With diners gathered around cauldrons of boiling soup, dropping meat and vegetables into the broth, hot pot is a quintessentially communal Chinese dish. But the country’s dominant chain has a new weapon to attract single diners: stuffed bears.
食客们簇拥在一锅热汤旁，将荤素菜肴放在底料中煮熟，火锅已经公认成为中国美食的精华。但是中国的火锅连锁巨头有了一种新手段去吸引单身食客用餐：毛绒熊。

The introduction of large plush toys to accompany solo diners in the 200 outlets of the Haidilao chain highlights the efforts of businesses in China to take advantage of a demographic shift creating a rising number of single consumers.
200家海底捞火锅店用毛绒玩具陪伴单身食客用餐，这凸显了中国人口结构变化已催生出众多单身食客，商家纷纷努力抓住这种变化带来的商机。

“They help people feel less lonely,” said Wang Ping, a waitress at a Haidilao in Shanghai, suggesting the Financial Times choose between a large teddy bear and a stuffed yellow chicken.
上海海底捞店的服务生王萍（音）说：“他们可以减轻人们的孤独感”，并向《金融时报》透露顾客可以在大泰迪熊和黄色毛绒鸡中任选其一。

China’s population of adults living alone has grown 16 percent since 2012 to reach 77m, according to government statistics compiled by consultancy Euromonitor. By 2021, the number is set to rise to 92m.
据欧睿咨询公司汇编的官方数据显示，2012年以来，中国独自生活的成年人已增多16%，达到7700万，且有望在2021年增至9200万。

The shift is driven by a trend towards later marriage in China, led by prosperous cities. In Shanghai, the average first marriage age for women has reached 30, up from 27 in 2011. Marriages are also shorter due to a doubling of the divorce rate in the past decade.
中国人的晚婚趋势导致了这种人口变化，这一趋势在繁荣的城市尤为突出。在上海，女性首婚平均年龄从2011年的27岁增至30岁。由于过去十年中国的离婚率增加了一倍，所以婚姻持续的时间也相对减少。

16 percent of China’s urban population now lives alone, according to the Boston Consulting Group.
波士顿咨询集团数据显示，如今中国16%的城市人口独自一人生活。

“The trend is accompanied by a profound change in people’s perceptions of remaining single: the concept is no longer stigmatised,” the group said in a recent report, meaning singles “dine, travel and pursue activities by themselves”.
波士顿集团在最近的报告中说：“这种趋势还伴随着人们对于保持单身的观念的巨大改变，单身观念不再受鄙夷。”这也意味着单身人士会“自己就餐、自己旅游、自己从事各种活动”。

Companies have responded to the trend, which mirrors demographic shifts already experienced by China’s east Asian neighbours South Korea and Japan. Japanese chain Muji has introduced smaller rice cookers, ovens and kettles aimed at Chinese singles.
商家们也已经对这种已在东亚邻国日本和韩国出现的人口变化趋势做出反应。日本连锁店无印良品专为中国单身人士推出更小的电饭煲、烤箱和水壶。

Alibaba created Singles Day each November 11 as a celebration of the unattached lifestyle. It is now an annual consumer juggernaut, racking up Rmb120.7bn of sales in China in one day last year.
阿里巴巴将每年的十一月十一日定为双十一购物节，来庆祝单身生活，现已成为一年一度的消费盛宴，去年单日销售额高达1207亿元人民币。

Asked on what they would most like to spend their time, China’s singles chose watching films online and travelling “to make their plain and mundane lives more exciting”, according to a recent report by consultancy Mintel. They are “less likely to travel for the connection with their family or shopping compared to married people”, preferring sightseeing and experiencing local culture, the report adds.
英敏特咨询公司近期报道显示，当被问及最喜欢如何度过闲暇时光时，中国的单身人士选择在线看电影或者旅行，“使其简单平凡的生活更让人兴奋”。报告补充道，与已婚人士相比，他们不太可能会和家人一起“走亲戚”或者购物，而更喜欢观光和体验当地文化。

Food delivery services have benefited from the trend. The sector saw 44 percent sales growth in China last year, according to consultancy Bain. Yang Gengshen, a spokesman for Ele.me, one of China’s largest delivery services, which reported sales growth of 127 percent in the first half of this year, said: “In my experience, very few single people are willing to cook for themselves.”
食品外卖行业也受益于这种单身趋势。贝恩公司的数据显示，去年中国食品外卖行业销售额增长44%。中国最大的外卖服务业饿了么，今年上半年销售额增加了127%，其发言人杨耿申（音）说：“以我的经验来说，很少一部分的单身人士会自己做饭。”

Meituan-Dianping, a restaurant review and food delivery company, said 65 percent of its orders came from unmarried customers, with fast food the most popular order for single consumers.
美团点评是一家餐厅点评和提供食品外卖服务的公司，该公司表示其订单中65%来自未婚人士，其中快餐是单身人士最喜欢订购的食物。

“Single are the most important group of customers for us,” said Wang Pu Zhong, general manager of Meituan’s on-demand delivery service. “Chinese food is quite complicated . . . it takes a lot of time, so single people will think it is a waste of time compared to ordering take-out,” he added.
“单身人士对于我们来说是最重要的消费人群”，美团外卖经理王莆中说道。他还补充说“中式菜肴做起来十分复杂…需要耗费大量时间，所以单身人士认为，订外卖要方便的多。”

Single eaters are a common sight in fast food restaurants and convenience stores, but more upscale restaurants have found it hard to attract singles because of a continued stigma about dining alone. “We only get a few single customers each day,” said Ms Wang, the waitress.
在快餐店和便利店中，单身食客随处可见，但相对高档的餐厅很难见到他们的身影，因为一个人吃饭仍会受到异样的眼光。服务生王女士说：“我们一天仅有几个单身顾客来用餐。”

Shanghai singleton Chen Nie, 23, experienced a gamut of emotions when offered a teddy bear at Haidilao. “I was shocked at first. Then I felt warm,” she said. “But in the end I felt awkward because it reminded me of the fact that I’m single.”
上海的一名23岁单身人士陈聂（音），在吃海底捞时身旁有一只泰迪熊陪着她，但是她的情绪跌宕起伏，“刚开始我很吃惊，随后我感觉很温暖”，她说。“但是最后我觉得很尴尬，因为这提醒着我实际上我是一个人。”