A hit drama in China asks hard questions about right and wrong
    中国的一部热播电视剧对是非提出了尖锐的问题
    词汇
    drama n.戏剧，戏剧艺术；剧本；戏剧性事件

    Its moral code is messy
    它的道德准则是混乱的
    词汇
    moral adj.道德的；精神上的；品行端正的 n.道德；寓意
    messy adj.凌乱的；使不整洁的；棘手的

    In theory “The Bad kids”，this summer’s most talked-about Chinese television drama，is a thriller about a teacher turned mass killer，matching wits with three plucky children in a quiet coastal town. In practice，like all really successful horror stories，the 12-part series is also a window onto things that frighten people in their everyday lives. A case can be made that the drama despite its impressive body-count and inventive murder locations （a seafood buffet will never look the same again）-is really a meditation about how hard it is to be a good parent，or a good person，in a society that is as competitive，stressful and unequal as modern China.
    从理论上来说，今年夏天最热议的中国电视剧《坏孩子》是一部惊悚片。讲述的是在一个安静的沿海小镇上，一名教师变成了杀人狂，他与三个勇敢的孩子展开了斗智斗勇的对决。实际上，就像所有成功的恐怖故事一样，这12集系列故事就是一个窗口，让人们看到了日常生活中那些令人害怕的东西。这部电视剧戏剧化的令人印象深刻的尸体数量和富有创意的谋杀地点（海鲜自助餐再也不会是原来的样子）其实是在沉思，在一个充满压力和不平等的现代中国社会，是富有竞争的，做一个好父母或是好人是多么困难。
    词汇
    thriller n.惊险小说；使人毛骨悚然的东西；使人毛骨悚然的小说
    wits n.机智，智慧
    plucky adj.有勇气的，大胆的
    coastal adj.沿海的；海岸的
    meditation n.冥想；沉思，深思；静坐
    competitive adj.竞争的；比赛的；求胜心切的
    stressful adj.紧张的；有压力的
    unequal adj.不平等的；不规则的；不胜任的 n.不等同的事物

    In an era when entertainers are under ever-stricter order to promote “positive energy”，that is quite a subversive theme. As a reasult,“The Bad Kids” offers a case study about how clever film-makers must operate in the China of 2020. A sensive, complex examination of the human condition，it is sprinkled with upbeat，censor friendly details，some of them jarringly at odds with the rest of the plot. The trade offs have worked. Official news outlets have praised the series. The Chinese public，for their part，have also given it an exceptionally high score of 8.9 out of 10 on Douban，a big online rating site.
    在一个演艺人员弘扬“正能量”的命令日益严格的时代，这是一个具有颠覆性的主题。因此，《坏孩子》为聪明的电影制作人提供了一个在2020年的中国如何运作的案例研究。对人类状况进行了敏感而复杂的审视，它撒满了乐观积极向上的，审查友好的细节。其中有一些不和谐与情节的其余部分相悖。这种权衡是有效的。官方新闻媒体对这部电视剧赞不绝口。就中国观众而言，他们在大型在线评级网站豆瓣上也给了它8.9分（满分10分）的异常高分。
    词汇
    entertainers n.演艺人员，娱乐圈人士
    promote vt.促进；提升；推销；发扬
    subversive adj.破坏性的；从事颠覆的 n.危险分子；颠覆分子
    sprinkled 喷洒的
    upbeat adj.乐观的，积极向上的 n.弱拍；上升，兴旺
    censor n.检查员；潜意识压抑力；信件检查员 v.省察，检查
    jarringly 刺耳的；不和谐的
    plot n. 情节；图表；阴谋；（专用的）小块土地 vt. 密谋；绘图；划分；标绘 vi. 密谋；策划；绘制
    trade-offs n.权衡；交易；物物交换
    outlets n.出路；销售点；排水口；电源插座；批发商点

