外刊閱讀day 189，文章來自2019年12月30日《紐約時報》。
近年來，性別暴力越來越多地引起了社會的關注：拉姆、被夫家虐待致死的女子、被丈夫殺害的杭州女子…她們的經歷令我們動容。剛剛過去的11月25日國際消除針對婦女暴力日，也引發了許多人對頻頻發生的女性受害事件的探討。
我們之前的一篇文章就是講聯合國的報告表示「家庭是女性最容易遭受到暴力的地方」。（點👉複習：60頁聯合國報告：對女性來說，最危險的地方是家）
然而性別暴力是一個極其複雜的問題，箇中議題往往不能得到同等的關注。我們可以留意到，社會對於精神暴力的認識、關注和回應，往往要遜色於對肢體暴力的。
今天的文章就將聚焦PUA泡學，一門以性別暴力中的精神暴力和控制行為為重要手段的「學問」。我們將和作者一同回顧曾轟動一時的包麗案，回溯國內一度猖獗的PUA產業鏈及其背後隱含的性別不公。
【字數】1745
【文章難度】⭐⭐⭐（文末可以下載全文pdf）
For China’s Pickup Artists,
Sex Is the Goal and Urging Suicide Is a Tactic
「捕獵」女性、鼓勵自殺：
PUA背後，中國的性別不平等
「You』ve given your best thing to another man,」 he texted her, referring to her virginity. 「I’m left with nothing.」
「你把最美好的東西奉獻給了另一個人，」他發消息給她，意指她的童貞。「我這裡，什麼都不剩。」
She texted back: 「I』ve said my best thing is my future.」
她回覆說：「我說過我最美好的東西是我的將來。」
「You’re shameless,」 he lashed out, calling her a 「stinking idiot」 and a 「slut.」
「你真不要臉，」他大發雷霆，叫她「傻逼」、「蕩婦」。
「I want you to get pregnant with me then get an abortion,」 he said.
「你為我懷一個孩子，然後去把他打掉，」他說。
* 牟林翰（包麗男友）
On Oct. 9, the woman, referred to as Bao Li, the Chinese equivalent of Jane Doe, tried to commit suicide. She has since been declared brain dead.
10月9日，這位名叫包麗（化名）的女性試圖自殺。此後被宣布腦死亡。
One of her last messages to the man: 「You’re dazzling while I’m a piece of garbage.」
她發給這個男人的最後一條信息是：「遇到了熠熠閃光的你而我卻是一塊垃圾。」
Her tragic story shocked the Chinese public. A hashtag referring to screenshots of her text exchanges got nearly 1.4 billion views in just two days on the social media platform Weibo before it was censored.
她的悲慘故事震驚中國公眾。在短短兩天內，她微信截圖的主題標籤在微博上就獲得了14億的閱讀量，該標籤後被審查刪除。
Many people could not fathom how an undergraduate at a prestigious school, Peking University, could end up in such a toxic relationship. Many also did not know that there is a name for men who often use such cruel tactics in pursuit of women: PUAs, or pickup artists.
許多人無法理解北京大學這所名校的本科生，怎麼會陷入這樣一段有毒的關係中。許多人也不知道，經常使用這類殘酷手段追求女性的男人有個專用名：PUA(pickup artist)。
In China, the English initials PUA refer to both the man and his manipulative techniques. Pickup artists often employ gaslighting, a form of psychological control intended to make someone question her own sanity. Friends of the Peking University student and many online users believed that her boyfriend, Mou Linhan, a fellow student, had used such techniques.
在中國，英文縮寫PUA既指這樣的男人又指他的操縱技巧。PUA經常使用「煤氣燈操縱」(gaslighting)，這是一種心理控制手段，旨在使對方質疑自己的理智。這名北大學生的朋友和許多網友認為，她的男朋友、同校同學牟林翰，使用了這種方法。
「Many of the details of their relationship reminded us of the notorious PUA,」 her friends wrote in a long social media post that included screenshots of chat messages between the couple.
