Not everyone is a believer. Russ Crupnick, president of analyst firm NPD's music division, said, "To me, the genius of [Apple] Genius -- if you'll forgive me -- is that I get things that look sensible. Then I have an opportunity to add things to my library, and the business application is obvious: that the average downloader who pays for things only gets maybe 25 tracks in a year. Here's an opportunity, each time I'm going through my library, that I can go 'oh, there's something [I want.]'"

并非每个人都相信这一点。分析机构NPD音乐分部主席Russ Crupnick说：“对我而言，[苹果]Genius的天才——请原谅——就是我得到了看起来明智的选择。我有机会用它为我的媒体库添加新歌；而且，其商业应用显而易见：普通付费下载用户一年仅购买约25首歌。这儿存在机遇。每次我浏览我的媒体库时，都希望有这样的感觉：‘哦，这正是我想要的音乐。’”

Nonetheless, Crupnick concedes that as the competition to serve mission-critical music recommendations heats up, services like Amazon or iTunes could find Mufin's occasionally non-sensible associations worth at least integrating into their existing recommendation systems. Mufin runs on algorithms and ignores metadata, so it can work faster than Pandora whose humans require about a month to analyze 13,000 songs, or Apple Genius, which must wait for its community to weigh in on releases before its collaborative filter makes sense. Mufin's cold, calculating, scalable music analysis could inject fresh, nimble recommendations into those applications.

尽管如此，Crupnick承认，由于提供关键音乐推荐服务的竞争不断升温，Amazon和iTunes等服务商可能会发现Mufin“偶然的、非理性的”合作价值，至少可以将其集成入他们当前的推荐系统中。Mufin基于算法运行并忽略元数据，因而比Pandora运行地更快。Pandora人工分析1300首歌需要1个月，Apple Genius则必须在协同处理技术发挥作用前，耐心等待其自身的分析团队对发布的音乐先过一遍。Mufin不带感情、计算性的、可扩展的音乐分析能够为这些应用注入新鲜而敏捷的推荐结果。

After more than six years of development, Mufin is slated for a November public release. However, the site also functions as a demonstration to potential partners such as iTunes, Amazon and the rest. If they like what they see, your next record clerk could be a robot -- or at the very least, a cyborg.

经过6年多的开发，Mufin终成正果，预计于11月公开发布。其实，该网站也是针对其潜在客户iTunes、Amazon等的功能展示。若Mufin获得了这些潜在客户的青睐，那么你的下一个音乐助理可能是机器人——或者，至少是半个机器人。

Since then, AudioID has formed the basis of Magix Mufin MusicFinder, a $20 downloadable app that helps users find "sound-alike" music on their own computers. It's taken Mufin about a year and a half to apply the same process to the nearly four million of tracks on the Mufin website -- and potentially on Amazon, iTunes and beyond, assuming these potential partners see value in these automated recommendations.

从那时起，AudioID已成为构建Magix Mufin MusicFinder的基础。Magix Mufin MusicFinder是一个价值20美元的可下载应用程序，帮助用户在其个人电脑中寻找“听起来很像”的音乐。Mufin耗时一年半，将同样的音乐分析程序应用于Mufin站点上约400万首音乐——这项工作也是潜在地为Amazon、iTunes和beyond进行的，假如这些潜在客户看到自动推荐的价值的话。

Mufin's creators still have work ahead of them. Even after all of this tweaking to help the computers understand how we hear music, its algorithms return some pretty far-out results. The site told us that the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" sounded like "Dirty Love" by Tim Feehan, Edo Zanki's "Wie Ein Feuer" and Rafael, Joe und Die Partysingers' "Freudenspender."

Mufin发明者还有领先于这些潜在客户的拿手绝活。为了帮助计算机理解我们是如何听音乐的，Mufin算法经历了种种调整；在完成这些调整后，Mufin算法为我们带来一些相当酷的回报：Mufin网站告诉我们，披头士（Beatles）的“Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band”听起来像Tim Feehan的“Dirty Love”、Edo Zanki的“Wie Ein Feuer”，还有Rafael、Joe und Die Partysingers的“Freudenspender”。

Meanwhile, a live version of Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" sounded like an unknown artist's version of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," Pat Travers' "Suburban Blues" and Frank Sinatra's "Don' Chago' Way Mad," among others (see screenshot). Listening to the tracks, I could understand where Mufin's algorithms are coming from, but theirs are clearly not obvious choices.

