公共场合戴发卷：韩国女性对传统观念说“不”
Hair Curlers in Public? That’s Just How They Roll.
JIN YU YOUNG
2021年11月24日
笔记导读
relate 产生共鸣;感同身受 If you can relate to someone, you can understand how they feel or behave so that you are able to communicate with them or deal with them easily.
bangs [N-PLURAL 复数名词] 刘海；额前短垂发；Bangs are hair which is cut so that it hangs over your forehead.
vestige 残余;残留部分;遗迹；A vestige of something is a very small part that still remains of something that was once much larger or more important.
antiquated 陈旧的；老式的；过时的；If you describe something as antiquated, you are criticizing it because it is very old or old-fashioned.
双语全文
SEOUL — In a subway car on a recent fall afternoon, seven young South Korean women stood quietly among a crowd of commuters. They wore seasonal jackets and wind breakers just like other passengers, but one accessory made them stand out: old-fashioned hair curlers locked tightly into their bangs.
首尔——最近一个秋天的下午，在地铁车厢里，七位韩国年轻女性静静地站在通勤的人群里。她们和其他乘客一样穿着秋冬外套和风衣，但有一个配饰让她们脱颖而出：紧紧裹在刘海里的老式发卷。
These plastic cylinders, usually Velcro-covered, can be seen nearly everywhere around Seoul — in cafes and restaurants, on public transportation, on the street.
这些塑料圆筒通常裹着魔术贴，在首尔几乎随处可见——咖啡馆和餐馆、公共交通上、大街上。
And while they may seem like a vestige of a previous era, the young women who wear them say they are not only functional but also a sign of shifting ideas about gender and beauty and a reflection of the country’s generational divide.
虽然看起来像是上一个时代的物件，但戴着它们的年轻女性表示，这些发卷不仅实用，而且标志着在性别和美貌上的观念转变，也反映了这个国家的代沟。
Jung Yoon-won, a 23-year-old college student in Seoul who uses curlers daily, said she wore them outside her home to maintain the perfect curl in her bangs before going to an event or meeting. She said her mother had asked her to stop, fearing others would find it inappropriate.
23岁的首尔大学生郑允元（音）每天都使用发卷，她说，在出门参加活动或会议之前，她会戴着发卷以保持刘海的完美卷曲。她说她妈妈让她不要再戴了，担心别人会觉得不合适。
But for Ms. Jung, appearance matters more at the destination than on the way there. “You only have to look good in front of the people you care about,” she said.
但对郑允元来说，最终的样子比打扮的过程更重要。“你只需要在你在乎的人面前看起来很美，”她说。
That independent attitude is shared among many younger people who don’t feel beholden to the conventions that were once strictly observed in South Korean society. Young people today say they are less concerned about what other people think and are choosing instead to live more carefree.
许多年轻人都认同这种独立的态度，他们不愿受到韩国社会曾经恪守的习俗的束缚。现在的年轻人表示，他们不太在意别人的想法，而是选择过上更无拘无束的生活。
Ms. Jung doesn’t view curlers as a relic of the past, but as a tool to help her look put together as she zips across the city from one place to the next.
郑允元并不认为发卷是老旧的物件，而是一种工具，在城市中出行时，可以帮她保持她的妆容。
“There is a notion that women today should always have their hair be presentable,” she said. She bristled at the idea that she was supporting antiquated beauty standards or clinging to the days when going outside in Seoul without perfect hair and makeup was like leaving the house without wearing clothes.
“有一种观念认为，现在的女性应该让自己的头发看起来总是那么得体，”她说。当别人以为她在支持过时的美容标准或坚持旧时的态度——在首尔外出时如果没有完美的妆发就像不穿衣服出门，她感到非常愤怒。
Unlike previous generations of women who felt it was necessary to get ready in private, hidden from the sight of men, she and others care much less if their grooming efforts are visible, Ms. Jung said. “That’s why it doesn’t matter if you have a curler in on the subway or cafe.”
郑允元说，前几代女性认为，有必要私下做好准备，不让男人看到，而她和其他同辈则不太关心别人是否看到了她们化妆。“所以你在地铁或咖啡馆里戴发卷是没所谓的。”
Hair rollers in South Korea are typically worn in bangs. Costing as little as 80 cents apiece, they are accessible and affordable for most women. Korean celebrities often post pictures on social media sporting curlers. Older women are both intrigued and mystified by the phenomenon.
