Chinese Parents Video Game Lets You Be a Tiger Mum or a Driven Dad《中國式家長》讓你做一次“虎爸虎媽”

卡洛琳·張 雷蒙德·鐘 付小燕

You want your children to do well in school. You want them to have nice friends and interesting hobbies and to not go out with creeps. You may even want them to be happy.

But in this computer game， you can always start over with a new digital child if things don’t work out as planned.

A new game in China puts players in control of those most fearsome of characters： Mum and Dad. The mission？ Raise a son or daughter from cradle to college.

In a nation of famously demanding， scolding and， yes， sometimes loving mothers and fathers， the game， Chinese Parents， is a hit. Since its release in September last year， it has found a huge audience on Steam， an online marketplace run by American game maker Valve. There are no official figures for how many people have downloaded the game， but it has provoked heated discussion online， while earning tens of thousands of reviews.

Yang Ge Yilang， a founder of Moyuwan Games， the independent studio that developed Chinese Parents， said he hoped to produce an English version this year.

The success of the game does not appear to be driven by people hoping to exact1 revenge for their own upbringings. Quite the opposite： Some fans have written that， by letting them experience childhood from their parents’ perspective， it had moved them to tears.

“I used to not understand many things my mum made me do when I was little，” said Kang Shenghao， 19， a professional blogger in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao. “But when I play the game and try to boost up figures for my son so he can unlock more achievements and marry the prettiest girl in school， I start to understand my parents more.”

All the joys and trials of raising children are here. Players choose between pushing their digital progeny2 to attain conventional success and allowing them some semblance3 of childhood innocence. They must give career guidance and endure （just barely） their teenager’s first dates. Everything leads up to the gaokao， the highly competitive college entrance exam that decides the fortunes of so many young Chinese people.

Virtual offspring

Yang said he also hoped to make a smartphone version of the game that allowed players to see how their virtual offspring stack up against those of their friends. Chinese parents love nothing more than boasting to their peers about how wonderful their children are.

For many decades， an official one-child policy meant that Chinese boys and girls carried the entire weight of their parents’ hopes for betterment. Population controls have eased （though the game’s children do not have siblings） and economic growth has created more opportunities for advancement. Scoring well on the gaokao is no longer the only ticket to a brighter future. Parents today are more likely to wonder whether unhealthy amounts of stress are turning their children into emotionally dampened4 automatons.

In Chinese Parents， a virtual child’s life unfolds over 48 rounds. In each round， players arrange courses and activities—piano lessons， swim classes， creative writing， coding and more. You can also buy gifts： ice-cream， toys， even Learn to Speak with Jack Ma， a book featuring the billionaire co-founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

These choices shape how your child develops along six dimensions： intelligence， emotional intelligence， physical fitness， imagination， memory and charm.

A bar on the screen reflects how much psychological pressure the child is feeling. Pile on too much schoolwork， and the child may crack. But don’t let your score for “parental satisfaction” fall too low， either. Another score captures the concept of “face”， supremely important in Chinese culture. If a child loses face by doing badly in school， a summer trip to Europe could be cancelled.

Myriad career possibilities

A child’s final scores determine what happens after he or she leaves home. There are more than 200 colleges， including vocational schools and elite universities， that might offer a spot. The socially adept have their pick of compatible mates. There are myriad career possibilities： taxi driver， celebrity author， e-commerce mogul， Beyonce.

The earliest version of Chinese Parents gave players only the option of raising a son. In the current version， those who choose to have a daughter get reminders about attitudes that remain common in China. Her virtual grandmother says girls don’t need to do as well as boys in school. Her mother says that for a girl， the ultimate goal of hard work is to marry a good man.

‘Race that never ends’

Chinese Parents does not end when the digital child is grown. If he or she ends up with good character scores and a solid education and career， the next generation in the game starts out with better character scores.

Kong Qingxun， a 21-year-old blockchain entrepreneur in the southern city of Guangzhou， has raised eight generations of sons in the game. He let the first boy play lots of soccer and video games. But he didn’t get into college， so Kong changed his approach.

He drove his next son hard in school， earning him admission to the famed Tsinghua University in Beijing. From then on， it was easier for Kong to keep his boys on a path to accomplishment. By the seventh or eighth generation， his children were so gifted that they could goof off5 yet still excel academically and date pretty girls.

This feels true to life， Kong said.

“At the beginning， you think it’s just a 100-metre run，” he said， referring to life. “Then you realise it’s a marathon. And finally you understand it’s a relay race that never ends.”