还有，滚石（Rolling Stones）现场版“You Can't Always Get What You Want”听起来像未知歌手的“Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”、Pat Travers的“Suburban Blues”和Frank Sinatra的“Don' Chago' Way Mad”，还有其它（参见截屏图片）。听着这些推荐音乐，我也许能理解Mufin的算法从何而来，但其推荐结果显然并非明显的选择——它们让人困惑。

"[Mufin] doesn't take into account time, era, genre or anything like that, so sometimes people go there and say 'the recommendations are strange' or 'those don't fit my taste,'" said Djekic, "but you always have to keep in mind whether the [results are] similar musically or not."

“[Mufin]不考虑时间、时代、流派或其它如此之类的属性，因而有时去那儿的人们会说‘推荐的歌曲很奇怪’或‘它们不合我口味’”，Djekic说，“但是，你总会对这些推荐结果是否具有音乐相似性留下印象。”

So, did these search results sound similar to my Beatles and Stones selections? It was hard to say, because many of the songs on Mufin still lack 30-second previews during this beta stage, and I was only able to find one elsewhere on the net in the five minutes I allotted myself: Jose Feliciano's cover of Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting," a saccherine number that haunts dentistries across the land.

那么，这些搜索结果是否听起来像“我的披头士”或“滚石精选集”？这很难说。因为Mufin仍处于beta阶段，很多歌曲尚未加上30秒试听。我给自己限定5分钟，在此时间内我在别的网站仅找到一首与滚石的“You Can't Always Get What You Want”具有相似性的结果：Jose Feliciano翻唱Richard Marx的“Right Here Waiting”，一首常常回旋于整个大陆牙科的糖精般甜蜜的曲子。

That song admittedly shares characteristics with the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" -- both have a lax tempo, slow chord changes and a male singer. But the songs have different overall vibes from a human point of view. It could be that computers are better at compressing audio than they are at understanding music.

诚然，这两首歌拥有类似之处：节奏轻松、和弦进行缓慢、男歌手。但从人类的观点看，它们的整体感觉完全不同。也许可以说，计算机在音乐理解方面的表现与其在音频压缩方面相比，实在差强人意。

Djekic maintains that Mufin's recommendations make sense, and that the site picks up on real similarities that traditional recommendation engines miss. "It's really difficult to put together similar artists for David Bowie, because he has such a great diversity of music that he has been doing," explained Djekic. "This is why Mufin is purely song-based. You can have a song that is similar to another, but an album that is similar to another? Or an artist that is similar? It's really kind of difficult." By ignoring that data, Djekic said, Mufin's recommendations are more accurate.

Djekic坚持认为Mufin的推荐是有意义的，该站点捡起了传统推荐引擎遗漏的真正的相似性。“将相似的歌手放在一起，这对David Bowie这样的歌手来说确实很难，因为他做的音乐非常具有多样性，”Djekic解释道。“这就是Mufin为何纯粹基于歌曲的原因。你能找到相似的歌曲，但你能找到相似的专辑吗？能找到相似的歌手吗？这真地很难。”Djekic说，通过忽视那些与真正的相似性无关的数据，Mufin的推荐结果更为准确。

'Father of the MP3' Teaches Machines to Parse Music

“MP3之父”教机器分析音乐

Mufin, the latest music-recommendation engine, is going to tell you what to listen to, and it doesn't care what you think.

Mufin——最新的音乐推荐引擎，将会告诉你可以听什么，而并不关心你在想什么。

Computers have been telling us what to listen to for years -- at least since Amazon first told us that if we like X, we might like Y. But humans always have a hand in those recommendations: Pandora hires music experts, while Apple's Genius and CBS's Last.fm use collaborative filtering that notices when songs, artists or albums appear in the same collections.

