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For much of the last year, intellectuals and officials in China -- land of world-beating students and, in a bygone age, the scholar official -- have been wringing their hands over the country's declining interest in reading.
去年大部分时间，中国的知识分子和官员一直对中国人阅读兴趣下降感到痛心。而事实上，中国学生的成绩处于世界一流水平，而且过去多年培养了很多学者型官员。
Earlier this week, the anxiety surfaced in the highest of forums: the annual government work report. Delivering the report in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that, in addition to improving government housing and reforming management of outbound investment, the government would also 'encourage the people to read.'
本周早些时候，阅读问题出现在年度政府工作报告这一最高级别的领导讲话中。中国国务院总理李克强周三在北京人民大会堂发表政府工作报告时，除提出改善居民住房条件、改革对外投资管理以外，还表示政府将倡导全民阅读。
It was the first time a Chinese premier had mentioned reading in his work report, and followed months of panicked stories in the Chinese media about the country's antipathy for the written word, including a special pagedevoted to the subject on the Sina news portal under the headline 'Why Don't We Love to Read Anymore?' In a country with a storied literary tradition where people are already writing less, at least with pen and paper, it's hardly surprising that a fall in reading would generate angst.
这是中国总理首次在政府工作报告中提及阅读。此前几个月中国媒体对于国内不喜文字阅读的惶恐报道比比皆是，其中门户网站新浪网(Sina)还就此特别制作了名为“我们为什么不爱阅读了”的专题页面。中国是有着深厚文学传统的国家，但现在人们写得越来越少（至少用纸笔书写越来越少），阅读量下降引发担忧并不让人意外。
It's not clear, however, that Chinese people actually are reading less.
不过，还不清楚中国人是不是真的读书越来越少。
The source of a much of the anxiety is a study attributed to the United Nation's Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that found Chinese people read only 4.39 books per year on average, compared with 11 in South Korea, 8.4 in Japan, seven in the U.S. and 64 among 'Jews.' The study's results began to spread through Chinese media roughly six months ago, repeated even by the official Xinhua news agency, which said on the basis of the study that Chinese read less than one book a year outside of text books.
这种焦虑主要来自于据称是联合国(United Nation)教科文组织(Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization)的一项调查。调查发现，中国人均每年读书4.39本，相比之下，韩国为11本，日本为8.4本，美国为7本，而犹太人为64本。大概六个月前，这一调查结果开始在中国媒体上传播，甚至被官方媒体新华社所引用。新华社称，根据这一调查结果计算，扣除教科书之外中国一年人均读书还不到一本。
The problem: According to the education department in UNESCO's Beijing office, the study doesn't exist.
但问题在于，据联合国教科文组织北京办事处的教育部门称，上述调查根本不存在。
So how do Chinese people compare to the rest of the world when it comes to reading? Unfortunately, there have been few reliable studies of global reading habits in recent years. But one measure based on surveys of the 30,000 people in 30 countries done in 2005, the NOP World Culture Score Index, found Chinese people over the age of 13 devoted an average of eight hours a week to the pursuit, third behind only India (10.7 hours) and Thailand (9.4 hours). (The U.S., at 5 hours and 42 minutes, was No. 22.)
那么如何比较中国人和世界其他地区人民的阅读量呢？遗憾的是，近年来几乎没有什么可靠的全球阅读习惯调查。但NOP世界文化评分指数(NOP World Culture Score Index)在2005年对30个国家的3万人进行了调查，结果发现，13岁以上的中国人每周平均读书时间为8小时，仅次于印度（10.7小时）和泰国（9.4小时），美国为5小时42分钟，排在第22位。
A national Chinese survey, meanwhile, found that frequent readers made up 55% of adults between 18 and 70 years old in 2012, an increase of 1% over the previous year. According to yet another survey by OpenBook, a research company, more than 70% of readers increased spending on books in 2012, especially from internet.
与此同时，中国国内的一项调查发现，2012年，18-70岁的成年人中有55%的人经常读书，这一比例较前一年上升1个百分点。研究公司开卷(OpenBook)的另一项调查发现，2012年超过70%的读者增加了购书支出，尤其是网上购书。
Those numbers are much more in keeping with a country where nearly every student is taught the words of Song Dynasty scholar Liu Yi: 'Reading thousands of books is the same as traveling thousands of miles.'
宋朝的刘彝曾写到“读万卷书，行万里路”，在几乎每个学生都知道这一箴言的中国，上面的调查结果要更符合国情。
Not that we think Mr. Li wrong to encourage Chinese people to pick up a book -- or e-reader -- more often. As one of his predecessors, celebrated former premier Zhou Enlai, once noted, 'reading books will help China rise.'
我们并不是认为李克强鼓励中国人增加阅读量有错。颇有名望的中国前总理周恩来就曾说过：“为中华之崛起而读书。”
