回國賺錢更容易 溫州小鎮的棄歐海歸大綱

On the approach to Li’ao village, it looks like any rural hamlet in this part of eastern coastal China. Ramshackle houses are nestled into steep hills and a graceful Chinese temple topped with dragons, phoenixes and curling gables adorns its main street.
走近麗嶴鎮，它看起來和中國東部沿海地區的其他鄉村小鎮沒什麼兩樣。搖搖欲墜的房屋坐落在陡峭的山坡上，鎮裏的主要街道上佇立着一座雅緻的中國寺廟，屋頂上有龍和鳳的雕塑，以及弧線形的山牆。

But in the spot where you would expect the local tea merchant is a building with a sign completely alien in contemporary rural China: “I Dream of Paris Café” it says, in both English and Chinese.
但在本該是當地茶館的地方，卻出現了一座對當代中國農村來說完全陌生的咖啡館。這家咖啡館的中文名稱是“夢·巴黎咖啡休閒會所”（英文名：Dream of Paris Café club）。

Down the street is the Prato Café. Then the Venice restaurant. More than a dozen other European-style cafés, restaurants and red wine merchants thrive in this village of 20,000 that has a long tradition of exporting labourers and semi-skilled workers to the factories of Italy and the slums and Chinatowns of Paris or Madrid.
沿着街道往下走是普拉託咖啡館，然後是威尼斯茶餐廳。鎮上還有其他十幾家生意火爆的歐式咖啡館、餐廳和紅酒坊。這個擁有兩萬人口的小鎮有着向意大利工廠、向巴黎或馬德里貧民窟和唐人街輸送勞動力和半熟練工人的悠久傳統。

Li’ao is known throughout the Wenzhou area as “Europe village”. Every household can name family members living in Italy or Spain or Portugal – and their risk-taking has improved the fortunes of the next generation. In most of tea-drinking China, coffee is as foreign as cheese and baguettes. In this village, locals claim to serve the best coffee in the country, along with all kinds of delicacies imported directly from Europe.
麗嶴是溫州地區有名的“歐洲村”。幾乎家家戶戶都有人居住在意大利、西班牙或葡萄牙——他們的冒險精神令下一代的命運改觀。在中國大多數有喝茶習慣的地區，咖啡就像奶酪和法式長棍麪包一樣是外來品。但在這個小鎮裏，當地人聲稱他們能提供國內最好的咖啡，以及各種從歐洲直接進口的美味佳餚。

Lin Aizhu, 41, is the pretty and stylishly-dressed owner of Prato Café and introduces herself in fluent Italian as “Linda”. She describes an experience typical for many of the people from her village. Her decision to move abroad was rooted in youthful drive and a pact between her and her husband to seek a better life.
現年41歲的林愛珠（音譯）是一位穿着時髦的漂亮女士，也是普拉託咖啡館的老闆。她用流利的意大利語自我介紹說她叫“琳達”。她稱自己的經歷和鎮裏許多人類似。她移居國外的決定源於年輕時的衝動，也是她和丈夫爲了嚮往更美好的生活而作出的一個約定。

Her return sheds light on a new dimension of the China-Europe relationship that is not often appreciated by Europeans, who mostly see a one-way flow of new Chinese migrants. The Financial Times this week examined China’s expansion in some of the hardest hit eurozone countries – part of a national effort to find new markets and enhance economic growth – as well as the ambitions of Chinese businesses and migrants who sought fresh opportunities.
林愛珠回到家鄉展示了中歐關係的一個新層面——歐洲人往往不會注意到這個發展，他們大多隻看到中國移民涌入歐洲的一面。英國《金融時報》系列報道關注中國在那些遭受危機最沉重打擊的歐元區國家的擴張——這是中國發現新市場和增強經濟實力的努力的一部分——以及中國企業和移民尋求新機遇的雄心。

In the early 1990s, when Linda had just completed high school and was still a teenager, she and her husband borrowed more than Rmb300,000 (an astronomical sum at the time) from their relatives to pay people smugglers, known as “snakeheads”, to spirit them into Europe.
上世紀90年代初，林愛珠高中畢業後，未滿20歲的她和丈夫從親戚那裏借了30多萬元人民幣（這在當時是很大的一筆錢）付給“蛇頭”，以偷渡去歐洲。

Her husband went first but he was caught by Russian border guards who beat him and sent him back, she said. It took him more than a year of trying and a long trek through the mountains of eastern Europe before he arrived in France.
她說，她的丈夫先出發，但被俄羅斯邊防軍抓獲。邊防軍把他揍了一頓後送了回來。後來他花了一年多嘗試偷渡，最後經過長途跋涉，穿過東歐山脈抵達法國。

Linda’s illegal trip was less eventful but fuelled by as much resolve. She travelled by train through Russia, Romania and then France, with a fake passport.
林愛珠的偷渡之旅沒那麼多變故，但同樣展現出堅定意志。她用假護照坐上火車，穿過俄羅斯和羅馬尼亞，最後到了法國。

