TE雙語|揚子江大鱷：馬雲如何征服中國互聯網| 2016.04.09|總第87期

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Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built.By Duncan Clark.Ecco; 287 pages; $27.99 and ￡18.99.阿里巴巴：馬雲所創建的大家庭。

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導讀：標題中的Crocodile of the Yangzi實際上來自於馬雲在當年與ebay的競爭中對於局勢的分析，他將eBay比作海里的鯊魚，而阿里巴巴則是揚子江的鱷魚，如果在揚子江（中國）競爭的話，阿里巴巴是肯定可以戰勝eBay的。

第一句

NOT since John Rockefeller has a businessman defined a country』s transformation as well as Jack Ma does.

①以NOT SINCE開頭的句子表示一種強調，並且主謂要倒裝，在理解時要知道還原成正常的句子。

有時候否定詞not可以提前到句首，在since之前，主句的主謂次序要顛倒，否定作用不影響到since，而是否定主句。【例如】Not since Alzheimer"s disease was discovered in 1906 has there been a more crucial year than 2007 in our efforts against this mind-killer.自從老年痴呆症1906年發現以來，我們對這個心智殺手的鬥爭，從沒有哪一年比2007年更為帶有關鍵性。摘自《英文常用詞疑難用法手冊》，陳用儀著，since詞條

所以該句還原成正常的句子是：

Since John Rockefeller, a businessman has NOT defined a country』s transformation as well as Jack Ma does.

註：Since John Rockefeller後面的逗號可加可不加，但是加上總不會錯。在引導語較長時或者會產生歧義的情況下是必須要加逗號的。

類似的情況如下：

She had never seen such an impressive live performance.

Never had she seen such an impressive live performance.

I have played little tennis since I was a child.

Little have I played tennis since I was a child.

He had hardly taken a seat before he started to talk.

Hardly had he taken a seat before he started to talk.

Fruit and vegetables are not only good for your health, but they are also extremely delicious.

Not only are fruit and vegetables good for your health, but they are also extremely delicious.

The cyclist was in no way held responsible for the recent accident.

In no way was the cyclist held responsible for the recent accident.

第二句

Mr Ma rejects Milton Friedman』s nostrum that 「the business of business is business」, namely that companies exist only to make a profit and that philanthropy should be strictly personal.

註：米爾頓·弗里德曼（Milton Friedman），美國當代經濟學家、芝加哥大學教授、芝加哥經濟學派代表人物之一，貨幣學派的代表人物。以研究宏觀經濟學、微觀經濟學、經濟史、統計學、及主張自由放任資本主義而聞名。1976年獲諾貝爾經濟學獎，以表揚他在消費分析、貨幣供應理論及歷史、和穩定政策複雜性等範疇的貢獻。有趣的是，弗里德曼是另一位芝加哥經濟學派代表人物、法律經濟學奠基人亞倫·戴雷科特的妹夫。其著作《資本主義與自由》於1962年出版，提倡將政府的角色最小化以讓自由市場運作，以此維持政治和社會自由。他的政治哲學強調自由市場經濟的優點，並反對政府的干預。他的理論成了自由意志主義的主要經濟根據之一，並且對1980年代開始美國的里根以及許多其他國家的經濟政策都有極大影響。---------摘自百度百科

主要講講the business of business is business，雖然後面進行了補充解釋，我們來看看這個短語的意思是怎麼來的。

第一個business做「職責」講：

第二個business做「公司、企業」講：

第三個business做「生意、營業額」講：

所以可以翻譯成：「企業的責任就是盈利」，實際上就是下圖中這句話的意思。

第三句

With liberalisation would come rising incomes and global travel, reasoned Mr Ma, and soon hundreds of millions of Chinese would clamour for the goods and services enjoyed by the comfortable classes elsewhere.

標紅處由於主語較長出現了倒裝，還原後的句子是：

With liberalization, rising incomes and global travel would come.

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1.NOT since John Rockefeller has a businessman defined a country』stransformationas well as Jack Ma does. Rockefeller』s Standard Oilcapitalisedonthe rise of petroleum and theinternal-combustion engine, a combination that powered a century of American greatness. He became America』s first billionaire and its richest man by far. Through bothruthlessdealing andvisionary philanthropy, he came topersonifyAmerican capitalism.自約翰·洛克菲勒（John Rockefeller）後，還沒有哪個商人能像馬雲一樣完美地詮釋一個國家的變革。在美國，石油的廣泛使用及內燃機的興起共同促成了這個國家持續一個世紀的繁榮，洛克菲勒的美孚石油公司（Standard Oil）正是在這個過程中賺得盆盤缽滿。洛克菲勒是美國迄今為止第一位億萬富翁和最富裕的人。正因為洛克菲勒在商場上的殘酷無情，以及慈善事業上的遠見卓識，他成為了美國資本主義的象徵。