「其中多處細節更是讓人不禁聯想起臭名昭著的PUA，」她的朋友發在社交媒體的一個長篇帖子上寫道，其中包括這對戀人的聊天記錄截圖。
「After a long time of mental abuse, including cursing, humiliation and vilification, she was filled with pain and fear and lost the ability to push back,」 they wrote.
他們寫道：「經過長時間的精神暴力（包括謾罵、侮辱、詆毀等），她內心痛苦又害怕，卻已經喪失了反駁的能力。」
PUA as a concept came to China from the United States. Chinese men translated what is widely considered a bible of the pickup artist community, 「The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists,」 by Neil Strauss, and began sharing his seduction tricks. (Mr. Strauss did not respond to a request for comment.)
PUA這個概念是由美國傳入中國的。中國男性翻譯了被把妹達人普遍視為聖經的尼爾·史特勞斯(Neil Strauss)的《把妹達人：深入把妹達人的秘密社團》，並開始分享他的勾引技巧。（史特勞斯未回應置評請求。）
🌟Lash out 痛打，斥責
▷例句：The kindergartener lashed out at the dog suddenly. 那個幼兒園小孩突然打了那隻狗一下。
🌟Fathom
/ˈfæð.əm/ v. 弄清
▷例句：He finds it hard to fathom her intention out. 他覺得她的意圖難以捉摸。
📒fathom sth out是一個常用搭配
⚠️要注意這個短語不可用於被動語態
🌟Vilification
/ˌvɪl.ə.fəˈkeɪ.ʃən/ n. 詆毀
▷例句：His vilification of queer people has caused public furor. 他對酷兒群體的詆毀引起了公憤。
📒vilification的動詞形式為vilify，表示污衊、中傷
✍️它的常用搭配為vilify sb/sth as sth和vilify sb/sth for sth/for doing something
✍️這個詞多用於正式場合。
✍️在vilify後面添上-er後綴，即有vilifier，表誹謗者的名詞。
⚠️Vilify的詞義與Disparage近似，但要注意的是後者還帶有輕視的意味，而它的另一個近義詞revile則相比它更強調辱罵。
Over the last decade, it has become a big business in China. Thousands of companies and websites catering to the pickup community and offering dating advice for men have cropped up. One of the biggest websites, Paoxuewang, said it had nearly two million members before it was shut down in 2018. At its peak in late 2017, Langji, the most-well-known PUA company, employed a staff of about 400 and had nearly 100,000 students, according to Chinese news reports.
在過去的十年中，它在中國成了一門大生意。出現了數以千計的公司和網站服務於把妹群體的需要，並為男性提供約會建議。其中最大的網站之一泡學網表示，它在2018年關站前有近200萬會員。根據中國的新聞媒體報導，在2017年底的鼎盛時期，最著名的PUA公司——浪跡僱傭了大約400名員工，擁有10萬學員。
🌟Cater to 滿足願望；迎合
▷例句：The programme catered to the needs of young researchers was a real success. 那個為了解決年輕研究者們的需求而設計的項目大獲成功。
🌟Crop up 突然出現
▷例句：A possible solution to the issue cropped up in her mind. 該問題可能的解決方法突然出現在她的腦海中。
It is not clear whether Mr. Mou had enrolled in any such programs. But WeChat Index, which monitors the popularity of topics on WeChat, China’s biggest social media platform, indicated that mentions of the term 「PUA」 soared nearly 1,700 percent overnight after a news article about the woman’s attempted suicide spread across the internet.
尚不清楚牟林翰是否參加過這類培訓。但監測中國最大的社交媒體平臺微信上話題受歡迎程度的微信指數指出，在該女子自殺未遂的新聞報導傳出後，一夜之間提到「PUA」一詞的人數猛增了近1700％。
In interviews with Chinese news outlets, Mr. Mou said he had not tried to manipulate his girlfriend psychologically and did not know what mind control was.
牟林翰在接受中國新聞媒體採訪時說，他並沒有從心理上試圖操縱女友，也不知道什麼是精神控制。
Some of the companies and websites geared toward men and dating provide common-sense lessons. They advise dressing nicely, holding doors for women and being considerate in relationships.
