“This is the word ‘emperor’, and this is what Europe looks like on a world map, and here is China, your majesty.”
这是’皇帝’这个词，这就是欧洲在世界地图上的样子，这是中国，陛下。
Talking back and forth, practising everyday English with his tutor, the young Emperor, Guangxu, was said to spend nearly 2 hours each day on this alien language, and his accent was described as “reasonably good” by a British scholar.
据说，与他的导师、年轻的皇帝光旭来回交谈，每天练习英语，每天花近2个小时学习这种外来语言，一位英国学者形容他的口音“相当好”。
In what was a personification of China’s feudal system, this was the first time in Chinese history when the male-dominated society probably thought about their great grand fathers’ social faux-pas during the reception of the British delegation headed by Lord McCartney nearly a century before.
作为中国封建制度的化身，这是中国历史上第一次，男性主导的社会可能在近一个世纪前接待麦卡特尼勋爵率领的英国代表团时考虑了曾祖父的社会失误。
Nevertheless, the fact was simple, Guangxu understood that China no longer topped a patriarchal international system. No more.
然而，事实很简单，光旭明白，中国不再是父权制的国际体系。 没有了。
This was indicative of a new dawn, an era when the “upper structure” opened its eyes toward the world, mentally treating other countries as equals, if not superior, deviating from traditional concepts that those are secondary entities which bear obligations to stand in awe of the Middle Kingdom in female-to-male relations.
这表明了一个新的黎明，一个“上级结构”对世界睁开眼睛的时代，在精神上将其他国家视为平等，如果不是优越的话，偏离了传统观念，即这些是次要实体，有义务在男女关系中敬畏中王国。
Over the past century, especially since the founding of the People’s Republic, for the people living on this soil, gender relations have undergone tremendous transformation.
在過去的一個世紀里，特别是自人民共和國成立以來，對於生活在這片土地上的人民來說，性別關係經歷了巨大的轉變。
The concept of the “Second Sex” under Simone de Beauvoir has become a despicable notion on account that “women hold up half of the sky”.
西蒙娜·德·波伏娃（Simone de Beauvoir）的“第二性”概念已经成为一个卑鄙的概念，即“女人占了半个天空”。
Yes, be it half of the sky, or the new linchpin of society, China’s gender equality situation is improving with a speed rarely seen in human history.
是的，无论是半个天空，还是新的社会纽带，中国的性别平等状况正在以人类历史上前所未有的速度改善。
Looking at an income table featuring two genders, people are often surprised by the stalemate in income levels for females through all age brackets. In the most severe case, females in Japan earn as much as 50 percent less than their male counterparts in all walks of life.
看着两个性别的收入表，人们经常对所有年龄段女性收入水平的僵局感到惊讶。 在最严重的情况下，日本女性的收入比各行各业的男性少50%。
When it comes to names, “crowning” the family with the male’s name is still the practical social more in many countries, including Japan. More astonishing is some of the expressions found in today’s Japanese language. Even in 2021, when a married Japanese woman refers to her husband, she still shall say, “ご主人” (Go-shyu-jin), meaning “master” or “owner”.
说到名字，在包括日本在内的许多国家，用男性名字“加以”家庭仍然是更实际的社会。 更令人惊讶的是当今日语中的一些表达方式。 即使在2021年，当一个已婚的日本妇女提到她的丈夫时，她仍然会说“ご主人”（Go-shyu-jin），意思是“主人”或“主人”。
Make no mistake, throughout the history of this island nation, women have been in every way inferior to men, therefore leaving an indelible trace in its language.
毫无疑问，在这个岛国的历史中，女性在各方面都不如男性，因此在其语言中留下了不可磨灭的痕迹。
Although bred in roughly the same cultural ambience as much of Northeast Asia, China has progressed much further in advancing gender equality, at least by every means to which the competent authorities could resort, during the past 7 decades and beyond. I recall my great grand mother’s name as Wang Yao Shi (王姚氏), meaning the “the woman surnamed Wang Yao”. Spending my illiterate preschool childhood years believing this to be her real name, in fact it was not. Having married my great grand father, Mr. Wang, and hence losing her maiden given name, her original family name then came only second.
尽管中国的文化氛围与东北亚大部分地区大致相同，但在过去70年及以后，中国在促进性别平等方面取得了进一步的进展，至少通过主管当局可以诉诸的各种手段。 我记得我的曾祖母的名字是王姚氏，意思是“姓王瑶的女人”。 在我文盲的学龄前童年时，相信这是她的真名，但事实并非如此。 与我的曾祖父王先生结婚后，因此失去了她的婚前姓氏，她原来的姓氏仅排在第二位。
“This is preposterously unfair”, I thought to myself later on. What we are right here, right now, stems from our first 9 months’ residence in the female womb, yet this great gender didn’t even deserve a full upright name when grown? This, fortunately, is just a “did”. Those days are long gone in my country.
“这太不公平了”，我后来心想。 我们现在在这里，源于我们在女性子宫中居住的前9个月，但这个伟大的性别在长大后甚至不值得一个完整的直立名字？ 幸运的是，这只是一个“did”。 在我的国家，那些日子早已一去不复返了。
In today’s China, women enjoy as many equal rights to men in so far as their physical capabilities are capable. Gladly, they also fare as well as men in many other aspects.
