future mail

童亚文

Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future？ While express mail is a fast way to send your letters， there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business—future mail.

你曾经梦想过给将来的自己或你的朋友们寄一封信吗？虽然快递是为你送信的一种快捷方式，但是在中国，另一种寄件方式作为一项新的业务出现了，这就是慢递。

“The letter should be sent next Mothers Day and not a day earlier！” Lin Xiaofan， a college student in Shanghai， tells one of the companies offering the service.

“这封信应该在明年的母亲节寄出去，一天也不能提前！”林晓帆，是上海的一名大学生，她这样告知提供该服务的某一公司。

Lin Xiaofan wrote the letter to her mother nearly a year earlier to express her love to her mother for next Mothers Day.

这封信是林晓帆提前写给她母亲的，提前一年写好，为了在明年的母亲节表达她对母亲的爱。

“Offering this service makes people slow down and lets them understand the meaning of ‘time in another way，” said Zheng Zhimin， manager at a “future mail” company. Zheng thinks “future mail” letters help remind1 us of care， friendship and love.

“这种服务使人们放慢脚步，让他们用另一种方式理解‘时间的含义。”某个“慢递”公司的经理郑志敏说。他认为“慢递”信有助于帮助提醒我们——关心，友谊和爱。

While “future mail” is becoming more and more popular， some people are wondering what will happen if the postal2 address changes or if the company goes broken before the letters arrive.

雖然“慢递”正在变得越来越流行，但是有些人很担心——如果在邮件送达之前收件人的地址更改了或者这个公司倒闭了该怎么办。

Zheng said customers are glad to sign a contract to make sure that they can be compensated3 if their letters are lost or damaged.

郑经理说，客户很高兴能签下一份合同，合同保证如果他们信件丢失或损坏，他们可以得到补偿。

Most of the customers are college students and young whitecollar workers. Psychologists4 said that young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service. Most people put their hopes and wishes in the letter so that they can experience the connection between the past and the present when they receive the letter.

大多数的客户都是大学生和年轻白领。心理学家说，年轻的中国人可以通过这项服务以一种新的方式来表达他们的感情。大多数人把他们的希望和愿望寄托在信中，这样当他们收到这封信的时候，他们就可以体验到过去和现在的联系。