Privacy is something of a luxury in China, a land with a population of 1.4 billion. Personal space is not a concept that ordinary Chinese are familiar with. Pushing and shoving is a basic survival skill in cities. If you fail to push with fellow commuters to get on a packed underground train, you』ll be met with impatient stares.
隱私在中國算得上是一種奢侈品，因為這是一塊擁有14億人口的土地。個人空間不是普通中國人所熟悉的概念。推擠是城市的基本生存技能。如果你沒有和其他上班族一樣推擠著上地鐵，你會被投以不耐煩的目光。
Privacy is also political: the concept of 「private property」 or 「private space」 was castigated in the Mao era as an evil of the bourgeois class – and this communist ideal is very much alive today. Throughout China, people are happy to lie down for a nap just about anywhere: in an office pantry, on a park bench, even in a museum or concert hall foyer, looking as comfortable as if the public space were their own living room.
隱私也是政治性的：「私有財產」或「私人空間」的概念在毛澤東時代被視為資產階級的邪惡——而這種共產主義理想在今天仍非常活躍。在整個中國，人們很樂意在任何地方躺下來小睡：如在辦公室儲藏室，公園長椅，甚至在博物館或音樂廳門廳前，這些小睡的人看起來很舒適，好像公共空間是他們自己的起居室一樣。
So it is a surprise to see Matti, a socially awkward Finnish cartoon character in the Finnish Nightmares comic series become something of a celebrity in China’s cyberspace. A new term in Mandarin has even been coined to describe people who are like the hero: jingfen, or 「spiritually Finnish」. According to a widely distributed definition on social media, jingfen broadly refers to people who dislike socialising – like the Finns, apparently – and take their personal space 「extremely seriously」.
因此，看到馬蒂(Matti)這位來自《芬蘭人的噩夢》漫畫系列中一個社交尷尬的芬蘭卡通人物在中國網絡空間上爆紅簡直是個驚喜。甚至有人創造了普通話新術語來描述這樣的英雄般的人：「精芬」，或「精神上的芬蘭人」。根據社交媒體上廣泛流傳的解釋，「精芬」廣義上指那些不喜歡社交的人， 這顯然是芬蘭人，這些人對待他們的個人空間非常認真。
Matti’s fear of crowds and small talk and his tendency to be easily embarrassed has struck a chord with many Chinese readers, who seem relieved that their longing for privacy has finally been voiced – via the medium of a stick figure from a faraway country. But it’s Finnish culture itself – of which privacy and personal space have long been part – that has also struck a chord.
馬蒂對人群和閒聊的恐懼以及他容易尷尬的傾向引起了許多中國讀者的共鳴，他們似乎對自己對隱私的渴望得到了來自一個遙遠國家的簡筆畫形象的認可鬆了一口氣。但是，芬蘭文化本身的隱私和個人空間的長期存在也引起了中國人的共鳴。
「Finland is a paradise for people with social anxiety disorder,」 wrote WeChat user Zhang Yanmei in a post. 「I am a jingfen, please do not disturb me unnecessarily!」 wrote an anonymous user in the title of his essay on the website Douban. 「Can you see yourself in Matti?」 he asked. 「He is shy and introspective and the trials and tribulations of life are not just Matti’s nightmare. We’re all afraid of loneliness, but we crave even more for our personal space and privacy to be respected.」 It is a sentiment that will ring true for many people in China.
「芬蘭是社交焦慮症患者的天堂，」微信用戶張豔梅(音譯)在一篇文章中寫道。 「我是一個精芬，沒事請不要打擾我!」豆瓣網站上的一個匿名用戶這樣寫道。 「你在馬蒂身上能看到自己的影子嗎?」他這樣問道。 「他害羞而內省，生活的考驗和磨難不只是馬蒂的噩夢。我們都害怕孤獨，但我們更渴望個人空間和隱私受到尊重。」對於中國的許多人來說，這一種情感是真真切切的。