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In Western culture, 21 was the age at which young people traditionally received a key to their parents’ door, as a symbol of entering adulthood.
在西方傳統文化中，年輕人到了21歲便可獲得進入父母房間的鑰匙，象征著他們開始進入成人世界。
Now, the age of 21 is a time when people ask themselves: where do I go from here?
如今，很多步入21歲的人都會自問：“我要去向哪里？”
Jiang Fangzhou’s 21 years have been filled with the kind of success most young people wouldn’t dare hope for in a lifetime. She published her first book at the age of nine and has written many more since then.
蔣方舟21年的成長歷程里取得的成功，是大多數年輕人一輩子都不敢奢求的。9歲時便出版自己的處女作，此后又發表了大量作品。
She is regarded as a spokesperson for her generation. However, her hopes and concerns for the future appear decidedly normal.
蔣方舟被認為是同齡人的代言人。而她對未來流露出的希望和擔心，也與一般人并無二致。
Not that Jiang herself sees it that way. The pressures that she feels as a 21-year-old are fairly abstract, while the worries of her peers are more to do with practical issues.
并不單單只有蔣方舟如此憂心忡忡，其他21歲年輕人也有類似的問題，不同點在于，她面臨一種無形的壓力，而她的同輩們擔心的是一些現實問題。
She explains that while her fellow students are chiefly concerned with getting a job or buying an apartment, she frets over how she can excel in her work despite having little experience of the world.
她解釋道，身邊的同伴們都關心求職和買房問題，而她所煩惱的則是，如何在社會經驗有限的基礎上，在寫作之路上再創佳績。
“Over the past 10 years what I lacked was not skills, but the ability to perceive society,” says Jiang. “Having lived in China for so long, I’m worried many of my values are not objective anymore. They might have been *assimilated, or compromised, by my surroundings.”
“在過去10年里，我缺乏的不是技能，而是洞悉社會的能力，”蔣方舟說，“在中國生活了這么長時間，我擔心自己的許多價值觀受周圍事物同化或影響，不再像原來那樣客觀。”
However, Jiang, now a senior at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, notes that her peers face intense pressure and competition at school. They are expected to excel in their field of study despite limited experience, just as Jiang is expected to shine in the literary world.
蔣方舟現在是清華大學新聞與傳播學院大四年級的學生，她表示，在學校，同學們承受巨大的壓力，面臨激烈的競爭，正如蔣方舟希望在文學界再有所建樹一樣，他們也期待著在經驗缺乏的前提下，在學業上取得突破。
Although Jiang believes this level of pressure means young people in China have never “*reveled, been *hippies or lived a bohemian lifestyle”, she notes that young Chinese live in an exciting time; in an era in which social transformation is occurring and in which “possibilities arise and roll on with full force”.
蔣方舟認為，雖然這種壓力意味著中國的年輕人無法過著狂歡尋樂、我行我素或者放蕩不羈的生活。但他們生活在一個激動人心和社會變革的時代，任何機會的出現都有可能改變命運。