    Censorship-wise, it helps that the drama unfolds over the course of a sweltering summer about 20 years ago, so that scenes showing violent gangsters and loan sharks do not reflect on today’s leaders. Indeed, it is possible to enjoy the show for its nostalgic recreation of a simpler China where childhood friends might spend a hot night climbing rooftops or sharing lurid soft drinks from glass bottles, rather than sitting in lonely silence as many might now, gazing at smartphone screens. Some compromises are easy to spot. Notably, the show depicts small-town policemen as kindly paragons, bringing justice and comfort to the people of Ningzhou, the fictional port where the killer works as a maths teacher. Historians of corruption remember the era differently.
    词汇
    Censorship-wise 审查制度
    unfold vt. 打开；呈现 vi. 展开；显露
    sweltering adj. 闷热的；热得难受的
    gangsters n. 歹徒，流氓；恶棍
    loan n. 贷款；借款 vi. 借出 vt. 借；借给
    nostalgic adj.怀旧的；乡愁的、
    rooftop n.屋顶 adj.屋顶上的
    lurid adj. 可怕的，耸人听闻的；火烧似的；苍白的；血红的；华丽而庸俗的
    gazing at 注视着
    compromises 妥协；和解；折中
    notably adv.显著地；尤其
    depict vt.描述；描画
    fictional adj.虚构的；小说的

    The drama is adapted from a novel by Zijin Chen, a dark study of evil, both adult and juvenile. The screen version, made by iQiyi, a Netflix-like streaming video company, depicts its three young heroes as mostly well-intentioned rebels, one of whom is tempted by evil. The other two speak with a moral clarity that eludes many adults in the show. Repeatedly, the murderous teacher plays on the power of education to change lives in China. He distracts a suspicious policeman with advice about his daughter’s maths grades, and offers free tutoring to the children who have rumbled him. His youngest tormentor, a sweet-natured girl known as Pupu, sternly replies: “Is school where you learned to kill people?”
    词汇

    In the book, the children are angry victims of adult betrayal, ranging from sexual abuse to being disowned by a divorced father. Two youths in the novel are the children of murderers, executed by the state. The television drama offers a nuanced view of parenthood. Viewers see the flaws of a mother whom society might call a model parent, pushing her clever son to study until his bedroom is filled with academic trophies. He will have time for friends once he has a good job, the mother snaps at a teacher concerned by her son’s loneliness. Yet that mother is scared, not wicked. Divorced from a cheating husband, she sees education as a way to armour her son against a harsh world. “Promise you will be safe,” she tells her child. They are the most loving words she utters.
    词汇

    One question comes up time and again: what does it mean to be good? Scenes of supposed hospitality—banquets at which the young are handed cash in red envelopes, or junior family members are bullied to drink alcohol—are exposed as cold and empty. “A man without ambition isn’t a man,” the maths teacher is told at a dinner, as in-laws dissect his career prospects. The drama challenges the idea that respectability and virtue are earned by fulfilling the family, social and professional obligations that cost ordinary Chinese so much time and agony.
    词汇

    Even the law offers little help in defining virtue. “Whether your dad is a good or a bad person is decided by a judge, not by you or me,” a gruff policeman tells Yan Liang, a prisoner’s child. He is proved wrong when Yan Liang’s father, a gangster sent to a mental hospital with drug-induced brain damage, redeems himself with a fleeting, almost miraculous proof of love for his son.
    词汇

    Several characters gain moral authority through such private yet sincere acts of affection. Viewers mostly respect a police captain because they see his sweet, bantering-yet-supportive relationship with his daughter, not because he has stars on his epaulettes. Yan Liang, a ragged teenage runaway, steals a blanket for Pupu and agonises aloud about following his father into criminality. When put to a life-and- death test, though, he does the right thing. “I didn’t become a bad person,” he gasps with relief to the gruff policeman who has become a mentor. It is a moving moment. The censors’ hand can be felt soon afterwards, when Yan Liang abruptly declares an ambition to join the police as an adult.
    词汇

    Devoted fans, including a Chinese-Canadian blogger about television who uses the name Avenuex, suggest that attentive viewers can see alternative endings hidden among the uplifting patriotism. Notably, Avenuex points to clues that several characters die before the drama ends and should now be understood as ghosts, visible only to those who care for them. Her arguments are plausible, though the film- makers have rejected such theories.
    词汇

    Truth is a slippery concept in “The Bad Kids”. Many lies are told, sometimes for selfish reasons, but also for fear of losing something precious. Truth-telling is at its most admirable when offered as an act of love, for instance by a child who cannot bear the loneliness of deceiving a parent for ever. This is a messy moral code, far from the tidy, flag-waving pieties favoured by party chiefs. The show’s popularity is cheering. In a China that rings with the din of patronising, bossy propaganda, viewers crave a bit of messiness.
    词汇