国家地理:China's Lost Girls 被抛弃的女孩 -5

Chinese officials now say that the gender¹ imbalance poses a major threat to China and could trigger crimes like prostitution, forced marriages and abductions of women. These crimes have already begun.

Zhu Wenguang is a private detective who earns his living by rescuing women who've been kidnapped. He says he's rescued about 100 women in the past decade.

"So what, what are all these things here? Showing me."
"These are all files related to those kidnapped women."

Families go to him for help after their daughters have been kidnapped and sold as wives to men in other provinces.

"Mr. Zhu, I have a map of China. I wonder if you could just show me where the most women are being kidnapped."
"I've been to almost every province except Tibet to rescue abducted² women. I am really sympathetic for their sad and bitter experience. They are sold to the poorest places and live a miserable³ life, treated no better than animals. Some of them have broken legs, broken arms. Some of them were beaten black and blue all over the body."

Zhang Chuanli is one of those women. Mr. Zhu rescued her after she'd been kidnapped and taken nearly a thousand miles from her home in Sichuan all the way to Inner Mongolia.
So apparently⁴ Ms. Zhang wrote this letter to Mr. Zhu, and asking to be rescued, and this is her file.

"You're kidnapped and sold as a wife? Or, or what happened?"

"I was sold to become somebody's wife. It was very difficult for me. The man treated me very badly and he was sick as well. The rest of the family watched me all the time. When I tried to escape, I was beaten badly. It was terrible. I felt like I wanted to die."

It's not clear how many kidnappings are a result of China's gender imbalance. But experts predict that (if) it gets worse, they'll certainly increase.

"Do you know why your husband had to buy you? Do you know what the reason was?"
"He couldn't find a wife. He was sick and old and needed to find one, for not much money."
"Do you know how much you were sold for?"
"About 3,600 yuan, I was told later by a relative."

3,600 yuan, that's about 435 dollars. Zhangquanli says the man raped⁵ her repeatedly and after a year she had his child.
"Where is your son now?"
"The son is still there in Inner Mongolia. When I was rescued, the whole village came out, and surrounded the vehicles and tried to stop us. The police fired shots in the air, and tried to stop the crowd. But it didn't work. They wouldn't let me take the child. We almost didn't get out ourselves."
"Is that difficult to be away from your son now?"
"It's very hard. I'm sad about it, but I couldn't take him with me."

If it wasn't for my mom and dad, I bet I'd still be in the orphan⁶, orphanage⁷. And I wouldn't be here right now and I wouldn't be living in America. I would just be living in China but and I'll be...

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

3 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

6 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

7 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。