一些針對男性和約會的公司和網站提供常識性課程。它們建議穿著要得體，為女性開門，並在戀愛中做到貼心。
But the more nefarious teach men to manipulate women for their own sexual needs. They dismiss the concept of romantic love, instead promoting the idea that men should sleep with as many women as possible and dominate them completely.
但有些較為惡毒的則教男人如何操控女性以滿足自己的性需求。他們摒棄了浪漫愛情的概念，而是提倡男人應該睡儘可能多的女人，並完全主宰她們。
🌟Nefarious
/nəˈfer.i.əs/ adj. 罪惡的，不道德的
▷例句：The tutor’s nefarious behaviour was criticised severely. 那位教師的邪惡行徑被狠狠地批評了。
📒這個詞源自拉丁文，形容對於道德法的違反。
✍️nefarious與evil詞義相近，但evil隱含著對人有害這一重含義。
One widely circulated curriculum offers a chapter-by-chapter guide to achieving such goals. It includes methods of destroying a woman’s self-esteem, setting emotionally manipulative traps to prevent women from leaving, pressuring women to change their personalities to become more compliant, encouraging suicide, and exploiting women financially to buy cars and homes.
一種廣為流傳的課程提供了實現這些目標的逐章指南。它包括摧毀女性自尊的方法，設置情緒操縱陷阱以防止女性離開，迫使女性改變性格變得更加順從，鼓勵自殺以及在經濟上剝削女性購買汽車和房屋。
「Then you will be on your way to the top of the world,」 the guide reads.
該指南寫道：「那麼你將達到世界之巔。」
The popularity of these programs reveals deeper societal issues. China is a highly patriarchal society, where men rarely face scrutiny for sexual assault and harassment, while women are routinely criticized for their age, weight, virginity or any number of perceived failings.
這些培訓的流行揭示了更深層次的社會問題。中國是一個高度父權社會，男人極少因性侵犯和性騷擾受到審查，女性卻常常因年齡、體重、童貞或其他被看作缺陷的事情受到批評。
🌟Scrutiny
/ˈskruː.t̬ən.i/ n. 仔細審查
▷例句：Public scrutiny is called for to ensure responsible decision-making . 要作出負責任的決策需要公眾審議。
📒scrutiny可以用來表達我們中文中常說的推敲，要表達經得起推敲可以用stand up to scrutiny來表達。
✍️它的動詞形式為scrutinize，表示「仔細查看」。
「Can PUA explain such tragedies?」 Fang Kecheng, an assistant professor of journalism at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, wrote in a blog post about Ms. Bao’s suicide attempt. 「If we expose PUA’s usual tricks, are we sure that such things won’t happen again?」
「PUA真的足以解釋這樣的悲劇嗎？」香港中文大學新聞學助理教授方可成在一篇關於包麗自殺的博客文章中寫道。「如果戳穿了PUA的常用套路，真的就能避免這種事情的發生了嗎？」
He says the root lies in China’s gender inequality. 「PUA is an easy scapegoat,」 he said. 「Focusing on it simplifies the complexity of the tragedy.」
他說，根本原因在於中國的性別不平等。「PUA只是一個容易找到的替罪羊，」他說，「對它的關注簡化了悲劇的複雜性。」
Some PUA programs seek to capitalize on that inequality, openly teaching misogynistic techniques.
一些PUA培訓試圖利用這種不平等，公開地教授貶抑女性的技巧。
🌟misogynistic
/mɪˌsɒdʒ.ənˈɪs.tɪk/ adj. 厭惡女性的
還記得我們10月5日的文章韓國娛樂圈到底怎麼了？性侵醜聞給韓流蒙上陰影中提到了misogyny這個詞。
「Yet the unprecedented international fervourfor Korean culture comes at a time of upheaval in Korean society. A new generation of women are putting the spotlight on the nation’s dark underbelly: a patriarchal society plagued by misogyny that critics say is endemic to the high-pressure Korean entertainment industry.
