Move over Tiger Mother - there's a new cat on the block.
虎媽靠邊兒，育兒領域來了“貓爸”。

Perhaps you're familiar with the super-strict mum who pushes her kids to be the best at school, sport, and music - no matter what the cost. It's a parenting style made famous in 2011 by the Chinese-American author Amy Chua and her best-selling book "The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother". Well, there's another feline in the parenting world: Cat Dad.
您或許對這種超級嚴格的媽媽很熟悉，無論付出什么代價，她都要讓自己的孩子成為學習上、體育上和音樂方面的佼佼者。2011年，美籍華裔作家蔡美兒和她的暢銷作品《虎媽戰歌》讓這種育兒方式聞名全世界。不過，在父母育兒領域又出現了另一種“貓科動物”：貓爸。

Cat Dad takes a more softly, softly approach to parenting - preferring to be emotionally sensitive, gentle and relaxed about rules and discipline, in the belief that it will make their offspring self-sufficient and independent. The term has been trending on the micro blogging site Sina Weibo because of a hit Chinese television programme, "Tiger Mom Cat Dad". The two lead characters are, as the title suggests, a fierce Tiger Mom and a chilled-out Cat Dad. Their styles collide as they try to raise their young daughter.
貓爸在育兒方面采取的方式更為溫和，情感細膩、溫柔，在規則和紀律上更寬松，他們人物這樣能讓孩子自信獨立。隨著電視劇《虎媽貓爸》的熱播，“貓爸”一詞已 在新浪微博上流行開了。正如劇名所示，劇中的兩位主角，一位是嚴厲的虎媽，另一位是從容的貓爸。在撫養女兒的問題上，二人的教育風格發生了沖突與碰撞。

While Cat Dad may not be as well known as Tiger Mother, he's actually been around nearly as long. One of the original Cat Dads was Chang Zhitao, a father from Shanghai who went head to head in a debate with Chua shortly after her book was published. Despite having vastly different approaches to parenting, both Chua and Chang had daughters who were accepted into Harvard University.
雖然貓爸可能沒有虎媽出名，但實際上，貓爸幾乎是與虎媽同時存在的。來自上海的常智韜是最早被稱做貓爸的父親之一，在蔡美兒出書后不久，他曾與蔡美兒進行了一次正面交鋒。盡管蔡美兒與常智韜有著極為不同的育兒方式，但兩人各自的女兒都被哈佛大學錄取。

And as if the Tiger-Cat fight wasn't enough, there's also another animalistic parenting persona coming from China. Wolf Dad is even stricter than Tiger Mom and is epitomised by Xiao Baiyou, a father who believes that "beating kids is part of their upbringing."
似乎虎貓打架還不夠，中國還有另一種頗具“獸性”的育兒角色——狼爸。狼爸比虎媽更嚴厲，其代表人物是蕭百佑，他相信“打孩子是教育的一部分”。

"Just as their names suggest, Cat Dad prefers a gentle approach to children's education, while Tiger Mom and Wolf Dad believe that education is a painful process," says Vincent Ni of BBC Chinese. "It's been a long time since Chinese TV aired such a drama that captured the two seemingly conflicting education philosophies so well. While closely following the drama, Chinese audiences also took to social media to discuss, share and voice their different opinions of the way to raise kids."
BBC 中文網的文森特?倪說：“從名字可以看出來，貓爸更喜歡采取溫和的方式來教育孩子，而虎媽與狼爸則堅信教育孩子是個痛苦的過程。中國電視界很久沒出過這么 一部電視劇了，這部劇很好地抓住了這兩個看似沖突的育兒理念。在緊追這部劇的同時，中國觀眾也在社交媒體上討論、分享和表達各自不同的育兒方式。”

More than 80m people tuned into "Tiger Mom Cat Dad" and the series finale attracted tens of thousands of comments on Weibo. Some defended Cat Dad: "I think there is too much bullying going on in their household. It's completely disrespectful. There's no consideration whatsoever towards the man," one user commented. Others saw the dad as a weak character who wasn't compatible with his wife: "I think the tiger mother and the cat dad should divorce," one viewer wrote. "I really hope a wolf dad and tiger mother can be together. This type of 'warm man' (Cat Dad) is a not real man."
超過八千萬觀眾收看了《虎媽貓爸》，該電視劇的大結局也在微博上吸引了數以萬計的評論。一些人在評論中為貓爸辯護，一位用戶說道：“我覺得他們家太霸道了， 毫無尊重可言。對男性的想法幾乎沒有任何考慮。”另一些人則認為劇中的父親性格脆弱，配不上他的妻子，一位觀眾評論說：“在我看來虎媽和貓爸應該離婚。我 真希望狼爸與虎媽能在一起。這種‘暖男’（貓爸）不算大丈夫。”

Tong Dawei, the actor who plays the Cat Dad in the TV show, posted an image of himself and his daughter to his personal Weibo account with the tongue-in-cheek caption: "Mum went out when the water pipes were broken. Daddy held back his tears and mended it before she came back." It got a huge reaction - over 63,000 likes and 5,000 comments - including the remark "As a man, I could in no way be like the 'Cat Dad'" - proof that even when life imitates art, being a Cat Dad still hasn't really caught on inChina.
佟大為在該劇中飾演貓爸，他在微博上放了一張自己與女兒的照片，并配上一句半開玩笑的話：“媽媽出門壞了的水管，爸比含著淚也要在她回來前修好。”這條微博的反響巨大——有6.3萬個贊和五千多條評論，其中一條說：“作 為男人，我絕不會像這位‘貓爸’那樣”，這說明，就算生活效仿藝術，可在中國，貓爸仍不能真正被接受。

（英文來源：英國廣播公司）

Vocabulary
self-sufficient:自立的
tongue-in-cheek: 開玩笑的

（譯者：FNU黃晞 編輯：馬文英）