future mail

童亞文

Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future？ While express mail is a fast way to send your letters， there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business—future mail.

你曾經夢想過給將來的自己或你的朋友們寄一封信嗎？雖然快遞是為你送信的一種快捷方式，但是在中國，另一種寄件方式作為一項新的業務出現了，這就是慢遞。

“The letter should be sent next Mothers Day and not a day earlier！” Lin Xiaofan， a college student in Shanghai， tells one of the companies offering the service.

“這封信應該在明年的母親節寄出去，一天也不能提前！”林曉帆，是上海的一名大學生，她這樣告知提供該服務的某一公司。

Lin Xiaofan wrote the letter to her mother nearly a year earlier to express her love to her mother for next Mothers Day.

這封信是林曉帆提前寫給她母親的，提前一年寫好，為了在明年的母親節表達她對母親的愛。

“Offering this service makes people slow down and lets them understand the meaning of ‘time in another way，” said Zheng Zhimin， manager at a “future mail” company. Zheng thinks “future mail” letters help remind1 us of care， friendship and love.

“這種服務使人們放慢腳步，讓他們用另一種方式理解‘時間的含義。”某個“慢遞”公司的經理鄭志敏說。他認為“慢遞”信有助于幫助提醒我們——關心，友誼和愛。

While “future mail” is becoming more and more popular， some people are wondering what will happen if the postal2 address changes or if the company goes broken before the letters arrive.

雖然“慢遞”正在變得越來越流行，但是有些人很擔心——如果在郵件送達之前收件人的地址更改了或者這個公司倒閉了該怎么辦。

Zheng said customers are glad to sign a contract to make sure that they can be compensated3 if their letters are lost or damaged.

鄭經理說，客戶很高興能簽下一份合同，合同保證如果他們信件丟失或損壞，他們可以得到補償。

Most of the customers are college students and young whitecollar workers. Psychologists4 said that young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service. Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letter so that they can experience the connection between the past and the present when they receive the letter.

大多數的客戶都是大學生和年輕白領。心理學家說，年輕的中國人可以通過這項服務以一種新的方式來表達他們的感情。大多數人把他們的希望和愿望寄托在信中，這樣當他們收到這封信的時候，他們就可以體驗到過去和現在的聯系。