A PYRAMID of bras stands beside each worker at the Honji Underwear factory in Gurao, a town in the southern province of Guangdong. The workshop resounds with the clack-clack of sewing machines as employees repeat their single, assigned task before passing the garment on to the next person on the production line. Most of the 22,000 thickly padded bras made here each day are destined for shops in China. In this “Town of Underwear”, as the local government likes to call it, there are thousands of similar factories. Gurao produces 350m bras and 430m vests and pairs of knickers a year for sale at home and abroad. Undies account for 80% of its industrial output.
在位于广东省南部谷饶镇的广东宏杰内衣实业有限公司，每个工人身边都有着堆成金字塔般的文胸。工厂车间回荡着缝纫机咔哒咔哒的声音，在把一件衣服传给生产流水线上的下一个人之前，工人们重复着他们单一指定的工作。这里每天生产出来的
22,000
个垫得厚厚的衬垫文胸中的大部分将运往中国的各个商店。在这个“内衣之乡”，正如当地政府乐意称呼的那样，有数千家类似的工厂。谷饶每年生产
3.5
亿只文胸和
4.3
亿件背心以及女式衬裤销往国内外。女式衬衣占据了其
80%
的工业产值。
Across Gurao, billboards show big-breasted—usually foreign—women sporting the lingerie that underwires the town’s prosperity. But many people in Gurao and other underwear-factory clusters around Shantou, a coastal city, worry about the future. Costs are rising, but customers are unwilling to pay more, says JuneLiu of Pengsheng Underwear, which makes lingerie and swimwear. Last year several factory-owners fled from Gurao, leaving debts and unpaid wages. Some also shut up shop in Chendian, another underwear town nearby.
遍布谷饶的广告牌展示着丰满的胸部——通常是外国女性的——炫耀着托举着这个城镇繁荣的女性内衣。但是，谷饶的许多人以及其他坐落于沿海城市汕头的内衣工厂集群正担忧着未来。成本日益上升，但是消费者们不愿意付出更多，生产女性内衣和游泳衣的鹏升内衣公司的
June Liu
说道。去年，数家工厂的老板逃离谷饶，留下债务和未付清的工资。在附近的另一个内衣镇陈店，一些人也关闭了他们的工厂。
During the past three decades of rapid economic growth, one-industry towns like Gurao and Chendian sprang up along China’s eastern seaboard, often in what were once paddy fields. With investment from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and a huge influx of migrant labour from China’s interior, they fuelled the country’s export boom. There are now more than 500 such towns, making products such as buttons, ties, plastic shoes, car tyres,toys, Christmas decorations and toilets.
在过去
30
年经济飞速增长的过程中，像谷饶和陈店这样依靠单一产业的城镇在中国东部的沿海地区，特别是曾经是稻田的地方，迅速涌现出来。伴随着来自香港和台湾的投资，以及来自中国内陆地区的流动劳工的涌入，他们推动了国家出口的蓬勃发展。现在，全国有超过
500
个这样的城镇，它们生产的产品有：纽扣、领带、塑料鞋、汽车轮胎、玩具、圣诞装饰和坐便器。
Gurao is one of several underwear hubs that have made China the world’s largest lingerie producer. The country made 2.9 billion bras in 2014, 60% of the world’s total, according to Frost &Sullivan, a consultancy. In several industries, the clustering of similar firms in the same place creates a critical mass of good suppliers and workers with relevant skills. Niche towns in China produce 63% of the world’s shoes, 70% ofits spectacles and 90% of its energy-saving lamps.
谷饶是使中国成为世界上最大的女式内衣生产者的几个内衣生产中心中的一个。根据弗罗斯特沙利文（
Frost & Sullivan
）咨询公司，中国
2014
年就生产了
29
亿只文胸，占世界总产量的
60%
。在一些产业中，类型相似的公司在同一个地方的集聚能够创造足够多的优质供应商和具备相关技能的工人。中国的这些专营某个单一行业的城镇生产了世界上
63%
的鞋子，
70%
的眼镜，以及
90%
的节能灯。
All this growth has had an environmental cost. In 2010 Greenpeace, an NGO, reported that fabric-dyeing plants in Gurao had severely polluted the water, making it unfit to drink. But the bra-makers of Gurao are far more worried about foreign competition than foreign eco-warriors.
所有这些增长已经产生了环境成本。在
2010
年，
NGO
组织绿色和平（
Greenpeace
）报告了谷饶镇的织物印染工厂已经严重地污染了当地水源，使之不适宜饮用。但是，相较于国外的环保斗士，谷饶的文胸制造者更担心的是来自国外的竞争者。
China’s consumer goods grabbed a huge share of global markets thanks to their low prices. That advantage is fading. Since 2001 wages have risen by 12% a year. Thailand and Vietnam, where labour is cheaper and taxes lower, now make lingerie for global brands such as Victoria’s Secret and La Senza. China’s biggest underwear firm, Regina Miracle, will open two factories in Vietnam this year, its first outside China. It plans another two there by 2018. Cambodia and Myanmar are joining the fray. Wacoal, a Japanese underwear-maker, opened factories in both countries in 2013 and another in Myanmar last year.
得益于其低廉的价格，中国的消费品牢牢占据着全球市场中的庞大份额。这种优势正在消退。自
2001
年起，工资一直以每年
12%
的速度上升。劳动力更便宜和税负更轻的泰国和越南正在为诸如维多利亚的秘密（
Victoria
’
s Secret
）和娜圣莎（
La Senza
）这样的世界名牌制造女士内衣。中国最大的内衣公司，维珍妮国际，今年将在越南开设两家工厂，这还是它第一次把工厂设在中国以外的地方。到
2018
年，它还计划在越南开设另外两家工厂。柬埔寨和缅甸正在加入这场激烈的竞争。日本内衣制造商华歌尔（
Wacoal
）于
2013
年在这两个国家设立了工厂，并且去年又在缅甸又增设了另外一家工厂。
Gurao still has advantages, such as excellent supply chains. Several factories there make components forunder garments: dyed textiles, lace and the tough foam used to upholster push-up bras. Every form of elastic waistband used for boxer shorts is produced locally. The town also appears to enjoy loose regulation of trademarks. Some of the waistbands use misspellings such as “Calven Klain” and “Oalvin Klein” in an attempt to cash in on famous brand names.
谷饶依然具有一些优势，例如其优秀的供应链。在那里的几家工厂制作内衣的组成部分：印染织物，蕾丝，以及为上托式胸罩添加软垫用的硬性泡沫。用于拳击短裤的每一种松紧腰身都是当地制造的。该镇似乎也享受着较为宽松的商标管制。一些松紧腰身的名称使用了诸如”
Calven Klain
”和”
Oalvin Klein
”这样的错误拼写以图从那些知名品牌的名称中获利。
Officials in Gurao insist that the town can overcome its difficulties by upgrading its technology and using machines instead of people. But attracting the capital and skill to transform Gurao maybe more difficult than the daring step taken by a local entrepreneur in 1982 when he opened its first bra factory, at a time when private enterprise was still frowned on in China.
谷饶的官员们坚称该镇可以通过升级其技术和用机器代替人力来度过难关。但是吸引资本和技术来改变谷饶要比在私人公司还不被中国所认可的
1982
年一个当地的企业家开办第一家文胸工厂时候所迈出的勇敢的一步要困难的多。
