These things often start, not with a statistic, but with a voice; Persian heard in a lift, a WeChat contact from Tehran, a trader in Yiwu, a student in Nanjing, a restaurateur explaining saffron, pistachios and sanctions in the same breath.
这类变化最初往往不是以统计数字的形式出现，而是以一种声音出现；电梯里听到的波斯语、来自德黑兰的微信联系人、义乌的贸易商、南京的留学生，或是一位餐馆老板在同一句话里讲起藏红花、开心果和制裁。
For people who have lived in China for a long time, Iranians are not exactly new. But in recent years, they have seemed easier to encounter, especially in the cities where China’s universities, export markets and international business networks overlap.
对长期生活在中国的人来说，伊朗人当然并不是一个新出现的群体。但近几年，他们似乎更容易被遇见，尤其是在高校、外贸市场和国际商务网络交汇的城市。
The numbers, however, are awkward. China’s most recent national census counted 845,697 foreign nationals living on the mainland in 2020, excluding short-term visitors, but did not give a detailed nationality breakdown in the main bulletin. The older 2010 census table listed only 1,141 Iranian nationals in China.
不过，数字并不好处理。中国最新一次全国人口普查显示，2020年居住在中国大陆的外籍人员为845697人，不包括短期出差或旅游人员，但主要公报并未列出详细国籍分布。更早的2010年人口普查表中，在华伊朗籍人员仅为1141人。
That 2010 figure now looks more like a historical marker than a useful guide to the present. Iranian state media reported in 2025 that more than 4000 Iranian students were studying at Chinese universities. Students alone, then, already outnumber the older census figure several times over.
如今，2010年的数字更像是一个历史坐标，而不是理解当下的有效参考。伊朗官方媒体2025年报道称，已有超过4000名伊朗学生在中国高校学习。也就是说，仅留学生这一类人群，就已经是旧有普查数字的数倍。
Study, Trade, Stay
求学、贸易、留下
The student route is one part of the picture. China’s engineering, medical and science programmes have become attractive to young Iranians looking for degrees that are international, but not necessarily Western. For some, China is more affordable. For others, it is politically and practically easier to reach.
留学只是其中一部分。中国的工程、医学和理科专业，正在吸引希望获得国际教育、但未必选择西方国家的伊朗年轻人。对一些人来说，中国成本更低；对另一些人来说，中国在政治和现实层面都更容易抵达。
Then there is trade. In places such as Yiwu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai, Iranian businesspeople are part of the larger world of small and medium-sized commerce that links Chinese factories with markets across West Asia. These are not always people who appear in official resident statistics. Some come and go. Some stay longer. Some build lives between two countries.
然后是贸易。在义乌、广州、深圳和上海等地，伊朗商人是中国工厂与西亚市场之间中小型贸易网络的一部分。这些人未必都会出现在官方常住统计中。有人来来往往，有人停留更久，也有人把生活搭建在两个国家之间。
The political backdrop is impossible to ignore. China and Iran signed a 25-year cooperation agreement in 2021, and China remains central to Iran’s external trade, especially in oil. But that does not explain every Iranian student in a Chinese dormitory, every small trader in a wholesale market, or every family trying to find a workable future.
政治背景当然无法忽略。中国与伊朗于2021年签署为期25年的合作协议，而中国在伊朗对外贸易中仍占据重要位置，尤其是在石油领域。但这并不能解释每一个住在中国宿舍里的伊朗学生、每一个批发市场里的小商人，或每一个试图寻找现实出路的家庭。
That is where the story becomes more interesting, and less tidy. Some Iranians in China are here because of opportunity. Some because of constraint. Some because China is useful. Some because China has become familiar. The same person may be here for all those reasons at once.
也正是在这里，这个故事变得更有意思，也不再那么整齐。有些伊朗人来到中国，是因为机会；有些是因为限制；有些是因为中国有用；有些则是因为中国已经变得熟悉。同一个人，也可能同时出于这些原因来到这里。
What can be said with more confidence is that Iranians in China are still not a large foreign community by comparison with Koreans, Japanese, Americans or many Southeast Asian nationalities. Their visibility is not the same thing as numerical dominance.
更有把握的说法是，与韩国人、日本人、美国人或许多东南亚国家人士相比，在华伊朗人仍然不是一个规模很大的外籍群体。他们变得更可见，并不等于他们在人数上占据优势。
But visibility matters. It is how cities first register change before the statistics catch up. A language heard more often, a cuisine found in more places, a business card from a country that once felt distant; these are not data, but they are not nothing either.
但“可见”本身也有意义。城市往往先通过这种方式感知变化，然后统计数字才慢慢跟上。一种语言更常被听见，一种饮食出现在更多地方，一张来自曾经显得遥远国家的名片；这些并不是数据，但也绝非毫无意义。
A statistic may eventually catch up. Until then, the story is already being told in restaurants, dormitories, wholesale markets and WeChat groups across China; one Persian conversation at a time.
统计数字或许终有一天会追上现实。在那之前，这个故事已经在中国各地的餐馆、宿舍、批发市场和微信群里展开；一次波斯语交谈，一段真实生活。
