2020上半年翻译资格考试二级笔译备考试题五

Consumers: The Wild, Wild East(节选)

A booming middle class is creating the world’s most dynamic consumer market

More than five centuries ago Christopher Columbus scrawled in his copy of Marco Polo’s “Travels” that the Middle Kingdom would bring mercacciones innumeras (an immeasurable amount of commerce). Columbus never reached that promised land. China has continued to disappoint foreign businessmen ever since, not least because many ordinary Chinese people have been too poor to buy anything.考生如果怕自己错过考试成绩查询的话，可以 免费预约短信提醒，届时会以短信的方式提醒大家报名和考试时间。

That is changing as the country’s middle class is growing explosively. In 2010 mainstream consumers – those with enough money to buy cars, fridges and phones but not Rolls-Royces – made up less than a tenth of urban households. In a new forecast, McKinsey predicts that by 2020 they will make up well over half. BCG reckons that urban private consumption will rise from $3.2 trillion today to $5.6 trillion in 2020.

Apple expects China soon to become a bigger market for its products than America. In the quarter ending in June, its sales in greater China were 112% up on the same period a year earlier. Six of its ten busiest stores across the globe are in China. At the height of the recent turmoil in the Chinese stockmarkets Apple’s boss, Tim Cook, reassured investors that “I continue to believe China represents an unprecedented opportunity over the long term.” Apple’s shares bounced back.

Where should intrepid marketers go to capitalise on these riches? The wealthy east coast is now widely believed to be saturated, which suggests that firms should head inland. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister firm of this newspaper, recently pinpointed the top emerging cities, based on forecasts for things like long-term growth in population and disposable income. It found that a few inland cities like Chongqing and Chengdu are indeed attractive, but many excellent prospects remain in the east. Obscure but booming cities within reasonable distance of the coast, like Suqian and Xuzhou, are likely to do well, and lucrative niches remain even in well-established magnets such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

As the middle class expands, so it evolves. Some may grow tired of blingy offerings, but millions of others will try their first Western brand this year. “Every three years a new generation is created here,” explains Charles Hayes of Ideo, a consultancy. Even within cities, consumer groups are highly segmented. Donald Blair of Nike, an American sportswear giant, says his firm maps consumer behaviour here “by shopping district and even by street”, so it can customise offerings and outlets.

A big winner has been China’s e-commerce, a market that is now larger than America’s. Forrester, another consulting firm, expects gross merchandise value in this sector to exceed $1 trillion by 2019. Outside the big cities bricks-and-mortar stores are thinner on the ground, so online shopping is becoming increasingly important. Even where shops are readily accessible, consumers often go “showrooming”, looking at goods in physical outlets but buying them more cheaply online. This is happening the world over, but in China the trend has been accentuated by the ubiquity of smartphones, the reliability of online-payment systems and the spread of same-day delivery services.

消费者：狂野东部

中产阶级的兴起正在造就世界上最具活力的消费市场

在五个多世纪之前，哥伦布在他阅读的那本《马可波罗行纪》中潦草地写道，中土之国将带来无尽商机。哥伦布从未达到这片乐土。从那时起，中国一直令外国商人倍感失望，主要是因为很多普通中国人太穷，啥也买不起。

随着中国中产阶级的爆发性增长，这种局面正在改变。2010年，主流消费者在城市家庭中不足十分之一，这些消费者能买得起手机、冰箱，及汽车——当然不是劳斯莱斯。在新的预测中，麦肯锡认为到2020年，他们将占到一半以上。波士顿咨询(BCG)认为，城市私人消费将从如今的3.2万亿美元提升到2020年的5.6万亿美元。

苹果公司预期中国很快会成为比美国更大的苹果产品消费市场。在截至6月的第二季度，它在大中华区的销售额比去年同期增长了112%。苹果全球最繁忙的十家专卖店有六家在中国。在近期中国股市动荡最剧烈之时，苹果的老板蒂姆·库克(Tim Cook)安抚投资者说：“我仍然相信，从长期看，中国有着前所未有的机会。”苹果的股价应声反弹。

英勇无畏的生意人应该在哪些地方的富人中掘金?普遍的看法是，富庶的东部沿海地区已经饱和，因此企业应该进军内地。最近，根据对人口和可支配收入长期增长等因素的预测，本刊的姊妹公司经济学人智库(EIU)列出了最重要的新兴城市。它发现，像重庆和成都这样的内陆城市确实极具吸引力，但东部地区仍然大有可为。与沿海地区距离合理、不太出名却蓬勃发展的城市，如宿迁和徐州，很有可能表现不俗。甚至是在北上广深这样发展已久的一线城市内也仍然存在有利可图的利基市场。

随着中产阶级队伍的扩大，它也在进化。一些人可能已开始厌烦浮华的产品，但仍有数以百万计的人会在今年第一次尝鲜西方品牌。“在这里，每三年就会产生新的一代。”咨询公司Ideo的查尔斯·海耶斯(Charles Hayes)解释说。即使在城市里，消费群体也要高度细分。美国运动服饰巨头耐克的唐纳德·布莱尔(Donald Blair)表示，在中国，该公司“按商业区，甚至按街道”来测定消费者的行为，这样它才能按需定制产品，设立门店。

中国的电子商务成了大赢家，这一市场如今已大过美国。另一家咨询公司Forrester预计，到2019年，电商的年度成交总额将超过一万亿美元。在大城市以外，街头的实体店较少，因此网络购物正变得愈加重要。即使是在进店购物很方便的地方，消费者也经常是在实体店浏览商品，而在网上以更便宜的价格入手。这在全世界都一样，但在中国，无处不在的智能手机、可靠的在线支付体系，以及当天送达服务的普及，都加强了这一趋势。

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