然而，就在國際社會對韓國文化表現出空前狂熱之際，韓國社會正經歷動蕩。新一代女性把聚光燈對準這個國家見不得人的陰暗面：一個深受厭女症困擾的父權社會；批評人士稱，厭女症在高壓力氛圍下的韓國娛樂業泛濫成災。」
大家可以複習一下我們在知識拓展中介紹了厭女症是什麼：
知識拓展：厭女症（misogyny）到底是什麼？
In one program run by Langji, the teacher, Wang Huanyu, held out the prospect of sleeping with three women in a day, as he claimed to do. 「That’s the life of a professional PUA,」 he told students, according to a three-part documentary produced by a Chinese news site, The Paper.
在浪跡開辦的一項培訓中，培訓師王環宇提出，可以像他那樣一天睡三個人。根據一部由中國新聞網站澎湃製作的分為三部的紀錄片，他告訴學員：「就這樣安排，職業選手嘛。」
🌟Hold out 維持（供應）
📒詞彙解析：原文中的hold out the prospect of可理解為提供了某種希望或可能性。
「I’m the best PUA in China,」 Mr. Wang told the class. 「Chat up girls on the street in an hour.」
「我們是中國PUA的領頭羊，」王環宇告訴全班同學。「一個小時街搭女生。」
「Take them directly to a hotel,」 he continued in the undated video.
「直接帶去酒店，」在未註明日期的視頻裡，他還說。
In a series of YouTube videos, Mr. Wang, who is also a co-founder of Langji, demonstrates how to make sexual advances toward women — seeking consent is discouraged. In a 2016 video, he explained what to do when women say 「no.」 「The best way to prevent the girls from rejecting you is not asking the question 『Can I hold your hand?』」 he said.
作為浪跡網的聯合創始人之一，王環宇在YouTube上的一系列視頻裡展示了如何對女人實施進一步性行為——徵求同意是不受鼓勵的。在2016年的一段視頻裡，他解釋了當女人說「不」時該怎麼做。「最好的防止妹子拒絕你的方式，就是不要去提這個問題：我可以牽你的手嗎？」他說。
He recommended against telling women where they were going when the man had sex in mind. 「You don’t need to ask them, 『Can I take you home?』」 he said. 「Just take them to a private space.」
他建議男人想做愛的時候，不要告訴女人他們要去哪裡。「你不用說，不用請求。直接把她們帶到一個私密空間，」他說。
If a woman is not willing to have sex, Mr. Wang suggested a solution in Chinese that can best be translated as persistent harassment. He also told his YouTube audience to initiate sex at 3 a.m., when women were sleepy and vulnerable.
如果一個女人不願意發生性行為，王環宇提出的解決辦法無異於持續騷擾。他告訴他的YouTube觀眾，可以在凌晨3點開始做愛，那時候，女人們已經昏昏欲睡、脆弱不堪。
「Tuidao,」 or push down in Chinese, a euphemism for having sex, is the ultimate goal, he told the students. 「How many have you tuidao?」 he asked a thin young man in glasses in the documentary. 「Sixteen in seven days,」 the man responded.
他對學生們說，最終的目標是「推倒」，這是做愛的委婉說法。「你推倒幾個了?」在片子裡，他問一個戴眼鏡的瘦小夥。「7天16個，」男人回答。
Mr. Wang’s company would become a standard-bearer for the industry. In 2016, it was named a pioneering education institution by a Chinese online video platform, iQiyi.
王環宇的公司本可以成為這個行業的旗手。2016年，它被中國在線視頻平臺愛奇藝評為年度在線教育先鋒機構。
🌟Standard-bearer
/ˈstæn.dɚdˌber.ɚ/ 旗手；領袖
The government started to crack down on PUA companies in the last two years, and Mr. Wang and his company became targets. Last year, he served 37 days in jail for spreading pornographic products. After the outcry over Ms. Bao’s suicide attempt increased scrutiny of the industry this month, the company deleted all the content on its official website and posted an apology letter, saying it had done 「many bad things.」
過去兩年裡，政府開始打擊PUA公司，王環宇和他的公司成了目標。去年，他因涉嫌傳播淫穢物品入獄37天。本月，對包麗自殺事件的強烈抗議令這個行業受到了更多審視，隨後，該公司刪除了官方網站上的所有內容，並發布了一封道歉信，稱自己做了「這麼多壞事」。
Four students sued Langji in 2018 for teaching unethical content, including seducing women for sex through manipulative and controlling means, according to court verdicts. A court in the southwestern city of Chengdu, where Langji is based, ruled this year in their favor and ordered the company to refund their tuitions, between $1,000 and $4,250. Mr. Wang and his co-founder declined to be interviewed.
