This time last year, Shanghai — China's capital of fashion and luxury — was in the throes of a ruthlessly enforced Covid lockdown. The city's glittering high-end malls and avenues lined with flagship stores stood practically empty.
去年的这个时候，中国的时尚和奢侈品之都上海正处于严格的新冠疫情封控下。光彩夺目的高端购物中心和林立着品牌旗舰店的街道几乎空无一人。
Today it is a different story. Huge crowds on a recent weekend flocked to top retail destinations on or near Nanjing Road, the hub of glamour in China ever since the country's first large department stores began to open there in 1917.
如今的情况大不相同。最近的一个周末，大量人流涌进南京路或附近的高级购物场所，自从中国的第一家大型百货商店1917年在南京路开业以来，这里就一直是中国的魅力中心。
“I splurge more extravagantly,” Sunny Zhang, 24, said as she waited in line to enter the Chanel store at Plaza 66 mall, where the corridors are lined with shops selling some of the world's most expensive apparel. Ms. Zhang, who works for a consulting firm, used to buy six handbags a year. Now, she purchases up to five handbags a month.
“花钱更猛了，”24岁的苏妮•张（音）说道，她正排队等着进入上海恒隆广场的香奈儿专卖店，这个购物中心里尽是世界上最昂贵的服装品牌。张女士在一家咨询公司工作。在过去，她一年会买六个手袋。现在，她每月最多的时候买五个手袋。
Many Western fashion and luxury brands have been reaping the benefits of this renewed consumer mind-set. Last month, LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group by sales, and the owner of brands like Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Company and Dior, posted a 17 percent increase in first-quarter revenue from a year earlier. Fashion and leather goods — the French company's biggest division — were up 18 percent, driven in large part by the rebound in China.
消费者重新愿意花钱的心态已经令许多西方的时尚和奢侈品牌获益。上个月，全球销售额最大的奢侈品巨头LVMH公布的一季度收入同比增长了17%，该集团拥有路易威登、蒂芙尼和迪奥等品牌。这家法国公司的最大部门（时装和皮革制品）一季度收入同比增长了18%，这在很大程度上是受中国消费市场反弹的推动。
Last week, LVMH shares soared to a record high, making it the first European company to surpass $500 billion in market value. Its French rival Hermès said sales in Asia (excluding Japan) were up 23 percent in the first quarter, “driven by a very good Chinese New Year.”
上周，LVMH股价飙升至历史新高，让其成为首家市值超过5000亿美元的欧洲公司。其法国竞争对手爱马仕表示，一季度的亚洲销售额（不包括日本）增长了23%，“这主要是受中国春季期间销量很好驱动。”
And Brunello Cucinelli, purveyor of $4,000 blazers and the “quiet luxury” trend, posted a 56 percent surge in first-quarter sales. Luca Lisandroni, the Italian brand's co-chief executive, called 2023 “a golden year” for the China market.
布鲁奈罗•库奇内利销售4000美元的西装外套和“低调奢华”潮流，其一季度销售额激增了56%。这个意大利品牌的联席首席执行官卢卡•利桑德罗尼表示，2023年对中国市场来说是个“黄金年”。
Luxury spending in China is bouncing back even faster than the country's overall economy. Retail sales of jewelry, gold and silver soared 37.4 percent in March from a year earlier, more than three times as fast as the rebound in overall retail sales, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. It was by far the biggest March on record for jewelry sales in China; indeed, March was the industry's second-highest sales month ever outside the gift-giving season before Chinese New Year.
中国奢侈品消费的反弹速度甚至快于该国的整体经济。据中国国家统计局的数据，今年3月份珠宝、黄金和白银的零售额同比暴增了37.4%，是整体零售额反弹速度的三倍多。今年3月的珠宝销售额创下了中国的历史同期记录；实际上，今年3月的珠宝销售额仅次于春节前的送礼季。
“We expect China to be the luxury industry's key growth engine this year, especially given a slight deceleration in other core markets like the U.S. and Korea,” Edouard Aubin, an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley, said on a call last week.
“我们预计中国将成为今年奢侈品行业的主要增长引擎，尤其是考虑到美国和韩国等其他主要市场销售略有放缓，”摩根士丹利股票分析师爱德华•奥宾上周在电话会议上说。
He added that big brands “at the top of the pricing pyramid” with status-symbol value like Chanel, Hermès and Louis Vuitton were outperforming rivals. Those include Gucci and Burberry, both brands that have recently had a change of designer at their helm.
他还说，香奈儿、爱马仕和路易威登等“处于价格金字塔顶端”、具身份象征价值的大品牌表现优于竞争对手，比如古驰和博柏利，这两个品牌最近都换了设计师。
“Much of the initial spend driving the rebound is, for now, less to do with the middle class of China and more to do with rich people spending more,” Mr. Aubin said, noting that he expected a resurgence in middle-class spending to kick in later this year.
“目前，推动反弹的大部分早起消费与中国中产阶级的关系不大，更多的是与富人消费有关，”奥宾说道，并指出，他预计中产阶级的支出将在今年晚些时候重新开始。
This desire for big-name luxury in China isn't new. For more than a decade, the country, with 1.4 billion consumers, powered the Western luxury market, contributing as much as a third of market revenue. Two-thirds of that spending took place outside China, as Chinese tourists flocked to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris and elsewhere to avoid their country's steep import tariffs and consumption taxes.
中国人渴望大牌奢侈品并不是新鲜事。十多年来，这个拥有14亿消费者的国家一直是西方奢侈品的主要市场，为它们贡献了多达三分之一的营收，其中三分之二的营收发生在中国以外的地方，因为中国游客为躲避国内的高额进口关税和消费税，涌向香港、东京、巴黎和其他地方购买奢侈品。
But then came 2020, the worst year on record for the industry, as China closed its borders in response to the pandemic. Now, after three years of relying largely on online purchases, many shoppers in China exult in being able to touch fabrics, try on handbags and sunglasses and simply share companionship with others.
但奢侈品行业在2020年遭受了有记录以来最糟糕的一年，原因是中国为遏制新冠病毒大流行而关闭了边境。现在，在度过了以网购为主的三年后，中国的许多购物者为能够触摸面料、试手袋和太阳镜，以及与他人分享购物乐趣而感到非常高兴。