In the eyes of many people today, today’s refrigerators, colour TVs, washing machines, and cars are nothing more than ordinary; few remember that which appeared in recent years was unimaginable 30 years ago. Back in the 1980s, the daily necessities of today that we take for granted were then rare and luxurious goods.
在当今许多人眼中，今天的冰箱、彩色电视、洗衣机和汽车只不过是普通的；很少有人记得近年来出现的东西是30年前无法想象的。 早在20世紀80年代，我們今天認為理所當然的日常必需品是稀有和奢侈的商品。
The Brick-like “Dageda” Mobile Phone
砖块状的“Dageda”手机
In the mid 1980s, Guangdong Province opened the nation’s first mobile communication network, ushering in the era of mobile phones in China. There were a mere 700 early adopters, most of them using the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X with its brick-like appearance.
20世纪80年代中期，广东省开通了全国第一个移动通信网络，开启了中国手机时代。 只有700个早期采用者，其中大部分使用摩托罗拉DynaTAC 8000X，其外观像砖块。
Weighing in at more than 1 kg, and with a price tag of ¥20,000 and a talk time of 30 minutes, the brick was given the prestigious name, “Dageda” (大哥大). With limited supply, some buyers would turn to the black market, where it would cost up to ¥35,000.
这块砖重超过1公斤，价格为20,000日元，谈话时间为30分钟，被赋予了著名的名字“Dageda”（大哥大）。 由于供应有限，一些买家会转向黑市，那里的价格高达35,000日元。
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In that era, there was a popular saying; “If you have a Dageda, you have nothing to be afraid of when travelling all over the world”. In many ways, the Dageda marked the start of conspicuous consumption, becoming a symbolic tool for successful people to show off their wealth, not only a sign of riches, but also of status and class.
在那个时代，有句俗话说：“如果你有Dageda，在环遊世界时就没什么好怕的了”。 在许多方面，Dageda标志着显眼消费的开始，成为成功人士炫耀财富的象征性工具，不仅是财富的标志，也是地位和阶级的标志。
12-Inch Black & White Television Screens; What Luxury!
12英寸黑白电视屏幕；多么奢侈啊！
At the end of the 1970s, owning a TV at home was a big deal, one which could make the neighbours envious for years. Children and the elderly would come from afar just to see it. Despite the screen being black and white, and only 12 inches in size, people often gathered together in a courtyard to watch TV. No wonder; the price of an average set was several hundred renminbi, while the average monthly income was less than ¥100. Just as in other countries, this was a time of luxury when people were actually willing to sit down with their families to watch TV.
在20世纪70年代末，家里拥有一台电视是一件大事，这会让邻居们羡慕多年。 孩子们和老人会从很远的地方来看它。 尽管屏幕是黑白的，而且只有12英寸，但人们经常聚集在庭院里看电视。 难怪；一套平均价格是几百元人民币，而平均月收入不到100元。 就像在其他国家一样，这是一个奢侈的时代，人们实际上愿意和家人坐下来看电视。
Luxury on Two Wheels
豪华两轮车
China used to be synonymous with the bicycle, but contrary to popular belief, that everyone had one was far from the actual case. In our era of shared bikes today, many would hardly believe that in the 1980s, a bicycle was one of three major items desired as a wedding gift. Those who received a bike would be envied by all their neighbours.
中国曾经是自行车的代名词，但与流行的看法相反，每个人都有自行车，这与实际情况相去甚远。 在当今共享自行车的时代，许多人很难相信，在20世纪80年代，自行车是作为结婚礼物的三大主要物品之一。 那些收到自行车的人会被所有邻居羡慕。
Owning a bicycle in the 1980s was not easy. While its cost was one barrier to ownership, so was the requirement for a bicycle license. Therefore, those who could contemplate buying a bicycle at that time not only had a certain economic foundation, they also had connections with people in the bicycle business.
在20世纪80年代，拥有一辆自行车并不容易。 虽然其成本是所有权的一个障碍，但自行车执照的要求也是如此。 因此，那些当时可以考虑购买自行车的人不仅有一定的经济基础，而且与自行车行业的人有联系。
The Cassette Recorders that Made Music a Luxury
让音乐成为奢侈品的磁带录音机
Another measure of luxury in the 1980s was the size of your cassette collection. Referred to as one of the “four major home appliances”, along with TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines, the cassette recorder meant that young people could finally decide what they want to hear and that which they record.
20世纪80年代的另一个奢侈品标准是你的磁带收藏的大小。 盒式录音机与电视、冰箱和洗衣机一起被称为“四大家用电器”之一，这意味着年轻人最终可以决定他们想听什么和录制什么。
Adolescents also soon cottoned on to the scam of “learning foreign languages” as a way to get their parents to spend several hundred renminbi on a cassette recorder. In actual fact, there was no exam foreign language listening test at the time.
青少年也很快接受了“学习外语”的骗局，以此来让他们的父母花几百元钱买一台磁带录音机。 事实上，当时没有外语听力考试。
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With pre-recorded music cassettes relatively expensive, so too did bootlegging become all the rage, if often only on a friend-to-friend basis. In an era without the photocopier, the lyrics of the music from the cassette inlays could only be copied by hand.
由于预先录制的音乐磁带相对昂贵，盗版也变得如此流行，即使通常只是朋友与朋友。 在没有复印机的时代，磁带镶嵌的音乐歌词只能用手复制。
As a result, the first thing many boys did when they went to their friends’ house was to seek out the drawer with the tape collection; it was an absolute luxury to have a collection of more than 100 cassettes.
因此，许多男孩去朋友家时做的第一件事就是寻找藏有磁带收藏的抽屉；收藏100多张磁带绝对是一种奢侈。
Volkswagen Santana; the Rolls Royce of 1980s China
大众桑塔纳；20世纪80年代中国的劳斯莱斯
With an equivalent price today of ¥1.8 million, average people of the 80s could hardly afford to look at a Volkswagen Santana. When the iconic car first entered the Chinese market, it initially sold for ¥80,000, but the rich tend to follow suit and this pushed the price to ¥180,000. At that time, the highest working-class monthly salary was a mere ¥34.
今天的等价为180万日元，80年代的普通人几乎看不起大众桑塔纳。 当标志性汽车首次进入中国市场时，它最初售价为80,000日元，但富人倾向于效仿，这把价格推到了18万日元。 当时，工人阶级的最高月薪只有34日元。
Today, these objects from the 1980s; phonographs, cassette recorders, CD players, VCD players, records, tapes and even MP3 players, have become a pile of electronic waste. Nowadays, with the internet as main driver for our global village, for young people, things like ripping tapes are simply ancient legends. For the older generations, memories such as these are the very definition of the luxury of their youth.
今天，这些20世纪80年代的物品；留声机、磁带录音机、CD播放器、VCD播放器、唱片、磁带甚至MP3播放器，已经成为一堆电子垃圾。 如今，互联网是我们地球村的主要驱动力，对于年轻人来说，撕胶带等事情只是古老的传说。 对于老一辈人来说，像这样的记忆是他们青春奢侈的定义。