在今天的中国，只要女性的身体能力，她们享有与男性同等的权利。 令人高兴的是，他们在许多其他方面也和男人一样好。
A friend of mine informed me recently that she feels relieved to know Chinese female scholars now boast the gender advantage during the selection of academics.
我的一个朋友最近告诉我，知道中国女学者现在在选择学者时拥有性别优势，她感到欣慰。
Perhaps in the eyes of some feminists, such should not be necessary, as females are inherently and genetically equal to their male counterparts. But in the broader picture, just as the Americans did with Affirmative Action back in the 1960s, this helps our society to attach greater importance to the rights of a once vulnerable group of people.
也许在一些女权主义者眼中，这不应该是必要的，因为女性在本质上和遗传上都与男性平等。 但从更广泛的情况来看，就像美国人在20世纪60年代采取平权行动一样，这有助于我们的社会更加重视曾经弱势群体的权利。
For all the progress made, there are fields, nevertheless, that still have room for improvement. First and foremost, educational opportunities in remote rural areas for females.
尽管取得了所有进展，但仍有一些领域有改进的余地。 首先，偏远农村地区的女性教育机会。
Born and raised in East China, it’s hard to entertain the idea that when a family’s school attendance is limited due to lack of financial means, girls often renounce it for the future of elder or younger brothers.
在华东出生和长大，很难想到，当一个家庭因缺乏经济手段而限制上学时，女孩往往为了哥哥或弟弟的未来而放弃学业。
As the expression goes, “Females eventually marry into a new family like a basin of water poured out for good”.
正如俗话说，“女性最终嫁入一个新的家庭，就像一盆水永遠倒出去一样”。
Yet this is the real case in areas in the far west of the country. Listening to Ms. Zhang Guimei’s speech on the conferring ceremony of “July 1 Medal”, the highest honour within CPC, I felt deeply touched.
然而，这是该国最西部地区的真实情况。 听了张桂梅女士在中共最高荣誉“7月1日奖章”颁奖典礼上的演讲，我深感感动。
Zhang spent most of her life in Yunnan, where she founded a high school offering education to girls for free. Her efforts during these years have assisted nearly 2,000 girls to enroll in college and chase their dreams of life. The school script allegedly used by Zhang to boost the confidence of the her students went viral on the internet.
张一生大部分时间都在云南度过，在那里她创办了一所免费为女孩提供教育的高中。 在这些年里，她的努力帮助了近2000名女孩进入大学，并追寻她们的人生梦想。 据称，张用来增强学生信心的学校剧本在互联网上疯传。
“We are born with endowed talents… and what modern day female should pursue are dreams and how to fight for them… (Girls,) you deserve to be great, and are able to stand on a higher platform (for achieving your life goals)!”
“我们生来就有天赋……现代女性应该追求的梦想以及如何为梦想而战…… （女孩们，）你们值得成为伟大的人，并且能够站在更高的平台上（为了实现你们的人生目标）！”
A new paradigm has arrived in the Chinese gender relationship, in which females are equipped with more opportunities and, more importantly, offered wider horizons as to pursue their life dreams.
中国的性别关系已经到了一个新的范式，在这种范式中，女性拥有了更多的机会，更重要的是，为追求她们的人生梦想提供了更广阔的视野。
In his farewell speech, Barack Obama said, “The world has changed, and we must change with it!” For us Chinese males, this is also an admonishment. As Chinese females are working hard to get ahead and garner their fair share, we males need to catch up.
巴拉克·奥巴马在告別演說中說：「世界已經改變了，我們必須隨之改變！」 对于我们中国男性来说，这也是一种告诫。 当中国女性努力取得进步并获得公平的份额时，我们男性需要赶上。
“Our Chinese men cannot just get back home from work and rush to the sofa for the rest of day or just play video games like a “Da Ye” (大爷; acting snobbish). If they do, the harmony between us will be adversely affected”, claimed one of my classmates. “What’s the point of getting married then? To serve a ‘master’? Get over themselves!”
“我们的中国男人不能只是下班回家，然后匆匆忙忙地坐在沙发上度过剩下的一天，或者像“大爷”一样玩电子游戏。 如果他們這樣做了，我們之間的和諧將受到不利影響，」我的一位同學聲稱。 “那么结婚有什么意义呢？ 为“主人”服务？ 克服他们自己！”
Thankfully, the traditional Chinese family style described as, “Nan zhu wai; nv zhu nei” (男主外女主内), or “men centred around career, women the home”, has gradually been swept into the dustbin.
值得庆幸的是，被描述为“男主外女主内”或“以事业为中心，以女人为中心”的传统中国家庭风格已经逐渐被扫入垃圾桶。
And who would say it is not a movement toward greater good for everyone? We Chinese males are obliged to be in a better version of ourselves with each passing day to get along with our dear girls and ladies.
谁会说这不是一场为每个人实现更大利益的运动？ 我们中国男性有义务日复一日地成为更好的自己，以便与我们亲爱的女孩和女士相处。
For the genders in China, there is today in place incremental equality in resources, and tomorrow hopefully, equity in mindsets.
对于中国的性别来说，今天资源的渐进式平等，明天有望实现心态的平等。
