“
Life is but a dream，人生如梦。
但现代社会，人生不再是梦，而是戏。
层出不穷的社交软件到底是拉近了人与人的距离，还是搭起了一个个表演舞台？
”
Life is but a stream
LAST YEAR ZHAO XINLONG, aged 25, and his wife and baby boy moved from his parents’ farm into a mid-rise apartment in town. It has been a tough adjustment. Luan County is a rustbelt community on the polluted outskirts of the steel city of Tangshan in north-east China. Mr Zhao’s monthly income from driving a taxi has plummeted by more than half in the past couple of years, and he has not found it easy to make friends in his new abode.
Stream ：河流，这里表示流量，或者依托互联网来传递的视频之类的。
mid-rise ：中层的。记得上次说东莞说的gleaming low-rise factory吗？当时我们说low-rise是低层，还说了高层是high-rise。所以mid-rise就是中层。记住，以后遇到高层写字楼，可以神轻气淡的说：a high-rise office building，而不要再很low地说a very tall building。
Tough ：艰难。某人很难搞，也可以用tough这个词：He is a tough guy。
Rustbelt ：组合词，rust生锈的，rustbelt就是衰退地区。
Outskirts ：郊区，比如kelly lives on the outskirts of Beijing.
monthly income ：月收入
Plummet ：to drop sharply and abruptly 比如prices plummeted，收入下降income plummeted或者收视率下降：The TV show has plummeted in the ratings.
赵新龙，年龄25，带着自己的妻子和孩子，从村里搬到了城里。这是一个痛苦的适应过程。滦县是一个比较破败的社区，在钢铁之城唐山城的严重污染的市郊。而在过去两年，赵新龙靠开出租车赚到的月收入已经骤减了一半多，而要在新的住处结交朋友也并不容易。
读完第一段，感觉就在讲一个人的故事：大意就是生活很糟糕。搬家了，搬去的地方破败，收入下降了一半，还没有朋友，从各个纬度都在营造一个非常糟糕的场景。而生活非常非常糟糕的时候，其实在暗示：他将要去作出改变了。我们来看看第二段是否会讲改变。
But when he gets online in the evening, he becomes a different person: Zhao Long’er, an entertainer. Using Kuaishou, a Chinese video-sharing and live-streaming app, he broadcasts to a live audience of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of fellow Chinese every night. Taken together, they add up to more than 100,000. Many of them are diaosi, people who mockingly identify themselves as losers in dead-end jobs. Online he can relate to them, telling them stories, dirty jokes, whatever is on his mind.
take together和add up可以同义替换，都表示“加起来”。
mockingly identify themselves as ：自嘲。比如：he mockingly identifies himself as 屌丝。他自嘲自己是屌丝。
Dead-end ：死胡同，dead-end job无前途的工作。
Relate ：与……相关。这个词特别特别好。比如， 常常我们在电视上有人紧握着亲人留给自己的东西，即使丢掉生命也不愿意丢掉东西，就是因为那个东西可以让他feel related to someone。
dirty jokes ：黄段子。我们平常说的段子一般都是笑话jokes。
但是，一上网，他就变了，变成了一个娱乐大众的表演者（用今天的话说就是个网红），网名叫赵龙儿。每天晚上，他都用一个叫做快手的视频分享和直播app，来向上千有时候上万的中国同胞直播。
快手，大家听过吗？很多人听过斗鱼，听过映客，但是没听过快手，介绍一下快手的来头：快手的受众是三四线城市和农村人，上面各种人都属于那种可以直播活吃一头牛的类型，目前受众已经4亿了。1个星期前，腾讯投资了快手3.5亿美金。 在我大清华东门附近有一个high-rise office building named 快手。对，没错人家有一栋楼！而且是high-rise office building 哦！
创始人叫宿华，农民市场做的这么好，这人肯定很low吧？然而，这位大哥，毕业于前面我提到的那个大学，清华，以前在我大Google工作的。所以非但不low，还很高大上。
继续往下，下一句讲赵龙儿的粉丝数量了，加起来有10万那么多。其中许多人都是屌丝，就是自嘲自己没什么前途的人。 在线啊，他就可以跟粉丝互动啦，讲故事，黄段子，想到啥说啥。
第一段将赵先生生活特别艰难，收入减半，第二段一上来就告诉我们美好的事情发生了，但是这美好的事情美好到什么程度没有说啊，一般不得和艰难的生活对比对比让我们吃瓜群众更加直观的体会一下嘛，期待第三段可以把美好的程度再说清楚明白一些。
Occasionally advertisers pay him small sums to put commercials out over his stream, including things like weight loss products and “gold” jewellery from
Vietnam. Most of his followers are also from north-east China. They chat with him online and sometimes give him digital stickers representing things like a beer that fans buy online and can be converted into cash. The individual amounts are usually small, but they add up. Live-streaming his life earns Mr Zhao about $850 a month, twice as much as his day job.
