程序员鼓励师?中国科技公司里的“漂亮女孩”们

BEIJING — China’s vibrant technology scene is searching for people like Shen Yue. Qualifications: Must be attractive, know how to charm socially awkward programmers and give relaxing massages.
北京——充满活力的中国科技行业正在寻找像申悦这样的人。要求：必须漂亮，知道如何吸引不善于社交的程序员，会放松按摩。

Ms. Shen is a “programmer motivator,” as they are known in China. Part psychologist, part cheerleader, the women are hired to chat up and calm stressed-out coders. The jobs are proliferating in a society that largely adheres to gender stereotypes and believes that male programmers are “zhai,” or nerds who have no social lives.
申悦的职业在中国被称为“程序员鼓励师”。这个职业兼有心理学家和啦啦队员的性质，这些女性被雇来与程序员搭讪，缓解他们的巨大压力。在一个很大程度上固守性别刻板印象、相信男性程序员是“宅男”或没有社交生活的书呆子的社会中，这种工作正在不断增加。

“They really need someone to talk to them from time to time and to organize activities for them to ease some of the pressure,” said Ms. Shen, a 25-year-old who has a degree in civil engineering from a university in Beijing.
“他们真的需要有人时不时地和他们聊天，为他们组织活动，减轻压力，”现年25岁的申悦说，她拥有北京一所大学的土木工程学位。

Chinese women have made great strides in the workplace. The country has the world’s largest number of self-made female billionaires, while many start-ups have women in senior roles. But at a time when the United States and other countries are directly confronting the #MeToo movement, the inequalities and biases in China are rarely discussed openly and remain firmly entrenched.
中国女性在工作场合已经取得了巨大进步。这个国家有着世界上最多靠个人奋斗成功的亿万富翁，不少初创企业的高层人员也都是女性。但在美国及其他国家正在直面“我也是”(#MeToo)运动的时候，中国仍然根深蒂固不平等和偏见很少得到公开讨论。

The country’s laws against gender discrimination are not often enforced. Many companies are direct in their job ads. Males preferred. Only good-looking women need apply. With programmer motivators, it’s more explicit, putting women in subservient positions to men.
这个国家针对性别歧视的法律常常得不到执行。许多公司的招聘启事说得非常直白：最好是男性，仅形象气质佳的女性可申请该职位。这种现象在程序员鼓励师的职位中更加明显，将女性置于奉承男性的位置上。

While China’s tech scene has produced companies that rival Facebook, Google and Amazon in power and wealth, the work culture in many ways trails even bro-dominated Silicon Valley.
尽管中国的科技界已经出现了不少在实力与财富上均可匹敌Facebook、谷歌(Google)和亚马逊(Amazon)的公司，但其职场文化在许多方面仍跟随以男性为主导的硅谷。

In tech, men dominate the top ranks. Just one woman sits on the 11-member board of Alibaba, the e-commerce giant. At Baidu, a search company, none of its five board members is a woman. At Tencent, a games and social media conglomerate, there are none. By comparison, Twitter has three women on its nine-person board. At Facebook, two of its nine directors are women.
在科技业，男性主导着最高层。电商巨头阿里巴巴由11人构成的董事会中，只有一名女性。在搜索引擎公司百度，五人董事会中无一人是女性。游戏、社交媒体企业集团腾讯的董事会中也没有女性。与之相对的，Twitter的九人董事会中有三名女性。Facebook的九名董事中有两名是女性。

Like many other businesses, China’s tech companies are blunt about gender bias in their job ads. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent have repeatedly published recruitment ads boasting that there are “beautiful girls” working for the companies, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights watchdog.
像其他行业一样，中国的科技公司在招聘启事中对性别偏见颇为直白。根据总部位于纽约的人权观察组织(Human Rights Watch)，百度、阿里巴巴及腾讯均多次发布招聘启事，夸耀公司里有“漂亮女孩”。

In January, Alibaba said it was seeking a sales manager for Taobao, its e-commerce platform. Women were preferred, ages 28 to 35, “with a good personal image and class.”
一月，阿里巴巴表示正在为旗下的电商平台淘宝寻找销售经理，要求最好是年龄为28至35岁之间的女性，“个人形象、谈吐良好。”

In November, Baidu advertised for a marketing position. Men were preferred “because of business travel” and other reasons.
11月，百度为一个市场推广职位打出广告，要求由于会有“出差”及其他原因，最好是男性。

Both companies have since removed the references to specific genders in those ads.
两家公司后来都在招聘启事中撤下了对特定性别的说法。

