微信搜索公号“关于写作”，即可查看最新外刊解读文章

Poverty in China

Just a little bit richer

How much has a flagship official scheme played in China’s impressive record of reducing poverty?
Apr 4th 2015 | TIANZHEN COUNTY, SHANXI | From the print edition

flagship: The chief one of a related group；王牌，佼佼者：同一类（组）中最重要的那个；
e.g. the flagship of a newspaper chain; 多家报社中的佼佼者
the flagship of a line of reference books；参考书系列中的王牌
scheme: A scheme is a plan or arrangement involving many people which is made by a government or other organization. (mainly BRIT; in AM, use program)； 计划，方案；
e.g. schemes to help combat unemployment.
e.g. teacher training schemes；a pension scheme；

THE villagers of Dingjiayan subsist on corn, potatoes, sunflowers and the few vegetables they grow. They sell the surplus and buy meat and a few other necessities in the nearby county town of Tianzhen. Its mud-and-brick buildings, and its setting among dusty hills in the north-eastern corner of Shanxi province, offer little to the occasional visitor to distinguish it from countless other parts of China where hard work brings but a meagre living. Yet Tianzhen county, of which Dingjiayan is a part, is one of just 592 areas that the central government designates as “impoverished”.
对于一个典型的“贫困县”的描写。

subsist on: to stay alive when you only have small amounts of food or money；同义词: survive;
e.g. We had to subsist on bread and water.
Old people often have to subsist on very low incomes.
surplus: an amount of something that is more than what is needed or used；同义词: excess；
e.g. Few people have large sums of surplus cash.
but: Merely; just; only:
e.g. hopes that lasted but a moment.
meagre: a meagre amount of food, money etc is too small and is much less than you need
e.g. meagre income/earnings/wages etc
designates: To give a name or title to; characterize;
e.g. designate the bridge as a historic landmark;
impoverished: very poor; without money;
e.g. impoverished peasants; the impoverished areas of the city

China’s official threshold for rural poverty is an annual income of 2,300 yuan ($370) per person. But the criteria for classifying a village or county are complex and often revised. They include comparisons of poverty rates and average incomes with those of the province, adjustments for inflation, quotas on the number of villages that may count as poor and a ban on including villages that own collective enterprises, whatever their income level. Though dozens of places have been listed and delisted every few years since the 1990s, the total has remained curiously fixed—at 592.
“贫困地区”的划分标准。

threshold: the level at which sth starts to happen;
e.g. He has a low boredom threshold (= he gets bored easily).
I have a high pain threshold (= I can suffer a lot of pain before I start to react).
My earnings are just above the tax threshold (= more than the amount at which you start paying tax).

An “impoverished” designation brings substantial subsidies. But Ding Tianyu, who has lived in Dingjiayan for all his 73 years, says he hardly notices. Most households earn about 10,000 yuan a year, he says, and get a subsidy of 80 yuan for each mu (614 square metres) of land they farm. “I have five mu,” Mr Ding says. “When there is enough rain I am fine, and when I get the subsidy I feel just a little bit richer.”
划分成“贫困县”后带来的补助。

substantial: large in amount or number; 同义词: considerable
e.g. We have the support of a substantial number of parents.
a substantial salary/loan；a substantial improvement/decrease；
subsidies: money that is paid by a government or other authority in order to help an industry or business, or to pay for a public service; 津贴，补贴；
e.g. trade/agricultural subsidies
to increase / reduce the level of subsidy

With bustling shops and a fair number of pricey cars on its roads, Tianzhen’s county town does not, by Chinese standards, feel impoverished. There is little disclosure about how subsidies are used, says a restaurant owner. “We are told a lot of it goes into the local credit union and that we can apply for loans there, but they only lend to people with good connections.”
贫困补贴去向不明。

bustling: full of energetic and noisy activity；熙熙攘攘的；
e.g. a bustling city；
The flower market was bustling with shoppers.
pricey: expensive
disclosure: the act of giving people new or secret information；公开；同义词: revelation；
e.g. the disclosure of private medical information

