BEIJING -- No treadmills, no iPods, these elderly Chinese people are putting on a showcase of human dexterity at Beijing’s . Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that few of them exercised seriously before retiring. In China, it’s common for people’s athletic lives to begin in old age。
北京，天壇公園。沒(méi)有跑步機(jī)，沒(méi)有ipod，鍛煉中老年人們顯得伸手格外矯健。然而出人意料的是，他們中的大多數(shù)都是退休之后才開(kāi)始鍛煉的。而這種現(xiàn)象在中國(guó)則是非常常見(jiàn)。
Geng Zhi spent his working years on an assembly line at a car parts facility. “Back then I didn’t exercise at all,” said Geng. “Who would have thought of exercising? If you had enough to eat and a place to live that was enough。”
耿智沒(méi)退休前，是汽車(chē)制造廠的流水線上的工人。“上班的時(shí)候我根本不鍛煉，”他說(shuō)，“那個(gè)時(shí)候有的吃有的住就夠了，誰(shuí)會(huì)想到鍛煉呢。”
80-year-young “Old Liu” prefers to sweat it out on the ping pong table. Old Liu’s relationship with ping pong has tracked with international affairs: He began playing during “Ping Pong Diplomacy” of the 1970s, a series of international friendly matches between the U.S. and China that signaled a thaw in icy relations。
80歲的老劉則喜歡在乒乓球桌上揮灑汗水。他與乒乓的情節(jié)要追溯到一件國(guó)際事務(wù)了： 20世紀(jì)70年代的乒乓外交——中美間舉辦了一系列友誼賽，從而開(kāi)啟了兩國(guó)的外交破冰之旅。
Back at Temple of Heaven Park, you won’t find Liu or the others using ear buds: Exercise is a fundamentally social phenomenon among China’s elderly. Grandmothers gather in parks at dusk for group line dancing routines, and old men chat as they take turns on the parallel bars. These exercise equipment they need can be found in most Chinese neighborhoods。
天壇公園里，老劉和其他人都不會(huì)戴著耳機(jī)鍛煉：在中國(guó)的老年人中，鍛煉可以稱(chēng)得上是一種社交行為。老奶奶們黃昏時(shí)候聚在一起跳跳廣場(chǎng)舞，老爺爺們則在撐雙杠時(shí)閑聊幾句。而這些鍛煉必備的器械在中國(guó)大部分社區(qū)內(nèi)都是可以找到的。
Your personal trainer might question the science, but it’s hard to argue with the results: Despite rampant cigarette smoking, suffocating pollution and some ghastly food-safety scandals, China compares favorably with other upper middle income countries on life expectancy. What those statistics don't reveal is the organic joy and community vibes that emanate from these temples of public health in China's parks。
你的私教可能會(huì)質(zhì)疑這樣鍛煉的科學(xué)性，但是它所產(chǎn)生的效果是毋庸置疑的：盡管飽受吸煙、污染和駭人聽(tīng)聞的食品安全問(wèn)題的困然，中國(guó)的人均壽命比其他收入處中上等的國(guó)家都要長(zhǎng)。而且，這些數(shù)據(jù)沒(méi)有表現(xiàn)出來(lái)的是這樣的健身公共場(chǎng)所帶給人們的快樂(lè)與和諧的氛圍。
That’s something to remember: you can do much more with much less -- and right now, some Chinese grandparent probably is。
這給我們的啟示是：想鍛煉并不需要多復(fù)雜的器械�，F(xiàn)在，中國(guó)的老年人們正是我們最好的榜樣。
