Asia’s Nouveau Riche Lure French
亞洲新富多引來法國人
By Bettina Wassener

HONG KONG — Gregory Joinau-Baronnet arrived in Hong Kong about a year ago with a couple of suitcases and a desire to sell French wine. He left home after his real estate business in wine-related (like vineyards) ground to a halt.
大約一年前，休文諾‧巴諾涅帶著幾個手提箱來到香港，想在香港賣法國葡萄酒。在與葡萄酒有關的地產（如葡萄園）生意停頓後，他離開了老家。

In January last year, he got on a plane to a place he knew was booming: Hong Kong. “I needed to move,” said Mr. Joinau-Baronnet, 31, who has set up Jetson Trading, a small business that sells high-end wines and mineral water from his native Bordeaux.
去年一月，他登上飛機前往一個他知道正在欣欣向榮的城市：香港。31歲的休文諾‧巴諾涅說：「我必須另起爐灶。」他設立規模不大的傑特森貿易公司，專門銷售來自老家波爾多的頂級葡萄酒與礦泉水。

As luxury companies storm Asia to soak up its rising wealth and sate a voracious appetite for their goods, a flood of French expatriates is arriving with them, catering to the Asian nouveau riche with a savoir faire that is changing the face of the traditionally Anglo-Saxon communities in Hong Kong and Singapore.
許多奢侈品公司相繼湧向亞洲地區，以賺取亞洲人不斷增加的財富並滿足他們對這些商品的無盡胃口，許多法國人也隨著這公司來到了這個地區，透過他們的商業手腕不唯滿足亞洲暴發的新富，而且逐漸改變了香港與新加坡傳統盎格魯撒克遜僑社的面貌。

Both cities are favored destinations for their functioning legal systems and access to hinterland markets in mainland China and Southeast Asia.
香港與新加坡法制完備，並且毗鄰相對遙遠的中國大陸與東南亞市場，因而成為許多西方人的首選之地。

The flow of Westerners to Asia in search of jobs or business opportunities has picked up in the past few years, said James Carss, a senior executive at the recruitment firm Hudson in Hong Kong. Many French companies have subsidiaries or regional headquarters in the city.
香港「哈得遜」獵人公司高級主管卡斯指出，過去幾年，西方人前來亞洲地區覓職或尋找商機的人數已經大幅增加。許多法國企業在香港設有子公司或區域總部。

The French community in Hong Kong has grown more than 60 percent since 2006, and numbers more than 10,000, according to the French consulate here. In Singapore, it has approximately doubled to more than 9,200 during the same period.
根據法國駐香港領事館的統計，2006年至今，旅居香港的法國人累計增加60%以上，總數超過1萬人。至於新加坡，同時期大約增加了一倍，總數超過9200人。

There are also sizeable French groupings in mainland China, Bangkok and southern India, partly because French companies associated with luxury, fine dining, wines, banking and other industries want French nationals on their local teams.
旅居中國大陸、曼谷與印度南部的法國人也不少，原因之一是，核心事業與奢侈品、精緻美食、葡萄酒、金融及其他領域有關的法國企業希望在當地的經營團隊裡能有法國人。

The size of the United States, and Hong Kong’s traditional ties to Britain, mean that there are still about 10 times as many Americans and many more Britons than French in the city, which is a special administrative region of China. But the number of American and British residents has increased less than 10 percent since late 2006. The German community has stayed flat.
美國人口眾多，英國則與香港傳統關係密切，因此在中國特別行政區香港工作的美國人約是法國人的10倍，英國人同樣比法國人多出許多。不過從2006年年底至今，旅居香港的美、英二國僑民人數增加幅度不到10%。德國僑民人數則沒有增減。

But walk through Hong Kong’s bar districts or high-end shopping malls, and it is likely you will encounter passers-by speaking French. The French international school is bursting. French-run restaurants have multiplied.
然而只要走過香港的酒吧區或高檔的購物中心，與你擦身而過的人很可能講的是法語。法國國際學校如雨後春筍般相繼出現，法國人經營的餐館也多了好幾倍。

Pastis, a small restaurant in Hong Kong, has been a favorite for French expatriates since it opened in late 2009. At least two more French restaurants have opened in just the past few months.
小型法國餐館「帕斯迪斯」2009年年底開張後，一直受到當地法國僑民的喜愛。過去幾個月，至少又有兩家法國餐館陸續開張。

Hong Kong’s appeal to shoppers from neighboring China, who benefit from the city’s lower taxes on many goods, makes Hong Kong a key location for anyone catering to Chinese consumers. It has also helped ensure that Hong Kong’s French community is one of the Asia’s largest.
香港因為許多商品稅率較低而對來自中國大陸的購物者產生吸引力，連帶成為試圖拉住中國大陸消費者的任何人落腳的重要地點。這層因素同時使香港成為法國僑民最多的亞洲城市之一。

Edouard Malingue, 38, an art dealer from Paris, moved to Hong Kong in 2009 after deciding it offered better prospects than Europe for a new art gallery. He was attracted by the lack of bureaucratic delays and the relative ease of setting up a business.
認定在香港開辦一家新藝廊的未來發展優於歐洲本土之後，38歲的巴黎藝術品交易商馬林格於2009年來到了香港。這個城市吸引他的因素包括行政作業效率高，設立一家公司相對而言也比較容易。

Hong Kong is not without challenges. Competition in many sectors is fierce. Salaries, if not augmented by increasingly rare benefits for expatriates, do not meet many Westerners’ expectations. Employers prefer people with experience in Asia and language skills to match, said Mr. Carss. And commercial and residential rents are sky-high.
在香港也得面對一些挑戰；許多領域的競爭非常激烈。如無越來越稀少的外派津貼，派駐香港的薪資無法達到許多西方人的期待。卡斯指出，雇主偏好曾經在亞洲工作，而且具備語言能力的員工。此外，商業空間與住房的租金也高得嚇人。

Retailers must work to cultivate taste and habits among customers who may not know their products. In Hong Kong, Mr. Malingue noted, “there is not as much of a culture of visiting galleries as there is in Europe. It takes a lot more effort to grab people’s attention.”
零售商必須設法培養對其產品可能陌生的消費者的品味與習慣。馬林格指出，在香港，「在地人逛藝廊的文化顯然沒有歐洲來得盛。經營者必須加倍費心吸引人們的注意」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/business/global/french-expatriates-flocking-to-hong-kong.html

2012-03-13聯合報/G9版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯原文參見紐時週報七版左