在韩国，发卷通常卷在刘海里。它们的成本低至约5元人民币一个，女性大多都能买到且负担得起。韩国名人经常在社交媒体上发布戴着发卷的照片。年纪稍大的女性对这种现象感到既好奇又困惑。
Lee Jeong-jin, 51, has a 21-year-old daughter who frequently wears curlers outside the house, much to her mother’s disappointment. Ms. Lee, who lives near Seoul, said it’s not unusual for young people to have a “so what” attitude.
51岁的李正珍（音）有一个21岁的女儿，经常在外面戴着发卷，这让她妈妈很失望。住在首尔附近的李正珍说，年轻人的常见态度是，“那又怎样。”
She can relate. Using hair spray to create tall, voluminous hairstyles was the trend in South Korea when she was in her teens, she said. “I’m pretty sure the older generation thought we were the weird ones back then,” she said.
她能感同身受。她说，使用发胶打造高大蓬松的发型是她十几岁时候的韩国流行趋势。“我很确定上一辈人当时认为我们是古怪的人，”她说。
Yet Kim Ji-in, 54, sees the hair curlers as part of a broader shift among young women who feel they should be allowed to behave as they choose in public, without having to follow expectations about beauty and gender.
然而，54岁的金智仁（音）将发卷视为年轻女性更广泛转变的标志之一，她们认为应该被允许在公共场合按照自己的选择行事，而不必遵循对美貌和性别的期望。
“I’ve seen one woman in her 20s sitting on the subway floor with her makeup sprawled out in front of her,” she said. In her time, it was unthinkable for a woman to go outside with rollers in her hair, she added.
她说：“我见过一位20多岁的女性坐在地铁地板上，将她的化妆品在面前摊开。”她还说，在她那个时代，一个女人戴着发卷出门是不可想象的。
Resistance to South Korea’s often-rigid beauty standards and restrictive views about gender is not new. After #MeToo allegations swept the country a few years ago, some women responded with “Escape the Corset,” a movement in which they abandoned makeup and wore bowl cuts to protest oppressive beliefs about physical attractiveness.
这也不是第一次有人抵制韩国通常严苛的美貌标准和充满限制的性别观点。几年前，当“#我也是”指控席卷全国时，一些女性用“脱掉紧身胸衣”运动作为回应，在这场运动中，她们放弃化妆并剪了西瓜头，以抗议对外貌吸引力的压迫观念。
Still, the country has one of the world’s leading beauty industries, accounting for almost 3 percent of the global beauty market in 2019, according to the International Trade Administration, a U.S. government agency.
尽管如此，根据美国政府机构国际贸易管理局的数据，韩国拥有世界首屈一指的美容行业，2019年占全球美容市场的近3%。
The South Korean cosmetics industry has flourished despite the pandemic. Amorepacific, one of the nation’s largest beauty conglomerates, reported an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter of 2021. Exports in beauty products also rose by 16 percent from the previous year, according to the Korea Trade Association.
即使在大流行中，韩国化妆品行业仍然蓬勃发展。韩国最大的美容集团之一爱茉莉太平洋在2021年第一季度报告销售额同比增长8.5%。根据韩国贸易协会的数据，美容产品的出口也比上一年增长了16%。
But increasingly, young people say they prefer to come as they are.
但越来越多的年轻人表示，她们更愿意展现原本的样子。
Kim Dong-wan, a 25-year-old researcher in Seoul, said he was confused when he first saw women wearing hair curlers in public about six years ago. Now he says that he’s “indifferent,” and that women nowadays are less likely to be pressured to hide such things and are also demanding more respect. “Times have changed so much,” he said.
25岁的首尔研究人员金东完（音）说，大约六年前第一次看到女性在公共场合戴发卷时，他感到很困惑。现在他说他觉得“无关紧要”，现在的女性不再觉得有必要去隐藏这些东西，并且要求得到更多的尊重。“时代变化太大了，”他说。
While older South Koreans may not approve of the use of hair curlers in public, Yoon Da-young, a 22-year-old student in Seoul, said it’s not their place to understand youth culture or why teenagers and women in their 20s would proudly step outside with curlers in their hair. “The trend is to wear them out now,” she said.
虽然年长的韩国人可能不赞成在公共场合使用发卷，但22岁的首尔学生尹多英（音）表示，他们不需要去了解年轻人的文化，或为什么十来岁、二十来岁的女性会自豪地戴着发卷出门。“戴着出门是现在的潮流，”她说。
Young women just want to be able to “do what they want in peace.”
年轻女性只希望能“不被打扰地做自己想做的事”。
