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Too busy to care for your dead relatives? Can’t afford a train ticket home? Chinese who cannot go home and sweep family graves this weekend for the traditional “tomb sweeping” festival, known as Qingming (pronounced Chingming), can rent professional tomb sweepers from online companies.
你因为太忙而无法祭奠过世的亲属？没钱买票回家？在本周末的清明节来临之际，那些无法回家为亲人扫墓的中国人，可以从网络公司聘请专业扫墓人员。
The people will be clean, show respect and even hold a mobile phone to the grave so that you can talk to your loved ones, some companies say.
一些公司说，扫墓人员将清扫墓地、进行祭拜，甚至还可以把手机举向墓地，让顾客与亲人说话。
Qingming is an ancient holiday calculated by the agricultural calendar, and this year it falls on April 5, a Saturday. And despite a public holiday the following Monday, making it a three-day weekend, many people cannot honor the tradition of visiting family graves. Some have to work overtime. Some can’t afford the train ticket home or have found tickets are sold out. For these, online businesses offer an alternative that’s practical — and cheaper.
清明是中国的传统节日，按农历计算；今年的清明节是4月5日，星期六。虽然下周一放假一天，假期加起来总共三天，但是许多人都无法按照传统去为亲人扫墓。有些人要加班。有些人买不起回乡的火车票，还有人则发现车票已经卖光。对于这些人，网络公司提供了一个具有实际意义的选择——这个选择也比较省钱。
A simple search for “grave sweeping for you” on Taobao, China’s biggest online shopping site, brings up dozens of companies offering the service in more than 20 cities across China.
如果你在中国最大的购物网站淘宝网上搜索“代人扫墓”，就会出现数十家公司，这些公司能为中国20多座城市提供扫墓服务。
2013年清明节，中国晋江的一处公墓人头攒动。
The standard package includes bringing flowers and food, cleaning and beautifying the gravestone, standing respectfully in silence, and burning paper and incense. It all takes about 30 minutes and costs between 100 and 800 renminbi, or $16 to $130, depending on the prosperity level of the city. And it’s sweep first, charge later: The customer gets 10 photos of the activities as proof, before having to pay.
标准服务内容包括供奉鲜花和食物、打扫和美化坟墓、默哀、以及烧纸焚香。整个服务时间约为半个小时，价格根据所在城市的经济水平在100元到800元之间。而且顾客可以先享受扫墓服务，后付钱：客户在付钱以前，会得到作为凭证的10张活动照片。
In one advertisement, a Shanghai-based company promises to call the customer upon identifying the gravestone (the customer gets a refund if the grave is nowhere to be found) and to send their clients before and after photos of the grave.
一家上海公司在广告中承诺会打电话跟客户确定坟墓方位（如果找不到坟墓，公司会给客户退钱），而且还会给客户发送扫墓前和扫墓后的对比照片。
Before standing in silence, the company vows to “examine the clothes of our team and make sure to remove all funny elements” to ensure solemnity.
公司承诺在祭奠之前，会“保证到场人员整理着装，去除身上任何滑稽元素”，以保证整个过程庄严肃穆。
One provider in Hubei Province offers the service year-round and promises that the person they send to visit the grave will have washed his or her hair and body the day before the visit. The client can opt to talk to the deceased at the grave via cellphone, or pay the team to read a poem.
湖北的一家公司一年四季都提供这种服务，并承诺他们派去扫墓的人将在扫墓前一天洗头洗澡。客户可以选择通过电话在墓地对逝者说话，或者付钱让扫墓者说祭拜词。
Bowing at the grave or kneeling on the ground and touching the forehead to the ground, in traditional gestures of respect, cost extra, between 50 and 100 renminbi for each bow or kneel. The team also brings any kind of groceries or liquor, paid for by the client.
鞠躬、下跪或磕头这些表示尊重的传统礼节会额外收取费用，每次鞠躬或下跪收费50到100元人民币。扫墓人员还可以带各种食物或酒，费用由顾客支付。
For 150 renminbi, a Beijing vendor will send a crier to weep at the grave. “We deliver the filial heart of those who are overseas and far away to their deceased beloved,” reads its advertisement on Taobao.
花150元，一家北京商户就能派人去哭墓。公司在淘宝上的广告说，“本店真诚愿为那些远在海外、外地不能亲自来为已故亲朋进行扫墓的孝心者，代尽孝心和情意！”
“Filial piety is priceless. You are far away from home, but you remember to have the tomb swept, which is highly praiseworthy,” reads one advertisement by a company in Qufu, in Shandong Province, the hometown of Confucius.
孔子家乡、山东曲阜的一家公司在广告中称，“其中包含的孝心，同样是无价的。人在外，却不忘记扫墓，这种行为，本身就值得赞赏。”
“Tomb sweeping is all about the thought,” said a Ms. Zhang who answered the phone for a company in Tianjin, “as long as the deceased are in your thoughts, they would understand why you can’t make it personally. And our service says you care.”
“扫墓最重要的是心意，”天津一家公司的张女士接电话时说，“只要你心中想着逝者，他们就会明白为什么你不能亲自来扫墓。我们的服务能表明你的心意。”
Ms. Zhang said business was very good this year, as her company was approved by the Tianjin Public Cemetery.
张女士说，今年的生意特别好，因为她的公司得到了天津公墓的批准。
Hoping to bolster social harmony and Chinese values by incorporating more traditions into contemporary Chinese lives, the State Council made Qingming a paid public holiday in 2007, along with Duanwu, the dragon boat festival, and Zhongqiu, the midautumn festival.
为了促进社会和谐、弘扬中国传统价值观，政府将许多传统节日和活动重新融入了现代中国人的生活。2007年，国务院将清明节、端午节和中秋节定为了公共假日。
翻译：陈柳
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