新书《没有"中国制造"的一年》（A Year Without "Made in China"）

BATON ROUGE, LA. - Last year, two days after Christmas, we kicked China out of the house. Not the country obviously, but bits of plastic, metal, and wood stamped with the words "Made in China." We kept what we already had, but stopped bringing any more in.

去年，圣诞节过后两天，我们把"中国"从家里踢了出去。当然，我们并非把这个国家踢出去，而是不再使用一些标明"中国制造"的塑料、金属和木制产品。我们保留已经拥有的"中国制造"的产品，而不再购进任何新产品。

The banishment was no fault of China's. It had coated our lives with a cheerful veneer of toys, gadgets, and $10 children's shoes. Sometimes I worried about jobs sent overseas or nasty reports about human rights abuses, but price trumped virtue at our house. We couldn't resist what China was selling.

这种驱逐行动不是中国的错。我们生活中充斥着来自中国的各种东西--玩具、小玩意和10美元一双的童鞋。有时，我也担心流失到海外的就业机会或者有关侵犯人权的报道，但价格最终总是战胜我们的价值观。我们根本无法拒绝中国出售的产品。

But on that dark Monday last year, a creeping unease washed over me as I sat on the sofa and surveyed the gloomy wreckage of the holiday. It wasn't until then that I noticed an irrefutable fact: China was taking over the place.

但是，去年在那个黑色的星期一，当我坐在沙发上，环顾节日过后的满地狼藉时，一种不安慢慢涌上心头。直到那一刻，我才注意到一个不容辩驳的事实--中国正在占领这个地方。

It stared back at me from the empty screen of the television. I spied it in the pile of tennis shoes by the door. It glowed in the lights on the Christmas tree and watched me in the eyes of a doll splayed on the floor. I slipped off the couch and did a quick inventory, sorting gifts into two stacks: China and non-China. The count came to China, 25, the world, 14. Christmas, I realized, had become a holiday made by the Chinese. Suddenly I'd had enough. I wanted China out.

桌子上的电视机、门边的一堆网球鞋、圣诞树上的彩灯、地板上的洋娃娃，屋里随处可见中国制造的产品。我起身离开沙发，迅速进行了一次盘点，把所有的礼物分成了两大类--中国制造的和非中国制造的。最后的统计结果是：中国产品25件，非中国产品14件。我意识到圣诞节已经成了中国人制造的节日。突然，我觉得够了。我想把"中国"关在门外。

Through tricks and persuasion I got my husband on board, and on Jan. 1 we launched a yearlong household embargo on Chinese imports. The idea wasn't to punish China, which would never feel the pinprick of our protest. And we didn't fool ourselves into thinking we'd bring back a single job to unplugged company towns in Ohio and Georgia. We pushed China out of our lives because we wanted to measure how far it had pushed in. We wanted to know what it would take in time, money, and aggravation to kick our China habit.

经过略施小计和一番苦口婆心的劝说，我把丈夫也争取过来。于是，1月1日，我家开始了为期一年的抵制中国产品的活动。这个想法并非为了惩罚中国，它根本不会感觉到我们的抗议带来的这点微乎其微的影响。而且，我们也不会欺骗自己，认为我们把一个就业机会还给了俄亥俄州或者佐治亚州的某家公司。我们把中国拒之门外是因为想衡量一下，中国到底在多大程度上渗入了我们的生活。我们想知道放弃使用中国产品到底需要花费多少时间和金钱，以及会带来多少不便。

We hit the first rut in the road when I discovered our son's toes pressing against the ends of his tennis shoes. I wore myself out hunting for new ones. After two weeks I broke down and spent $60 on sneakers from Italy. I felt sick over the money; it seemed decadent for a pair of children's shoes. I got used to the feeling. Weeks later I shelled out $60 for Texas-made shoes for our toddler daughter.

