APEC Leaders’ Attire Inspires Imitators
By Austin Ramzy

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Beijing had barely concluded when copies of the outfits worn by the leaders at the event’s opening began appearing for sale in China.

Several vendors produced copies of the mandarin-collared jacket and matching accessories and offered them Wednesday on Taobao.com, the online marketplace owned by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, for prices ranging from 320 renminbi, about $52, to 2,999 renminbi.

By midday Thursday, the items had disappeared from Taobao. Alibaba did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chinese media coverage of the items raised questions about whether the copied garments were a violation of the intellectual property rights of the original designers.

The outfits were part of an APEC tradition of dressing leaders in designs inspired by clothing from the host country. This year’s jackets came in a choice of brown, green or purple silk and were widely noted for their resemblance to “Star Trek” uniforms.

“What Xi Dada wears will definitely be hot,” one vendor said, using a nickname for the Chinese president that roughly means “Uncle Xi,” The Beijing News reported on Thursday, before the items were removed from Taobao. The vendor told the newspaper that the key to selling copied garments is to move quickly, adding, “If leaders can wear it, why can’t we?”

2014年亞太經合會（APEC）落幕前，大陸網拍業者在淘寶網上推出具中國特色服飾「新中裝」仿製品，這是今年APEC東道主中國大陸為各領袖精心裁製的服飾；定價從人民幣298元（約新台幣1,500元）到3,999元（約新台幣2萬元）不等，不過，這些「山寨品」已遭下架。

淘寶專為台灣用戶開設網站，昨（15）日仍看得到此類產品，售價為人民幣688元（約新台幣3,440元）。

半島都市報報導，APEC各成員經濟體領袖代表及配偶10日身著新中裝集體亮相，11日淘寶就有十家網店開始販售「領導人同款禮服」，並獲不少網友追捧。

新中裝是APEC用主辦國服飾為靈感的設計打扮領袖傳統的一部分，今年外套有棕色、綠色或紫色絲綢幾款選擇，被網友戲稱，很像電影「星際爭霸戰」中制服。

報導指出，網店直接著名產品為仿製品，但價格高低不一，其中一間網店介紹，原版新中裝為宋錦布料，販售的是仿原版款式、織綿緞布料，價格人民幣888元，另一家網店販售328元，但這些商品都陸續下架。

一位淘寶賣家說，國家領導人穿過的衣服一定會造成轟動，迅速推出仿製品目的在趁熱打鐵，甚至還說，大陸國家主席習近平能穿新中裝，老百姓也能穿。

事實上，新中裝仿製品一上架，就引發媒體和專家關注；紐約時報直言，這類產品可能侵犯原設計者智慧財產權。中國大學研究員楊力也指出，APEC服裝都有設計者，仿製品恐涉及專利問題，商家不能私自使用。

中國廣播網引述新中裝設計者中國服裝協會理事趙卉洲表示，希望新中裝能全面普及，淘寶店出現「複製」款，是市場需求的體現。

原文參照：
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/apec-leaders-attire-inspires-imitators/

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20141114/c14attire/zh-hant/

2014-11-16．經濟日報．A10．兩岸．記者曾瑋琳