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'Hitting mung’: In stressed-out South Korea, people are paying to stare at clouds and trees
疫情反复压力大 韩国人只想找个地方“发呆”
Tucked away in a side street near an urban park named Seoul Forest is a tea shop that barely seats 10. Here, you can’t talk. Your phone must be on silent. No shoes allowed.
首尔森林城市公园附近的一条小巷中有一家茶馆，里面只能容纳10个人。在这里，不能讲话。手机必须静音。不能穿鞋进去。
The rules have one aim. Relax. Just space out.
这些规则都有一个目标：放松，让自己放空。
As South Koreans enter the living-with-corona phase of the pandemic, some are easing back into social life by visiting public spaces where they can be alone and do very little. Nothing is the new something in South Korea as people desperately seek refuge from the pressures of living as functioning adults in a global pandemic in a high-stress and fast-paced society with soaring real estate prices and often-grueling work schedules.
随着韩国进入和新冠共存的疫情新阶段，有些人开始逐渐回归社交生活，到一些可以独处的公共场所去，然后几乎什么也不做。在全球疫情冲击下，身处于快节奏的高压社会中，面对飙升的房价、繁重的工作，拼命想逃离生活压力的韩国成年人不再热衷于追求那些新鲜事物。
At a Space Out Competition this year, competitors sought to achieve the lowest heart rate possible while sitting in a “healing forest” on the southern island of Jeju.
在今年的放空比赛中，参赛者坐在南部济州岛的“治愈森林”中，试图让自己的心率降到最低。
And the concept is seeping out into a handful of public spaces in South Korea. This month, theaters throughout the country premiered a movie simulating a 40-minute plane ride above and through clouds. Tickets for “Flight,” a project backed by Megabox, a major movie theater company, are just under $6. A tagline reads: “Take a brief rest through the fluffy clouds.”
放空的理念也渗透进韩国的多个公共空间。本月韩国各地的影院首映了电影《飞行》，该片模拟乘坐飞机在云上和云中飞行40分钟的感受。大型影院公司Megabox出资拍摄的这部电影票价不到6美元（约合人民币38元）。宣传语是“在松软的云朵中小憩一下吧”。
It’s a sequel to a movie released this spring, “Fire Mung”: 31 minutes of footage of a burning campfire.
《飞行》是今春上映的《看火放空》的续集，《看火放空》就是31分钟的篝火燃烧视频。
Spacing out is known in Korean as “hitting mung,” a slang usage of the word “mung” to describe a state of being totally zoned out. (In this case, “mung” describes a state of blankness.) With the weather change this fall, now popular are the terms “forest mung” and “foliage mung,” meaning spacing out while looking at trees or foliage. There’s “fire mung,” or spacing out while watching logs burn, and “water mung,” being meditative near bodies of water.
放空在韩语中的表达是hitting mung，用mung这个词来形容出神的状态，表示大脑一片空白。入秋变天后，最流行的词语是forest mung（森林放空）和foliage mung（树叶放空），意思是看着树或树叶发呆。类似的还有fire mung（火边放空）和water mung（水边放空）。
Cafes like Green Lab, the shop near Seoul Forest, have been featured in local media reports and have enjoyed a steady stream of visitors throughout the pandemic by offering spaces to heal and “hit mung.” Over tea, customers can read, write poetry, meditate or simply stare out at the trees.
首尔森林附近这家提供放空和治愈空间的茶馆Green Lab已经被当地多家媒体报道，在疫情期间一直客流不断。顾客可以在这里喝茶、阅读、写诗、冥想或看着树发呆。
On a recent weekday afternoon, Jung Jae-hwan, 38, took a group of colleagues to the shop. As the head of a skin-care brand, Hyggee, Jung said he had been looking for ways to find peace as he hustles in an intensely competitive business world. He has tried Pilates and yoga but wanted to find a place that would require him to do nothing — and ended up at Green Lab.