亚马逊（Amazon）破天荒地告诉我们：如果我们喜欢X，那么也可能喜欢Y。至少从那时起，计算机成年累月地向我们推荐可以听的内容。但是，这种推荐中总有人类参与：Pandora聘请音乐专家；苹果（Apple）Genius和哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）的Last.fm则采用协同过滤技术（collaborative filtering），这种技术基于用户的收藏，向用户推荐具有歌曲、歌手或专辑相似性的音乐。

On the other hand Mufin -- the core of which was developed by a team run by "father of the MP3" Karlheinz Brandenburg (pictured) -- ignores artist, album, genre and the other music people have in their collections and recommend songs based solely on raw computational analysis. The site recently launched as a private beta with nearly four million tracks. The results are intriguing -- but not always what you might expect due to the rational nature of these algorithms, which dispenses with all notions of style. or trendiness.

而Mufin，则基于独立的、原汁原味的计算机分析来推荐音乐，对用户收藏中的歌手、专辑、流派和其它音乐均漠不关心。Mufin的核心技术由MP3之父——Karlheinz Brandenburg（如图）领导的团队开发而成。Mufin站点近期发布了个人beta版，拥有近400万首音乐。这样的成果令人兴味盎然。然而由于Mufin算法与所有的风格概念和流行趋势均毫不相干的理性本质，推荐结果可能并非尽如人意。

"There are tons of music sites out there, but as far as I know, we're the only one that depends on a fully automatic recommendation engine," said Petar Djekic, Mufin's head of marketing. Mufin's audio analysis engine finds music's sonic siblings based on 40 attributes per song including percussion, style, speech, sound density, vocals, tempo, sound color, instruments, volume, dynamics and loudness. Other attributes are at play here too, but Djekic says they cannot be expressed as mathematical manifestations of musical concepts because they consist of statistical elements gleaned from humans' reactions to certain music.

“音乐网站到处都是，但据我所知，我们是唯一的、基于完全自动推荐引擎的站点。”Mufin市场负责人Petar Djekic说。Mufin音频分析引擎利用一首歌的40种属性为其找到“兄弟姐妹”，这些属性包括打击乐、风格、语言、声强、声乐、节拍、音色、乐器、音量、力度及响度。音乐播放时还具有其它属性，但Djekic说，由于某些属性涵盖由人类对音乐的感知得出的统计学元素，因而无法用音乐概念的数学形式予以表达。

"We first create a tag set where, first of all, people manually tag the music," said Djekic. "We have this set of music files that have been manually tagged, and then we see how our algorithm tags the music so we can improve." Once these rules have been set into the algorithms, there's no human intervention in Mufin's music analysis as it encounters new music.

“我们制作好一个标签集，最初是人工为音乐加上标签，”Djekic说。“拥有这套人工加上标签的文件后，再来观察我们的算法怎样为这些音乐打上标签，然后便能改进。”一旦Mufin的音乐分析算法已融合所有规则，遇到新歌时就不再需要人工干预了。

The core technology behind this automated music parsing is AudioID, developed Brandenburg, whose PhD and undergraduate theses formed the basis of MP3 and other forms of audio compression. His team of audio analysts within Germany's massive Fraunhofer Gesellschaft organization won a company award for AudioID in 2002. Two years later, because it lacked the ability or inclination to exploit the technology, Fraunhofer spun the unit off as a commercial division called m2any that was purchased by Magix in 2007.

这种音乐自动分析技术的核心是Brandenburg开发的AudioID。Brandenburg在其大学与博士论文中已形成MP3和其它音频压缩形式的雏形。2002年，他在德国massive Fraunhofer Gesellschaft组织内的音频分析团队因发明AudioID技术而获得一项公司嘉奖。两年后，由于团队在利用该技术方面能力欠缺或缺乏动力，被Fraunhofer剥离为一个叫作m2any的商业分支，2007年卖给Magix。

