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　　Why are Chinese youth ’buying now, and paying later’?

　　中国年轻人为什么转向了“先买后付”的消费模式？

　　People aged between 18 and 29 constitute 36 percent of the borrowers of consumer finance (not including housing loans), making them the most numerous of the borrowers, according to market research on China’s consumer credit markets in 2018, released by the Academic Center for China’s Economic Practice and Thinking at Tsinghua University.

　　清华大学中国经济思想与实践研究院发布的《2018中国消费信贷市场研究报告》显示，使用消费金融（不包括住房贷款）服务的用户中，年龄在18至29岁之间的群体所占比重最高，达36%。

　　The report also notes that users aged between 30 and 39, 40 and 49 make up 30 percent and 33 percent respectively, with the last one percent being 50 years or older.

　　报告指出，年龄在30至39岁，40至49岁之间的用户分别占30％和33％，而年龄在50岁以上的用户仅占1%。

　　The sharp contrast between the largest group and the smallest group reflects the changes in consumption habits between different generations of Chinese people. That is to say, the older generation prefers living within their means, while the younger favors living in the moment or consuming first and paying later.

　　最大群体和最小群体的占比形成了鲜明对比，这反映了不同代际的中国消费者在消费习惯上存在差异。也就是说，老一辈人更倾向于“量入为出”地过日子，而年轻人则喜欢活在当下，超前消费。

　　Different life experiences lie behind this phenomenon. On the one hand, Chinese born in the 1960s usually hold a frugal attitude towards consumption as they’ve spent most of their life working hard, trying to save as much money as possible in case of rainy days.

　　这种现象折射出两代人不同的生活经历。20世纪60年代出生的中国人一般信奉节俭型消费观，因为他们操劳了大半辈子，想尽量多存点钱以备不时之需。

　　On the other hand, Chinese youth now have better living conditions than when they were children and do not have to worry about daily necessities, so they often don’t think twice before buying what they want.

　　而对于年轻一代来说，他们现在的生活条件比小时候好很多，不用再担心日常生活必需品不够用，因此他们在购买自己想要的东西之前通常不会再三考虑。

　　The rapid development of the world’s most populated country since its reform and opening-up in 1978 is seeing a transition from a manufacturing-oriented society to a consumer one.

　　自1978年改革开放以来，中国这个世界上人口最多的国家正经历着从“生产型”社会向“消费型”社会的快速发展。

　　Years of manufacturing efforts are producing more goods available for consumption. Under these conditions, it’s easy to understand why Chinese youth don’t need to worry that the things they want to buy won’t be available. On the contrary, what they do worry about is that they don’t have enough money to buy most of the things they want.

　　经过多年来的努力，中国的制造业目前可以生产更多可供消费的商品。在这种情况下，很容易理解为什么中国年轻人不必担心他们想要购买的东西将无法获得。恰恰相反，他们担心的是自己没有足够的钱来购买想要的大部分东西。

　　Another factor driving the "buy first, pay later" trend is undoubtedly the increasingly popular and advanced online credit services in a cashless Chinese society.

　　推动“先买后付”趋势的另一个因素无疑是，在一个无现金的中国社会日益流行和先进的在线信贷服务。

　　Besides Alipay’s Huabei, another e-commerce giant JD.com also launched its virtual credit card service Baitiao to let its users buy products on its app and websites now and pay the debt later, usually in the next month or following months if users choose to pay in installments with interest.

　　除了支付宝的花呗，另一家电商巨头京东也推出了其虚拟信用卡服务——京东白条，用户可以在其应用和网站上先行购买产品，下个月免息还款，也可以选择分期付款的方式，但需支付一定的利息。

　　In response, experts are appealing to young consumers to be rational in their spending, especially those with little disposable income.

　　对此，专家呼吁年轻消费者理性消费，对于那些可支配收入较少的消费者来说更是如此。

　　(全文共402个词，China Daily)

　　►重难点词汇：

　　constitute  vt. 组成，构成；建立；任命

　　frugal  adj. 节俭的；朴素的；花钱少的

　　transition  n. 过渡；转变；[分子生物] 转换；变调

　　rational  adj. 合理的；理性的 n. 有理数

　　disposable adj. 可任意处理的；可自由使用的；用完即可丢弃的

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