在不久前一个工作日的下午，38岁的郑在奂带一群同事去了这家茶馆。作为护肤品牌休给的负责人，郑在奂表示，在竞争激烈的商界中奋力前行的他一直在寻找让自己平静下来的方式。他试过了普拉提和瑜伽，但是他想要的是一个什么事都不用做的地方，于是他找到了Green Lab茶馆。
"I wanted to be able to press the stop button and take a moment for myself, but I feel like I constantly have to do something,” he said.
他说：“我想按下暂停键，让自己有片刻喘息的时间，但是我觉得自己总是有事要做。”
"In this space, the rule is that I must do nothing,” he said. “It made space in my brain. I even read a book, enjoyed the smell of diffusers, looked at flowers, wrote poetry. I started getting new ideas, one by one, and I felt so refreshed.”
他说：“在这个空间里，规则就是我什么事都不能做。它能让我的大脑放空。我甚至看了一本书，闻了喷雾器散发出的气味，赏了花，还写了诗。我的脑子里开始涌现出新想法，一个接一个，我感觉神清气爽。”
One of his colleagues, Ahn Areum, said she had heard of the Space Out Competition but didn’t know places such as Green Lab existed. She was eager to check it out and said she had been looking for ways to cope with her pandemic anxieties and daily stresses.
他的同事安雅琳表示她听说过放空比赛，但是不知道还有Green Lab这种地方。她迫不及待地想体验一番，并坦言自己一直在想办法应对自己的疫情焦虑和日常压力。
"I’ve been so tired, and I don’t even have time to space out. After work, I go home, and I have to do housework, and then I barely have 30 minutes to an hour before I need to sleep. I spend that time on my phone. So with a space like this, I can actually focus on taking a break,” said Ahn, 32.
32岁的安雅琳说：“我一直觉得好累，我甚至没有放空的时间。下班后回家我要做家务，一直忙到快睡觉，睡前能腾出半小时到一小时的时间给自己就不错了。这点时间我会刷刷手机。所以在这样的空间里，我终于可以专心地休息了。”
Similar spaces have opened in other parts of the country.
韩国其他地方也开设了类似的空间。
At a Jeju cafe named Goyose, the upstairs area is designated by reservation for people to spend time alone. The cafe provides stationery so that you can write letters to yourself over coffee and dessert.
济州岛有一家名为Goyose的咖啡厅，楼上是专门供顾客独处的。咖啡厅提供文具，你可以在喝咖啡吃甜点的时候写信给自己。
On Ganghwa Island, off South Korea’s west coast, a cafe named Mung Hit also offers no-activity relaxation areas. In one section is a single chair facing a mirror for anyone who wants to sit and stare. There are nooks for meditating, reading, sitting by a pond or the garden, or enjoying mountain views. No pets or children are allowed.
在临近韩国西海岸的江华岛上，有一家名为Mung Hit的咖啡厅也提供“不活动”放松区。在咖啡厅的一角是一把面对镜子的椅子，你可以坐在椅子上看镜子中的自己。咖啡厅内、池塘边或花园里有供你冥想、阅读、欣赏山景的角落。宠物和小孩不许入内。
Ta Jung Kim, 32, found the cafe online and recently visited it to get away from the city. There were other visitors, but she found enough nooks to be alone with minimum contact with others and to clear her head.
32岁的金大贞从网上发现了这家咖啡厅，最近她为了逃离城市生活拜访了这家店。店里有其他顾客，但是有足够的角落让她可以独处并尽量减少和别人的接触，让她可以理清头脑。
"As I sat there, secluded and relaxed, taking in the view and drinking coffee, I couldn’t help but space out,” she said. “I felt so comforted, and I felt like my heart opened up. The busy thoughts in my head disappeared, and I came back with a more positive outlook.”
她说：“当我坐在那个隐蔽角落，放松地欣赏景色、喝咖啡时，我不由自主地出神了。我觉得自己得到了很大安慰，感觉自己的心打开了。我脑中充斥的乱七八糟的想法消失了，回来后我的心态也变得积极了。”
