Becoming a Breadwinner: A Baker’s Journey
成为家里的顶梁柱：一名烘焙师的经历
“Making a baguette is relatively easy – making a good-looking baguette, now that’s different,” mused Li Yu, reflecting upon his happiest and most challenging baking moments. An apt statement, given that a baker’s abilities can often, if not always, be gleaned from the baguettes that he or she makes.
“虽然法棍的制作过程比较简单，但要做出好看的法棍特别难，”李育细细品味着他在烘焙时最快乐和最有挑战性的时刻并总结道。确实，我们往往能从一个烘培师的法式长棍中看出他的实力。
It is also the typical answer given by graduates of the Shanghai Young Bakers programme, a non-profit organisation that sponsors and trains around thirty-two disadvantaged Chinese youths to become professional bakers each year. Li Yu comes from the programme’s graduating class of 2013-2014 and has been working as a bakery chef with the Accor Hotels franchise ever since.
这也是海上青焙坊（非盈利组织）的毕业生给出的典型回答，每一年，该组织赞助32名贫困学生并为他们提供培训让他们能成为专业的烘焙师。李育是第六届（2013-2014）的毕业生，他毕业后在雅高酒店集团分店工作至今。
Coming from Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, Li Yu approaches life’s challenges with a pragmatic attitude. In many respects, Li’s childhood experiences mirror that of many disadvantaged Chinese youths in China’s rural areas: a childhood in which his parents were largely absent, moving to urban areas in search of employment and placing Li and his younger sister under their grandmother’s care. To complicate matters, when he finished middle school, the family did not have the financial wherewithal to support both children’s tuition. Consequently, Li had to forego secondary education and figure out a way to make a living for himself. Options were scarce: “I’d probably be a migrant worker right now, had I not joined the SYB programme,” Li confides.
来自陕西宝鸡的李育以务实的态度迎接生活中的挑战。在许多方面，李育的经历反映了许多来自农村地区贫困青年的状况：童年大多数时候都没有双亲的陪伴，父母为了找工作搬到了城市，而李育和他的妹妹则被奶奶抚养。更糟糕的是，在他中学毕业时，家里就已经没有经济能力来支持两个孩子的学费。因此，李育不得不放弃中学教育，甚至还得想办法谋生。然而他的选择并不多：“如果没有加入海上青焙坊的项目，现在的我很可能会是在外面打工，”李育透露。
Today, the twenty-year-old supervises the night shift at the Sofitel Hotel in Shanghai’s Hongqiao District. Working from 23:00 to 8:00, Li enjoys immersing himself in his labours, from preparing the different kinds of dough for the day-shift team to baking some of the bread himself. This pragmatic outlook manifests itself in the way the young baker comports himself: when asked about his proudest achievement in baking, he replied “working hard and making high-quality bread.”
如今，这名23岁的烘焙师在上海虹桥区的索菲特酒店上夜班。工作时间是晚上11点到早上8点，无论是为日班团队准备面团还是亲自烘焙面包，李育都十分沉浸在自己的劳动中。当被问及他在烘焙中所得到的最大成就是什么时，他回答说：“认真工作并烘培出高质量的面包。”务实的回答，正如同他务实的性格。
He also appreciates the egalitarian treatment of one of his managers at the Sofitel Hongqiao, whom he describes as his greatest inspiration and motivator. “Our manager is extremely attentive to detail and expects the best from everyone, from long-time staff to interns,” Li effuses. For a man who takes things one step at a time, equal opportunity and meritocracy are like music to his ears.
他也很感激在虹桥索菲特酒店公正对待他的经理，他形容这位经理是他最大的灵感和动力。“他非常注重细节，也期待长期员工和实习生都能展现出自己最好的一面，”李育激动的说道。对一位步步为营的人来说，公平的机会和精英的领导简直是天赐良机。
Make no mistake, Li has already come farther than many of the disadvantaged youths belonging to China’s most disadvantaged demographics. Instead of following his migrant parents’ footsteps, he has acquired the means to support himself, and sees a promising future ahead of him in the baking industry. Comparing his past and present conditions, Li minces no words: “previously, I had to worry about my monthly budget every time I needed to buy clothes; now I can at afford clothes that I like, without having to worry as much as before.”
毫无疑问，李育已经比许多处于贫困中的青少年走得更远了。比起自己的农民工父母，他已经获得了谋生的技能并在烘焙事业中看到了光明的未来。在比较自己的现在和过去时，李育直言不讳的说：“以前每次买衣服我都要担心每月的预算，现在我可以买的起喜欢的衣服而不必像以前有那么多的顾虑。”
When asked about his dream in life, Li remains pragmatically mysterious: “accumulate knowledge and experience, slowly but surely.”
当问起他的梦想时，李育依旧很务实：“积累知识和经验，一步一步向前走”。
Written by Lo-Ching Chow
撰写：周乐芹