Intel earmarks $500M venture funds for China
Intel在华再投5亿美元风险资金

长发乱舞2008-4-16

Intel Corp.'s venture-capital arm is planning to invest a further $500 million over the next three to five years on companies in China focusing on wireless broadband, communications, media technology and clean technology.
The company says this focus will complement its corporate initiatives and help expand technology market segments in China.
Intel 风险资金再次将青睐的目光投向中国。预计在未来 3 至 5 年内，Intel 将面向中国无线宽带、通信、媒体技术及洁净技术领域，投资 5 亿美元风险资金。Intel 称，这种定向投资是对其公司策略的补充，有助于拓展其在华的技术市场区域。

The Intel Capital China Technology Fund II comes after the company's first $200 million China Technology Fund in 2005, its largest single-country technology fund at the time. The fund invested in 28 companies, including: Neusoft Group, Chinacache International, Chipsbank Microelectronics, DAC, Legend Silicon, Montage Technology and Palm Commerce.
本次投资是继 2005 年 Intel 在华的首笔 2 亿美元技术投资之后的第二笔投资。首笔投资是当时最大的、面向单个国家的技术投资。首笔资金投向 28 家公司，东软集团（Neusoft Group）、Chinacache International、芯邦微电子（Chipsbank Microelectronics）、DAC、凌讯科技（Legend Silicon）、澜起科技（Montage Technology）及 Palm Commerce 等榜上有名。

The company says notable liquidity events involving portfolio companies from the first fund include Actions Semiconductor, Kingsoft and Neusoft Group.
 Intel 称，在首笔投资中，资金流动性值得关注的公司有：珠海炬力（Actions Semiconductor）、金山公司（Kingsoft）及东软集团（Neusoft Group）。

The new fund is also the largest of its kind for a single country for Intel Capital.
本次投资对 Intel 来讲，也是最大的一笔面向单个国家的技术投资。

The first companies likely to benefit from the new fund include Holdfast Online Technology Co. and Newauto Video Technology Inc. Holdfast is a developer of technology for online gaming, and Newauto Video makes video equipment and network gear. Intel did not reveal the size of the investment in the two groups.
首批有可能从本次投资获益的公司包括上海浩方（Holdfast Online Technology Co. ）与新奥特硅谷视频（Newauto Video Technology Inc.）。上海浩方是一家网络游戏开发商，新奥特硅谷视频则是视频设备与网络设备制造商。Intel尚未透露对这两家公司的投资规模。

Last year, Intel Capital invested about $639 million, 37 percent of which was being spent outside the United Sates. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than $7.5 billion in about 1,000 companies across more than 45 countries.
去年， Intel 风险投资总额约 6.39 亿美元，其中 37% 投向美国之外。1991 年来， Intel风险投资已累计超过 75 亿美元，覆盖 45 个国家约 1000 家公司。

Intel is currently building a $2.5-billion wafer fab in Dalian in China with the start of operations scheduled for the first half of 2010.
Intel 目前正在中国大连建设投资额达 25 亿美元的晶圆厂，预计 2010 年上半年正式运营。

Intel mulls closing Philippines operations
Intel考虑结束菲律宾业务运营

长发乱舞2008-4-9

Intel Corp. is considering pulling out of the Philippines, according to a report in the newspaper BusinessWorld, citing a statement from Intel.
一份名为《BusinessWorld》的报纸援引Intel的声明说，Intel公司正在考虑结束其菲律宾业务运营。（原文非常形象，有从泥潭中拔出泥足之意。）

Located south of Manila and employing 3,000 people, Intel Technology Philippines Inc. is the firm's second offshore assembly operations center in Asia and serves as a test site.
Intel菲律宾公司（Intel Technology Philippines Inc. ）位于马尼拉南部，拥有3,000名员工，是Intel在亚洲的第二大海外组装运营中心，同时也是该公司的测试基地之一。

The company said it has invested around $1.51 billion in the country.
该公司称，在菲律宾的投资额约达15.1亿美元。

The economic daily said the subsidiary's senior management discussed its long-term options with the employees. Intel Technology Philippines said in a statement, "In an effort to keep employees informed, Intel has updated its employees that significant investments would be required to ensure the long-term viability of its fab in Cavite."
经济日报（The economic daily ）称，菲律宾公司的高管已和员工就公司长远规划进行过讨论。菲律宾公司的一份声明中称：“Intel力图使员工了解相关信息，并已向员工发布消息：为确保位于Cavite的晶圆加工厂能够长期生存，公司需要做重大投资决策。”

