东北，曾经是新中国荣耀的象征；东北人，曾经是一个洋溢着自豪、激情的名字。而那一度是年轻人向往之地的东北工业基地，改革开放后却慢慢成了颓败萧条之地。带着对美好生活的渴望，力图改变自己命运的新东北人正在试图恢复自己昔日的荣耀和尊严。

 

China is gearing up to turn its northeastern rust belt, once the centerpiece of Chairman Mao's planned economy, into the country's next engine of growth.

东北曾经是毛泽东时期计划经济的龙头。而如今，中国正准备将这块“铁锈地带”转型成为下一个国家经济增长引擎。

There is no turning back. That much, Iron Man knows.

自己面前的是一条不归路。这点，铁人心里很清楚。

The bus is starting to roll down the rutted dirt road in Dongfa village, carrying the young worker and his wife away from this ghost town near the Russian border. The couple squeeze into the backseat, she carrying a bright blue gym bag, he the dull burden of history. Twenty-six years ago, his parents named him Wang Tieren, or Iron Man Wang. It was a tribute to the communist icon whose selfless toil symbolized the industrial muscle of China's Northeast, a region whose state-run factories and furnaces fueled the communist dreams of the People's Republic. The new Iron Man on the bus—silent, gaunt, a look of worry wrinkling his freckled brow—embodies the same region but in a challenging new era: Even as other parts of China flourish in the mad rush toward a market economy, once proud Manchuria (as the area is known abroad) has fallen on hard times; it, like Iron Man Wang himself, is desperately searching for salvation.

中巴车开上东发村印满车辙的泥土路，载着这位年轻工人和他的太太离开这个靠近俄罗斯边界的穷乡僻壤。夫妻俩挤在后座，太太带着一个鲜蓝色的旅行袋，铁人则背着沉重的历史包袱。26年前，父母为他取名王铁人，向知名的共产党劳动楷模“铁人”王进喜致意；王进喜的无私苦干象征了中国东北的工业实力，东北地区的国有企业和熔炉，炼就了新中国的“社会主义梦想”。然而，巴士上的这位新铁人却沉默、憔悴，忧虑的神情让长满雀斑的额头起了皱纹。他依旧体现着东北的命运，但所处的却是个充满挑战的新时代：正当中国其它地方都在往市场经济发展的狂潮中欣欣向荣，一度叱咤风云的东北却陷入萧条。整个东北就像王铁人一样，正拼命寻找脱困之路。

As the bus pulls away, Wang stares ahead into the middle distance while his wife, Sun Jing, buries her head in her arms. Neither dare glance out the rear window at what they are leaving behind: their two-year-old daughter, named Siting, nestled in the arms of Wang's father. It was barely a year ago, just ten days after Sun had finished nursing, that they first left their daughter. When the couple returned home two weeks ago, they proudly unrolled a thick wad of cash—their annual savings of nearly $2,000. The money will feed their parents and daughter for another year, but Siting didn't comprehend. Recoiling from the two strangers standing in front of her, she scrambled over to her grandmother and peered out anxiously from between her legs. For two weeks, Wang and Sun have used hugs and sweet biscuits to win their daughter's trust. She has finally learned to call them "mama" and "baba," but when they boarded the bus to leave for another year, the girl showed no emotion. "It's hard to bear," says Wang, laying a hand on his wife's arm as she wiped a tear off her cheek. "But there's no other way for us to give our daughter a future." ()