译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com
外文标题：Made in India versus China
外文地址：http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/no-free-lunch/made-in-india-versus-china/?intenttarget=no
Twenty years ago I had the opportunity to see how the labour market in China was incentivised and this was just at the cusp of it becoming the factory to the world. I visited a toy factory in a small town owned by a Hong Kong company, staffed mostly by women and girls. They were making soft toys for the US market from Mickey Mouse to Bugs Bunny and the Muppets. The quality was good and my tour of the factory revealed that the workers were mostly teenage girls who were given Yuan 100 a month and they stayed in airy dormitories and worked five days a week with Saturday as a half day. I had expected to see a sweat shop but the room where the girls worked was large with big windows with enough light and air. The town was beautifully laid out and at least in those days it was not polluted.
20年前，我有幸看到中国是如何激励劳动力市场的，而当时还是她正成为世界工厂之际。我参观了一个小镇上香港公司的玩具厂，工人大多数是妇女和（十几岁的）女孩。她们为美国市场生产软玩具，从米老鼠到兔宝宝，再到提线木偶。玩具的质量还不错。这次参观显示，工人大多数是十几岁的女孩，她们大多数拿着一个月100元的工资，住在通风的宿舍里，每周工作5天，周六上半天。我原本期望看到的是一家血汗工厂，可是女孩工作的车间很大，还带有大大的窗户，光线和空气充足。小镇很漂亮，至少当时没有被污染。
An interesting interview followed, with my Chinese friend, who had taken me there unsupervised, doing the translating. I asked one of the seamstresses where she had come from. She said her family were farmers in a small village and they could not make ends meet so she had come here to work. She said the money was good — this was in 1994 — and that she went home once a year during the Chinese New Year. On the weekends the company would arrange a variety of activities, including basketball, badminton, management classes and outings.
接下来是有趣的采访，我的中国朋友做翻译，是他在无人监督下把我带到那里的。我问其中一位女裁缝师来自哪里。她说家住一个小村子，家人都是农民，由于入不敷出，只好过来打工。她说（赚的）钱还算可以——当时是1994年——她每年春节回一次家。周末，公司会组织各种各样的活动，比如打篮球、打羽毛球、听管理类课程以及出去郊游。
My next visit was to a village where in large sheds an elderly Chinese man was copying Ming and Ch’ing Dynasty furniture to supply to the West Coast of the US, where he had connections and visited often. Since again the interview had to be translated, I asked him if he found it difficult to do business in the West as he did not know English. “No problem,” he said, in Chinese, “my contacts there do all the talking.”
我的下一站是一个村子，一位中国老者在那里大规模仿制明清朝代的家具，供应给美国的西海岸。这位中国老者在那里建立了联系，且常常造访。由于这次访问还是得借助翻译，我问他与西方做生意是否困难，毕竟他不会说英语。“没问题，”他用中文说道，“我的联系人会完成所有的谈判。”
When I returned to India, I asked my friends who were in garment exports how the labour in our country compared to what I had seen. They told me that the tailors were skilled but had no concept of delivery schedules and skipped work for weddings, births, deaths and religious holidays! Since they went to respective villages, sometimes for weeks, deliveries to Europe and the US were often delayed or new labour had to be quickly trained, which often led to flaws in the product — another problem unacceptable to any importing countries.
回到印度后，我问从事服装出口的朋友，国内劳工与我在中国所看到的比起来如何。他们对我说道，（国内）裁缝的技能精湛，但是没有按时交货的时间观念，经常因为参加婚礼、过生日、有人去世或过宗教节日而翘班！由于她们回到了各自的村庄，有时候一去就是几周，造成给欧洲和美国的交货经常延迟，或者新工人不得不快速训练上岗，经常造成产品出现瑕疵——对任何进口国家来说，这是无法接受的另一个问题。
China does not have such issues; workers are mostly given only the 10 days of the Chinese New Year off, though of late they do have a high attrition rate. In addition, the government not only developed large export zones, but also created the environment to enable businesses — this helped China to take the lead. Add to this good highways, no shortage of electricity, and an abundant supply of disciplined labour and you have an unbeatable formula.
中国并不存在此类问题。春节时，工人大多数只有10天的假期，虽然最近出现了工人高流失率的问题。此外，政府不仅开发了大型出口区，而且为企业营造了有利环境，帮助中国独领风潮。不仅如此，中国还拥有状态良好的公路，不缺电，训练有素的工人供应充足，这些组成了无与伦比的“公式”。
This brings me to the basic point of how far we have to go to achieve what Prime Minister Modi wants: get back the Made in India label with quality products, skilled labour and efficient factories. I know this can be done as I remember our homes being cooled by Usha fans— Made in India and not once in 40 years was there a complaint.
这把我带回到了一个基本的观点，即我们离实现莫迪总理的目标还有多远，（这个目标是）以优质产品、熟练工人和高效工厂来重拾“印度产”标签。我知道这是能办到的，记得“印度产”的Usha风扇给我们的家带来了凉风，且40年不曾出现一次投诉。
Today, Usha or Crompton fans – made in China, are giving trouble, endlessly! I am told fans are no longer made here. The same can be said of most products bought in the market today. In fact, almost everything electronic is made in China, imported to India and sold under Indian brand names such as Crompton, Usha, Micromax cellphones etc. The economies of scale in China are such that a single factory making compressors produces more than all the factories in India put together!
今天，中国产的Usha和Crompton风扇无休止地带来麻烦！我被告知风扇不再本地产了。同样的情况适用于今天市场上能买到的大多数产品。事实上，几乎所有电子产品都是中国造，然后出口到印度，贴上Crompton、Usha以及Micromax手机等印度品牌标签后拿来出售。中国的经济规模如此庞大，单单一家工厂生产的压缩机就比印度所有工厂加起来还更多！