Adults with Colouring Books, Kids with CVs—It’s a World Turned Upside Down這顛倒的世界
——涂填畫冊的大人，寫簡歷的孩子！

by Andre Spicer

烏蕪 譯

Adults with Colouring Books, Kids with CVs—It’s a World Turned Upside Down這顛倒的世界
——涂填畫冊的大人，寫簡歷的孩子！

by Andre Spicer

烏蕪 譯

如果問，你覺得人生中最快樂的一段時光是什么時候？也許有很多人會回答：童年。因為多數人的童年是簡單快樂、無憂無慮的，所以有不少成年人都試圖通過消費一些本來是為孩子而做的產品來重溫童年。然而，讓人無奈的是，我們現在的孩子卻要過早地為進入成年社會而做準備：做不完的作業、參加各式各樣的興趣班。成年人想要重溫童年，小孩卻不得不為將來成為一個“成功”的大人而背上許多沉重的負擔……

o ver the weekend, I found myself colouring in.While waiting for food in a restaurant, I started to fill in my twoyear-old daughter’s colouring book.I became1)engrossedin making Peppa Pig green, George blue and Daddy Pig yellow.

Before I knew it, the food had arrived, my2)crotchetymood had lifted and my daughter’s attention had moved on to other things.Little did I know, but I had become an3)unwittingpart of a booming new sector of the economy: the4)infantilisationindustry.

1 ) engrossed [?n'gr??st] adj.全神貫注的

2 ) crotchety ['kr?t??t?] adj.有怪想的，想入非非的

3 ) unwitting [?n'w?t??] adj.不知情的，未察覺的

4 ) infantilism [?n'f?nt?l?z?m] n.幼稚型，幼稚癥

在周末時，我發現自己在填色。當我在一家餐館等餐時，我開始涂起我兩歲女兒的填色本。我全神貫注地把粉紅豬小妹涂成綠色，喬治涂成藍色，豬爸爸涂成黃色。

不知何時食物已被端上來，我從那古怪的狀態回過神來，我女兒的注意力早已轉向其他事物。雖然我毫不知情，但我已經在不知不覺中成為了一門新興產業的一份子——低齡化產業。

There is a flourishing market for products and services offering adults an opportunity to become a child again.In the publishing world, half of Amazon’s current top 10 bestsellers are colouring books targeting at grown-ups.Other bestselling books, like theHarry Potterseries, appear to be for children but are widely read by adults.The average age of people playing highly successful computer games such asBattlefeldis 27.And one of the most popular themes for adult parties in the UK is“back to school”.

Why do adults5)hankerafter things designed for kids? One reason is6)nostalgia.We hope that by consuming products made for children, we can transport ourselves back into our own childhood and reconnect with long-lost pleasures.I know many grown men who ownStar Warsfgures and vast collections of Lego sets precisely for this reason.By becoming a kid again, we also hope to momentarily avoid the burdens of adult life.

But recently, a new theme has appeared in the infantalisation industry: by acting like a child, companies claim, adults can maximise their personal “wellness”; by getting back in touch with the simple pleasures we enjoyed during our childhood, we can rediscover a state of blissful health and happiness.Adult colouring books were of interest to only a tiny group of people until publishers started to highlight their mindfulness-enhancing properties.By simply adding “antistress” to the title,The Secret Gardenbecame a bestseller.

At the very same time as adults have taken to colouringin books in the hope of feeling better, children have started to adopt the7)accoutrementsof adulthood.Of course, children have always wanted to play at being grown-ups.But what is striking is how grown-up practices are actively pushed onto our kids.

為大人提供產品和服務，讓他們有機會再次成為小孩的市場發展蓬勃。在出版業中，亞馬遜當前的十大暢銷書中有一半是針對大人的填色本。而其他的暢銷書，比如《哈利·波特》系列，雖然是給孩子讀的，但也被大人廣泛閱讀。諸如《戰場》等大獲成功的電腦游戲玩家的平均年齡是27歲。英國的成年人派對中最受歡迎的主題之一是“重返校園”。

為什么大人要追求一些為孩子而設的東西呢？