我们碰到的第一个问题就是儿子的网球鞋已经小得无法再穿了。给他买一双新鞋搞得我疲惫不堪。经过两周的奔波后，我终于受不了了，花60美元给他买了一双从意大利进口的运动鞋。这笔钱花得让我有点心疼，因为这个价钱对于一双童鞋来说似乎有点奢侈。但我很快就习惯了这种感觉。几周后，我又花了60美元给我们蹒跚学步的小女儿买了一双得克萨斯州制造的鞋子。

We got hung up on lots of little things. I drove to half a dozen grocery stores in search of candles for my husband's birthday cake, eventually settling on a box of dusty leftovers I found in the kitchen. The junk drawer has been stuck shut since January. My husband found the part to fix it at Home Depot but left it on the shelf when he spotted the telltale "Made in China."

 随后，我们在许多小事上遇到了麻烦。为了给丈夫的生日蛋糕买蜡烛，我开车去了6家杂货店都没有买到，最终不得不用在厨房里找到的一盒落满灰尘的蜡烛将就。我家的一个旧抽屉从1月起就拉不开了。我丈夫在"家得宝"发现了修抽屉用的工具，但当他发现这个工具也贴着"中国制造"的标签后，就又把它放回了货架上。 

Mini crises erupted when our blender and television broke down. The television sputtered back to life without intervention, but it was a long, hot summer without smoothies. We killed four mice with old-fashioned snapping traps because the catch-and-release ones we prefer are made in China. Last summer at the beach my husband wore a pair of mismatched flip-flops my mother found in her garage. He'd run out of options at the drug store.

  家里的搅拌器和电视机坏了，这也带来了小小的危机。我们还不得不用起了旧式的捕鼠器，因为新式的也是中国制造的。

Navigating the toy aisle has been a wilting affair. In the spring, our 4-year-old son launched a countercampaign in support of "China things." He's been a good sport, but he's weary of Danish-made Legos, the only sure bet for birthday gifts for his friends. One morning in October he fell apart during a trip to Target when he developed a sudden lust for an electric purple pumpkin.

"It's too long without China," he wailed. He kept at me all day.

The next morning I drove him back so he could use his birthday money to buy the pumpkin for himself. I kept my fingers off the bills as he passed them to the checker.

避开中国制造的玩具更是一件令人难以应付的事。春天，我们4岁的儿子发起了一次反抵制行动，坚决支持"中国的东西"。儿子一直是一个重友情的人，但是最终他厌倦了总把丹麦生产的"乐高"玩具送给朋友作为生日礼物。10月的一天早晨，我们去百货公司购物的时候，他突然喜欢上了一个电动的紫色南瓜玩具。

儿子哭着说："我们都多久不用中国的东西了。"他为此纠缠了我一天。

第二天早晨，我又开车带他去百货公司，让他用自己生日时得到的钱去买那个南瓜玩具。

My husband bemoans the Christmas gifts he can't buy because they were made in China. He plans to sew sleeping bags for the children himself. He can build wooden boats and guitars, but I fear he will meet his match with thread and needle.

"How hard can it be?" he scoffed.

The funny thing about China's ascent is that we, as a nation, could shut the whole thing down in a week. Jump-start a "Just Say No to Chinese Products Week," and the empire will collapse amid the chaos of overloaded cargo ships in Long Beach harbor. I doubt we could pull it off. Americans may be famously patriotic, but look closely, and you'll see who makes the flag magnets on their car bumpers. These days China delivers every major holiday, Fourth of July included.

I don't know what we will do after Dec. 31 when our family's embargo comes to its official end. China-free living has been a hassle. I have discovered for myself that China doesn't control every aspect of our daily lives, but if you take a close look at the underside of boxes in the toy department, I promise it will give you pause.

Our son knows where he stands on the matter. In the bathtub one evening he told me how happy he was that "the China season" was coming soon.

"When we can buy China things again, let's never stop," he said.

我不知道12月31日我家的抵制行动正式结束的时候，我们会怎么做。没有中国产品的生活一团糟。我发现，中国并没有控制我们日常生活中的每个地方，但如果你看看百货公司玩具部的盒子下面，我保证你还是会大吃一惊的。

After a year without China I can tell you this: You can still live without it, but it's getting trickier and costlier by the day. And a decade from now I may not be brave enough to try it again.

经过一年没有中国的日子后，我可以告诉你：没有中国你也可以活下去，但是生活会越来越麻烦，而且代价会越来越大。以后10年我可能都没有勇气再尝试这种日子。

Sara Bongiorni is a freelance writer and is working on a book about her family's yearlong adventure in the global economy.