Even more than baby boomers and Generation X in the west, these young professionals have come to epitomise social change in Asia's fourth-biggest economy, disconcerting their elders with their apathy towards traditional family values. They are the subject of television dramas and a forthcoming film.
　　与西方的“婴儿潮一代”(baby boomers)和X世代(Generation X)相比，这些年轻的职业人士更能体现出这个亚洲第四大经济体的社会变化，他们对传统家庭价值观的漠视让老一辈感到不安。他们是电视剧的主角，还有一部以他们为主题的电影即将上演。

　　Offending family-orientated Confucian values, neither dried-fish woman nor herbivore man is much interested in romance, part of the reason why Korea's fertility rate is lamentably low.
　　鱼干女和食草男背离了以家庭为导向的儒家价值观，对浪漫没有多少兴趣，这在一定程度上可以解释为何韩国的生育率低得可怜。

　　It is almost inconceivable that the two might mate with each other. Herbivore man is a dandy metrosexual with an abhorrence of martial arts. He has no qualms about ordering wine or soft drinks instead of Korea's fiery spirits, de rigueur among the old guard. Dried-fish woman is an impeccably dressed model employee, but after work she just wants to lounge on the sofa in a track suit, watch television and munch on dried squid.
　　几乎难以想象鱼干女与食草男会和对方约会。食草男是时髦的都市美男，厌恶武术。就餐时，他们会点葡萄酒或软饮料，而不是保守派认为依照礼节必点的韩国烈酒，且不会为此感到不安。鱼干女是衣着无可挑剔的模范员工，但下班后她们只想穿着运动服躺在沙发上，一边看电视一边嚼鱿鱼干。

　　Both are rebels from Korea's crippling and prohibitively expensive treadmill of education, marriage and family, hailed as the be-all and end-all by the taciturn older generation. As consumers, they lavish money on their free time, buying DVDs, furniture and comfort food.
　　他们都是韩国教育、婚姻和家庭单调模式的反叛者，而在缄默的老一代人看来，这些危害深重、费用高昂的模式乃是人生的最终目标。作为消费者，他们在闲暇时间大肆挥霍，购买DVD、家具和方便食品。

　　In a society that prides itself on being collectivist, they are suspicious loners. Herbivore man is particularly distasteful to the macho fathers and grandfathers whose values were forged in Korea's agricultural and highly militarised past.
　　在一个以集体主义者为荣的社会里，食草男和鱼干女是行迹可疑的孤独者。食草男尤其不招具有大男子气概的父辈喜爱——他们的价值观成型于韩国过去高度尚武的农业时代。

　　Both colourful names hail from Japan, source of so many Korean cultural trends. But Japan's most haunted social group is the “firefly tribe”: harried businessmen who escape their wife and bawling baby by smoking alone on the balcony of their apartment blocks at night. So many of them seek this refuge that the glowing tips of their cigarettes appear like fireflies.
　　食草男和鱼干女这两个生动的名字都来自日本——韩国众多文化传统的源泉。但日本最常见的社会群体是“萤火虫部落”：晚上躲开妻子和哭闹的婴儿、在自家公寓住宅的阳台上独自吸烟的苦恼商人。由于寻求这种慰籍的人太多，他们烧红的烟头看起来就像萤火虫一样。

　　British soubriquets, such as the reactionary “White Van Man” of the 1990s, lack poetry in comparison.
　　相比之下，英国人的绰号——比如上世纪90年代用来形容反动分子的“白色货车男”——缺乏诗意。

　　North Korean defectors are the most shocked by the revolution in the peninsula's youth, frequently warning that the soft-bellied Athens that is Seoul will be steamrollered by the Spartans sweeping down from the North. Herbivore men who wear cosmetics only reinforce their arguments.
　　对朝鲜半岛上年轻人的变化最为震惊的是来自朝鲜的叛逃者。他们经常警告称，首尔就像绵软无力的雅典，会被来自朝鲜的斯巴达人碾得粉碎。涂脂抹粉的草食男只不过一进步论证了这种观点。

　　But there's no need to panic. South Korea has those little military necessities the North lacks, such as food, fuel and F-16s. Herbivores and dried-fish women are of interest precisely because they are newish minorities. Seoul is still awash with broody women and red-blooded males who like competitive business, strong booze and muddy football matches. There's no need yet for the defence ministry to sponsor a show promoting the merits of “Carnivore Man”.
　　但是没有必要感到恐慌。韩国拥有朝鲜缺乏的军事必需品，比如食物、燃料和F16战斗机。食草男和鱼干女引起人们的兴趣，正因为他们是新生的少数群体。首尔仍充斥着想生许多孩子的女性和喜欢竞争性行业、烈酒和泥泞足球比赛的热血男子。国防部目前还没有必要推出一档电视节目，来宣扬“食肉男”的优点。

译者/君悦