Marriages need cash and love—婚姻：当爱情遇上金钱

      有的人会为了金钱放弃理想，有的人会为了金钱放弃爱情。当今社会不断飙升的房价，已然让理性与感性(sensibility)之间的权衡变得艰难了许多。

　　Hu Jingjing has taken a tight grip of her husband`s money since they got married in May, giving him 2,000 yuan a month as an allowance.
　　自今年五月份结婚以来，胡晶晶(音译)一直把丈夫的钱管得很紧，每月只给他2000元作为零用钱。
　　Sometimes he runs over budget after inviting his colleagues to a fairly expensive dinner. When this happens he takes money from home and tells his wife so that her bookkeeping is up to date.
　　有时，丈夫可能因为请同事吃了顿大餐而超出预算。一旦发生这种情况，他会从家里取钱，并告诉妻子以便记账。
　　Hu said that her husband is not good at taking care of money. Before they got married he had no savings, despite having worked for more than six years. Even worse, he had absolutely no idea where his money had gone.
　　胡晶晶说她的丈夫不擅长理财。在他们结婚前，尽管已经工作了六年多时间，但他一点储蓄都没有。更糟糕的是，他甚至根本不知道自己的钱都花在哪了。
　　"So I took his bank card," said Hu, a 28-year-old editor at a daily newspaper in Beijing.
　　“所以我替他保管银行卡。”胡晶晶今年28岁，在北京的一家日报社做编辑。
　　She keeps a very clear and detailed record of how they spend their money, even expenses as tiny as 0.5 yuan. The couple makes 500,000 yuan a year and spends about 110,000 yuan, not including mortgage payments, which amount to 90,000 yuan a year.
　　她清晰而详细地记录下他们的开销，甚至连5毛钱的微小开支也不放过。这对夫妇年收入50万元，消费支出11万元，这其中并不包括每年要偿还的9万元按揭贷款。
　　"Money is very important to a marriage," Hu said, and one`s life quality should not go down steeply after getting married.
　　胡晶晶说：“钱对于婚姻而言十分重要”。一个人的生活质量不应该在婚后一落千丈。
　　"I remember the popular Hong Kong writer Yi Shu once wrote in her novel, `I want a lot of love. If there is no love, I want a lot of money.` At least I should have either of them."
　　“我记得香港著名作家亦舒曾在自己的小说中写过：‘我要很多很多的爱。如果没有爱，那么我就要很多很多的钱。’我至少应该获得两者其中之一。”
　　Love and money: Which is more important to a marriage?
　　那么爱与金钱：对于婚姻而言，哪一个更重要呢？
　　Property off-limits
　　财产禁区
　　Some experts said the latest interpretation of the Marriage Law is an attempt to encourage people to marry for love rather than money by restricting treasure hunters` access to others` fortune through marriage.
　　有些专家表示，对于婚姻法的最新解释试图约束那些借结婚来获取他人财产的不劳而获行为，以此来鼓励人们因爱情而结婚，而不是为金钱。
　　The interpretation by the Supreme Court, which came into force on Aug 13, made it clear that a home purchased before marriage is the personal property of the person who bought it. In case of divorce, the registered owner must compensate his or her partner for mortgage payments and any increased value in the property.
　　这一由最高法院对婚姻法做出的解释于8月13日正式生效，其中明确指出婚前购买房产属于购买者的私人财产。一旦离婚，产权所有人必须针对另一方所支付的按揭贷款金额以及房产升值部分给予补偿。
　　If the parents of the husband or wife buy a house for their child and the property ownership certificate is registered solely to the child, the house will belong to the child in the event of a divorce.
　　如果丈夫/妻子的父母为自己的子女购买了一套房子，并且房产证上只写了子女的姓名，那么一旦离婚，房子将归子女一方单方所有。
　　In the past 10 years, housing prices have skyrocketed in cities. In Beijing, the average price of a typical apartment reached 23,730 yuan a square meter at the end of August, according to statistics from the Beijing Real Estate Transaction Management Network. To the majority of Chinese families, homes have become their most valuable properties.
　　在过去10年中，城市房价飞涨。根据北京房地产交易管理网发布的统计数据显示，八月底北京一套普通公寓的均价达到每平方米23730元。对于大多数中国家庭而言，住宅已经成为他们最值钱的财产。
　　Some people said the new Marriage Law interpretation will encourage people to care more about affection than property. Others believe that despite its good intentions, the legal interpretation cannot force people to upgrade their moral standards, regardless of the social reality.
　　一些人说《新婚姻法》解释将鼓励人们更多地去关注感情，而不是财产。而其他人则认为尽管新司法解释的初衷是好的，但在不顾及社会现实的条件下，无法强制人们去提升他们的道德标准。
　　"Marriage is not simply about love," said Jiang Yue, a professor in Xiamen University`s law school and an expert in marriage law. "It is a process of living. Can you talk about love all day but have no place to sleep?
　　“婚姻不只关乎爱情。”厦门大学法学院教授兼婚姻法专家蒋月说，“婚姻是生活的过程。连个睡觉的地方都没有，你还能整日谈情说爱吗？”
　　"Actually, we cannot make a clear separation of affection and material goods," she continued. "Otherwise, why would nobody fall in love with a homeless person who lives under an overpass?"
　　“事实上，我们无法清楚地将感情与物质区分开来。”她继续说道，“不然的话，为何没人会同一个无家可归、生活在天桥下的人相爱呢？”
　　The modern cave
　　“现代洞穴”
　　A survey of more than 100,000 single Chinese in 2009 found that for women, personal income ranked third among the top criteria in choosing a spouse, while physical appearance ranked third for men. Both men and women chose morality and personality as their top concerns, said Mu Yan, co-founder and vice-president of Baihe.com, one of the leading Chinese Internet dating and matchmaking sites.
　　慕岩是国内热门婚恋交友网站百合网的创始人之一，现担任该网站副总裁。他说，2009年一项针对中国10万单身人群的调查显示，对于女性而言，个人收入在其择偶标准中名列第三位；而对于男性而言，外貌长相位居第三。所有人都将人品和性格列为首要考虑条件。
　　Another survey by Baihe, conducted last year among 32,676 people ages 20 to 60, found that about 71 percent of women consider possession of a house a prerequisite for a man to get married, while only 48 percent of men have the same point of view. Nearly 86 percent of the people surveyed selected "having a stable income" as a precondition to tying the knot, followed by "having a house" (58 percent) and "having a certain amount of savings" (54 percent).
　　去年，百合网针对32676名20-60岁年龄之间的人群做了另一项调查，发现约71%的女性认为结婚的先决条件是男方要拥有一套房子，而只有48%的男性持相同观点。参与调查人群中，大约86%的人选择“拥有稳定收入”作为结婚的前提，“有一套房子”(58%)和“有一定的存款”(54%)紧随其后。
　　In general, the situation today is not much different from 5,000 years ago, Mu said. "In primitive communes, women must live in caves to bear children, so the men who are capable of occupying caves will find wives.
　　慕岩说，总的来说，现在的情形同5000年前相比没有太大区别。“在原始公社时期，女人必须要在洞穴里生儿育女，因而那些能够占据洞穴的男性才能娶到妻子。”
　　"In today`s society, housing prices are rising fast.... As the general public and women in particular are feeling more and more insecure, their demands for housing and financial security will keep growing."
　　“当今社会，房价飙升。随着公众，尤其是女性们，越来越缺乏安全感，人们对于房产和经济保障的需求将会持续增加。”