法院判決書顯示，2018年，四名學員控告浪跡傳授不道德內容，包括通過操縱和控制手段引誘女性發生性行為。今年，中國西南部成都市的一家法院做出了對學員有利的裁決，命令該公司退還學費，金額在7000元到3萬元之間。王環宇及其聯合創始人拒絕接受採訪。
The police in the eastern province of Jiangsu announced in May that they had arrested a man who ran another program that taught men to encourage women to commit suicide, abuse them emotionally and treat them as 「pets」 and 「prey.」 The man was detained for five days and fined over $7,000. His websites and social media groups have been deleted.
今年5月，江蘇省警方宣布逮捕了一名男子，此人曾主持另一個課程，教導男性鼓勵女性自殺、在情感上虐待她們，並把她們當作「寵物」和「獵物」。這名男子被拘留5天，罰款5萬元。他的網站和社交媒體群已被刪除。
Such programs are an outgrowth of the uneven balance of power in China. The country’s economic growth in the last 40 years has benefited men much more than women. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020 ranks China at 106, falling from 63 in 2006.
這些課程是中國兩性權力失衡的結果。在過去40年裡，這個國家的經濟增長令男性比女性受益更多。世界經濟論壇(World Economic Forum)發布的《2020年全球性別差距報告》(Global Gender Gap Report 2020)將中國排在第106位，低於2006年的63位。
Chinese women are better educated than before, yet they have fewer opportunities. They are still largely judged by whom they marry.
中國女性的受教育程度比以前高了，但她們的機會卻變少了。人們對她們的評價主要還是依據她們嫁給誰。
🌟Crack down on 大力整頓
▷例句：The government announces that protest against the new policy will be cracked down. 政府宣告，反對新政的示威將會被鎮壓。
📒名詞crackdown也指整頓，可與against或on搭配，銜接被鎮壓的對象。
✍️這個詞組與clamp down on 近似，儘管兩者都描述對某事物的整頓、鎮壓，後者還常隱含著手段尖銳強硬的預設。
🌟Outcry /ˈaʊt.kraɪ/ n. 吶喊，強烈抗議
🌟Verdict
/ˈvɝː.dɪkt/ n. 決定；裁決
▷例句：The committee gave verdict on the system’s performance and decided to continue to work with the contractor. 委員會對該系統的性能進行了決議，並決定繼續與該供貨商合作。
📒在法庭語境下，裁定有罪/無罪時可以用：reach/return a verdict of not guilty。
🌟Outgrowth
/ˈaʊt.ɡroʊθ/ n. 後果，副產品；自然發展的結果
▷例句：The politician refused to admit that the domestic financial cries was an outgrowth of the government’s governance of neglect. 那位政客拒絕承認國內的金融危機是政府疏忽大意的監管的產物。
📒outgrowth除了能表達自然發展的產物外，也可指某事物上的長出物或分支。
After I asked on Weibo if any women had boyfriends who followed PUA techniques, two young women contacted me. Neither of them was sure that her former boyfriend had actually studied PUA strategies, but both identified with the student who had tried to commit suicide.
我在微博上問有沒有哪個女生交往過的男友是PUA學員，兩名年輕女性聯繫了我。兩人都不確定自己的前男友是否真的學習過PUA，但兩人都認為自己和那個試圖自殺的女生有相似之處。
One of them, Amy, from Sichuan Province, said her ex-boyfriend had been very sweet in the beginning, then had started criticizing her for the smallest things. During their three-month relationship, he kept saying she needed to get married and have children as soon as possible since she was too old at 30.