The report quoted company sources as saying Intel would decide on the fate of the site within six to nine months. It also cited industry officials as saying that while high power costs are a problem in the Philippines, it could not have been the only factor being considered by Intel in deciding to review its options.
该报道援引公司来源消息称，Intel将在6至9个月内决定菲律宾公司的未来命运。该报道还援引相关官员的评论：尽管高额成本是菲律宾公司存在的一个问题，但Intel在做决定性评估时，不能仅考虑这一项因素。

In response to the report and inquiries, a company statement has reiterated "that it has made no decision on this matter and is currently exploring multiple options."
对于该报道及相关查询，公司发言人重申：“关于此事公司正在做多方面考虑，目前尚无任何决定。”

Apple Shares Above $100 on 2Q Profit
第二财季收益推动苹果股票破100美元大关

原文链接
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070426/earns_apple.html?.v=9

<本译文来自长发乱舞的翻译博客>
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Shares of Apple Inc. rose more than 6 percent early
Thursday, continuing to soar above $100 for the first time after the company walloped Wall Street expectations with quarterly profit that jumped 88 percent on strong sales of its iPod players and Macintosh computers.
[加州圣荷塞报道]在发布了其暴涨88%的季度收益后，星期二早间时分苹果股票上扬超过6个百分点，持续攀升并首次突破100美元大关。该季度收益主要归功于苹果强劲的iPod播放器与苹果机销售，令华尔街的预期显得保守。

Apple shares rose $6.25 to $101.60 in morning trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The earnings results were released after the market closed Wednesday, and the stock leaped to $102.40 in after-hours trading.
纳斯达克股市星期二早上的交易中，苹果股票上升6.25美元，上涨至101.60美元。星期三收市后，苹果发布了该收入报告，随后数小时的交易中，苹果股价股价跳跃至102.40美元。

Investor optimism in the trendsetting company may have also been bolstered by a vote of confidence the board of directors gave Apple's chief executive officer,Steve·Jobs. The board on Wednesday defended the iconic CEO from new accusations by a former Apple executive who alleged Jobs may have had a more significant role in the company's backdating of stock options than previously stated.
投资者对该创新倾向型公司的乐观态度也许还得益于董事会对苹果CEO史蒂夫·乔布斯所投的信心票。董事会星期三为涉嫌的CEO遭受前任苹果执行官的一项新指控进行了辩护。在该指控中，这位前任苹果执行官声称乔布斯可能在苹果股票期权回溯案中扮演的角色比先前所陈述的更为重要。

For the first three months of the year, the Cupertino-based company said Wednesday it earned $770 million, or 87 cents per share, up from $410 million, or 47 cents per share, in the year-ago period.Sales were $5.26 billion, up 21 percent from $4.36 billion last year.
该总部在圣荷塞库珀蒂诺的公司星期三声称，本年度首三个月赢利7.7亿美元，每股收益87美分，而去年同期则为4.1亿美元，每股收益47分。销售额为52.6亿美元，比去年同期的43.6亿美元增长21%。

Analysts, on average, were looking for earnings of 64 cents per share on sales of $5.17 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.
依据此前Thomson Financial的调查，分析家们平均预期苹果销售额为51.7亿美元，每股收益64分。

Apple said it shipped 1.5 million Macintosh computers and more than 10.5 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 36 percent growth in Macs and 24 percent growth in the music players.
苹果声称在该季度已付运150万台苹果机及超过1050万部iPod，苹果机同比增长36%，音乐播放器则同比增长24%。

Sales from its market-leading iPods and other music-related products accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's total revenue.
在占本季度销售额中，市占率领先的iPod及其它音乐相关产品占44%。

"We are very pleased to report the most profitable March quarter in Apple's history," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer.
“我们很高兴向大家汇报这个苹果史上最具收益性的三月份财季。”苹果首席财务官皮特·奥本海默说道。