Occasionally ：偶尔; 偶然; 有时候; We all overindulge occasionally. 我们偶尔都会放纵一下自己。
small sums ：一些小钱。例句：John, the well-known millionaire, was very mean about small sums of money.约翰，众所周知百万富翁，对于小钱非常吝啬的。
Commercials ：商业广告。
The idea that we can be whatever we want has become the stuff of television commercials.
每个人皆无所不能，这一理念已经成为电视广告的精髓。
从词源的角度来看，commercial 强调广告的商业属性，是一种明确的利益交换，用金钱换取知名度。而 advertisement 的本意更强调其传播属性，指广而告之、宣布、发布等。
Followers ：粉丝，follow在社交领域，意思是关注。比如 “我关注的大咖们”可以直接说：big shots I follow。比如你可以说：李笑来 is a big shot I follow！笑来是我关注的大咖
偶尔广告商会付些小钱把广告放在他的直播上，比如减肥产品和越南“金”珠宝。大多数他的粉丝也来自中国东北。粉丝和他在线聊天，并且给他象征啤酒的虚拟贴纸，这些虚拟贴纸可以兑换成现金。单个金额很小，但是累加起来还可以。赵新龙的直播能挣850美元一个月。这差不多是他每天工作收入的2倍。
果然，不出所料，第三段特别明白的告诉我们，美好的事情，美好到什么程度呢，带来的收入是专职工作的两倍。到此，第一部分结束，一个赵龙儿的故事，必须要上升到千千万万个赵龙儿的层面嘛，也就是该上升到行业层面了
Twinkle, twinkle, little stars
The internet has amplified people’s interest in the world’s biggest stars, helping their fans feel a little closer to them, thanks to social media. But it has also made it possible for anybody to become a little star in their own corner of the universe, connecting intimately with subsets of fans. In much of the rest of the world the most popular of these are teen idols on YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. Most people over 25 would struggle to name a YouTube star other than possibly Pew Die Pie, a Swedish gamer with a global following of more than 50m.
Twinkle, twinkle, little stars ：一闪一闪亮晶晶
feel closer to… = feel related to sb写作时可以同义替换，都表示“感觉接近了……”。
their own corner of the universe ：茫茫宇宙中属于他们自己的角落
connecting intimately ：连接更加紧密。
with subsets of fans ：和各种粉丝。
teen idols ：青少年偶像
网络放大了人们对于大明星的追逐，社交媒体让他们的粉丝感觉与偶像距离更近了。但是也同样使得每个人都可能在茫茫宇宙中属于他们自己的角落里变成个小明星，和各种粉丝联系紧密。在中国之外的很多地方，最火的都是YouTube，Instagram和Snapchat上的青少年偶像。大多数25岁以上的人甚至很难说出一个除了Pew Die Pie之外的YouTube明星名字。
Pew Die Pie不是个pie，而是人。
（英语发音：/ˈpjuːdipaɪ/、PEW-dee-py）
菲利克斯·阿尔维德·乌尔夫·谢尔贝格，1989年10月24日生，瑞典籍的youtuber，专注于Let's Play的恐怖游戏与动作游戏。
他的频道是YouTube中，崛起速度最快的频道之一，在2013年，他的频道订阅人数由350万迅速爬升到1200万，于8月份PewDiePie成为在YouTube上最多人订阅的频道，虽然在2013年11及12月被YouTube官方的YouTube Spotlight频道超越，但在2014年1月份时，再次成为YouTube频道订阅数的第一名。截至2016年8月，他已经有超过4100万名订阅者。目前他已有超过5000万的订阅人数，平均每1.038秒就有一个订阅者。
第四段进入了第二部分，标题就从赵龙儿这个小明星扩大到了直播平台上的千千万万明星。全段在强调的意思也是互联网让普通人都可以在自己那旮沓成为明星了。比如魔力学院曾经的一个运营小实习生就是他们学校的网红，后来在互联网上因为写言情小说还爆火了一段时间，最后还上了一趟非诚勿扰。
China’s craze for personal live-streaming runs far deeper, into third-tier cities and remote rural areas where the internet is the one and only fun and cheap place to hang out. These personal broadcasts are not simply videos that fans watch, but more interactive experiences. The fans make requests, chat with their idols and give them virtual gifts. Many of those watching are small-time live-streamers themselves. They are turning each other into mass entertainment.