其中來自四川的艾米說，她的前男友一開始很貼心，然後就開始為一些雞毛蒜皮的小事批評她。在他們三個月的戀愛關係中，他一直說她需要儘快結婚生子，因為她30歲了，已經太老了。
「He called me his husky and asked me to call him master,」 according to the woman, who said she was scared to use her full name because of fears of retribution by him.
「他說我是他的哈士奇，還讓我叫他主人，」這名女性說。她說自己不敢用全名，因為害怕他的報復。
The other, Kate Zhang, said she and her ex-boyfriend had been high school sweethearts in Shanghai. The trouble, she said, began when he left to go to a top university in Britain, while she left for a school in the United States.
另一位名叫凱特·張的網友說，她和前男友在上海是高中時的情侶。她說，麻煩始於他去英國上一所頂尖大學，而她去了美國的一所學校。
Ms. Zhang said he had become much more domineering, telling her that she needed to lose weight and was a toxic person. They fought all the time on WeChat, just like the couple at Peking University, she said, adding that he similarly told her to get pregnant and then get an abortion. When she told him that she wanted to kill herself, he said, 「Go ahead.」
張女士說，他變得更加專橫跋扈，說她需要減肥，是個有害的人。她說，他們一直在微信上吵架，就像北京大學的那對情侶一樣。她還說，他也告訴她，讓她先去懷孕，然後再墮胎。她說自己想自殺，他說：「你可以去死了。」
Both women are going to therapy. Both said they were not sure if they could trust men in their future relationships. It was a sentiment echoed by the student at Peking University before she tried to commit suicide.
這兩名女性現在都在接受心理治療。兩人都表示，她們不確定在未來的戀愛關係中能否信任男性。北京大學那名女生在自殺前也有這樣的想法。
「When I think of love now,」 she texted, 「I can’t help but shiver.」
「我現在想一想愛情，」她發信息說，「我都覺得不寒而慄。」
🌟Retribution
/ˌret.rəˈbjuː.ʃən/ n. 報復；嚴懲
▷例句：In retribution to the villager’s disrespect, the witch put a curse on his farm. 為了報復那個鄉下人對她的不敬，女巫對他的農場施下咒語。
📒retribution可與for搭配，後接受到報復或懲罰的行為。
✍️在包括佛教在內的許多宗教中所提到的天罰就可以用divine retribution來表達。
✍️它的形容詞形式為retributive，我們常說的因果報應就是retributive justice。
🌟Domineering
/ˌdɑː.məˈnɪr.ɪŋ/ adj. 專橫的
▷例句：His domineering attitude was the reason why he failed the competition. 他盛氣凌人的態度使得他輸掉了比賽。
📒顯而易見，domineer 是domineering的動詞和名詞形式，為兩種詞性時分別表對…盛氣凌人和飛揚跋扈的作風。
1.【單詞小結】
Fathom /ˈfæð.əm/ v. 弄清
Vilification /ˌvɪl.ə.fəˈkeɪ.ʃən/ n. 詆毀
Nefarious /nəˈfer.i.əs/ adj. 罪惡的，不道德的
Scrutiny /ˈskruː.t̬ən.i/ n. 仔細審查
Hold out 維持（供應）
Standard-bearer /ˈstæn.dɚdˌber.ɚ/ 旗手；領袖
Outcry /ˈaʊt.kraɪ/ n. 吶喊，強烈抗議
Verdict /ˈvɝː.dɪkt/ n. 決定；裁決
Outgrowth /ˈaʊt.ɡroʊθ/ n. 後果，副產品；自然發展的結果
Retribution /ˌret.rəˈbjuː.ʃən/ n. 報復；嚴懲
Domineering /ˌdɑː.məˈnɪr.ɪŋ/ adj. 專橫的
2.【詞組小結】
Lash out 痛打，斥責
Crack down on 大力整頓
Cater to 滿足願望；迎合
Crop up 突然出現
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