【中文标题】二奶与中国繁荣的奢侈品市场
【原文标题】Second Wives and China's Booming Luxury Market
【登载媒体】赫芬顿邮报
【原文作者】Tom Doctoroff.
【原文链接】http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-doctoroff/second-wives-and-chinas-b_b_824380.html
尽管准确的数字难以计算，但是2008年的一项调查显示，二奶消费了中国奢侈品市场中三分之一的产品。官方与社会间对这一现象的接受程度有着巨大的差异。我们必须在深植于中国人文化价值观的基础上看待这个饱受争议的消费群体，包括婚姻与性的区别、关系“转换”本质上实用主义与浪漫主义之间的区别。
社会对二奶持什么态度？
你必须从中国传统文化的角度考虑这个问题。一个男人如果要“履行其天职”，那么他必须要有一个儿子，女人通常是用来延续孩子父亲的姓氏的一个工具。所以，纳妾在数千年的历史中成为了一种惯例。中国人对性一直抱有极为务实的态度。
因为中国从未发生过人道主义革命，所以性和婚姻长久以来是相对独立的概念。这也是为什么很多亚洲国家都有庞大的、商业化的、分类明细的性产业。中国人将两者分开所采取的方法极为独特——配偶的选择就像麦当劳的菜单一样被列在霓虹灯牌子上。
而且，婚姻的核心价值在于“承诺”，这可以让一个家庭产生凝聚力。直到今天，对于丈夫享受按摩女的服务和找一个情妇这两件事，妻子更有可能对前者视而不见。如果男人找了一个情妇，而且他有没什么钱，那么这会在根本上威胁到他的婚姻。但是如果丈夫是个有钱人，收入颇丰，那么他完全可以在不违背自己对第一任妻子的承诺的情况下，再找一个老婆。所以，中国有一整套体系来确保在婚姻不破裂的前提下行事。
二奶并不被社会所接受，但也不是什么完全见不得人的事情。
当我问别人养活一个二奶——一个被俘获的情妇——需要多少钱时，别人给我的平均数字是人民币5万元。这不仅仅是一个女朋友，而且还是一个靠他人来养活的人。她的存在是为了展示这个男人的力量和权力，还有金钱方面的地位。
那么接下来就要买一辆拉风的车吗？
没错。很少有人真的去买炫酷的车，因为这太招摇了。你可以买奔驰、宝马或者奥迪A8，这可以理解，但是玛莎拉蒂就有点危险了，没人会在众目睽睽之下在街上开这种车。大家都心知肚明，情妇自身就是一种商品。
这种关系影响到礼物的文化了吗？2009年，所有被消费的奢侈品中有50％都是作为礼物，这其中有多少是给二奶的礼物？
这当然没有精确的统计数据。大部分奢侈品礼物还是在男人之间交换——你可以认为这是商业环境中的一种润滑行为。这是让中国的奢侈品市场与众不同的原因之一。男人比女人消费更加奢侈的商品，这通常可以让商业交易更加顺利。
有时候，这种支出是以不正当的方式取得的，并且以此来开拓攫取巨大利益的机会。另一些时候，仅仅是单纯的拍马屁。在我泛泛的观察中，另一个重大的消费来源就是男人送给二奶的礼物，这些礼物大都是浮华、招摇的品牌。
二奶之所以喜欢招摇的品牌，是因为她们必须要展示男人对她们的关心。她们的生活没有保障、不独立，因此必须要告诉别人有人原意给自己花钱。
二奶对二线城市经济的影响是什么？
二奶在一线城市中当然比较多，因为那里是富人居住的地方，但是任何城市的中产阶级都会包二奶。我曾经询问别人，上层的中产阶级中有情妇的人群比例是多少——当然不会是准确的数字，但是我们可以以此了解公众的想法如何——我得到的数字是85％－90％。这已经完全变成了权力的附属利益。即使是前主席×××也有一个高调的情妇——一位在每年春节联欢晚会上都会出现的歌唱家。这件事并没有被认为是丑闻。
然而，政府制定一些政策禁止官员包养情妇并非出于道德原因，而是为了防止腐败。人们普遍认为情妇是完全依赖不正当所得来生存的，而且还是引发腐败诉讼的导火索，因为一名官员的正常收入不足以养活一个情妇。
既然二奶有如此巨大的购买力，有没有一些品牌找她们做代言呢？
当然没有直接这样做的品牌，这个问题的答案是显然的，因为品牌会因这些人的社会形象而受损。
是否有迹象表明正室对二奶的厌恶情绪会影响她们的奢侈品购买习惯？
其实没有什么变化，中国女性总是希望既保持优雅又引人注目，因此人们热衷于钻石和宝缇嘉那醒目的交织型标志。中国女性希望突出自身的朴素、女性温柔的特点，同时也希望能展示自身与众不同的一面。所以那些低调的奢侈品牌总是受中国女性的欢迎。你看到的是那些刻意迎合市场需求、相对俗气的品牌市场增长。
这些品牌是否有可能追随不幸的巴宝莉在中国出现“土气效应”，因为它们与二奶发生了某种关联？
我认为巴宝莉的确流失了一些品牌地位，但也有所恢复——它在本土还是极为进取的。一些品牌之所有走向海外，并不是因为它们变得俗气了，而是因为它们在一开始就不高贵。它们退出市场是因为品牌老化、缺少创新。但是这里又有另外一个话题——中国人想要大品牌，但他们还想走在潮流的前面。
爱情的概念与这一切形成了哪些碰撞？
二奶文化仅仅是中西方对于爱情和婚姻不同见解中的一部分。西方的婚姻源于浪漫的激情，尽管这种激情会随时间而有所变化，我们依然认为如果没有激情，就不是一个牢固的婚姻关系。当然，这其中必然包含的其它因素，比如孩子、金钱，但它们都不是婚姻关系的核心所在。
在中国，婚姻根本不是两个人之间的关系，而是两个家族之间的关系。人们通过婚姻来进入一个更广阔的社会群体，个人并不是最基本的生产单位。中国历来如此。
完美的中国式浪漫必须伴随着某种承诺。如果翻译中文“钻石恒久远”，我们并不是说激情恒久远，而是说“我永远会为你做任何事”。因此人们才会给他们的情妇买很多东西——他们的感情需要通过这种方式来表达。
《非诚勿扰》是一个男女约会的电视节目，女人在节目中展示出自己对男人的物质要求条件。其中最无耻的一个嘉宾——马诺——在强调物质利益是她寻找配偶的最重要的标准之后，引起了轩然大波。（语录：“如果我被抛弃，我宁愿在宝马后座上哭，也不原意在自行车后座上笑。”）人们谴责她“不道德”。但她的确暴露了现实：尽管人们关注心理感受，但是社会强迫人们为了将来的保障而寻求物质回报。在房价飙升的现实中，这种要求越来越难以得到满足，然而人们对物质婚姻的需求越来越不加掩饰。