Alibaba said that the company has clear guidelines on providing equal opportunity regardless of gender and “will conduct stricter reviews of the recruiting advertisements to ensure compliance with our policy.” It also said that one-third of the 18 founders of Alibaba are women and that female leaders account for one-third of the company’s management positions.
阿里巴巴表示，该公司对不论性别，提供平等就业有着明确的指导方针，并且“将更加严格审核招聘启事，确保其符合我们的政策。”该公司还表示阿里巴巴18名创始人中，有三人之一是女性，并且女性领导人占该公司管理岗的三分之一。

Baidu said that 45 percent of the company’s 40,000 employees are female, which is reflected in midlevel and senior positions. “We value the important work that our female employees do across the organization,” the company said in an emailed statement.
百度表示该公司四万名员工中，有45%是女性，这在中层及高层职位中也得到了体现。“我们重视女性员工在各个层面的所做的重要工作，”该公司在一封邮件声明中表示。

In a statement, Tencent said it values diverse backgrounds and apologized for the ads.
在一则声明中，腾讯表示该公司重视多样化背景，并为上述招聘启事致歉。

It is unclear how many companies employ programmer motivators. According to Baidu Baipin, a job search website run by Baidu, just seven companies are currently advertising for these jobs, mostly at smaller start-ups. There used to be more. Alibaba advertised for a programmer motivator with “recognizably good looks” in 2015 but deleted the ad after being criticized by Chinese internet users.
尚不清楚有多少公司雇佣了程序员鼓励师。根据百度运营的找工作网站“百度百聘”，仅有七家公司目前在为该职位进行招聘，大多数都是在规模较小的初创公司。曾经这类招聘启事有很多。2015年，阿里巴巴曾发出广告，试图招聘过一名“样貌出众”的程序员鼓励师，但受到中国网民的批评后将其删除。

Ms. Shen started work at Chainfin.com, a consumer finance company, in October. She declined to disclose her salary, but Zhang Jing, a human resources executive who hired Ms. Shen, said it was around $950 a month.
申悦10月开始在消费金融公司中望金服(Chainfin.com)工作。她拒绝透露自己的薪水，但雇佣申悦的人力资源部管理人员张晶表示薪水为每月约950美元（约合6000人民币）。

Ms. Shen came to Beijing from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. She has long black hair and pale skin and wears red eye shadow to the office, where she always has a ready smile for her colleagues. They call her by her nickname, Yueyue, which translates to Joy.
申悦从中国东北部的黑龙江省来到了北京。她有着长长的黑发、白皙的皮肤，会化上红色的眼影上班，脸上随时带着微笑。他们用“悦悦”这个昵称来称呼她，意思是快乐。

At Chainfin.com, the bulk of her work is tending the front desk, organizing social events, ordering snacks for tea breaks and chatting with the programmers. She may call a programmer to a conference room and ask him, “Did you have to work overtime?” before listening to his various frustrations.
她在中望金服的主要工作是在前台服务、组织社交活动、购买茶歇的小食以及与程序员聊天。她会把一个程序员叫到会议室里，问他，“你要加班吗？”，然后聆听他的各种不满。

“I thought it was really novel,” Ms. Shen said, “because I had never seen such a job before.”
“我就觉得挺新奇的，”申悦说，“因为真的之前没有见过这种岗位。”

On a recent Friday, she approached Guo Zhenjie, 28, who has a foldout bed next to his desk. Ms. Shen asked whether his waist was still hurting from the long hours at his desk. He said, yes, he had been working till 10 or 11 for the past few nights.
最近的一个周五，她找到了郭振杰。28岁的郭振杰在办公桌旁放着一张折叠床。申悦问他，他的腰是不是还是因为长时间的伏案工作而疼痛。他说是的，在过去的几个晚上他都是10点、11点才下班。

“The company’s intention is for me to give you a massage, though my technique might not be great,” Ms. Shen told Mr. Guo.
“公司的意思是要给你按摩一下，但是有可能我手法不太好，”申悦对郭振杰说。

Both of them broke out in giggles.
两人都咯咯地笑了起来。

Ms. Shen stood over a seated Mr. Guo and started kneading his shoulders.
郭振杰坐着，站在他身后的申悦开始给他按摩肩膀。

“It really does feel good,” Mr. Guo said, as Ms. Shen gently whacked his back with a massage clapper device.
“确实很舒服，”郭振杰说着，申悦轻柔地用一个拍打按摩器打着他的后背。

