The last time I went home, vintage was all the rage. My mother used to take me Op shopping (opportunity), charity or thrift to those Brits and Americans reading this; the smells, the stories, the treasures we could find; it was exciting stuff. It was never really fashionable to actually wear anything we bought; only recently has fashion swung in the direction of wearing second hand clothes.
我上次回家的时候，复古很流行。 我妈妈曾经带我去购物（机会）、慈善或节俭给那些读这篇文章的英国人和美国人；我们能找到的气味、故事、宝藏；这是令人兴奋的东西。 真正穿我们买的东西从来都不是时尚的；直到最近，时尚才转向穿二手衣服。
When it became chic, the word that was mainly used to describe an old whisky or wine was given a whole new identity. Suddenly, “vintage” was all the rage. Not only clothes, but record players from the 60s, even cassette players from the 80s and VCRs from the 90s all suddenly fell under the vintage banner, somewhat prematurely aging a whole generation, might I add!
当它变得别致时，主要用来描述旧威士忌或葡萄酒的词被赋予了全新的身份。 突然间，“复古”变得流行。 不仅是衣服，还有60年代的唱片机，甚至80年代的磁带播放器和90年代的录像机都突然落入复古的旗帜下，我可以补充一点，让整整一代人过早地老化！
Vintage; denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind. With regards to clothing, Cambridge dictionary defines vintage as, “used but of good quality”. In China it’s “old style” (老式) and the use of the word mirrors the trend that began in the West and is gaining popularity in China.
复古；表示过去高质量的东西，尤其是代表同类产品中最好的东西。 關於服裝，劍橋詞典將復古定義為「二手但品質好」。 在中国，它是“老式”，这个词的使用反映了西方开始并在中国越来越流行的趋势。
As a foreigner in China, one can be mistaken for expecting a shop that calls itself Vintage, to actually have vintage clothing in it. “No, everything in here is brand new”, said a shop owner in Gulou who indeed works in a shop that is named thus… in English. “So why is your shop called Vintage? And why does everything look old and dusty”, I asked. “Well, the previous owners sold second hand clothes, and so we just kept the name and the style”.
作为一个在中国的外国人，人们可能会被误认为是期待一家自称Vintage的商店，实际上有复古服装。 「不，这里的一切都是全新的，」古盧的一位店主說，他確實在一家以英語命名的商店工作。 “那么为什么你的商店叫Vintage？ 我问道：「為什麼一切都看起来又旧又尘土飞扬。」 “嗯，前主人卖二手衣服，所以我们只保留了名字和风格。”
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When looking at how the Chinese view vintage clothing, it seems to be a matter of first and second tier internationalisation. The first tierers seem to have let go of some traditional beliefs that surround second hand clothes. They have adopted the trendiness of the practice and seem to be on board with its eco-friendly aspects. Whereas, us second tierers, even though we like the look, we still cannot bare the thought of wearing another person’s hand-me-downs.
从中国人如何看待复古服装来看，这似乎是一个一级和二级国际化的问题。 第一批人似乎已经放下了围绕二手衣服的一些传统信仰。 他们采用了这种做法的潮流，似乎也加入了其环保方面。 然而，我们二等人，尽管我们喜欢这个外观，但我们仍然无法忍受穿别人的手下来的想法。
Shanghai-based buy and sell clothing company Live with Less hope to educate Chinese people about their throw-away habits, and how it is affecting the environment. Although this is becoming quite trendy in places such as Shanghai’s French quarter, elsewhere in China, superstition trumps the trend.
总部位于上海的服装买卖公司Live with Less希望教育中国人了解他们的丢棄习惯，以及它如何影响环境。 虽然这在中国其他地方，如上海的法国区，正在变得相当流行，但迷信胜过这种趋势。
Traditionally, it is considered bad luck to wear another person’s clothing, especially if that person has died. Not only is it unlucky, but it is also considered beneath a person and shows a lack of wealth. “No such shop like this exists in Nanjing”, said my accountant. While that is not entirely true; Nanjing’s trendiest hood Shanghai Lu does house a collection of “vintage” shops, the attitude says it all.