当然，我并不是说中国人之间没有爱情，或者人们不希望坠入爱河。我只是说浪漫的爱情正在与切实的物质利益展开竞争，原因是中国社会无法通过制度保障个人的利益安全。
原文：
While accurate numbers are hard to come by, a 2008 estimate says that Second Wives account for a third of the country's consumption of luxury products. There is a tension between what is officially and socially accepted, however. This contentious consumer group must be viewed in light of a deep-rooted set of Chinese cultural values, including the distinction between marriage and sex and the practical rather than romantic nature of the relationship 'transaction'.
What are societal attitudes to Second Wives?
You have to start with traditional Chinese culture. In order for a man to 'fulfill his mandate to heaven' he needs to produce a son, and women have always been used as a means to an end in propagating the name of the father. So concubinage has been an institution for thousands of years and the Chinese have always had an exceptionally pragmatic attitude toward sex.
Because China has never had a humanist revolution, sex and marriage have always been relatively divorced. That is why many Asian cultures have an immensely commercialized and categorized [sex industry]. The way they separate the two is quite stunning -- the choices are up on neon boards like a McDonald's menu.
Now the caveat is that the core of the marriage is 'commitment', which is to make sure the family remains cohesive. Even today, wives are much more likely to look the other way if the husband has a happy ending at a massage than if he takes on a mistress. If he takes on a mistress, for most unwealthy people, this is a fundamental threat to the marriage. But if a husband is a man of means, and has a significant income, then he can take on a second wife without violating his obligation to his first wife. So there is a whole way of maintaining the system without it resulting in divorce.
Er nai are not socially accepted, but they are not scandalous, either.
When I ask people how much it costs to maintain a second wife -- a trophy concubine -- the average I'm told is 50,000RMB. This isn't just a girlfriend, this is someone who is kept. And she is displayed as somebody that's a result of this guy's power and influence, and access to funds.
The next step up from a flash car, then?
Absolutely. Very few people have really flash cars because they're too conspicuous -- you have the Mercedes or BMW, or better yet the Audi A8 because it's understated, but [cars like] Maseratis are still highly dangerous and no one is going to drive one around that obviously. But among close friends and associates the mistress is a known commodity.