Beautiful on the mountains
In 2012, when the list was last updated, Xinshao county in Hunan in south-central China was added. Local officials used the county’s official website to trumpet this “exceptional good tidings” after two years of “arduous efforts” and “untold hardships”. A large roadside board added its “ardent congratulations”. After nationwide criticism, the officials accepted that their words had been badly chosen. But their cheer was understandable: the official designation was worth an extra 560m yuan for the county each year from the central government.
湖南新邵县庆祝入选“贫困县”的讽刺例子。

trumpet: to tell everyone about something that you are proud of, especially in an annoying way
e.g. They are proudly trumpeting the fact that they are creating more jobs.
good/glad tidings: good news; (OLD-FASHIONED)
arduous: difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill
e.g. arduous task/work; arduous journey/voyage

The episode caused many to question the value of the system and the perverse incentives it creates for local governments. A commentary last year in the Legal Daily claimed that many places were misusing the funds and had fudged their figures to qualify as impoverished. Officials from the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, which manages the list, have acknowledged widespread abuses. In February it banned lavish new buildings and “image projects” in officially designated poor areas.
对扶贫系统的价值及地方政府的动机的质疑。

episode:You can refer to an event or a short period of time as an episode if you want to suggest that it is important or unusual, or has some particular quality; 片段, 插曲;
e.g. That's an episode in my life I'd rather forget!
perverse: Directed away from what is right or good; perverted; 不正当的，堕落的
fudged: to change important figures or facts to deceive people;
同义词: fake; falsify;
e.g. fudge casualty figures

State television reported on two counties, one in Ningxia and one in Hubei, where local governments spent 100m yuan each on new headquarters. In March, during China’s annual full legislative session, the council’s poverty head, Liu Yongfu, raised a different question about the programme. He told the Southern Metropolis, a newspaper, that hundreds of counties would be taken off the list by 2020. “If a poor area as big as a county still exists, then can Chinese society still be called moderately prosperous?” he asked.
政府准备采取的行动。

China’s annual full legislative session: (全国人大)年度全体立法会议；
be taken off: be removed;

Attainment of a “moderately prosperous society” is a goal that previous Chinese leaders set and that Xi Jinping, the current president, has adopted as well. Much progress has been made since reforms began in earnest in the late 1970s. China claims to have lifted 620m people out of poverty since then. Others may quibble over that number—the World Bank puts it at 500m—but few question the premise that China deserves immense credit for alleviating so much poverty.
中国政府在减轻贫困方面的成就。

in earnest: more seriously and with more force or effort than before; 严肃地，坚定不移地；
e.g. Campaigning will begin in earnest tomorrow...
quibble over/about: to argue about small unimportant details
e.g. Let's not quibble over minor details.
premise: a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn
e.g. the basic premise of her argument; a false premise
credit: approval for an act, ability, or quality; praise; 赞扬；
e.g. get/take/claim/receive/deserve (the) credit;
They claim all the credit for themselves and shift all the blame on others.
Some of the credit for my success goes to my wife.
alleviating: to make something less painful or difficult to deal with；
e.g. alleviate the problem/situation/suffering

Much still remains, however. A little uphill from Dingjiayan sits a smaller village, Dingyuanyao. Its higher elevation means it gets less water, and a resident says most of its 90 residents will clear just 1,000 yuan a year after paying for seeds and fertiliser. Some own motorbikes and televisions, and they are grateful for the basic health insurance they receive. They laugh in unison when asked if they receive subsidies. The arrival of electricity 30 years ago was a vast improvement, they agree. But little has changed in their lives since then.
依旧有不少乡村在贫困中挣扎。

uphill: towards the top of a hill；
clear: to gain (a given amount) as net profit or earnings
e.g. Diane clears £20,000 a year.
unison: if people do or say sth in unison, they all do it at the same time
laugh in unison: 哄堂大笑；