你希望自己的孩子在學校表現出色，希望他們有不錯的朋友和有趣的愛好，不要和討厭的人交往。你甚至可能希望他們快樂。

但是在這款電腦游戲中，如果事情沒有按計劃進行，系統總是能生成一個新的虛擬孩子讓你從頭再來。

中國的一款新游戲讓玩家可以控制最可怕的角色：爸爸和媽媽。任務嘛，就是要把兒子或女兒從搖籃撫養到上大學。

中國的父母以嚴苛而聞名，當然，嚴中有愛，在中國，這款名為《中國式家長》的游戲大受歡迎。自從去年9月發行以來，它在美國游戲制造商維爾福公司運營的游戲平臺Steam上獲得了大量用戶。雖然還沒有官方數據顯示究竟有多少人下載了這款游戲，但它已在網上引發了熱烈討論，并獲得了數萬條評論。

《中國式家長》的開發者是獨立工作室“墨魚玩”，工作室創始人楊葛一郎說，他希望今年能推出英文版。

這款游戲的成功似乎并不是因為人們想用它來發泄自己成長過程中的不滿。恰恰相反：一些粉絲寫道，這款游戲讓他們可以從家長的角度來體驗童年，把他們感動哭了。

“小時候媽媽讓我做的很多事情我都不理解。”19歲的康勝浩（音）說，他是中國東北部城市秦皇島的一名自媒體博主，“玩這個游戲，我得努力提升‘兒子’的屬性數值，讓他能解鎖更多成就、娶到校花，我開始更理解父母了。”

游戲里要經歷養育孩子的所有歡樂和磨難。玩家需要在逼迫他們的孩子獲得傳統的成功和讓他們保留一些童真之間做出選擇。他們需要為孩子提供職業指導，勉強忍受他們十幾歲孩子的第一次約會。所有的一切都是為了高考（即高等院校入學考試），因為高考競爭激烈，決定著眾多中國年輕人的命運。

虛擬子女

楊葛一郎說，他還希望推出一款手游版《中國式家長》，讓玩家可以看到自己的“子女”與朋友們的“子女”相比如何。中國家長最喜歡的莫過于向同齡人吹噓自己的孩子有多棒。

中國曾實行了幾十年的獨生子女政策，這意味著中國的男孩女孩們肩負著父母對美好生活的全部期許。現在，政府對人口的控制已有所放松（不過這個游戲里的孩子沒有兄弟姐妹），經濟增長也為人們創造了更多發展機會。在高考中取得好成績不再是通向光明未來的唯一途徑。如今的父母可能更想知道，過重的壓力是否會讓孩子變成情緒壓抑的機器人。

在《中國式家長》中，孩子的生活在48回合游戲中展開。每一回合中，玩家都要給孩子安排課程和活動——鋼琴課、游泳課、創意寫作、編程，等等。你還可以給孩子買禮物：冰激凌、玩具，甚至是《跟馬云學口才》——這本書的主角是中國電子商務巨頭阿里巴巴的聯合創始人、億萬富翁馬云。

這些選擇將塑造孩子在六個方面的發展：智商、情商、體魄、想象力、記憶力和魅力。

游戲過程中，屏幕上會有反映孩子心理狀況的壓力值。給孩子太多的功課，他可能會崩潰。但也不要讓你的“父母滿意度”分數降得太低。還有一個屬性體現的是“面子”這個概念，這在中國文化中極為重要。如果孩子因為成績不好丟了面子，暑假去歐洲的旅行就可能被取消。

無數的職業可能性

孩子各項屬性的最終得分決定了他/她長大后的結局。游戲中有200多所學院，包括職業學校和精英大學，孩子可能會考入其中一所。善于社交的人可任意挑選合適的伴侶。職業選擇多種多樣：出租車司機、著名作家、電子商務巨頭，還可以成為碧昂斯。

在最早版本的《中國式家長》中，玩家只能選擇養兒子。在最新版中，選擇養女兒的會得到提醒，內容是中國仍然普遍存在的觀念。孩子的“奶奶”會說，女孩子在學校里用不著學得和男孩子一樣好。孩子的“媽媽”會說，對一個女孩來說，努力工作最終是為了嫁得好。

“永不結束的比賽”

這款游戲并沒有在虛擬孩子長大之后結束。如果孩子最終擁有良好的性格屬性、良好的教育和職業背景，那么游戲中的下一代從一開始就有較好的性格屬性。

廣州的區塊鏈企業家、21歲的孔慶勛（音）已經在游戲中養育了八代兒子。他讓第一代的兒子盡情踢足球、玩電子游戲，結果孩子沒考上大學，所以孔慶勛改變了做法。

他給第二代兒子加大了學習壓力，讓他考上了清華大學。從那以后，孔慶勛讓孩子們走上成功之路就變得容易多了。到了第七代或第八代，他的孩子們已非常有天賦，即使不努力學習成績也出類拔萃，還可以和漂亮女孩談戀愛。

孔慶勛說，這款游戲很像真實的生活。

“開始時，你會覺得它只是百米賽跑。”他指的是人生，“后來你發現它是一場馬拉松，最后你會明白，它是一場永無休止的接力賽。”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎選手）