And how does that tie into gift culture? In 2009, 50% of luxury purchases were gifts -- what percentage were er nai gifts?
Well, no one has the exact statistics, of course. The majority of luxury brand gift culture is man to man -- you could call it trust facilitation in a business environment. That's one of the things that makes the luxury market in China absolutely unique; men buy even more luxury products than women do, and this is often to smooth business transactions.
Sometimes those payouts are ill-gotten, and a way of siphoning profit into non-measurable ways, and sometimes it's just a way of currying favor. But the fact is that the majority of gifting in China is men to men. That said, in my casual but extended observation, another big source of volume is men to women for the second wife. And those brands tend to be much more flashy.
Second Wives [like flashy brands] because they have to display that their man is dedicated to them. They lead very insecure lives. They are not independent and need to advertise the fact they have a sponsor.
What impact have er nai had on Tier 2 economies?
Of course you will see it more in Tier 1 cities because that's where the wealth is. But any city that has a middle class is going to have Second Wives. I asked people what percentage of upper middle class guys [had mistresses] -- and this might not be accurate but it gives you an idea of how widespread the perception is -- and was told 85-95%. It's certainly become accepted as a perk of power. Even Jiang Zemin, the former President, had a very high profile mistress -- a singer who appears on the Chinese New Year program every year. And it's not a scandal.
However, the reason the government has policy for officials not to have mistresses is not about morals, it's about corruption. The mistress is often thought to be sustained based on ill-gotten gains and it's a trigger for corruption accusations, because the actual salary of an official is not high enough to support a mistress.
Given that er nai have such a large amount of buying power, are there any brands or businesses targeting them directly?
Certainly not directly -- you'd never say something like this directly. But any flash luxury brand is going to be embraced by these women.
Is there any evidence that distaste towards er nai from first wives is impacting their luxury buying habits?
Well there hasn't been a shift, it's always been the case that Chinese women want to be both elegant and conspicuous. That's what accounts for the appeal of a diamond -- it sparkles not shines -- or Bottega Veneta with its elegant crossweave that's still very noticeable. A Chinese woman wants to reinforce her understated, gentle femininity as well as her desire to move forward and stand up. So those inconspicuously conspicuous brands have always been popular among Chinese women. What you're seeing instead, though, are the growth of the more niche, flashier brands.
Is there's a risk of something like the unfortunate Burberry 'chav effect' happening in China because of certain brands' association with Second Wives?
Well, I think Burberry went downmarket, and it was reborn -- it's extremely aspirational here. The brands that go out are not the ones that become too flashy because they're born flashy, that's their niche from the very beginning. The ones that die are the ones that grow old and don't innovate. But again that's another subject -- Chinese want big brands but they also want to know they're ahead of the trend curve.
How does the question of love tie into all of this?
Second Wife culture is just one part of a much bigger and more interesting area which is the difference between love and marriage in China and the West. Marriage in the west is rooted in romantic passion, and although that passion evolves over time we basically assume that if it's is gone from marriage it's a shallow marriage. Yes, there are other concerns that surround it -- children, money -- but it's not the core of the relationship.
In China it's fundamentally true that a marriage is not between two individuals, it's between two clans. Marriage is a way that people connect into a broader society in which the individual is not the basic productive unit. This has always been the case.
In China, a romance is not ideal unless it is also accompanied by commitment. In Chinese, when we translate "a diamond is forever", we don't mean that passion lasts forever. It translates as "he will do anything for you, forever". And that's why people buy a lot of things for their mistresses -- that affection needs to be demonstrated, too.
There's a TV show about dating whose title translates as "Don't bother me if you're not serious" [where women list the material things they expect from a man]. One of the more infamous contestants, Ma Nuo, caused an outcry after stressing material benefit as the most important thing she was looking for. (Choice quote: "If I am dumped, I would rather cry on the back seat of a BMW than on a bicycle.") People accused her of lacking 'morality.' But she hit on a truth: where matters of the heart are concerned, society forces people to look for tangible return for the sake of future stability. As it becomes more difficult to make ends meet, particularly with the skyrocketing cost of houses, the imperative of a practical marriage becomes even more pronounced.
Of course, this does not mean that the Chinese are incapable of love, or do not want to fall in love. It means that romantic love competes with that transactional element in a society where people are insecure because their individual interests are not institutionally protected. |
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发表于 2011-2-24 13:43
我什么都没有，那个MM给我做老婆啊？