Helped by favorable component price drops, notably in memory parts, Apple achieved gross margins of more than 35 percent, up from about 30 percent in the quarter a year ago. Oppenheimer cautioned analysts during a conference call that such high margins were likely "not sustainable."
受可喜的器件价格的下降，特别是内存器件，苹果毛利上升超过35%，与去年同期相比增长约30%。奥本海默在一次电话会议中向分析家们谨慎地表示，如此高的利润可能“难以为继”。

The company said it expected revenue of about $5.1 billion and earnings per share of about 66 cents in the current quarter, the third in Apple's fiscal year. Apple's were lower than the forecasts Wall Street had before Wednesday, but analysts say Apple's forecasts are typically conservative.
苹果预期其当前季度、即苹果今年第三个财政季度收入约为51亿美元，每股收益66美分。苹果的预期比华尔街星期三前的预期低，但分析人士认为苹果的预期典型地保守。

Expectations for the iPhone, a cell phone-iPod combination, are continuing to run high, and analysts pressed Apple executives for details Wednesday. Company officials refused to predict the number of units that would be available at launch in late June.
关于iPhone这种手机与iPod结合体的期望正在持续攀升。星期三，分析人士催促苹果执行官透露相关细节，但苹果官员拒绝对其6月底前的具体销售数量做预期。

Given its arrival late in the current quarter, Oppenheimer said in a phone interview that he did not expect the iPhone to have a significant impact on sales for the period.
在发布截止当年季度的相关预期后，奥本海默在电话采访中表示，iPhone对于当年季度的销售额未必有显著影响。

The iPhone is Apple's latest big bet into a new product category, and company officials reiterated Wednesday its high hopes for success. When Jobs introduced the sleek gadget in January, he announced a goal of selling about 10 million units in 2008.
iPhone是苹果新产品列表中最新的一项豪赌，苹果官员星期三重申对其成功满怀希望。1月份当乔布斯谈到其圆滑的预算时，曾宣布iPhone 2008年的销售目标为1千万部。

At Wednesday's closing price, Apple shares have gained about 11 percent this year, boosted partly by anticipation over the iPhone. Investors have largely remain unfazed by Apple's stock options troubles, with industry analysts widely predicting Jobs' position at Apple will remain intact.
载止星期三的收市价格，苹果股票本年度已获11%的收益，部分增长归功于对iPhone的预期。投资者对苹果的股票期权案仍然不以为意，业界分析人士普遍认为乔布斯在苹果的地位依然原封不动。

But legal experts say Jobs is still in legal limbo: An investigation by federal prosecutors continues and the accusations thrown Tuesday by the company's former chief financial officer, Fred Anderson, raises questions about Jobs' culpability.
但法律专家们则认为乔布斯仍濒临牢狱边缘：联邦检察院的调查仍在继续，苹果前任首席财务官佛瑞德·安德森星期二抛出的指控已上升到乔布斯罪责问题。

Anderson's allegations came on the same day he immediately settled his case with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed backdating-related civil charges against Anderson and Apple's former general counsel Nancy Heinen. The SEC did not charge any other individuals and said it did not plan to pursue further action against Apple itself.
安德森向证交所提交指控当天随后发表了声明。SEC已对苹果股票期权回溯案中安德森与苹果前任首席律师Nancy Heinen的民事责任立案调查。SEC并未追究任何其它独立个人，并声明并未计划采取针对苹果自身的进一步行动。

Apple's board of directors, which includes former Vice President Al Gore and Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt, said Wednesday that it would not enter a public debate with Anderson. It also defended Apple's internal probe last year that cleared Jobs and current management of any wrongdoing.
苹果董事会，包括苹果前任副总裁Al Gore与Google CEO埃里克·施密特，星期三声明道，不会与安德森进行公开辩论。董事会还就苹果去年展开的洗刷乔布斯并掩盖现行管理失误的内部调查进行了辩护。

"We have complete confidence in the conclusions of Apple's independent investigation, and in Steve's integrity and his ability to lead Apple," the board said in a statement.
“我们对苹果独立调查的结论、史蒂夫的正直品质与领导苹果的能力信心十足。”董事会声明中如此谈道。

