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China’s transformation into the “workshop of the world” just over a decade ago was powered by rural migrant workers earning less than their counterparts at the start of the UK’s industrial revolution in the 18th century as they produced consumer goods for shopping malls worldwide. Now, in a reversal set to drive China’s next big economic evolution, an estimated 220m migrant workers are becoming potent consumers in their own right.
推动中国在10多年前成为“世界工厂”的是农民工。他们为世界各地的商场生产消费者产品，而他们的工资比18世纪英国工业革命开始时英国工人的工资还要低。如今，这个估计人数达2.2亿的农民工群体本身正在成为一个有实力的消费者群体。这一根本转变势必推动中国的下一场重大经济演变。
This cohort spent Rmb4.2tn ($677bn) on consumer goods and services in 2012, according to a nationwide survey of 1,500 migrants by China Confidential, a Financial Times research service. Putting this into context, it is equivalent to 1.5 times total consumer spending in Indonesia last year and 23 per cent more than that of Turkey in 2011.
英国《金融时报》旗下调研机构《中国投资参考》(China Confidential)对中国各地1500名农民工的调查显示，农民工群体2012年总共消费了4.2万亿元人民币(合6770亿美元）的商品和服务。要更加直观地理解这个数字，不妨作一些对比：它相当于印尼去年总消费者支出的1.5倍，或者比土耳其2011年总消费者支出高出23%。
The shift is a metaphor for the country itself, deriving as much from psychological, social and generational shifts as economic inflection points. Migrants born into the relative plenty of the 1990s are considerably more spendthrift than those born in the 1980s and 1970s, spending 53 per cent of their incomes, compared with 47.2 per cent and 38.3 per cent respectively, the survey shows.
这种转变也是中国本身转变的缩影，其原因既包括经济到达拐点，也包括心理、社会以及代际的转变。前述调查显示，出生于相对富裕的90年代的“90后”，在花钱方面比“80后”和“70后”要大手大脚得多。他们花掉53%的收入，而“80后”和“70后”的这个数字分别为47.2%和38.3%。
Much of their monthly discretionary spending goes on mass consumer items such as instant noodles, fast food, beer, soft drinks, clothing, footwear and mobile phones. While brand consciousness remains rudimentary, preferences for some brands – foreign and domestic – are rapidly emerging as the cohort climbs the income ladder. These include Uni-President and Master Kong noodles; KFC and McDonald’s for fast food; Nokia and Samsung for mobile phones; Anta and Li-Ning sportswear; Shuanghui for processed meat; Snow and Tsingtao for beer; and Taobao for online shopping.
农民工每月的可自由支配支出大部分用于购买大众消费者产品，比如方便面、快餐、啤酒、无醇饮料、服装鞋帽和手机。尽管他们的品牌意识仍处于朦胧阶段，但随着收入的增加，他们正迅速形成对一些中外品牌的偏好，包括统一(Uni-President)和康师傅(Master Kong)方便面，肯德基(KFC)和麦当劳(McDonald's)快餐，诺基亚(Nokia)和三星(Samsung)手机，安踏(Anta)和李宁(Li-Ning)运动服装，双汇(Shuanghui)肉制品，雪花(Snow)和青岛(Tsingtao)啤酒，以及上淘宝(Taobao)网购物。
Such early fumbles toward brand sophistication are remarkable in a group treated with almost universal condescension by city dwellers only a decade ago. Leslie Chang, author of Factory Girls , a book about the migrant phenomenon, describes how bosses – secure in the knowledge that there were numberless millions more would-be workers than jobs – would treat employees with ill-disguised disdain.
这些朦胧的品牌意识令人瞩目，因为这个群体仅10年前还几乎普遍被城市居民瞧不起。记述农民工现状的《工厂女孩》(Factory Girls)一书作者张彤禾(Leslie Chang)说，在每一个工作岗位都会引来无数农民工争抢的时代，老板们对手下员工的鄙夷几乎是毫不掩饰的。