BEIJING — In the realm of eligible bachelors, Wang Lin has a lot to recommend him. A 28-year-old college-educated insurance salesman, Mr. Wang has a flawless set of white teeth, a tolerable karaoke voice and a three-year-old Nissan with furry blue seat covers.
北京——在标准单身汉里，王林（音译）觉得自己有许多优点。大学毕业的他现年28岁，从事保险推销，一口洁白的牙齿不无挑剔，一副还算动人的嗓子，开一部3年新的尼桑车，蓝色毛呢座套。
"My friends tell me I'm quite handsome," he said in confident English one recent evening, fingering his car keys as if they were a talisman.
"朋友们都说我长得挺帅的，"最近的一天晚上在接收时一边用充满自信的英语说，一边手里玩着护身符般的汽车钥匙。
But by the exacting standards of single Chinese women, it seems, Mr. Wang lacks that bankable attribute known as real property. Given that even a cramped, two-bedroom apartment on the dusty fringe of the capital sells for about $150,000, Mr. Wang's $900-a-month salary means he may forever be condemned to the ranks of the renting.
然而，按照中国单身女性严格的标准，王先生似乎缺少被称为不动产的有利条件。考虑到在北京尘土飞扬远郊一套小小的两居室房子也要卖到15万美元，王先生每月900美元的工资意味着他可能永远只能是租房大军中的一员。
Last year, he said, this deficiency prompted a high-end dating agency to reject his application. In recent months, half a dozen women have turned down a second meeting after learning that he had no means to buy a home.
他说，由于这个缺陷，他去年向一家高端婚介机构提交的申请遭到拒绝。最近几个月来，在了解到他没有能力买房后，先后有6位姑娘拒绝第二次见面。
"Sometimes I wonder if I will ever find a wife," said Mr. Wang, who lives with his parents, retired factory workers who remind him of his single status with nagging regularity. "I feel like a loser."
"有时我想可能永远找不到媳妇了，"跟父母住在一起的王先生说。他的父母是退休的工厂工人，一直在跟他唠叨找女朋友的事情。"我觉得自己是个失败者。"
There have been many undesirable repercussions of China's unrelenting real estate boom, which has driven prices up by 140 percent nationwide since 2007, and by as much as 800 percent in Beijing over the past eight years. Working-class buyers have been frozen out of the market while an estimated 65 million apartments across the country bought as speculative investments sit empty.
中国房地产市场无法抑制的繁荣带来大量不良的影响。2007年以来，全国平均房价上升140%，而在北京，过去8年来则上涨了8倍。工薪阶层购房者已经被赶出了市场，而在全国范围内，投机性投资购买的6500万套房处于闲置状态。
The frenzy starts with the local governments that sell off land at steep prices, and is frothed up by overeager developers who force residents out of old neighborhoods, sometimes prompting self-immolations among the dispossessed. But largely overlooked is the collateral damage to urban young professionals, especially men, who increasingly find themselves lovelorn and despairing as a growing number of women hold out for a mate with a deed.
房 地产市场的狂热始于以天价出售土地的地方政府，然后，热情高涨的开发商制造出大量泡沫，这些开发商强迫居民从旧街区搬出，偶尔还造成被拆人的自焚事件。但 是被广泛忽略的是这种做法对年轻专业人士，尤其是男性人士造成的伤害。随着越来越多地女子将房子恋爱的前提，男性专业人士越来越感到被爱抛弃，绝望之极。
Although there are few concrete ways to measure the scope of involuntary bachelorhood, more than 70 percent of single women in a recent survey said they would tie the knot only with a prospective husband who owned a home.
虽然衡量非自愿性独身群体的具体方法并不多，但最近一次调查中，超过70%的单身女性坚持只会与拥有房产的男士结为人生旅伴。
Among the qualities they seek in a mate, 50 percent said that financial considerations ranked above all else, with good morals and personality falling beneath the top three requirements. (Not surprisingly, 54 percent of single men ranked beauty first, according to the report, which surveyed 32,000 people and was jointly issued by the Chinese Research Association of Marriage and Family and the All-China Women's Federation.)
在寻求配偶的诸多条件中，50%的女性认为，经济条件成为首先条件，而良好的道德和性格落在最重要的三个条件之后。（中国婚姻与家庭研究会和中国全国妇联调查了32000人，之后联合发表的报告显示，54%的单身男性将美貌作为首要条件，这一点并不令人感到意外。）
The marriage competition is fierce, and statistically, women hold the cards. Given the nation's gender imbalance, an outgrowth of a cultural preference for boys and China's stringent family-planning policies, as many as 24 million men could be perpetual bachelors by 2020, according to the report.
婚姻竞争是残酷的，统计数据表明，女性具有决定作用。该报告说，鉴于中国文化传统上喜欢男孩以及严格的计划生育政策造成的性别上的失衡，到2020年中国可能有2400万男性成为永久的光棍。
Zhang Yanhong, a matchmaking consultant at Baihe, one of the country's most popular dating sites, said many disheartened men had simply dropped out of the marriage market.
在中国最受欢迎婚介网站之一"百合"工作的婚介咨询张艳红说，许多心灰意冷的男士只有退出结婚竞争市场。
"This fixation on real estate has twisted the popular notion of love and marriage," she said. "Women are putting economic factors above everything else when looking for a mate, and this is not a good thing for relationships or for society."
她说："把寻偶条件锁定房产扭曲了大众对爱情与婚姻的认识。""女性寻找对象时将经济条件放在其它所有条件之前，这种现象对配偶关系和社会都没有好处。"
The nation's real-estate obsession is especially noteworthy given China's relatively recent embrace of home ownership.