Farmers seek "national treatment"
农民寻求“国民待遇”
2007-1-8

<本译文来自长发乱舞的翻译博客>

As underscored by the fact that living standards in rural areas are much lower than those in urban areas, in China the issue of resolving the "three agriculture-related problems" of agriculture, rural villages and farmers, is the greatest problem for the government, which is aiming to create a harmonious society. In order to resolve the three agriculture-related problems, the government has launched a plan to create new rural villages that focuses on increasing the income of farmers by reducing their tax burden and providing them with subsidies, and improving infrastructure and social services. However, it is likely that the government will ultimately have no choice but to move the farmers who have become excess labor in the rural areas to the cities so that they can be reemployed in the industrial and services sectors. A large-scale migration from the rural to urban areas has already begun. However, due to such restrictions as household registration, migrant farmer-laborers face discrimination in many ways, and make up the poor of the cities. This suggests that the traditional three agriculture-related problems are turning into four agriculture-related problems, with the addition of the farmer-laborer problem.
由于对中国农村生活水平远低于城市这一事实的强调，解决农业、农村与农民的“三农”问题成为正致力于创建和谐社会的中国政府面临的最大难题。为解决“三农”问题，政府发布了一项规划，拟通过降低农民的税务负担并提供津贴、加强农村基础设施建设与社会福利，创建以增加农民收入为中心的新农村。然而，政府最终可能别无选择，不得不将农村剩余劳动力转入城市，以便这些剩余劳动力可被工业及服务业吸纳。由农村至城市的大规模移民已经开始。然而，由于户籍政策的限制，农民工移民在很多方面受到区别对待，形成了城市中的贫民层。这表明，传统的“三农”问题加上农民工问题，正在转变为“四农”问题。

Since the Communist Party took power in 1949, a rigid dual structure of urban versus rural areas has existed in Chinese society, and because of this, the social status of farmers remains low even today, and their freedom to move is strictly limited by the household registration system. According to China's constitution, its citizens have the right to receive assistance from the state and society in the event they become old, sick or lose the ability to work. The state sets up and operates social insurance, social relief and medical and health facilities so that its citizens can enjoy such rights. However, in reality, farmers do not receive such basic public goods and services provided by the state because of the restrictions that come from their status.
自中国共产党1949年执政以来，严格的城乡双重结构便存在于中国社会，正由于此，农民的社会地位直至今日仍很低，其移居自由受到户籍制度的严格限制。按照中国宪法，公民享有在年老、生病与失去劳动力时接受国家与社会援助的权利。国家制定社会保险、社会救济与医疗保健政策并负责执行其执行，以便公民能享受这些权利。而事实上，农民社会地位低下，并不能享受这些国家提供的基础社会福利。

Bound by the household registration system, farmers are not free to migrate to the cities. Even if they find work there they can only receive the zanzhu (temporary residence) certification, which is essentially a domestic visa. Although their ranks have swollen to some 86.73 million, even when only counting those who have registered with the authorities (as of June 2005), because these farmer-laborers do not have an urban household register, they see their job opportunities severely limited and are forced to work under poor conditions such as low wages and long working hours. Although they pay taxes and other fees under various pretexts, they cannot receive the public services that urban residents do, such as medical care and compulsory education for their children. In addition, even if they lose their jobs, they cannot receive unemployment benefits. Children born to them in the cities remain in their rural household register, and cannot receive an urban one.
户籍制度规定，农民不能自由迁入城市。即使在城市找到工作，也仅只能领取暂住证，而暂住证本质上是国内通行证。尽管仅以登记在册的官方数字而计（至2005年1月），农民工创造的税收已巨增为8673万，由于没有城市户口，他们的工作机会严重受限，不得不从事恶劣工作环境与低收入、长时间的工作。他们向国家交纳税及以各种名目征收的费用，但并不能享受城市居民享有的社会福利，如医疗保险与子女义务教育。此外，即使他们失业了，也不能享受失业津贴。出生于城市的农民工子女仍然是农村户籍，不能被城市所接受。

