While Christmas music played, 100 South Korean men and women gathered at a hotel near the capital of Seoul with their names written for others to see. 

当圣诞音乐响起时，100 名韩国男女聚集在首都首尔附近的一家酒店，写下自己的名字供其他人查看。 

They were hoping to find love. The government hopes they will make babies. 

他们希望找到爱情。政府希望他们能生孩子。 

The young men and women were at a blind dating event held by the city of Seongnam. Blind dating is when two people who do not know each other meet in hopes of forming a relationship. 

这对年轻男女参加了城南市举办的一场相亲活动。盲目约会是指两个互不认识的人为了建立关系而相遇。 

The local government is attempting to fight the falling birth rate in a country where the popularity of marriage and parenthood has fallen. 

在这个结婚和养育子女的受欢迎程度下降的国家，当地政府正试图应对出生率下降的问题。 

Those who joined were in their 20s and 30s. They sat quietly next to one another until a relationship expert started the event with a game called rock-paper-scissors. People soon began to talk and laugh. 

加入的人都是20多岁和30多岁。他们静静地坐在一起，直到一位关系专家用一种叫做剪刀石头布的游戏开始了活动。人们很快就开始有说有笑。

The city appeared set on making a match. It prepared food and drinks like red wine and chocolate. There were also games, free beauty services, and even services to look into people’s backgrounds for the singles that joined. 

这座城市似乎下定决心要进行一场比赛。它准备了红酒和巧克力等食物和饮料。还有游戏、免费美容服务，甚至还有调查单身人士背景的服务。 

Lee Yu-mi is 36 and works for the city government. She said she registered to join three times before she was finally accepted to join the event.

李由美 (Lee Yu-mi) 36 岁，在市政府工作。她说，她报名参加了三次才最终被接受参加该活动。 

"I had no idea it would be this competitive," she said. 

“我没想到竞争会如此激烈，”她说。 

After five such gatherings this year, 198 people among 460 left the event as “couples”, agreeing to exchange contact information, the city said. 

该市表示，今年举行了五次此类聚会后，460 人中有 198 人以“情侣”身份离开活动，并同意交换联系信息。 

The South Korean capital Seoul had considered a similar event but put the plan on hold after facing criticism. Some said the event was a waste of taxpayers’ money and it failed to deal with the reasons people were choosing to not marry and have babies. Those reasons include the high costs of housing and education. 

韩国首都首尔曾考虑举办类似活动，但在面临批评后搁置了该计划。一些人表示，这一活动浪费了纳税人的钱，而且未能解决人们选择不结婚不生孩子的原因。这些原因包括住房和教育成本高昂。 

Hwang Da-bin took part in a September event. He said it saved him the cost of joining other social events or signing up for professional match-making services. 

黄多彬参加了9月份的活动。他说，这节省了他参加其他社交活动或报名专业婚介服务的费用。 

"We are facing a real demographic crisis and the government needs to do whatever it can. I don't understand people complaining over this," Hwang said. 

“我们面临着真正的人口危机，政府需要尽其所能。我不明白人们对此有何抱怨，”黄说。

The average number of children born to each South Korean woman, called the fertility rate, fell to 0.78 last year. The country has the lowest fertility rate in the world. 

去年，每名韩国女性平均生育孩子数（即生育率）下降至 0.78 个。该国的生育率是世界上最低的。 

The number is far below 1.66 in the United States and 1.3 in Japan in 2021. The average rate among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of 37 democracies with market economies, was 1.58 that same year. 

到 2021 年，这一数字远低于美国的 1.66 和日本的 1.3。同年，经济合作与发展组织（由 37 个民主市场经济国家组成的组织）各国的平均比率为 1.58。 

Jun Jae-hoon teaches social welfare at Seoul Women’s University. He said it was “nonsense” to expect these events to lead to higher birth rates. 

全在勋 (Jun Jae-hoon) 在首尔女子大学教授社会福利课程。他表示，期望这些事件会导致出生率上升是“无稽之谈”。 

"You need to spend more money directly on supporting pregnancy, child delivery and parenting to call it a policy…” to increase birth rates, Jung said. 

荣格说：“你需要直接花更多的钱来支持怀孕、分娩和育儿，这才是一项政策……”以提高出生率。 

But even with criticism, thousands of people have signed up for this year’s blind-dating events held by the Seongnam city. 

但尽管有批评，仍有数千人报名参加城南市今年举办的相亲活动。 

Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin said spreading good views on marriage would at some point help raise the birth rates. He said that the blind-dating events are just one of many policies his city has created to deal with the falling rates. 

城南市市长申相镇表示，传播良好的婚姻观在某种程度上有助于提高出生率。他说，相亲活动只是该市为应对房价下降而制定的众多政策之一。 

“Low birth rates cannot be resolved with a single policy,” Shin said. “It's also the city's job to create the environment for people who want to marry find their partners.” 

“低出生率无法通过单一政策解决，”申说。“为想要结婚的人们创造寻找伴侣的环境也是这座城市的工作。”