “But I think what many seem to forget is that every step counts in life, even the detours. We all used to be Chinese kids, too, with thoughts that we want to be respected.”

“我們希望幫孩子做出我們覺得最好的決定，幫他們少走彎路，”51歲的臧文茹說，她在一家酒店工作。“但我覺得，很多人忘了生命中的每一步都很重要，包括彎路。我們都當過中國孩子，我們也希望被尊重。”

Chinese Parents does not end when the digital child is grown. If she ends up with good character scores and a solid education and career, the next generation in the game starts out with better character scores.

《中國式家長》並沒有停止在數字孩子長大那一刻。如果孩子最終擁有良好的性格分數、良好的教育和職業，那麽遊戲中的下一代從一開始就擁有更好的性格分數。

康生浩和母親臧文茹在中國秦皇島的家中玩這款遊戲。 YAN CONG FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

On the flip side, “if you mess up the first generation, it will be harder for the following generations to make outstanding achievements,” Mr. Yang, the game’s developer, said.

另一方面，“如果你把第一代搞砸了，那麽接下來的幾代人就更難取得突出成就，”遊戲開發者楊葛一郎說。

Kong Qingxun, a 21-year-old blockchain entrepreneur in the southern city of Guangzhou, has raised eight generations of sons in the game. He let the first boy play lots of soccer and video games. But he didn’t get into college, so Mr. Kong changed his approach.

南方城市廣州的區塊鏈企業家、21歲的孔慶勳（音）已經在遊戲中養育了八代兒子。他讓第一代的兒子大踢足球、大玩電子遊戲。但他沒考上大學，所以孔慶勳改變了做法。

He drove his next son hard in school, earning him admission to the famed Tsinghua University in Beijing. From then on, it was easier for Mr. Kong to keep his boys on a path to accomplishment. By the seventh or eighth generation, his children were so gifted that they could goof off yet still excel academically and date pretty girls.

他給第二代的兒子施加了很多學習上的壓力，所以他考上了北京著名的清華大學。從那以後，孔慶勳讓孩子們走上成功之路就變得更容易了。到了第七、八代，他的孩子已經非常有天賦，即使不努力學習也能在學業上出類拔萃，還可以和漂亮女孩約會。

This feels true to life, Mr. Kong said.

他覺得遊戲很像真實的生活，孔慶勳說。

“At the beginning, you think it’s just a 100-meter run,” he said, referring to life. “Then you realize it’s a marathon. And finally you understand it’s a relay race that never ends.”

“開始的時候，你覺得它只是一個百米賽跑，”他說，他指的是人生。“後來你發現它是一場馬拉松。最後你會明白，它是一場永無休止的接力賽。”

作者：Carolyn Zhang、Raymond Zhong