鉴于中国人拥有房子所有权的时间并不长，国民沉迷于房地产的现象尤其值得注意。
The sale of residential property was not allowed until the late 1980s, and even then under a leasehold system that gives buyers 70 years of ownership. Today, about two-thirds of all Chinese under 40 own their own homes, slightly higher than the average for Americans of the same age group.
直到上世纪八十年代末，中国才允许出售居民房产，即便到那个时候，房子的买卖还是在一种仅有70年产权的体制进行的。今天，中国40岁以下大约有三分之二拥有自己的房子，这个数字稍微高于同龄的美国人。
With few other outlets for investment (those who park their money in a Chinese bank effectively lose money, given low interest rates and high inflation), many families have been plowing their savings into apartments, spurring what some economists describe as a bubble.
由于其它方面的投资项目很少（因利率低，通膨高，存在中国银行的钱肯定缩水），许多家庭将自己的积蓄投在房产上，促成一些经济学家所谓的泡沫。
Han Han, one of China's most widely read bloggers, frequently assails the government policies that he and many economists say have contributed to rapidly rising prices.
中国最受读者欢迎的博客作家韩寒，经常严厉抨击政府这方面的政策，韩寒和许多经济学家都认为，这些政策造成了物价飞涨。
In an interview, he said one consequence of the single-minded focus on real estate, or on earning the money to make mortgage payments and repay family loans, is that young people have little time for anything else. "We've created a generation of young people whose sole ambition is to have a piece of property under their name," he said.
在韩寒采访中说，这种一根筋地追求房产，或者赚钱支付房贷及家庭借款引起的后果，就是现在的年轻人很少有时间从事其它任何事情。"我们打造了一代年轻人，他们唯一的雄心就是有一份财产属于他们名下。"
Like many anxious bachelors, Yang Xuning, 29, a sportswriter from Beijing, said much of the pressure comes from parents who feel taunted by the wealth around them.
与许多忧心忡忡地单身汉一样，北京29岁的体育作家杨旭宁（音译）说，压力大多来自那些被周围财富弄得无可适从的父母。
He recalls his first meeting with his girlfriend's parents in Shanghai last winter, when he was asked about his salary and his nesting plans. "I tried to reason with her mother, explaining that it's not practical to buy something at this stage in our lives but she wouldn't hear it," he said.
他回忆去年冬天与女朋友父母见面的情景。他们问工资，问打算如何安家。"我试着给她母亲解释，说在我们这个年龄段上买房子不现实，但她就是不听，"他说。
He stood his ground, she stood hers, and a few months later, on the second anniversary of their relationship, Mr. Yang's girlfriend called it quits.
二人坚持己见，不肯退让，几个月后，在他们相识2周年的时候，杨先生的女朋友决定分手了。
"A lot of girls, encouraged by their parents, see marriage as a way of instantly changing their status without the hard work," he said bitterly.
"许多女孩在父母的鼓动下，把结婚视为无需辛苦努力就能马上改变地位的途径。"
Many women are unapologetic about their priorities, citing the age-old tradition in which men provided a home for their brides, even if that home came with a mother-in-law.
许多女士对提出的这种优先条件并无歉意，她们引述古老的传统，认为男性就应该为新娘提供一个家，哪怕这个家是从婆婆那里得来的。
There are also other concerns, including the instability of starting a family in rented premises and the endless badgering of parents.
还有其他担忧，包括在租用的场所开始新家生活不稳定，以及与父母无休止的讨价还价等等。
Status also plays a role, but so, too, do fears that those who put off buying will be priced out of the market indefinitely.
社会地位也是考虑的一个因素，但同时也存在这样的恐惧,即如果现在不买房，价格上涨将他们永远买不起房子。
Gao Yanan, a 27-year-old accountant with a fondness for Ray-Bans and Zara pantsuits, said the matter was not up for debate. "It's the guy's responsibility to tell a girl right away whether he owns an apartment," she said. "It gives her a chance not to fall in love."
27岁的会计高雅楠（音译）喜欢雷朋（Ray-Bans）牌眼镜和Zara牌连衣裤，她说结婚条件没有什么可以商量的。"告诉女孩有没有房子是男孩起码的责任，"她说。"这样等于给了女孩一种恋不恋爱的一种选择。"
With such women on the prowl, even men who do have their own homes have come up with techniques to weed out the covetous and the inordinately materialistic.
面对如此徘徊的女性，即使那些有房子的男人也开始动起脑筋，避免碰上那些贪婪无厌极其拜金的女人。
Liu Binbin, 30, an editor at a publishing house in Beijing, said he often arrived at first dates by bus, even though he owned a car. "If they ask me questions like 'Do you live with your parents?' I know what they're after," he said.
30岁的刘彬彬（音译）是北京一家出版社的编辑，他虽然有车，首次约会却经常乘公共车去。"如果她们问我是否与父母住在一起的问题，我就知道他们在追求什么，"他说。
Mr. Liu said he went on 20 unfulfilling blind dates until finding a suitable girlfriend last year. He said he knew she was the one after passing the three-month mark.
刘先生说经历了20次失败的相亲后，去年终于遇到了自己的意中人。他说她是唯一经过他三个月试验的女人。
"The whole time she thought I didn't own an apartment and she still wanted me," he said. "Someone like that is rare."
"她一直以为我没有房子，但还是想和我在一起，"他说，"这样的女孩真是太少见了。"
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