China's "Human Capital Gains"
1,644 words in 8 minutes
This is a series of articles published by Kai Fu Lee. I did the translation after graduation from university in summer to learn more about the technology trend and practise my translation skill.
Translation of Kaifu Lee’s post on LinkedIn - China’s “Human Capital Gains”
李开复LinkedIn文章翻译之十六 - 中国的“人口红利”
13亿人。世界人口的五分之一。
The size of China’s population is a historical advantage that China has leveraged throughout its 5,000 years of history. This advantage enabled the construction of The Great Wall of China, a structural and engineering marvel that is one of the Wonders of the World. It enabled a quarter century of blistering economic development that pulled hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty. China is projected to overtake the United States in GDP in 2016, but with a nation that has 4 times as many citizens, the per capita growth is still at its infant stages. Many may believe that China may lack in pure innovations. The truth is that China often harnesses the scale of human capital towards uniquely innovative solutions.
中国的人口规模是历史性的优势，贯穿其5000年的历史中国都在利用这一点。这点优势中国可以造长城，它是建筑上和工程上的奇迹，也是世界几大奇迹之一。它也使让数以亿计的居民走出贫穷的极速经济发展成为可能。中国预计在2016年赶上美国的GDP，但拥有四倍于美国的人口，人均的增长还刚刚开始。很多人可能觉得中国也许缺少纯粹的创新。事实上，中国经常利用人口红利产生独具一格的创造性解决方案。
Many individuals in the United States enjoy the expedited services of Amazon Prime, offering 2nd day shipping in the United States. Amazon is frequently seen as the paragon of excellence for logistics - having strategically situated fulfillment centers and streamlining inventory to quickly deliver product to loyal customers. The United States benefits from a mature delivery infrastructure network, since the nascent days of the Pony Express. China’s rise to economic prominence has occurred only within the previous quarter century, with a relatively poor delivery infrastructure. Nonetheless, many Chinese enterprising companies have come up with creative solutions to harness China’s inherent advantages of scale to achieve similar effects. One of China’s largest e-commerce giants, 360buy, has spoiled Chinese consumers with the concept of guaranteed same-day delivery. Place an order in the morning, and have it delivered to you in person a few hours later. 360buy accomplishes this monumental task by having a huge on-the-ground mobile delivery fleet concentrated in the most densely populated cities. With the correspondingly large number of daily orders received, 360buy has been able to leverage a massively scalable work force to efficiently and quickly deliver product to its customers, leading to a superior e-commerce experience.
在美国，有许多人享受亚马逊迅捷的金牌服务，它提供美国国内的第二天运达。亚马逊经常被视为物流管理的杰出模范 - 拥有战略分布的运营中心和精简的库存来迅速地给忠实的客户发送产品。美国自Pony Express的初期开始就从成熟的配送基础设施网络获益。中国的在经济上的显著崛起仅仅才发生在之前的四分之一个世纪，在一个相对落后的配送基础设施下。尽管如此，很多有进取心的中国企业已经想出了利用其天生的人口规模优势的、很有创意的解决方案来达到类似的效果。中国的最大电商巨头之一，京东，已经用保证当日送达宠坏了中国的消费者。早上下单，几个小时之后就能当面送到你手上。京东通过拥有一个巨大的、集中于人口最多的城市秘密机动配送队来达到这一很有纪念意义的目标。借助日常收到的相对大量的订单，京东已经能利用一个能大量扩展的劳动力来高效地、快速地给它的客户配送产品，并导向一种绝佳的电商体验。
Additionally, this scale of human capital has similarly enabled the construction of many modern architectural feats. Consider Broad Group, a corporation previously known for manufacturing central air conditioning units. Through the continual process of simplifying and further streamlining the manufacturing process, Broad Group realized that similar techniques could be feasibly applied to the construction of entire buildings. Witness this recent YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY) that went viral depicting the incredible time lapse construction of a 30 story hotel in only two weeks! Broad Group was able to achieve this remarkable feat through manufacturing a pre-fabricated set of building pieces, then having an army of construction workers expertly and quickly assembling the pieces for an end result that is incredibly sturdy (able to withstand a 9.0 earthquake), cost and time efficient, and environmentally sustainable. This concept of bringing to the traditionally laborious construction process a simple and effective solution for the masses is not unlike IKEA and the impact that it had on the home furnishing industry.
另外，这种人力资本规模同样也实现了很多现代建筑的壮举。看看远大科技集团，一个之前以生产中央空调机组著名的公司。通过持续不断的简化和进一步流程化生产流程的过程，远大集团意识到类似的技术应用到建造整栋楼也行得通。看看最近Youtube上这个病毒式扩散的视频，它描绘了惊人的在只有两周的时间内建造三十层高宾馆的时间流逝过程！远大集团能通过生产一种预制的建筑零件组来取得如此非凡的壮举，然后让一队建筑工人专业地、迅速地把它们组装起来，最终结果是难以置信的坚固（能够抵御9.0级地震），廉价，省时，以及环保可持续。这个给为大众市场的传统费力的建筑流程带去一个简洁又高效的解决方案的概念和宜家及其在家装工业的影响毫无差别。
The incredible scale of human capital in China has enabled numerous advances. The truly exciting chapter for which to watch will be the ongoing transformation of China from its previous position as a low-cost labor producer to one moving forward off the heels of a highly-skilled workforce. We are still in the infant innings, and there are many exciting developments to come in the years ahead.
中国难以置信的人口红利带来了巨大的优势。真正令人兴奋的将会是正在进行的从之前作为一个廉价劳动力生产者到飞速向前的高技能生产力的改革。我们还在头几回合，今后的很多年还会有许多令人激动的发展即将到来。