From the print edition: China

---

在以下图片上常按两秒——识别图中二维码——关注微信公号“关于写作”，即可查看“《经济学人》看中国”往期系列文章

---

无释义复读版:

Poverty in China

Just a little bit richer

How much has a flagship official scheme played in China’s impressive record of reducing poverty?
Apr 4th 2015 | TIANZHEN COUNTY, SHANXI | From the print edition

THE villagers of Dingjiayan subsist on corn, potatoes, sunflowers and the few vegetables they grow. They sell the surplus and buy meat and a few other necessities in the nearby county town of Tianzhen. Its mud-and-brick buildings, and its setting among dusty hills in the north-eastern corner of Shanxi province, offer little to the occasional visitor to distinguish it from countless other parts of China where hard work brings but a meagre living. Yet Tianzhen county, of which Dingjiayan is a part, is one of just 592 areas that the central government designates as “impoverished”.

China’s official threshold for rural poverty is an annual income of 2,300 yuan ($370) per person. But the criteria for classifying a village or county are complex and often revised. They include comparisons of poverty rates and average incomes with those of the province, adjustments for inflation, quotas on the number of villages that may count as poor and a ban on including villages that own collective enterprises, whatever their income level. Though dozens of places have been listed and delisted every few years since the 1990s, the total has remained curiously fixed—at 592.

An “impoverished” designation brings substantial subsidies. But Ding Tianyu, who has lived in Dingjiayan for all his 73 years, says he hardly notices. Most households earn about 10,000 yuan a year, he says, and get a subsidy of 80 yuan for each mu (614 square metres) of land they farm. “I have five mu,” Mr Ding says. “When there is enough rain I am fine, and when I get the subsidy I feel just a little bit richer.”

With bustling shops and a fair number of pricey cars on its roads, Tianzhen’s county town does not, by Chinese standards, feel impoverished. There is little disclosure about how subsidies are used, says a restaurant owner. “We are told a lot of it goes into the local credit union and that we can apply for loans there, but they only lend to people with good connections.”

Beautiful on the mountains
In 2012, when the list was last updated, Xinshao county in Hunan in south-central China was added. Local officials used the county’s official website to trumpet this “exceptional good tidings” after two years of “arduous efforts” and “untold hardships”. A large roadside board added its “ardent congratulations”. After nationwide criticism, the officials accepted that their words had been badly chosen. But their cheer was understandable: the official designation was worth an extra 560m yuan for the county each year from the central government.

The episode caused many to question the value of the system and the perverse incentives it creates for local governments. A commentary last year in the Legal Daily claimed that many places were misusing the funds and had fudged their figures to qualify as impoverished. Officials from the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, which manages the list, have acknowledged widespread abuses. In February it banned lavish new buildings and “image projects” in officially designated poor areas.

State television reported on two counties, one in Ningxia and one in Hubei, where local governments spent 100m yuan each on new headquarters. In March, during China’s annual full legislative session, the council’s poverty head, Liu Yongfu, raised a different question about the programme. He told the Southern Metropolis, a newspaper, that hundreds of counties would be taken off the list by 2020. “If a poor area as big as a county still exists, then can Chinese society still be called moderately prosperous?” he asked.

Attainment of a “moderately prosperous society” is a goal that previous Chinese leaders set and that Xi Jinping, the current president, has adopted as well. Much progress has been made since reforms began in earnest in the late 1970s. China claims to have lifted 620m people out of poverty since then. Others may quibble over that number—the World Bank puts it at 500m—but few question the premise that China deserves immense credit for alleviating so much poverty.

Much still remains, however. A little uphill from Dingjiayan sits a smaller village, Dingyuanyao. Its higher elevation means it gets less water, and a resident says most of its 90 residents will clear just 1,000 yuan a year after paying for seeds and fertiliser. Some own motorbikes and televisions, and they are grateful for the basic health insurance they receive. They laugh in unison when asked if they receive subsidies. The arrival of electricity 30 years ago was a vast improvement, they agree. But little has changed in their lives since then.

From the print edition: China