无奈的艰辛:上海工薪族的打折午餐

At the opposite end of the road is the even more modest “community canteen” where I often get my own four dishes and a soup at lunchtime. Like the rest of the motley crew of office workers and pensioners who patronise that refectory, I show up with my own saucepan or Tupperware container, which gets loaded to the brim with meat, fish, rice and stinky tofu for as little as Rmb5-8 a meal. Conversation at the cramped tables often revolves around how happy we all are that the Nanny provides such cheap fare, so close to our homes or offices. (I tend to be more grateful on days when stinky tofu is left off the menu.)
在南京路的另一头，是更为简朴的“社区食堂”。我常常在这里吃午饭，享用自己的四菜一汤。与光顾这家食堂的其他形形色色的办公室职员和退休老人一样，我也拿着自己的饭盆或特百惠(Tupperware)饭盒，仅仅花上5到8元人民币，就能装上满满一饭盒肉、鱼、米饭和臭豆腐。在拥挤的餐桌边，人们谈论的话题往往是，“姆妈”政府提供了这么便宜的伙食，而且就餐地点离家或办公室这么近，大家是多么高兴（在菜单上没有臭豆腐的日子里，我往往会更加感激。）

But it’s not quite the iron rice bowl that it sounds: Jing’an government officials say that of the district’s 250,000 white-collar workers – up from 100,000 when the project started in 2007 – 70 per cent eat a meal from the scheme regularly. But the goal is not just to fill their hard-working bellies: it helps Jing’an compete with second- and third-tier cities trying to lure investment away from Shanghai. (Lunch is cheap in those places, even without the party’s help.) And Nanny is happy when people spend money: since boosting consumption is her plan for saving the Chinese economy.
然而，这也并非完全像听起来那样是铁饭碗：静安区的政府官员说，在该区25万白领（2007年午餐工程刚启动时是10万人）中，有70%定期在参加午餐工程的餐馆就餐。但该工程的目标不仅仅是填饱辛劳的工薪族的肚子：它还帮助静安区与试图将投资从上海吸引走的二、三线城市竞争（即使没有党的帮助，后者的午餐也很便宜）。而且政府乐见民众花钱：因为促进消费是其拯救中国经济的计划。

Given the popularity of the lunch scheme, Jing’an has now started including afternoon tea in some venues. And another Shanghai district, Hongkou, last month started offering free afternoon tea as a lure to get office workers to talk to one another, and break down that salaryman isolation. The organisers say they may add lectures on health, nutrition, love and marriage too.
鉴于午餐工程极受欢迎，静安区目前已开始在某些地方增加下午茶。而另一个区虹口区，从上月开始提供免费下午茶，以此促进办公室职员间的交流、打破职场隔阂。组织者说，他们可能还会主办关于健康、营养、爱情和婚姻的讲座。

Where will it end? Last week President Xi followed up his call for government food-and-drink frugality with a recommendation that cadres “look in the mirror, tidy your attire and take a bath” (among other things). Will five-star hotels start offering rooms by the hour to anyone with a party membership card who wants to ablute during working hours?
最终走向会如何？上周，中国国家主席习近平继呼吁政府厉行勤俭节约之后，又建议干部们“照镜子、正衣冠、洗洗澡”（还有些别的）。五星级酒店会开始向任何持有党员证、希望在工作时间内洗澡的人提供钟点房吗？

Maybe that explains the results from a Pew Research Center survey that found 88 per cent of Chinese feel good about their economy.
这或许可以解释，为何皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)的调查会显示88%的中国人对经济感觉良好。