“杜拉拉”成为职场女性榜样

    Du Lala is a brash, 30-something Chinese woman who successfully broke the glass ceiling of China’s macho corporate world. She is also the title character in a novel that has been a breakout literary hit in China and an unofficial handbook for ambitious career women what is now the world’s third largest economy.

    The Story of Du Lala’s Promotion was such a success that the author -- herself once a young professional like her protagonist -- quickly churned out Du Lala 2: Splendid Days, which was equally well received.

    The author uses the pseudonym Li Ke. “A novel is easier to read than a manual,” said Ms. Li, describing her heroine as “a normal person” who is “more beautiful than the norm but not more than that.”

    The first book described in simple fashion Du Lala’s climb through the ranks at DB, a fictitious Fortune 500 multinational corporation, as the protagonist moves from sales assistant to director of human resources -- a meteoric rise peppered with accounts of jealousy and other quirks of office politics.

    Young women say they are using the novel as a handbook to improve their own careers. “It gave me guidance and ideas. I learned a lot from this book -- about how to communicate, how to survive in an office, how to ask for a pay rise and also how office love affairs are taboo,” said 28-year-old fan Yan Nan.

    “I don’t feel alone any more. There are thousands of Du Lalas who try to make it on their own and live better lives, like me,” said Ms. Yan, who works for a foreign company in Beijing.

    The book’s success is easy to explain -- readers can readily identify with the heroine, who is fighting for her economic and personal independence. “In contrast to many young Chinese women who look for a rich man to marry, Du Lala works hard and counts on her own abilities to secure her future -- that’s why I like her,” said another reader, 28-year-old Rui Menggui.

    Ms. Yan said she liked Du Lala because “she represents a group of white-collar workers who are fighting in the jungle of the working world. I admire her because she is intelligent and hard-working. What she gets, she earns -- she is not taking advantage of her guanxi (connections), as is often the case in China.”

    Source: The Independent

       杜拉拉，一位急性子的年轻中国女性，成功打破了以男人为中心的商界玻璃天花板。

       她是一部风靡中国的小说的主人公，这本书也成为这个当今世界第三大经济体的有志职业女性的职场手册。 

       《杜拉拉升职记》的成功使该书作者——一位和书中女主人公一样年轻的职业女性——很快又写出了《杜拉拉2：年华似水》，这本书同样受到了热烈欢迎。 

       作者李可(笔名)说：“小说读起来比手册容易。”她把书中女主人公描述为一个“普通人”，“姿色中上”，仅此而已。 　

       第一本书描写了杜拉拉在一家虚构的《财富》500强跨国公司DB从销售助理到人力资源经理的升职过程——这个迅速上升的过程中充满了来自他人的嫉妒和各种尔虞我诈的办公室政治。 

       年轻女性们说，她们把这本小说当作自己职业提升的手册。28岁的杜拉拉迷严楠(音)说：“它给了我指导和想法。我从这本书里学到很多——如何沟通、如何在办公室里生存、如何要求加薪以及办公室恋情为何成为禁忌等等。” 

       在北京一家外企工作的严楠说：“我不再觉得孤单。成千上万个杜拉拉像我一样，正在独立打拼，让自己过上更好的生活。” 

       这本书之所以取得成功，原因很简单——读者很容易进入女主人公的角色，她为了自己的经济和人格独立而努力奋斗着。28岁的读者芮萌桂(音)说：“和很多希望找个有钱男人结婚的年轻中国女性不同，杜拉拉工作努力，依靠自己的能力使未来得到保障，这是我喜欢她的原因。”

       严楠说，她喜欢杜拉拉，因为“她代表了在弱肉强食的职场中奋斗的白领群体。我钦佩她，因为她聪明又努力。她的成功是靠努力得来的——她靠的不是在中国很普遍的‘关系’。”