■村民趙夢冷看著掛在牆上的圖像，上頭畫的是已故領袖毛澤東及其他共產黨領導者，圖攝於2月5日。（圖文／路透）

中國總理溫家寶參訪趙夢冷（音譯）所居住的村落時，她想讓總理看看她家，這棟由泥土磚瓦所蓋成的房子，因龜裂而危及居住安全。在中國正值萌芽階段的繁榮景象，這是一個徵兆，顯示繁榮並沒有擴及到廣大的農村地帶，讓所有人雨露均霑。

When Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited Zhao Mengleng's village, she hoped to show him the cracks threatening her mud-brick home, a reminder that the country's embryonic prosperity has not reached everybody in the vast rural heartland.

這位68歲的總理，型塑出一種歸屬於全體人民的形象，「溫爺爺」的名號普遍為人所知。他在中國新年假期期間，曾造訪安徽省東邊的趙院村。

The 68-year-old prime minister, who has cultivated an image as a man of the people and is popularly known as "Grandpa Wen," visited Zhaoyuan village in eastern Anhui province during the Chinese New Year holidays.

溫家寶為自己縮小貧富差距的承諾背書，並且將更多財富輸往7億2千萬的中國農村居民及農民工，這個人數超過美國人口2倍有餘。

He came to support his pledge to narrow the rich-poor gap and channel more wealth to China's 720 million villagers and rural migrant workers （1）, a population more than double the size of the United States.

在貧困的大別山區，趙院村及附近村落已有收入增加的跡象，而這很大一部分要歸因於製造工作機會的機制，這個機制將移工送往工廠、建築工地及礦場等地工作。

Zhaoyuan and nearby villages in the impoverished （2） Dabie Mountains have shown signs of rising incomes, which largely depend on a job-making machine that sends rural migrants out to work in factories, mines and building sites.

中國政府相信，提高農村居民的收入及福利是重要的，因為這有助於長期成長，並避免人民對共產黨的統治產生不滿，這種不滿一旦惡化，將威脅到共產黨的統治。

China's government believes raising the incomes and welfare of rural residents is crucial to long-term growth and to protect the ruling Communist Party from discontent that could fester into threats to its rule.

自從溫家寶與國家主席胡錦導在2003年上台以後，他們便誓言要打造「社會主義新農村」，這項成果將成為他們政績中的一塊基石。

Since Wen and President Hu Jintao came to office in 2003, they have vowed to create a "new socialist countryside," an effort that will form a cornerstone of their legacy.

趙院村的居民表示，他們的生活確實有所改善。用混凝土及磚瓦所蓋成的兩層樓新房子，高過樹木及竹林。部分住家則以梁柱來妝點門面，大型彩色電視所發出的聲響從家中流竄而出。更有錢的家庭還會買車，而這在幾年前是聞所未聞的。

Residents in Zhaoyuan said their lives have indeed improved. New two-story, concrete-and-tile homes poked above the trees and bamboo, some with decorative columns out front and big color televisions blaring inside. Better-off families have been buying cars, unheard of a few years ago.

現年55歲的農民鄭萬拱（音譯），坐在蓋到一半的磚房前，椽梁上還吊掛著好幾串臘肉及自家作的香腸，他說：「生活漸入佳境，都是靠年輕人外出工作。如果他們不工作，我們就會像以前一樣窮。」

"Life has been getting better. It all depends on the young people going out to work. If they didn't work, we'd be as poor as before," said Zheng Wangong, a 55-year-old farmer, sitting in front of a semi-finished brick house, with strings of half-cured pork and home-made sausages hanging from the rafters.

溫家寶與其他北京的決策者，為避免經濟過度依賴於低利潤的製造業及出口業，並且讓成長更趨於公平，因此尋找新的產業，這些產業有許多都在內地。然而，工廠提供就業機會給1億5千萬名移工，如果這些工廠遭逢任何經濟上的嚴重閃失，農村地區的生活水平將連帶被拖累。

Wen and other Beijing policymakers want to wean the economy off low-margin manufacturing and exports and find new industries for more balanced growth -- many in the interior. But any serious downturn in the factories employing 150 million migrant workers could drag down rural living standards.

