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OCTOBER1, 2015 2015年10月1日 China's Butler Boom 中国涌现管家潮 作者：比昂卡·博斯克（Bianca Bosker） A butler-in-training in Chengdu, China.CREDIT FRED DUFOUR / AFP / GETTY On a recent morning at abutler-training school in Chengdu, China, lessons began at 8A.M., with an exercise in “opening the villa.” 中国成都，贴身管家在职培训 （法新社弗雷德·杜弗） 位于中国成都的一家管家训练学校，课程开始于早上八点钟，以“打开别墅之门”的训练开场。
When I arrivedat the gated development where the school is housed, a middle-agedstudent was on her knees scrubbing the pedals of a grand piano, while anothersidestepped vacuum cleaners to hoist immaculate white furniture onto a balcony.A rotating cast of young Chinese women in black blazers took turns offering mecoffee. After an hour spent dusting under wine bottles and teacups(this was “basic cleaning”—not to be confused, I learned, with “deep cleaning,”which would be covered in a future lesson), the students folded matching whitegloves into their pockets and took seats on red velvet chairs in amarble-walled dining room. There, Thomas Kaufmann, a forty-one-year-oldSwiss butler, glided noiselessly to the front of the class—a demonstration of akey tenet of butler practice, that help should be “silent and invisible”—todeliver a lecture on catering to the needs and whims of the super-rich. As headdressed dilemmas such as what to do if you encounter your boss, or “principal,”in the nude (“Running out of the room would also be wrong, because he may needyour service”), a translator repeated his talking points in Mandarin, and thepens of the nine students in attendance flew across identical leather-boundnotebooks. 我来到属于学校的住宅区的栅门前，看到一名中年学员跪在地上擦拭着三角钢琴的踏板，另一名学生抬脚迈过几台真空吸尘器，把一尘不染的白色家具挪到凉台上。几名穿黑制服的中国女青年轮流给我倒咖啡。学生们打扫瓶瓶罐罐和茶杯底儿的灰尘近一个小时（这只是“简单清扫”，而“深度清扫”是以后才会学习的课目），然后摘下白色手套并放到口袋里。他们走进一间大理石墙壁的餐厅，各坐在红鹅绒椅子上。此时，41岁的瑞士管家托马斯·考夫曼悄无声息的走到餐厅前部开始讲课，他的走路方式便是对管家服务精神最好的诠释：安静，隐秘。课的主题是迎合超级富翁的需求和怪念头。他用英文讲到在管家裸遇老板或“主人”时（跑出房间是不对的，因为他可能需要你的服务），翻译把他讲话的内容翻译成中文，九名在场学生迅速的把要点记录在同款皮质本子上。
Kaufmann—or Mr. Kaufmann, for butlers must be vigilant in theuse of honorifics—was, until recently, the head instructor at Chengdu’sInternational Butler Academy, the first satellite branch of a twenty-year-oldDutch school of the same name. The Chinese outpost, which was founded inpartnership with the Chinese real-estate company Langji, opened its doors lastJuly. Since then, hundreds of fledgling butlers have passed through the school’ssix-week course, which includes at least fifteen hours of training a day, sixdays a week, to prepare students for the gruelling schedules they’ll keep intheir future posts managing stables, castles, and private planes. Theschool advertises that graduates can expect to earn starting salaries of aroundtwenty thousand RMB, or approximately three thousand dollars, per month.(By contrast, the average ayi, or Chinesemaid, in Shanghai earns around five thousand RMB, or less than eight hundred dollars, per month). 荷兰国际管家学院有20年的历史，坐落于成都的这所同名学院是它海外第一所分校。考夫曼曾是该分校的首席指导员，最近才卸任。管家们都谨慎的尊称他考夫曼先生—对于管家这一行业来说，得体的称谓很重要。这家中国管家基地是由浪迹天涯房地产公司合作建立的，于去年七月正式开学。开学后，学生们将接受每天至少15小时，6周总共36天的艰苦培训。只有这样，他们以后才能应付马场，城堡，私人飞机内的繁重工作。至今为止，数以百计的新晋管家通过了此课程。学校招生宣传称毕业生的起薪高达每月2万人民币，相当于3千美元（而上海普通保洁月平均收入只有5000元，或者甚至不到800美元）。