2. Alibaba, which Mr Ma and a handful of collaborators started in acrampedapartment in Hangzhou in 1999, is now one of the world』s biggest internet companies. It utterly dominates e-commerce in China, and has alsomade inroads intointernet finance, cloud computing and logistics. Itsflotationin New York in 2014 was the biggestpublic offeringever, and with a fortune worth perhaps $23 billion, Mr Ma is one of China』s richest men.1999年，馬雲和幾個合伙人在浙江杭州的一間狹小的公寓里成立了阿里巴巴公司，而今，這家公司已經成為了世界上最大的互聯網公司之一。阿里巴巴完全主導著中國的電子商務市場，並且在互聯網金融、雲計算和物流方面也大有斬獲。阿里巴巴於2014年在紐約上市，並完成史上最大的一次公開募股，其市值約230億美元，馬雲成為中國最富裕的人之一。

3. How did a poor boy who barelyscraped intoa teacher』s college manage this? Like Rockefeller, Mr Maspottedaconfluenceof technologies and market opportunities. The rise of the internet came just as China wasgearing upto join the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Duncan Clark, an expert on China』s technology sector, explains the result in a fascinating new book: Mr Ma 「stands at theintersectionof China』s newfoundcultsof consumerism and entrepreneurship」.一個好不容易才考上一個師範學院的窮小子是怎樣做到這些的呢？和洛克菲勒一樣，馬雲洞察到了技術與市場機遇的契合點。2001年，正當中國準備加入世界貿易組織（WTO）之時，互聯網逐漸興起。研究中國科技行業的專家鄧肯·克拉克（Duncan Clark）在其一本饒有趣味的新書中揭示了其中的答案：馬雲「站在中國消費主義新興熱潮和企業家精神的十字路口」。

4. It began with Mr Ma』s homesick search fora pint ofChineselager. As an English translator, he got the chance to travel to Seattle in the mid-1990s and to use the internet for the first time. Told that one could find anything in the world online, he searched for 「beer」. He found American beer, German beer and so on, but no Chinese beer. His country was, it seemed, living in the dark ages. That gave him the inspiration he needed.這一切都源於思鄉心切的馬雲對一紮中國啤酒的搜索。20世紀90年代中期，身為一名英語翻譯，馬雲有機會去了一次西雅圖，並且第一次接觸到互聯網。得知在互聯網可以找到任何東西後，馬雲搜了一下「啤酒」。他發現上面有美國啤酒、德國啤酒等等，但卻沒有中國啤酒。這樣看來，他的祖國似乎還正處於洪荒時代，這激發了馬雲所需的靈感。

5. Withliberalisationwould come rising incomes and global travel,reasoned Mr Ma,and soon hundreds of millions of Chinese wouldclamour forthe goods and services enjoyed by thecomfortableclasses elsewhere. Unlike those in America, the land of Sears and Walmart, China』s retail chains were fragmented andstodgy. This, Mr Ma calculated, meant that e-commerce could quickly become apotentforce.馬雲推斷，自由化會帶來收入的上漲及國際來往的盛行，而且很快，數以億計的中國人可能會爭相購買世界上其他地方富人階級所享有的商品和服務。不同於美國本土的西爾斯（Sears）和沃爾瑪（Walmart），中國的零售連鎖企業分布零散且呆板落伍。馬雲預測，這意味著電子商務可能很快會形成一股強大的力量。

6. He was right. China』s online consumers are now the world』s mostvoracious, buying over $14 billion-worth of goods on Alibaba』s platforms on just one day last year (a promotion known as Singles』 Day). That is far more than Americans purchase on Cyber Monday, when online retailers heavily discount goods for Christmas shoppers. Alibaba now sees some 3 trillion yuan ($464 billion) in e-commerce transactions flowyearlythrough itsportals, triple the figureseenin 2012.正如馬雲所說，目前中國的網購用戶是世界上購買慾最強的群體，光是在去年「雙十一」（著名的「光棍節」促銷日）僅僅一天的時間裡，他們就購買了價值140多億美元的商品。美國的線上零售商在「網路星期一」（感恩節假期之後的第一個上班日的網購促銷活動）這一天也會為聖誕購物者給出超大的折扣，但是相比「光棍節」而言，「網路星期一」的單日成交數額卻難以望其項背。今年，阿里巴巴在其門戶網站上全年的電商交易額預計有3萬億元（約4640億美元），是2012年的三倍。