With no skills, no language beyond her own local dialect and no residency papers, she worked in a sweatshop in Paris. She barely had enough to eat, she said, and often worked 30 hours without a break.
由於沒有技能、除了方言以外不懂其他語言，更沒有移民身份，她只能在巴黎的一家“血汗工廠”幹活。她說，當時自己幾乎吃不飽飯，經常30個小時連續工作。All of her five brothers and sisters emigrated to Europe that way, she said.
她表示，她的5個兄弟姐妹也都通過這種方法移居歐洲。

“Life was very bitter,” Linda says of her early years. “But we heard about an amnesty for illegal migrants in Italy and we eventually managed to get residence papers and start our own business making scarves, necklaces and watches in Prato. Life was much better after that.”
林愛珠在談到自己早年的經歷時說：“生活非常苦。不過後來我們聽說意大利在大赦非法移民，於是我們最終在那裏拿到了居留證，並開始自己做生意，在普拉託製作頭巾、項鍊和手錶。之後生活就好多了。”

Prato, a manufacturing hub for fashion in Italy’s Tuscany region, became a magnet for migrants from Wenzhou province. Today, it bustles with Chinese migrants still looking for that difficult first job – as well as educated Chinese now attending Italian universities.
普拉託是意大利托斯卡納地區(Tuscany)的一個時尚產品製造中心，那裏已經成爲吸引溫州移民的聚集地。如今，普拉託依然擠滿了仍在苦苦尋覓首份工作的中國移民，以及受過良好教育、正在意大利讀大學的中國人。

The Wenzhou government does not keep accurate migration statistics but Xu Jie, deputy director for Wenzhou’s Overseas Chinese Administrative Office, estimates that 500,000 Wenzhou natives live overseas, most in Europe. Such a diaspora has been a boon to the local economy, she said.
溫州市政府沒有準確的移民統計數據，但溫州市僑辦副主任許捷估計，約有50萬溫州人生活在海外，其中大部分人在歐洲。她說，這些溫州移民促進了當地經濟的發展。

“Around 80 per cent of foreign investment to Wenzhou actually comes from Chinese living overseas,” Ms Xu says. “Particularly since the 2008 financial crisis we have seen many emigrants returning to Wenzhou. These days it seems it is easier to make money here than over there.”
許捷說：“溫州吸引的海外投資實際上有80%左右來自海外華人。尤其是自2008年金融危機以來，我們看到很多海外華人返回溫州。現在在國內似乎比在國外更容易賺錢。”

The days of paying exorbitant fees to people-smuggling snakeheads are pretty much gone as well, because both Chinese and foreign restrictions have eased. When Linda and her family left China it was virtually impossible for ordinary Chinese to get a passport.
向蛇頭支付高額費用以偷渡出國的日子在很大程度上也已成往事，因爲無論是中國還是外國都已經放鬆了旅行限制。當年林愛珠及其家人離開中國的時候，普通中國人幾乎不可能獲得護照。

Nowadays, nearly anyone in China can get a passport. Chinese tourists are the world’s biggest spenders and European governments are scrambling to make visa procedures easier. Chinese who long for home can move with relative ease, choosing between two familiar worlds.
現在，幾乎每一箇中國人都能獲得護照。中國人是全球花錢最多的遊客，歐洲各國政府竭力簡化簽證流程。想念家鄉的中國人可以相對輕鬆地來往於兩個熟悉的世界。

Linda worked for 20 years in Prato. She returned to Li’ao this year to open her café and to help her children study for possible entry to university.
林愛珠在普拉託工作了20年。她今年回到麗嶴開了自己的咖啡館，並幫助孩子們準備考大學。

Her generation of unskilled workers feels economic opportunities are now better at home than in Europe, still unsteady from the 2008 financial crisis and the European debt crisis aftermath.
她們這一代沒有技術的工人認爲，現在國內的經濟機會比歐洲更好。歐洲仍未走出2008年金融危機以及隨後歐洲債務危機的陰影。

Linda and her husband were poor when they arrived in Europe. By the time they returned to China last year, they had saved enough to buy an apartment close to the Duomo in Prato and to set up a café in Li’ao.
她和丈夫在剛到歐洲的時候很窮，但到去年回國的時候，他們已經攢下了足夠的錢，可以在普拉託大教堂附近買下一套公寓，並在麗嶴開一家咖啡館。

Linda said she and many contemporaries are being pulled home by a sense of belonging – even though her family now chooses to eat pizza and spaghetti every weekend.
林愛珠表示，她和許多同輩人之所以回國，是因爲這裏讓他們有歸屬感——儘管她的家人現在每個週末都要吃比薩餅和意大利麪。

“It’s true that in Europe the food is safe and the air is good, unlike back here,” says Linda. “But the Italians really discriminate against us, while back here it is now easier to make a fortune than it is over there.”
她說：“當然，與國內不一樣的是，歐洲的食品更安全，空氣也好。但意大利人真的很歧視我們，而現在回國賺錢比在那邊更容易。”