For some start-ups, having a programmer motivator on staff is one of the many perks to attract male coders, a job that is in high demand in China’s booming tech scene.
对于一些创业公司来说，职工里有一名程序员鼓励师是吸引男程序员的诸多福利之一。在中国蓬勃发展的科技圈中，程序员的岗位有着很大的需求。

Feng Zhiyi, 31, who works in research and development at Chainfin.com, said he was envious when photos of female programmer motivators fanning male employees appeared on the internet.
31岁的冯志毅在中望金服从事研究和发展工作，他表示，之前看到网上那些女性程序员鼓励师为男员工扇扇子的照片，还挺羡慕的。

“And now we have one, too,” Mr. Feng said.
“慢慢地咱这个也有了，”冯志毅说。

Mr. Feng said Ms. Shen had improved the work environment by organizing birthday parties and getting the programmers active with games such as tug of war or sack races.
冯志毅表示，申悦通过组织生日派对，让程序员玩拔河、套袋赛跑等游戏，使他们更加活跃，改善了工作环境。

He said he was open to the idea of male programmer motivators but somewhat skeptical. “A man chatting with another man, it’s like going out on a date with a guy,” Mr. Feng said. “A little awkward, isn’t it?”
他说，对于男性程序员激励师这个想法，他持开放态度，但有些怀疑。“你一个男的和男的聊天，就跟你和男孩子约会，感觉有点别扭，是不是？”

Ms. Zhang, the human resources executive who was part of the panel that hired Ms. Shen, stressed that it is important for a programmer motivator to look good. She said the applicants needed to have “five facial features that must definitely be in their proper order” and speak in a gentle way.
人力资源的张晶是雇用了申悦的招聘组成员之一，她强调了程序员鼓励师外貌好看的重要性。她说，应聘者“五官肯定第一要端正”，说话温柔。

They should also have a contagious laugh, be able to apply simple makeup and be taller than 5 feet 2 inches.
她们的笑容要有感染力，能化一些简单的妆，身高在5英尺2英寸（约合158厘米）以上。

“Her position is at the front desk, isn’t it?” Ms. Zhang said. “It may be that people won’t be able to see her if they walk in.”
“她这个职位是在前台的，是吧？”张晶说。“要不可能一进来看不到人。”

Ms. Shen said that does not consider her job to be sexist.
申悦表示不认为她的工作带有性别歧视。

“Many feminist ideas are too extreme now,” she said. “I think women should be independent, self-reliant and have self-respect. And that’s enough.”
“但是现在很多就是女权主义想法都太偏激了，”她说。“我觉得女性只要独立、自强、自重，就可以了。”

Xu Jiaolong, one of Chainfin.com’s few female programmers, who gets massages from Ms. Shen, did not see anything wrong with the job. The way she saw it, it was a mere “division of labor.” But, with a smile, she said the company could consider hiring a man to motivate female programmers, too.
徐娇龙是中望金服为数不多的几名女程序员之一，也会找申悦按摩。她并不觉得这个工作有什么问题。在她看来，这只是“一个分工”。但她开玩笑地说，公司也可以考虑招一个男的来鼓励一下女程序员。

China’s tech industry is beginning to question such practices. Wang Jie, 40, the chief executive of Shanbay.com, an app that helps people learn English, has been vocal about the “objectification” of women by other start-ups.
中国科技行业对这种行为已经开始产生了质疑。40岁的王捷是扇贝的首席执行官，这是一款帮助人们学习英语的应用。对于其他创业公司对女性的“物化”，他表达了自己的意见。

He was so disturbed that some tech companies were using “beautiful women” to draw male programmers to their companies that he wrote a post last October on Zhihu, China’s version of Quora, the question and answer site, saying that Western companies would be sued back home if they posted similar ads.
一些科技公司使用“漂亮的女性”来吸引男程序员进公司，这让他感到困扰。去年十月，他在中国版的Quora问答网站——知乎发帖称，如果西方公司也发布类似的广告，在他们的国家是会被起诉的。

But Mr. Wang has found that attitudes are difficult to change. Several people responded to his post, saying he was making a mountain out of a molehill.
但王捷发现人们的观点很难改变。有几个人回复了他的帖子，说他这是小题大做。

“The men said: ‘If there are more beautiful women, I’ll be happier in my job. What’s the issue?’” Mr. Wang said. “And some women said: ‘As a woman, I don’t think this is a problem at all.’”
“男生说，这有什么，美女多工作比较开心有什么问题吗，”王捷说。“有女生说，我是女生我都不觉得这有什么问题。”