外国人最想和你聊的文化话题：奢侈品

     China is the third largest consumer of luxury goods in the world(after Japan and the US).
     中国是继日美之后的全球第三大消费群。
     The luxury goods are a kind of consumer goods beyond people's existence and development scope, which is special, sparse and rare.
     奢侈品是一种超出人们生存与发展需要范围的，具有独特、稀缺、珍奇等特点的消费品，又称为非生活必需品。
     Luxury in China isn't new.
     在中国，奢侈品并非新兴事物。
     Since ancient times, precious materials and objects have been used to signify status.
     在古代，珍稀的原料和物品就被用来象征地位和身份。
     And Chinese will pay a premium for public consumption.
     中国人愿意为"露眼"的物品付出更多。
     The evolution of luxury as a concept is regulated by such factors as historical changes, cultural context, identification of the subjective agent, religious constrictions, and even aesthetic preferences, and a study of this concept indicates some paradoxical and even conflicting ethical problems.
     "奢侈"一直是历史与政治进程中的伴生物，与统治集团的政治地位相匹配，并得到国家政治体制的合法保障。
     Wine is a luxury in England.
     在英国，葡萄酒是一种奢侈品。
     So we would have no Engel effects to discuss：if income per capita did not change, demand would not be induced shift toward luxuries or toward staples.
     因此，我们无需论及恩格尔效应，如果人均收入没有变动，就不会导致需求奢侈品或向大宗商品转移。
     And even for middle-class Chinese, Starbucks is a barely affordable luxury.
     即使对中国的中产阶层而言，星巴克咖啡也是一种刚刚能消费得起的奢侈品。
     In general most less developed countries attempt to tax luxuries.
     总的说来，大多数欠发达国家都想征收奢侈品税。
     "The old-money people, the long-term rich, built their asset column first. Then, the income generated from the asset column bought their luxuries. The poor and middle class buy luxuries with their own sweat, blood and children's inheritance."
     那些总有钱的人，那些能长期富裕的人，是先建立他们的资产，然后才用资产所产生的收入购买奢侈品，穷人和中产阶级则用他们的血汗钱和将留给孩子们的遗产购买奢侈品。
     Sweden, for example, with a fairly high average income, is a"middle-class" nation with very few rich or poor and may offer almost no potential for true luxury products.
     例如，瑞典平均收入相当高，但它是一个富人和穷人都很少的"中产阶级"国家，对真正的奢侈品几乎不存在任何市场潜力。
     Something that is desirable but not a necessity is a luxury.
     奢侈品是某些值得艳羡却并不必需的东西。
     When all of products enter and seize the Chinese mainland, ambitious luxuries brand manufacturers are taking advantage of accessing to the Chinese mainland market in the early stage as foreshadowing and taking the emerging middle class of Chinese mainland as significant target.
     如今中国大陆的经济迅速崛起，成为世界市场十分具有潜力的重要部分，在各个产品的纷纷进军和抢滩中国大陆的同时，雄心勃勃的奢侈品品牌厂商正以利用前期进入中国大陆市场作铺垫，将新兴的中国大陆中产阶层作为他们的重要目标对象。
     As the development of globalization, the exchanging of commodities becomes more frequently, among which luxuries come to be very particular because of the extraordinary symbolic value-added.
     随着国际分工和全球经济一体化的发展，国际间的商品流通日益频繁，目前所有流通的商品基本涵盖了所有类别，而其中，奢侈品由于其显著的"高符号象征价值"而形成了一个非常特殊的类别，同时也因为通常代表一个国家与民族的某种精神或文化而承载了更多的文化意义。
     Purveyors of posh have a new mandate：Go East!
     奢侈品厂商有了新的目标：向东方出发！
     An updated forecast from Bain ＆ Co. out this morning shows a stronger-than-expected rise in luxury sales for Asia-especially China.
     咨询机构贝恩顾问公司(Bain ＆ Co.)周二上午更新预测，显示出以中国为首的亚洲奢侈品销售增长高于预期。
     Meanwhile, the Chinese are discovering their inner conspicuous consumer. Sales of everything from private jets to watches and jadeinlaid Ferraris are soaring.
     与此同时，中国人却发现自己国内实力雄厚的主顾。从私人飞机、名牌手表到嵌玉石的法拉利等奢侈品销量飙升。
     As a result, when it comes to brands, the Chinese are some of the most visually tuned-in consumers in the world.
     因此，当提到品牌的时候，中国人是世界上视觉最敏感的消费者。
     So why are watches so attractive to China's luxury buyers? One added appeal they have is that they're considered suitable gifts by most Chinese. And it appears to be a guy thing.
     为什么手表对中国的奢侈品买家如此有吸引力呢？手表有一个格外的吸引人之处，即绝大多数中国人都认为手表是适于送人的礼物，而且似乎是男人应该拥有的一个物品。

     Lucy：Count the luxuries in our lives.
     露西：数一数我们生活中曾经的奢侈品吧。
     Jim：People in'60s last century are not unfamiliar to sewing machine.
     吉姆：上世纪六十年代的人对缝纫机不会感到陌生。
     Lucy：Owning a sewing machine was a ostentatious display.
     露西：那时候拥有缝纫机简直是可以炫耀的资本。
     Jim:And they all aspire to own bikes.
     吉姆：那时的人们很向往自行车。
     Lucy：Bikes exceed the range of a vehicle for transportation in their minds.
     露西：可以说自行车在当时人们的心目中已经超出了交通工具的范畴。
     Jim：And watches, radios and televisions.
     吉姆：还有手表、收音机、电视机。
     Lucy：They are all back out of the luxuries.
     露西：它们现在都已经退出了奢侈品的行列。
     Jim：Computers cameras and mobile phones are popular generally.
     吉姆：电脑、照相机和手机也都逐渐普及。
     Lucy：Someone put the college students into the luxuries that had gone.
     露西：还有人把大学生也划归到已经消失的奢侈品的行列中了。
     Jim：Yes, nowadays, we are using the luxuries of yesterday, but we just can't afford the luxuries of today.
     吉姆：唉，今天我们都在用过去视为奢侈品的东西，却买不起今天的奢侈品。
     Lucy：Yes, they are so expensive. A LV will cost nearly my three months' salary. I can't imagine.
     露西：是啊，都太贵了。一个LV包就要花去我三个月的薪水，简直不敢想象。
     Jim：The world develops by leaps and bounds beyond our mind.
     吉姆：不是我不明白，这世界变化快。