China’s craze ：中国的狂热，craze其实就是以前咱们学过的mania，还记不记得？川普是twitter mania，发推狂魔。
personal broadcasts= personal live-streaming ：个人直播
small-time ：小规模的，卑贱不足取的，三流的;
例句I am a small-time journalist on a small newspaper.
我只是一份小报的微不足道的记者。
而中国对个人直播的狂热比其他国家更深，已经深入到三线城市，甚至偏远的农村地区。在这些地方，互联网是唯一一个既便宜，又好玩，还可以四处闲逛的地方。这些个人直播不仅仅是看视频，还有更多互动。比如粉丝提要求，和偶像聊天，给他们送虚拟礼物。很多围观的人自己都是三流直播者。他们在把彼此变成大众娱乐。
第五段主要讲直播在中国已经深入到社会的各个角落了。真牛逼。那下一段是不是得展开讲讲这个牛逼得产业怎么个牛逼法啊？
It is a big and growing business. China’s live-streaming industry more than doubled in size last year, with revenues of around $3bn, according to Credit Suisse, a bank. More than 100 companies now offer the service, providing the platform for performers in exchange for a hefty cut of their earnings (one, YY, is publicly listed on NASDAQ, with $269m in gross revenues from live-streaming in the third quarter of last year, a year-on-year rise of more than
50%). That compares with box-office receipts for the Chinese film business, the world’s second-largest, of $7bn last year. Of the 710m people with internet connections in China, nearly half have used livestreaming apps.
is publicly listed on NASDAQ [ˈnæzdæk] ：纳斯达克上市
box-office ：票房
这是一个很大，增长很好的业务。去年，中国直播行业市场规模翻倍了, 收入差不多30亿美元。
超过100个公司提供直播服务，他们提供平台给直播者，并获得收入分成。括号中列举了其中一家公司：yy 这家已经在纳斯达克上市的公司，去年第三季度通过直播获得2.69亿美元毛营收，年增长率超过50%。这跟中国电影的票房收入有的一拼了。中国电影票房全球第二，去年收入70亿美金。最后说了一下直播的参与人数：中国现在有7.1亿的网民，其中有一半用过直播产品。
果然好市场！
Many in the audience are diaosi looking for free entertainment and sometimes a substitute for romance. Women outnumber men as live-streamers, but most of the audiences are male. The government has imposed guidelines aimed mostly at the seamier side of the business, like the erotic eating of bananas (now banned). The most successful live-streamers tend to be attractive young singers of either sex, who can sometimes muster millions of fans. The most popular of them earn more than $1m a year, almost all of it from virtual gifts, but most of them are lucky to see a few hundred dollars a month, broadcasting anything from eating meals to visual pranks to warbling tunes requested by fans. Mr Zhao laments that to boost his earnings, he has to tell more dirty jokes.
Substitute ：替代品，比如
The price of gasoline rises, making alcohol an attractive substitute.
Seamier side ：丑恶的一面。
Twilight zone ：灰色地带。
Virtual gifts其实也等价于前面提到的digital gifts，虚拟礼物。
Lament ：抱怨
很多观众都是屌丝，寻求免费娱乐，有时也把直播当作爱情的替代品。主播的女性数量超过男性，但是观众大部分是男性。政府已经出台了一些法规，靶子对准了直播业务丑恶的一面。最受欢迎的主播往往是年轻的歌手，不论性别，很容易聚集百万粉丝。其中最受欢迎的主播一年可以赚到100多万美元，几乎全部来自虚拟礼物。但是其余的主播一个月能有几百美元都算幸运呢。直播的内容则是千奇百怪：有的吃饭，有的搞怪，还有的按照粉丝的要求变换唱腔。赵先生抱怨说为了提升收入，他不得不多讲些黄段子。
第七段其实相当全面地讲了一下网红的状况，大网红赚翻了，但是其他的小网红也只能赚一点点。
Live-streaming emerged in China after the financial crisis of 2007-08, as internet companies with questionable business models looked for a way to survive. Six Rooms, or 6.cn, may have been the first to offer live-streaming as a service for a mass audience. It was one of numerous YouTube-like video-sharing businesses (YouTube itself is blocked in China) burning money in 2008 and failed to secure a new round of funding. In desperation its CEO and co-founder, Liu Yan, turned to live-streaming.