Thus farmers are treated as second-class citizens whether they remain in the rural villages or move to the cities. Not only does restricting the movement of people through the household registration system block the effective distribution of labor, it also clearly violates the article in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which China itself is also a signatory, that stipulates that "everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state."
因此，农民无论呆在农村还是迁移至城市都被当作二等公民。户籍制度对农民的迁移限制不仅阻碍了劳动力的有效分配，而且很显然违反了《联合国世界人权宣言》相关条款，而中国正是该宣言的缔约国之一——该宣言宣布“人人皆有权在国家领土内自由迁移与定居”。

From around October this year, riots broke out across France; led by immigrants who have been shunned from local society. When we consider the fact that in China, farmer-laborers who work in the cities are treated worse than foreign laborers, it would be no wonder if a similar situation were to arise. In order to prevent this, the authorities should give farmers "national treatment" through such means as revising the household registration system by eliminating the distinction between rural and urban registers.
从今年10月起，法国发生了多处暴乱，其参与者是受法国本土社会排挤的移民。考虑到中国正在上演的事实，在城市工作的农民工比外国劳务人员的待遇更差，如果发生类似的事亦不足为奇。为防患于未然，权力部门应通过修订户籍制度等方法，消除城乡差别，给民工“国民待遇”。

The time for household registration reform is ripe
户籍制度改革的时机成熟了。

In response to such demands, recently moves to reform the household registration system have finally begun. Liu Jinguo, vice minister of the Public Security Ministry, said at a meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Social Security that "China's Public Security Ministry is currently considering reforms to the household registration system and is seeking ways to abolish the wall between the rural and urban household registers and establish a unified household register management system in both urban and rural areas. Simultaneously, it will gradually ease restrictions on movement of household registers to large and mid-sized cities by making a person's actual place of residence the grounds for household registration." These remarks have attracted a great deal of public attention. (Legal Daily, Oct. 26, 2005)
基于这些社会需求，户籍制度改革最近终于开始了。公安部副部长Liu Jinguo说，在一次“社保基金综合管理”小组会议上，“中国公安部正在考虑对户籍制度进行改革，寻求消除城乡户籍差别、建立城乡统一户籍管理制度的方式。同时，以个人实际居住地迁入大中城市户籍的各种限制将逐步被取消。”这些议题引起社会各界的广泛关注。（法制日报，2005年10月26日）

Reforms to the household registration system have already begun in some provinces and municipalities. In 2003, Hubei Province designated the cities of Wuhan, Xiangfan and Huangshu as model cases and removed the distinction between rural and urban household registers, unifying them as "Hubei Province residents." In 2004, Shandong Province launched a household registration system that unified the urban and rural areas, and stopped collecting fees from those moving to the cities. At present, public security organizations in 11 provinces and municipalities including Shandong Province, Liaoning Province and Fujian Province are working to unify the household registers of urban and rural areas.
户籍制度改革在一些省市已经展开。2003年，湖北省指定武汉、襄樊及黄石为试点城市，消除了城乡户籍差别，使城乡居民统一为“湖北省居民”。2004年，山东省发布了一项统一城乡户籍的政策，停止征收迁入城市的户籍迁移费。目前，公安部正在包括山东、辽宁、福建的11个省市，开展了统一城乡户籍的工作。

This illustrates that, backed by public opinion and the government's strong resolve, reform of the household registration system is gathering momentum. It is true that in the short term there may be an increase in unemployment pressure, a decline in peace and order and a lack of public services in the cities if farmers are no longer discriminated against and are allowed to move freely. However, this should not be used as an excuse to reject reform. Rather, the government should speed up the transition to a new system by putting in place the prerequisites for reform. By doing so, the day in which farmers and farmer-laborers who move to the cities will enjoy the same rights as urban residents will not be far off.
这些试点说明，以舆论及政府强力推行为后盾，户籍改革政策势在必行。当农民工不再受到区别对待、可以自由迁入城市时，事实上在短期内，城市人口的失业压力可能上升，城市治安状况可能下降，社会福利可能短缺。然而，这并不能成为反对改革的借口。相反，政府应当为改革提供必需条件，加速到新政策的过渡。通过这些手段，农民与迁入城市的农民工将享受与城市户籍人口相同待遇的那一天便为期不远了。