農村水平的上升十分明顯：在農曆新年期間，放假回到趙院村及附近村落的移工們，使勁地搬運電視機及其他因工資上升而帶回的戰利品。

Those rising standards were readily evident: Migrant laborers who had returned to Zhaoyuan and nearby villages for the Lunar New Year break could be seen lugging televisions and other trophies of their rising incomes.

過去曾在農村擔任村官的李昌平表示：「農村生活條件已有巨大改變，但這並不是因為政府的政策有多好，而是農村移工有了更優渥的薪資以後，帶了多少錢回來。」李昌平曾在2000年上書給當時的總理朱鎔基，傳達農民所遭遇的苦難，因而聲名大噪。李昌平說：「因此這帶來正面的變革，但是，當成長趨緩時，會發生甚麼樣的負面危機呢？」

"There have been big changes in rural living conditions, but that has not really depended on how good the government's policies have been but on how much rural migrant workers have been bringing back with better wages," said Li Changping, a former rural official who came to fame in 2000 for writing to then premier Zhu Rongji about the suffering of farmers. "So there's positive change, but the negative risk is: what happens when growth slows,?" said Li.

葉長潤（音譯）任職於中國南方某一大型工業區的床具工廠，他表示，自己每個月的薪水已從3年前的1千元人民幣，翻兩番到2千元人民幣（約新台幣9千元）。他說：「在工廠工作既辛苦又孤獨，但薪水變好了，而我認為薪水還會再增加。」「我回家看家人，但我不會回家鄉工作。」他補充道。「那裡沒有錢。」

Ye Changrun, who works in a bed factory in southern China's huge industrial zone （3）, said his income has doubled to about 2,000 yuan ($300) a month from 1,000 three years ago. "Working in a factory is hard and it's lonely. But wages are getting better and I think they'll keep going up," Ye said. "I come home to see my family but I won't come home to work," he added, gesturing at the rice paddies below his home. "There's no money in that."

就全國來說，中國2010年的農村收入增加10.9％，勝過都市收入的7.8％，在這個人口居世界之冠的國度裡，鞏固了刺激消費的成果。這是自1983年以來，農村收入的成長速度首次超越都市地區。

Nationwide, rural incomes in China rose 10.9 percent in 2010, outpacing the 7.8 percent rise in urban incomes, underpinning efforts to boost consumption in the world's most-populous nation. It was the first time since 1983 that rural incomes had grown faster than those in cities.

但都市地區的可支配淨所得，仍是鄉村地區的3倍，而這個趨勢在過去10年的時間裡，已有了巨大的鴻溝。

But net disposable income is still three times larger in urban areas than in the countryside, and the trend over the past decade shows that gap has widened considerably.

在金寨縣或中國的其他地區，農民種植經濟作物或擁有更多土地，來自農業的收入也比較高。但在趙院村及其他山區村落，即使糧食價格高漲，零星破碎的田地，使得務農無法為他們帶來可觀的收入。

In Jinzhai county and other parts of China where farmers grow cash crops （4） or have more land, incomes from agriculture are higher. But in Zhaoyuan and other mountainous villages, the fragmented patches of fields are not enough to make farming lucrative （5）, even with higher food prices.

鮮少有村民能有擁超過1／3畝的田地，而且有許多人表示，他們的田地更少。朱文賓說：「農民花更多錢在食糧、飼料及肥料……農業的補貼提供援助，但除非家裡有移工，否則你仍然是一貧如洗。」

Few villagers had more than a third of an acre of farmland, and many said they had less. "Farmers are paying more for food and animal feed and fertiliser," Zhu added. "The (farm) subsidies help, but unless you have migrant workers in a family, you're still poor."