Emerge ：新兴的，比如新兴市场，我们可以直接说emerging market， China is an emerging market.
financial crisis ：金融危机。
第八段讲述直播业在中国是怎么发展起来的。直播业是在07-08金融危机后在中国发展起来的，是商业模式有问题的互联网公司在想办法生存中发展出来的。六间房是给大众提供直播服务的先驱。它曾经是众多效仿YouTube视频分享模式的中国视频网站之一。但是下一轮融资没有成功。绝望之下，其创始人转向直播。
In 2007 Mercedes-Benz, a carmaker, had paid 300,000 yuan ($39,000) to his site to live-stream an event, and his company had developed an inexpensive way to provide such a service on a wider scale to allow people to chat with each other and exchange virtual gifts. That helped make personal broadcasting a social game which could be monetised in a way not replicated on major social platforms of the West. In China, as well as in South Korea and Japan, where live-streaming has also caught on, virtual items have long had an underlying monetary value.
Underlying ：隐含的，潜在的。
第八段讲了直播的产生，第九段应该讲讲直播的发展了。
2007年，奔驰花费30万元人民币(3.9万美元)在他的网站上直播了一场活动，而他的公司也开发了一种价格低廉的方式来扩大服务规模，让人们可以在直播的同时彼此聊天，并交换虚拟礼物。这也帮助个人直播成为了一场具有中国特色的“社交游戏”，它独有的变现渠道无法复制到西方的主要社交平台上。在中国、韩国和日本这些近年来直播业务发展迅猛的地方，虚拟礼物很久之前就已经具备了隐含的货币价值。
这么棒的生意，发展到了什么状态，未来怎样，请看第十段分解！
Now that the business model has been proven, all the Chinese internet giants have entered the live-streaming business. Pioneers like YY and Six Rooms must compete with bigger social platforms like Tencent. Six Rooms was acquired by a Chinese entertainment conglomerate for close to $400m in 2015, but Mr Liu, 44, remains the CEO. He has been using machine learning to work out what kinds of live-streamers inspire the most devotion from fans and get the most virtual gifts, down to preferences for facial features, tone of voice and regional provenance. He plans to unveil an even more ambitious effort soon: hired performers whose traits are determined, and perhaps enhanced, by machine learning. At this rate, life on the long tail of entertainment may start getting more difficult for rustbelt dreamers.
proven business model和questionable business model是一对儿反义词。可行的商业模式和有问题的商业模式。
既然商业模式被验证了，互联网大亨就都进来了。像六间房和YY这样的先驱现在需要跟互联网巨头，比如腾讯来竞争。接下来继续在说六间房的状况，六间房2015年已经被宋城演艺斥资近4亿美元收购，但44岁的刘岩依然担任CEO。他们现在有新玩法：用机器学习算法来探索哪种类型的主播最受粉丝欢迎，获得的虚拟礼物最多。甚至还会对面部特征、语调以及所在省份等观众偏好展开分析。他近期还计划启动更有野心的计划：利用机器学习雇佣一些特征明确或者加强的表演者。按照这个趋势，原本就在娱乐业的“长尾”上艰难生存的人或许会越发明显地感受到生活的不易。
全文读完，我们总结一下：
这篇文章从一个小直播者出发，讲述了直播平台的过去和现在，顺便还展望了一下未来。直播是网络视频公司的一大创新，也是社交网络发展的必然趋势，直播造出了不少网红，在最初的红利期，很多普通人因此获利，但是随着商业目的越来越明确，直播平台必然也会选择能够给他们带来更多流量的直播者，普通人想成为网红的机会将会越来越少，而人造网红公司也许又会成为一大新兴产业。
英文原文：
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/
讲解：霞姐 / Tiassa / 魔力校花
编排 / 校对：魔力校花
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