在威廉王子(Prince William)上月订婚后不到24小时，布鲁斯•周(Bruce Zhou)就在以几美元的价格在阿里巴巴网站(Alibaba.com)上销售著名的戴安娜(Diana)订婚戒指的复制品。
这枚戒指在浙江义乌制造，这里是中国廉价、劣质的出口商品的制造中心。但在立方氧化锆的夺目光芒之中，这件皇家婚戒仿制品讲述了关于中国从昔日血汗工厂踉踉跄跄地走向未来更高端市场的重要故事。
中国政府正努力摆脱中国价格总是低价的形象。浙江义乌就是一个最典型的例子，在那里，4万平方米的义乌国际商贸城(Yiwu International Trade City)的6.2万家商铺以极微薄的利润率销售170万件商品。义乌以销售全球大部分圣诞装饰而闻名，更不用提数以百万计的扣子、拉链、发带和耳环了。
然而，义乌云娜饰品公司(Yiwu Unnar Jewellery Company)的费舍尔•萨姆(Fisher Sam)计划将该公司打造成为高端皇家婚礼纪念品厂商。在互联网上看到威廉王子订婚的消息后，他下载了这枚著名的戴安娜订婚戒指的图片，并迅速将数百件复制品投产，希望获得先行优势。尽管与原版的质量相去甚远，但这些复制品绝不是西方人通常与中国联系在一起的不值钱的玩意。这种14k镀金金边、镶有蓝色立方锆石和亮闪闪的水晶配件的戒指，在海外的售价为30至40美元。
费舍尔（他喜欢用这个名字）表示，他已发货800件，计划销售5万件，加上其它皇家复制品，例如从凯特•米德尔顿(Kate Middleton)得到灵感的羽毛假发，以及威廉和凯特脸蛋、类似天线宝宝的小玩偶。但这款戒指是他的主打产品：每件成本为2美元，批发价为3美元至4美元，利润率高达100%。费舍尔表示，由于义乌工资水平每年上涨20%、人民币升值、原材料价格飙升以及农民工极为短缺，他没有选择，只有走向高端市场。他表示：“义乌的竞争非常激烈，你必须通过创新产品让自己变得更具竞争力，例如这种皇家婚礼产品线。”
但更高的质量、对市场反应更快的仿制品并非中国政府唯一的未来愿景。义乌金隆国际物流公司(Kingland International Transportation)的金旭峰表示，全球最大的小商品市场——义乌国际商贸城计划实行意义更为深远的改革：希望一些公司完全停止出口，转而聚焦于进口，以满足国内需求。义乌国际商贸城计划明年初将销售进口商品的面积扩大4倍。
这一切都是中国政府宏伟计划的一部分：刺激中国相对较低的国内消费，并对付在国际上引发争议的贸易顺差。中国政府上周五宣布，11月贸易顺差为229亿美元。
如果中国政府能够实现这一计划，等到威廉王子的弟弟哈里王子(Harry)结婚时，中国将有望设计皇家婚戒，而不只是简单复制了。
译者/梁艳裳
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001036059
Within 24 hours of the engagement of Prince William last month, Bruce Zhou was selling replicas of the famous Diana engagement ring on Alibaba.com for a few dollars each. The rings are made in Yiwu, capital of all that is cheap and trashy about Chinese exports. But in all their cubic zirconian splendour, these royal wedding replicas tell an important story about how China is haltingly moving away from a sweatshop past towards a more upmarket future. Beijing is working hard to shake off the image that the China price is always cut-price and nowhere more so than in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, where the 4m square metre Yiwu International Trade City has 62,000 shops selling 1.7m products at razor-thin profit margins. Yiwu is famous for trading the bulk of the world’s Christmas decorations – not to mention buttons and zips, hairbands and earrings by the million. But Fisher Sam of the Yiwu Unnar Jewellery Company, aims to make it famous for high-end royal wedding memorabilia. When he heard news of the engagement on the internet, he downloaded a picture of the famous Diana ring and immediately rushed hundreds of replicas into production, aiming for first-mover advantage. Although being far from the quality of the original, the reproductions are hardly the tuppenny trinkets westerners usually associate with China. With a 14-carat white gold-plated band, blue cubic zirconia stone and sparkling crystal setting, these rings sell overseas for $30 to $40.
Fisher, as he likes to be known, says he has already delivered 800 and aims to sell 50,000 – along with other royal replicas, such as Kate Middleton-inspired feather hairpieces, and small, Teletubbies-like figures bearing the faces of William and Kate. But the rings are his top product: he makes them for $2 each and sells them for $3-4 as part of a wholesale order – a profit margin of up to 100 per cent. With wages rising 20 per cent a year in Yiwu, the renminbi appreciating, raw material prices soaring and an acute shortage of migrant labourers, Fisher says he had no option but to go upmarket. “Competition in Yiwu is very fierce, you really have to make yourself more competitive by doing innovative things like this royal wedding line,” he says. But better quality, more market-responsive fakes are hardly Beijing’s only vision for the future. Jin Xufeng of Kingland International Transportation, a logistics services company in Yiwu, says the International Trade City, the world’s largest small goods market, aims for a more profound transformation: it wants some companies to stop exporting completely and focus on importing, to satisfy domestic demand. Yiwu market aims to quadruple the floorspace devoted to selling imported goods by early next year. It is all part of Beijing’s grand plan to stimulate China’s low domestic consumption and tackle internationally contentious trade surpluses such as the $22.9bn November surplus announced on Friday. If Beijing has its way, by the time Prince William’s younger brother Harry gets married, China will be in the running to design the royal engagement ring, not just copy it.
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