Chinese family planning officials revealed on Thursday that they are looking into whether celebrated film director Zhang Yimou violated the country's one-child rule, prompting a froth of conflicted commentary online as Internet users struggled to balance frustrations with population control against disdain for the privileges enjoyed by the wealthy.
中国计划生育官员周四披露，他们正调查知名电影导演张艺谋是否违反了本国的计划生育政策，由此引发网友莫衷一是的评论。有人对中国人口控制的做法表示失望，也有人对富人享受特权予以鄙视。
Mr. Zhang, celebrated internationally for films like 1991's 'Raise the Red Lantern' and 1994's 'To Live,' is being investigated by the family planning committee in the city of Wuxi, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. Wuxi is where Mr. Zhang's current wife lives, according to Xinhua.
张艺谋因1991年的影片《大红灯笼高高挂》和1994年的《活着》等佳作而在国际上享有盛名。中国官方媒体新华社周四报道说，江苏省无锡市人口和计划生育委员会正在调查张艺谋。据新华社报道，张艺谋的现任妻子住在无锡。
The brief Xinhua article followed local media reports, which China Real Time has been unable to confirm, quoting Wuxi officials as saying the 61-year-old director may have as many as seven children and could face fines as high as 160 million yuan ($26 million).
这则简短的新华社文章发表前曾有多篇地方媒体报道，“中国实时报”栏目一直无法证实那些报道。文章援引无锡官员的话说，这位现年61岁的导演可能有七个子女，或将面临最高人民币1.6亿元的罚款。
An official with the Jiangsu provincial family planning commission confirmed that Mr. Zhang was under investigation and said it was ongoing but gave no other details. 'We don't know yet how we will deal with it, if it turns out to be true,' said the official, who gave only his surname, Li.
江苏省人口计生委一位官员证实，张艺谋接受了调查，并说调查还在进行中，此外没有透露其它细节。这位李姓官员说，如果情况属实，我们还不知道要怎么处理。
Calls to Mr. Zhang's assistant rang unanswered on Thursday.
周四记者打给张艺谋助手的电话无人接听。
News of the investigation comes at awkward time for the China's family planning authorities. Beijing officially continues to defend the one-child policy, saying it has prevented 400 million births and helped lift the country out of poverty. But public anger over forced late-term abortions, anxiety over gender imbalances and shifting demographics have prompted increasing calls for the policy to be scrapped, or at least relaxed.
调查张艺谋的消息出现在对中国计划生育部门来说颇为尴尬的时候。中国官方仍在为独生子女政策辩护，说该政策令中国少生了4亿人口，帮助国家脱了贫。但民众对于妊娠晚期强制堕胎的愤怒和对性别比例失衡及人口结构变化的焦虑促使越来越多的人们呼吁，废除或至少放松这一政策。
Shifting attitudes toward the one-child rule were evident online Thursday, as a number of Internet users rushed to defend Mr. Zhang.
人们对于一胎政策态度的转变周四在网上显而易见，很多网友纷纷为张艺谋说话。
'I applaud Zhang Yimou for having more than one child,' wrote one user of the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service. 'Having children is a right bestowed on man by Heaven.'
新浪微博的一位用户写道，张艺谋生了不止一个孩子，我鼓掌欢迎，生孩子是天赋人权。
'So quick to investigate this kind of thing -- why don't you jump to investigate all those other problems?' wrote another.
另一位网友写道，这种事调查得这么快，你们怎么不跑去查其它那些问题？
Yet for critics of China's family planning policy, Mr. Zhang is not exactly an ideal champion. Though once admired in art circles as a defiant figure unafraid of irritating censors, he has since moved into the mainstream -- so much so that he was tapped to direct the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics -- and is now widely considered to be a part of the establishment elite.
然而，对中国计划生育政策的批评者来说，张艺谋并非一个完美的支持者。尽管在艺术领域曾经被尊崇为一个不畏惧恼人审查机构的桀骜不驯的人物，张艺谋后来已经融入主旋律，他甚至被任命为2008年北京奥运会开幕式的总导演。现在，外界普遍认为张艺谋是体制内精英中的一员。
The wealthy and powerful in China often find it easy to skirt the one-child rule by simply paying fines -- a phenomenon that has been cause for widespread resentment and calls for the rule to be more rigidly enforced.
中国的权贵阶层常常可以通过交罚款轻松摆脱独生子女政策的限制，这一现象已经引发了普遍不满以及对更严格执行该政策的广泛呼吁。
'Rich people can have as many kids as they want? Having more than one is illegal, but pay a fine and suddenly it's legal,' poet Chen Xuelin wrote on Sina Weibo. 'Rich people's money is their own, but social resources belong to the masses. Who gave rich people the right to dominate public resources?'
诗人陈学林在新浪微博上写道，富人可以随意超生？本来超生违法，但交了罚款就合法了……钱虽然是他们自己的，社会资源确是公众的，是谁给了他们挤占公共资源的权利？
Mixed reactions to news of the investigation to a large extent mirror mixed signals from the government on the future of the one-child policy. In March, Beijing stripped power from the National Population and Family Planning Commission and folded it into the Ministry of Health -- a move that suggested reforms were in the offing. Yet the central government has continued to insist that the policy will remain in place.
对张艺谋超生进行调查的消息引发的反应各有不同，这很大程度上折射出了政府在一胎政策的未来方面释放出的不同信号。今年3月，中国政府将国家人口和计划生育委员与卫生部合并，此举意味着改革正在酝酿之中。然而中央政府随后又说，计划生育政策将继续存在。
Reform advocates remain optimistic that major change is coming, arguing that the government needs time to overcome resistance from bureaucrats with a vested interest in maintaining the family planning machinery.
改革的支持者仍然相信重大变化即将出现，他们认为，政府需要时间战胜来自一些官员的阻力，这些官员在保留计划生育政策的做法中存在既得利益。
In a certain sense, the brouhaha over Mr. Zhang may help their cause by highlighting the political costs of maintaining a policy that seems to lead to frustration all around.
从某种意义上说，张艺谋超生调查引发的关注可能会有助于废除计生政策，因为这件事凸显了继续实施一项明显会引起各方不满的政策的政治成本。
'Surprising that some people are praising the investigation. You curse family planning, then turn around and say others should be fined -- isn't that an inherent contradiction?' wrote newspaper commentator Zhao Jicheng. 'You've been a eunuch so long, you can't stand virility?'
报纸评论员赵继成说：竟然有人为调查叫好。一边骂计生，一边希望罚别人，劣根性？太监久了，见不得勃起？