7. The cult of the entrepreneur is strong in China too. Though state-owned enterprises and national championslumberon, it is private enterprise that has created nearly all net new urban jobs in China over the past two decades, and private firms account for perhaps two-thirds of all economic output. China is producing millions of new entrepreneurs each year, and (unlike Rockefeller, who was widelyreviledas a monopolist) Mr Ma isidolisedby them.在中國，人們對於企業家也極力推崇。儘管國有企業和國字型大小巨頭企業舉步維艱，但過去二十年間，正是中國的私營企業為中國創造了幾乎所有的城鎮新增就業機會，私營企業在國家所有經濟產量中的份額可能佔到了三分之二。每年，中國會誕生數以百萬計的創業者，而且他們都是馬雲的仰慕者（洛克菲勒則與其不同，很多人斥責其是一個壟斷者）。

8. eBay for lunch易趣盤中餐How did hecome from nowhereto overcome such American rivals as Yahoo (which later became a big investor in Alibaba) and eBay? The answer lies in the most powerful cult of all: a team ofmartial-artsheroes with Jack Ma as its leader. Alibaba』s campus in Hangzhou features numerous artistic references to Jin Yong, a celebrated writer of martial-arts novels. Employees takenicknamesfrom his novels and otherpulpfiction, and use these names for internal communication. Team-building exercises regularly have employees doinghandstands, and office romances are often made official at mass weddings (pictured), witnessed by Mr Ma. The company』s philosophy is a 「six-veinspirit sword」, and during an interview conducted last year at hisheadquarters, Mr Ma several timesgot up topunctuatehisanswers with an actual sword from his wall.從籍籍無名到擊敗美國的雅虎（後成為阿里巴巴的大投資方）和易趣這些競爭對手，馬雲又是怎麼做到的呢？這其中的答案在於一種最為強大的風靡文化：馬雲領導的「武俠」英雄團隊。阿里巴巴杭州園區的特色就是借鑒了著名武俠小說家金庸書中的諸多角色。員工會從金庸的小說或其它庸俗小說中選取一個昵稱，並使用這些昵稱進行內部交流。在團隊建設活動上，員工通常會需要做一些倒立動作，辦公室戀情也會通過集體婚禮得以正式公開（如圖），而且這些婚禮都由馬雲親自見證。阿里巴巴的企業哲學是一把「六脈神劍」，在去年總部的一場訪談上，馬雲沒答上幾句，便數次起身從牆上抽出了一把真劍把玩一下。

9. Mr Ma does not believe in religion or communism, saving his faith for a kind of inclusive capitalism. Unlike the founders of other big Chinese internet firms, Mr Ma distributed shares to employees from the beginning, and continued to find ways for them tocashin during Alibaba』sspectacularrise. As a result, his share is smaller than that held by comparabletycoons. Western technology founders like Google』s Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Facebook』s Mark Zuckerberg structured share offerings so that theyretainedatightgrip on their creations. Mr Ma formed a partnership before Alibaba』s flotation, and sharescontrolwith several dozen colleagues.馬雲不信奉宗教及共產主義，而信仰一種兼容並蓄的資本主義。不同於其他中國互聯網巨頭公司的創立者，他從公司創立之初就給員工分配股份，並且在阿里巴巴的輝煌時期，他仍然不斷想方設法讓員工受益。正因為如此，馬雲所擁有的股份都少於那些同級別的大企業家。西方國家科技公司的創始人，像谷歌（Google）的拉里·佩奇（Larry Page）、謝爾蓋·布林（Sergey Brin）和臉書（Facebook）的馬克-扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg），他們對股票發行做出精心安排以維持其對公司的控制權。在阿里巴巴上市之前，馬雲就已經建立起了一種合作關係，跟幾十個同事一起共同掌控公司。

10. Mr Ma rejects Milton Friedman』snostrumthat 「the business of business is business」,namelythat companies exist only to make a profit and that philanthropy should be strictly personal. He has set up a philanthropic fund, but uses Alibaba itself as a vehicle for social change, helping people book doctors』 visits, for example, or selling cheap water-testing devices and encouraging his customers to upload results for big-data analysis. Given his ambitions, perhaps it is a good thing that Mr Ma plans for Alibaba to flourish 「at least 102 years」: begun in the last year of the 20th century, it may yetleave a mark onthe 22nd.米爾頓·佛里德曼（Milton Friedman）認為，「企業的職責就是盈利」，即公司的存在就是為了盈利，而做慈善則嚴格限定於個人層面，對於這種靈丹妙藥，馬雲並不買單。馬雲已經成立了一個慈善基金，但是他是通過阿里巴巴這個平台來推進社會的變遷，例如，幫助人們預約就診，售賣便宜的水測試設備，以及鼓勵消費者為大數據分析上傳測試結果等。肇始於20世紀最後一年的阿里巴巴，可能還能聞達於22世紀，馬雲雄心勃勃，他計劃讓阿里巴巴最少還要繁榮102年，或許這未嘗不是件好事。

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