BEIJING — The emotional disintegration of a 17-month-old boy named John as he sought and failed to find comfort from caregivers in a British boarding nursery, captured in a 1969 documentary film, deeply distressed the Chinese women at a seminar last week on early childhood separation.
北京——一个名叫约翰(John)的17个月大的男孩想从一家英国寄宿托儿所寻求安抚未果，因此情绪崩溃。这个故事被1969年的一部纪录片记录下来。上周，在一个关于幼儿早期分离的研讨会上，这个故事令与会的中国妇女感到非常难过。
It showed in hard-to-watch detail the damage that can be inflicted when young children lose their primary caregivers. John’s anguish was extreme. He cried for days, refused food and withdrew.
该片以惨不忍睹的细节展现出失去主要照顾者可能对幼儿造成的伤害。约翰非常痛苦。他大哭了好几天，拒绝进食和与人沟通。
One woman at the seminar, which was offered at a Beijing university and attended mostly by mothers and professional caregivers, took off her glasses and hid her face in her hands for a long time.
研讨会上的一个女人摘下眼镜，用手捂住脸很长时间。这次研讨会在北京的一所大学召开，与会者大多是母亲或职业看护人。
Another stared straight ahead, tearing up.
另一个人眼睛直直地盯着前方，满含泪水。
A third asked, somewhat frantically, whether John had healed later. The answer — that he had not, entirely — from the teacher, Alf Gerlach, a psychoanalyst at the Sigmund Freud Institute in Frankfurt, was met with quiet consternation.
还有一位略带急躁地询问约翰后来是否康复。讲师阿尔夫•格拉克(Alf Gerlach)的回答是，他没有完全康复。格拉克是法兰克福弗洛伊德研究所(Sigmund Freud Institute)的精神分析学家。他的回答带来一片愕然。
Millions of Chinese who attended boarding nurseries and preschools after the Communist revolution in 1949, when large-scale systems of institutional care were established to free parents to pursue revolution or to labor, experienced John’s plight to some degree.
1949年共产主义革命后，中国建立了大规模机构式护理系统，来解放父母，让他们有时间参与革命或劳动。成百上千万中国幼儿被送往寄宿托儿所或幼儿园，他们也都在某种程度上经历了约翰的痛苦。
The generation most deeply affected may be those born in the early decades after 1949, as the boarding system spread unquestioned — those in their 50s and 60s who run the country today.
受影响最深的应该是在1949年之后的前几十年出生的人——那时寄宿系统在没有受到任何质疑的情况下推广开来——而今他们五六十岁，正掌管着这个国家。
But the women at the seminar, who ranged from young adults to middle age, all had stories of losing primary caregivers, or of being forced to separate from their own children because of rules barring parents from staying with their hospitalized children.
但是，研讨会上的女性，不管是刚刚成年，还是人到中年，都有失去主要照顾者，或者因为不允许父母与住院的孩子呆在一起的医院规定而被迫同孩子分开的经历。
Boarding school is less common now for those under 6 but is still considered a respectable option. Even Chinese millennials may have been sent as toddlers. It is widespread among children 6 and older.
六岁以下儿童的寄宿托儿所如今已经不是那么普遍，但仍被视为不错的选择。在中国，就连千禧一代小时候也有可能被送进这种托儿所。这种情况在六岁及以上的儿童中非常普遍。
Hoping to understand more about the development of the system in China, I visited the Beijing municipal archives on Archive Road.
我希望更多了解这种系统在中国的发展状况，于是拜访了北京市档案馆。
There, documents showed that, at top institutions in the city after the revolution, the caregiver-to-child ratios — John’s problem had been a lack of attention — were initially high. Mostly, the children of the elite were sent away. The children of ordinary citizens were cared for at home.
这里的档案表明，革命之后，在北京最好的若干托儿所里，照顾者与幼儿的人数比（约翰的问题在于缺乏关照）最初是非常高的。大多数情况下，精英阶层的孩子们会被送进托儿所。普通市民的孩子们则在家里接受照顾。
A 1958 State Council document recorded a 1-to-2 ratio in 1956 at a nursery run by the Ministry of Agriculture. But colder times began with the 1958 “double-anti” campaign against “waste and conservatism.”
根据一份1958年的国务院档案的记载，1956年，在一个农业部管理的托儿所里，一个看护者只需照顾两个幼儿。但是随着1958年“反浪费反保守”的“双反”运动来临，冷酷的时代开始了。
Spending on food and board was cut everywhere, the document showed. The caregiver ratio at the ministry nursery went to 1-to-5.5 that year. The authorities promised to get it to 1-to-5.9, in line with “rectification.”
文件表明，在所有地方，用于食物和住宿的经费都被缩减。那一年，在这个农业部的托儿所里，相关比例变成了一个看护者照顾5.5个幼儿。为了“整风”，官方承诺将这个比例变成1:5.9。
Conditions in less privileged preschools grew grim as the authorities pushed to institutionalize large numbers of children to free parents to meet higher production quotas during the Great Leap Forward of 1958 to 1961.
在1958年到1961年的“大跃进”期间，官方开始推动将大量儿童送进幼儿园的做法，以便把父母解放出来，完成更高的生产定额，因此，在条件相对没那么好的幼儿园里，形势变得更加严峻。
Another document, dated 1960, noted: “The problem now is that the development of boarding nurseries isn’t keeping up with the development of the needs of production.” Facilities were built quickly but were “small and cramped.”
另一份1960年的文件中写着“主要问题是托儿组织的发展还跟不上生产发展的需要”。设施建设很快，但“非常窄小”。
Only 26 percent were “good.” In Beijing, 400,000 children needed preschool places immediately, the document said. With the able-bodied working in fields or factories, the caregivers were often old or sick. At one preschool, the document said, six children drowned in one summer and three got food poisoning, with one dying.
“良好”率仅为26%。文件说，在北京，有40万儿童迫切需要幼儿园。身强力壮的人都在农田或工厂工作，看护人通常都是老弱者。文件显示，在一个幼儿园里，一个夏天内有六个孩子溺水，三人食物中毒，其中一人死亡。
Conditions have improved drastically since then, but loyalty to the system remains. An article published one week before school began on Sept. 1, by Shilehui, a website for preschool educators, addressed the issue.
比起那时，幼儿园的条件得到很大改善，但是人们仍然执着于这一体系。在9月1日学校开学一周前，一个名为“师乐汇”的幼儿园教育者网站上发表的一篇文章就此做出解答。
Hardly any parent likes to send a young child to be boarded, it said. But in the interests of “objectivity,” it listed three advantages: Boarding helps children become more independent and less finicky and make more friends.
文章称，很少有父母愿意送孩子去寄宿。但是出于“客观”考虑，文章列出了寄宿制度的三个优点：能帮助孩子更加独立、不娇气、交到更多朋友。
Little John’s experience shows it also can have negative emotional outcomes. And the reactions of the women attending the course suggest that many Chinese parents know it.
小约翰的经历表明，这种制度可能在感情方面带来负面后果。而参加这个课程的女性的反应表明，很多中国父母明白这一点。