The Gap Year Catches on in China

Li Shangcong is on the road – again. He and his “brother”, a worn-out yellow Merida bicycle, left Dalian last week and are heading northeast to Dandong. After taking a short break – sleeping in his small, cold tent and refilling his wallet with street performances – he will continue to cycle along the Chinese-North Korean border and then enter Russia via Huichun City in Jilin province by the end of June.

李尚聪（音）再一次踏上了旅程。他和他的“好哥们”——一辆破旧的黄色美利达自行车一起在上周离开了大连前往东北部的丹东。他睡在又小又冷的帐篷里，通过街头表演来赚取路费，在这样的短暂休息之后，他即将继续骑着自行车沿着中朝边境一路前行，并在六月底前穿过吉林省珲春市进入俄罗斯。

Last time he crossed the Chinese-Russian border, Li made headlines around China for his extraordinary rebellion: he threw in the towel on his gaokao, the national college entrance exam held on June 7 and June 8 every year.

在上一次穿越中俄边境的时候，他上了中国的新闻头条，因为他做了一个非同寻常的叛逆行为：放弃高考。

The top student and vice-president of the student union at Henan Shangqiu High School, Li had a different ambition. Rather than grabbing a place at a top university, he opted to cycle through Siberia to the Cannes Film Festival – a mission that ended in failure when he was deported from Russia on an expired visa.

作为河南商丘高级中学的优等生和学生会副主席，李尚聪有着不一样的抱负。他选择的不是在一所好大学中争取一席之地而是选择骑行穿过西伯利亚前往戛纳电影节，虽然这个计划最终因为他的签证过期被俄罗斯驱赶出境而以失败告终。

One year later, he still has no plans for college. Instead, he has chosen to hit the road again. “I love studying, but I don’t want to delay what I should do at my current age, ” Li said on Sina Weibo.

一年后他依然没有把上大学纳入计划中。相反地，他选择了再次上路。“我热爱学习，但是我不想推迟做我这个年纪我应该做的事情。”李尚聪在他的新浪微博里这样写道。

Apparently, Li has shed the belief that a degree from a top college is the only path to success. This belief remains deeply rooted in China’s older generation, many of whom were denied the chance to attend school in their teenage years after being sent to mountainous and rural areas for labor reeducation. Children today face a vastly different reality than their parents did when jobs were assigned by the state.

显然，李尚聪已经不相信取得顶尖大学的学位是通往成功的唯一途径。虽然这个观念在中国老一辈人的心里深深扎根——他们中的许多人在年轻的时候因为被送往农村和山区进行劳动教养而没有机会上学。但是今天的孩子面临着和当年由国家分配工作的父辈们截然不同的现实。

This Friday and Saturday, more than 9 million students, most of whom are the only child and sole hope for their families, will take the dreaded exam. Meanwhile, this year’s 7 million Chinese college graduates are facing the nation’s toughest job market ever. And those lucky enough to land employment are very likely to find that the payoff for their higher education amounts to less than migrant workers’ wages for manual labor.

这周的星期五和星期六，超过900万考生即将参加一场极其重要的考试，而其中多数考生都是独生子女，是整个家庭的唯一希望。同时，今年有超过700万的中国大学毕业生即将面对这个国家有史以来最严峻的就业情况。即使是幸运地找到工作的人也很有可能会发现高等教育所带来的薪酬还比不上靠体力工作的农民工的工资。

Faced with these discouraging prospects, more students like Li, as well as their parents, are starting to doubt the worth of sacrificing youthful fun for stacks of papers and books. In 2011, the year before Li set off his first bicycle odyssey, a 15-year-old girl named Shi Zheying – encouraged by her father and inspired by Jack Kerouac – opted not to take the high-school entrance exam but to travel around China for 200 days instead. Her father’s comment that she should “travel 10, 000 miles with daddy before reading 10, 000 books” was applauded on Weibo. Shi was sent to study abroad afterwards.

面对这些让人沮丧的前景，越来越多的像李尚聪这样的学生还有他们的父母都开始在怀疑付出整个青春、将其填满教科书和作业而不是应有的无忧无虑，这样是否值得。在2011年，也就是李尚聪开始他的第一次骑行的时候，一个叫施哲莹（音）的15岁女孩被杰克•凯鲁亚克激发了灵感，在她父亲的鼓励下放弃了中考选择环游中国200天。她的父亲说，她应该“在读万本书前先和老爸一起行万里路。”他的这个观点在微博上获得了广泛好评。后来施哲莹被送往国外继续学习。

The idea of a “gap year” has also caught on among twentysomethings who missed the chance during their teenage years. This trend has been motivated in part by Sun Dongchun’s 2008 book The Belated Gap Year. In the book, Sun tells the story of his 13-month gap year experience, which he undertook with 21, 000 yuan after quitting his white collar job in Guangzhou in 2006.

同时，“间隔年”的这个想法也在少年时错过机会的20几岁的年轻人中变得流行起来。这个趋势某种程度上来说是被孙东纯于2008年出版的《迟到的间隔年》所激发出来的。在这本书里，孙东纯讲述了他于2006年辞掉在广州的白领工作后，用21000元进行了历时13个月的间隔年经历。

“When I look back what I did during my teenage years, it’s sad that I have almost nothing significant to remember, ” Vivienne Lu, a 26-year-old civil servant in Shanghai, told The Diplomat. But it’s never too late.

“当我回顾我在少年时期做的事情，我很沮丧地发现我几乎没有做过什么重大的、足让我记得的事情。”于上海工作的29岁公务员陆维维安对《外交官》杂志这么说道。但幸运的是，这还为时未晚。

Inspired after reading Sun’s book, Lu plans to resign from her job – once seen as an “iron bowl” ( a stable lifelong occupation) but which now faces bigger challenges amid the changing labor market. She plans to take a gap year from October, as a way to turn over a new leaf.

读完孙东纯的书后陆维维安计划辞掉这个曾经被视为铁饭碗、如今在变化万千的劳动力市场中却面临着更大挑战的工作。她计划从10月开始进行间隔年，作为重新开始生活的一个办法。

“Better late than never, ” she said.

“迟做总是比不做好。”她这样说道。