從安徽六安市（趙院村所在地區）2008年的調查中發現，鄉村的工作年齡人口總數為290萬人，其中有56％是移工，而這些移工又有3／4的勞動力聚集在中國東方及南方的沿海出口工業區。

A survey in 2008 of Lu'an, the area in Anhui that encompasses Zhaoyuan Village, found that out of a rural working-age population of 2.9 million, 56 percent worked as migrant laborers. Three quarters of those worked in the coastal export industrial zones of eastern and southern China.

通常住在農村裡的都是年長者，而移工的小孩則是託付給祖父母照料。毫無疑問，鄉村的消費在上升，包括汽車及電器，以及房屋的建造。渣打銀行大中華區研究部主管王志浩緊密追蹤農村發展，他指出，房屋的建造「讓鋼鐵公司驚豔」。

Rural villages are often home only to older people and children migrant workers leave in the care of grandparents. Rising rural consumption is evident in purchases of cars and electric appliances and in house building, "which caught steel firms by surprise," said Stephen Green, head of Greater China research for Standard Chartered Bank, who has closely followed rural development.

溫家寶表示，移工的薪資將持續穩定成長。但北京中國人民大學社會科學家陸益龍表示，經濟動盪會阻撓或逆轉這一趨勢，這也將產生嚴重的社會與政治後果。

Premier Wen has said migrant workers' wages would keep rising steadily. An economic shock that halts or even reverses the trend could cause serious social and political fallout, said Lu Yilong, a social scientist at Renmin University in Beijing.

政府為避免震盪，嘗試加強農村的社會安全網，增加醫療保健及基本教育的支出。希望增加安全以後，能鼓勵貧窮農民更多的消費開支。溫家寶任內，國務院在2006年廢除了不受歡迎的農業稅，並實施農民補助。

The government has been trying to avoid such shocks by strengthening the rural social safety net with increased spending on healthcare and basic education, hoping the added security would encourage more consumer spending by poor farmers. Wen's government in 2006 abolished unpopular agricultural taxes and introduced subsidies for farmers.

根據印第安納大學的社會學者麥宜生所做2002年及2010年的調查，這些步驟減緩了鄉村地區的壓力。在2010年的調查中，2,280名中國村民裡，有69％的人認為，家庭經濟狀況在過去5年裡「有部分改善」；而16％的人則表示，經濟狀況「改善很多」。

Those steps have reduced strains in the countryside, according to surveys in 2002 and 2010 by Ethan Michelson, a sociologist at Indiana University. In a 2010 survey of 2,280 Chinese villagers, 69 percent said their family economic conditions had "improved some" in the previous five years, and 16 percent said conditions had "improved a lot."

農民經常鄙視當地官員，認為這些人是掌權的寄生蟲，抽走原本要給農村的資金，導致他們的農田獲得的補償太少。

Farmers are often disdainful of local officials they see as members of a parasite elite that siphon off funds meant for villagers and take their farmland for too little compensation.

許多趙院村的居民仍在紀念場所的壁爐上保留毛澤東肖像，這位革命家贏取政權後，誓言要解放農民。儘管在毛澤東的統治下，農民曾經歷過致命的飢荒及困厄，但他繼續存活在非常多的農村地區裡，象徵著一個較為廉潔及平等的時代。

Many residents of Zhaoyuan keep pictures of Mao Zedong, the revolutionary who won power vowing to liberate the peasantry, in honored spots above mantles. Despite deadly famine and hardships under Mao, he has survived across much of the rural heartland as a symbol of what is seen as a cleaner, more equal era.

（路透Reuters）

1. rural migrant worker

(n.) 農民工

2. impoverished

(a.) 赤貧的

3. industrial zone

(n.) 工業區

4. cash crop

(n.) 經濟作物

5. lucrative

(a.) 有利可圖的

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