传统上，穿别人的衣服被认为是不吉利的，特别是如果那个人已经死了。 它不仅不走运，而且被认为不如人，表明缺乏财富。 我的会计说：“南京没有这样的商店。” 虽然这并不完全正确；南京最时尚的兜帽上海路确实拥有一系列“复古”商店，态度说明了一切。
That my accountant’s screwed up face at the mere thought of paying money for someone else’s trash told me a lot. “Why would I buy old clothes when I can buy brand-new, good-quality clothes on Taobao?”. Good point. I opened the APP and searched vintage in English. Thousands of old styled clothes instantly flooded the screen. Hawaiian shirts and Downtown Abby dresses scroll over 80s overalls and WW2 dresses. Of course, images of Audrey Hepburn, actual handheld telephones and briefcases appear as well; none of it old, all of it new.
我的会计师一想到要为别人的垃圾付钱就搞砸了，这告诉我很多。 “我可以在淘宝上买到全新、优质的衣服，我为什么要买旧衣服呢？”。 观点很好。 我打开APP，用英语搜索了复古。 成千上萬的老式衣服立刻充斥在屏幕上。 夏威夷衬衫和市中心艾比连衣裙滚动80年代的工作服和二战连衣裙。 当然，奥黛丽·赫本的图像、实际的手持电话和公文包也出现了；这些都不是旧的，都是新的。
It almost negates the noun itself and entirely focuses only on its form as an adjective; actually paying for something old, well that’s just not cricket. Granted, charity shopping is a skill and takes a lot of sifting through some truly atrocious stuff before anything of value appears. Perhaps the luxury of passing down antiques died with the Cultural Revolution. How many Chinese people out there keep the tradition of family heirlooms going?
它几乎否定了名词本身，完全只关注它作为形容词的形式；实际上为一些旧的东西买单，好吧，那不是板球。 诚然，慈善购物是一种技能，在任何有价值的东西出现之前，需要经过大量的贴食。 也许随着文化大革命，传递古董的奢侈已经消亡。 有多少中国人保留了传家宝的传统？
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Recently, Xi Jinping’s government cracked down on the buying of “foreign rubbish”. Trendy Beijing and Shanghai shops now find themselves in a catch 22 situation. As the Chinese do not have the facilities to properly dispose of their clothes, and it is not culturally acceptable to give clothes away, shop owners buy from the US or Japan.
最近，习近平政府打击了购买“外国垃圾”。 时尚的北京和上海商店现在发现自己处于困境。 由于中国人没有适当处理衣服的设施，而且把衣服送人在文化上是不能接受的，所以店主从美国或日本购买。
However with China’s recent crackdown, some authorities deem the clothes sold in their shops as “foreign garbage”, and as a result many shops simply lie and say their clothes are new. “Many people in China still regard these clothes as ‘foreign trash’, which is damaging to the development of vintage culture… It can’t be understood by everybody. People just have different lifestyles”, says Vintage shop owner Eliza Zhao, originally reported by That’s Beijing.
然而，随着中国最近的镇压，一些当局认为他们商店里出售的衣服是“外国垃圾”，因此许多商店只是撒谎说他们的衣服是新的。 “在中国，许多人仍然认为这些衣服是’外国垃圾’，这损害了复古文化的发展…… 这不可能被所有人理解。 人们只是有不同的生活方式，”Vintage店老板Eliza Zhao说，最初由That’s Beijing报道。
Just as the popularity of vintage wine exploded in China, so too will the vintage scene. The youth of today’s China see things differently. They have less need to worry about money, nor do they feel chained to ancient beliefs about face. An appreciation for real quality and substance is emerging from a generation that has the luxury of enjoying the finer things in life; a world away from their grandparents or even parents.
就像葡萄酒在中国流行起来一样，复古场景也会爆炸。 当今中国的年轻人对事物的看法不同。 他们不太需要担心钱，也不觉得被古老的关于面子的信仰所束缚。 一代人享有享受生活中美好事物的奢侈；遠離祖父母甚至父母的世界，正在形成對真正品質和实质的欣賞。
China’s youth may contradict itself, can’t make up its mind and might battle with the real value of face. If indeed the clothes on their backs in the WeChat selfies they share are real vintage, the truth behind why they bought them and whether they are real or not may only be understood by their children and their grandchildren to come.
中国的年轻人可能会自相矛盾，无法下定决心，可能会与面子的真正价值作斗争。 如果他们分享的微信自拍中他们背上的衣服确实是真正的复古，那么他们为什么买它们以及它们是否真实背后的真相只能被他们的孩子和孙子孙女理解。