The Academy is justone of many institutions that have lately been helping to bring the art ofwhite-glove service to China. Among the country’s business élite andsuper-rich, the demand for butlers is exploding, fuelled especially by high-endhotels and luxury real-estate firms like Langji, which sometimes bundle butlerservices with the homes they sell. AspiringChinese butlers can now take courses at, among others, the Asia Butler Academy,Magnums Butler International, the International Butler Training Academy, andthe Bespoke Bureau,which, for an extra fee, will provide lessons in feigning aBritish accent. The British Butler Institute—whose head of training, GaryWilliams, previously served as a butler to British royalty and Prime Ministers,including Margaret Thatcher—has schools in nine cities across the world, fiveof them in China. The profession’s commitmentto privacy makes it difficult to estimate the number of professionalbutlers, but every staffing agency I spoke to agreed that the People’s Republicis now the world’s fastest-growing market for their services. The InternationalButler Academy’s founder, Robert Wennekes, decided to expand his business toChina after attending a gala in Beijing in 2012 where his tablemate, theChinese Minister of Education, estimated that her country had an appetite for “inexcess of a hundred thousand butlers.” 中国管家学院只是引入白手套管家服务艺术的众多中国机构之一。高档酒店和高端房地产公司（如浪迹天涯）针对中国商业界精英和富豪迅速增长的管家需求，向他们提供各种服务。有时候这些机构把管家服务作为销售房屋的捆绑内容，一并卖给购房者。有抱负的中国管家可选择去国外机构培训，如马格南管家国际及旗下的亚洲管家学院，国际管家培训学院和需要额外学费的贝斯普克公司(管家定制专局)。其中贝斯普克公司提供英国口音的付费培训课程。英国管家研究中心在全球有九所学校，其中中国就占五所。该中心的培训负责人盖里·威廉姆斯曾是英国皇家管家，服务过包括玛格丽特·撒切尔在内的几届首相。由于管家行业十分重视客户私人信息，我们很难估算出职业管家的具体数量，但我访问过多家中介机构，里面的工作人员一致认为中国是管家业增长最迅速的市场。2012年，国际管家学院的创始人罗伯特·威尼克在北京参加宴会，和中国教育部长坐同桌。她估测中国市场需要超过十万名管家。罗伯特听到这席话后便决定开拓中国市场。
Among China’sburgeoning population of new millionaires (their ranks have tripled since 2012,to more than 3.6 million) there is a peculiar appetite for the fusty trappingsof European nobility. Chinese real-estate developments with names like MajestyManor and Top Aristocrat package themselves as enclaves of OldWorld opulence, their properties complete with moats, replicas ofBuckingham Palace gates, and mansions modelled after Versailles. RollsRoyce has begun offering Chinese customers chauffeur training with purchasesfrom its seven-figure Phantom line, and Christie’shas opened a specialized agency to help Chinese buyers purchase wine estatesabroad. For Chinese élites who are eager to adopt lifestyles commensurate withtheir massive wealth, such status symbols lenda recognizable veneer ofWestern-style aristocracy. (Many in the industry attribute the trend to theimmense popularity of “Downton Abbey,” which has given millions of Chineseviewers a window into Edwardian upstairs-downstairs living.) Even as thegovernment’s anti-corruption campaign has driven down sales of more pedestrianluxury goods like handbags and watches, the butler business continues to boom. 中国百万富翁俱乐部的新晋成员们（自2012年以来翻了三番）对能体现旧欧洲贵族阶层气息的象征物有着特别的渴求。中国房地产开发商喜欢用“英国庄园”和“至上贵族”这样的名字，把待售的庄园打造成旧时代繁荣文化的传承之地。庄园里面坐落着仿凡尔赛宫的公馆，大门是白金汉宫大门的复制品。护城河环绕公馆四周。中国客户买价格超过7位数的劳斯莱斯幻影系列车型时，劳斯莱斯将提供司机培训服务。而佳士得拍卖行还创立了专门机构，帮助中国客户购买外国葡萄酒庄园。中国精英渴望过上与巨额财产相称的生活。而这些地位的象征物，使他们披上了西洋式贵族风格的华丽外衣。很多业内人士把此现象归咎于风靡中国的英剧《唐顿庄园》，剧中就讲述了爱德华七世时期上层贵族和仆人们生活在森严等级制度下的生活百态。尽管在政府反腐斗争的打击下，高端奢饰品（如手提包和名表）销量大跌，而管家生意却蒸蒸日上。
But just as the realVersailles wasn’t built in a day, the centuries-old traditions of authenticEuropean butlery can’t be imported to China overnight.When Kaufmann first arrived in Chengdu, in 2012, to take a positionat Langji, he was installed in the showroom of the company’s newest apartmentcomplex, an art-deco high-rise designed to evoke Gilded Age glamor. Accordingto a fellow-instructor at the Academy, Chris Noble, Kaufmann served primarilyas a prop, there to impress prospective buyers with his tea service and Swissaccent. “At first, there was high demand for the Western butler to stand insomeone’s house all day and do nothing,” he told me. (Kaufman said, “In thebeginning, having a butler was like having a Ferrari. You have a Ferrari in thegarage and a butler in the living room.”) Quantity has sometimes takenprecedence over quality. Gary Williams, of the British Butler Institute, toldme about a request he received from a Chinese property developer who needed twohundred butlers “urgently”: “They said, ‘We don’t care where they come from.Just find them in a restaurant and we’ll dress them to look like butlers.’ ” 建成凡尔赛宫并非一日之功，欧洲正宗管家业的百年传统也不可能在一夜间就遍及中国。2012年，考夫曼首次来成都在浪迹天涯公司工作，就职于新建的高层公寓大楼，这幢楼的装饰艺术独具一格，散发着镀金时代的魔力。克里斯·诺布尔是考夫曼的学院同事，也是指导员。据他说，考夫曼是学院的门面，用娴熟的奉茶服务和瑞士口音来打动潜在买家。“洋管家起初是很受欢迎的，整天只需站在房主的房子里，不用做事情。”他说道。（考夫曼曾说，“最开始，管家就像法拉利。车库里藏着法拉利，起居室关着管家，这叫有面子。”）有些中国客户不在乎管家的素质修养，只在意数量。英国管家研究中心的盖里·威廉姆斯告诉我，中国某地产开放商曾“十万火急”的向他要200名管家：“他们说，‘哪里人都行，在饭店找齐也可以，我们会把他们打扮成管家样子的。’”
Schools like theAcademy, however, are hoping to teach the kind of studiedservitude andimpeccable Western etiquette that comes with proper butler pedigrees. Studentslearn European table manners, how to serve black-tie dinners, and how tochoose between Christofle and Riedel glassware.(Sample quizquestion: What wine does the company Villeroy and Boch produce? Answer:None. They make porcelain.) They undergo instruction in butlery’s subtlerlaws of decorum and discretion: how to mediate between governesses and maids,how to conceal principals’ mistresses from their wives, how to keep up theencyclopedic log of clients’ preferences known as a “butler book.” (“If wechange jobs because we leave, or we retire, or we die, or whatever, we have tomaintain the standards of the house,” Kaufmann told his class.) In somecases, butlers may be responsible for helping newly wealthy principals navigatethe demands of cosmopolitanupper-class life. Kaufmann, who recently left Chinaand returned to Switzerland, told me that many clients are eager for live-inassistants who can guide them through “pitfalls” like “what to wear to certainoccasions, how to behave at a formal dinner, how to use a knife and fork”—expertise that,he says, can help in readying Chinese children to study abroad or “preparingyoung ladies to marry rich gentlemen.” (A similar logic has led to a surge infinishing schools in China.) When I complimented Kaufmann on how gracefully hisstudents had handled their own silverware at lunch, he said, “You have Americantable manners—you switch hands. I was thinking, ‘I hope my students don’t lookat you.’ ” 而管家学院这类学术院校治学严谨，倾力传授正统管家艺术，培养学员学习西方礼仪的能力，打造举止彬彬有礼，对主人毕恭毕敬的完美管家。在校期间，学员们学习欧洲餐桌礼仪，正式宴会服务流程，法国昆庭①玻璃器具和奥地利醴铎②玻璃器具的区别和选择（知识问答：德国唯宝③生产哪种葡萄酒？答案：德国唯宝是陶瓷制造商，不产酒）。在教员指导下，他们学习细致入微的礼仪规范，和如何为主人避免难堪：调和女家庭教师和女佣之间的矛盾；帮主人掩盖情妇的痕迹，以免女主人发觉；详细记录客户的各种喜好和习惯，编成详细全面的“管家手册”。（考夫曼曾对学员说：“管家退休，换工作或者死亡后，接班人需仔细阅读手册，以维持家中的秩序。”）对于既有一定经济基础又想与国际上流社会生活接轨的客户，管家更是能帮助新的富豪主人跻身上流阶层的生活。考夫曼最近回瑞士了，他跟我说：很多客户非常想雇住家管家，他们能为客户解决很多难题，比如正式场合的穿着、宴会的礼仪、西餐餐具使用方法等问题。他认为，这些专业辅导能帮助中国儿童做好留学前准备，或者让年轻女士嫁给有钱人。（这逻辑也是女子精修学校风靡中国的主因）我称赞学生们用餐姿态优美，他却回答：“你用餐的习惯是美式的，切菜吃菜都是用右手。我那时很担心我学生会学你。”
The Academy pitches butler training as part of a mission to elevateChinese standards of hospitality and, in so doing, foster respect for servicepositions that in China have traditionally been considered low in status. Before Kaufmann’s evening lecture, the C.E.O. of Langji,CaiLingyu, delivered a speech encouraging students to see themselves astrailblazers in a revolution of sorts. “Ordinary people in China, when theyhear about someone in a service position, they think the person is supposed tobe in a lower position. But now, that concept is changing,” she said. “It’snot only happening in society but in our students’ hearts.” Among the studentsI met, few had come from the service industry themselves; there was a nurse, aformer student counsellor, a college senior, and an ex-wedding planner. (Incontrast to traditional European butlers, almost all of them were women.) Butmany seemed to buy into Cai’s idea. Wu Zhiyou, a twenty-nine-year-old whopreviously managed a marina in Shenzhen, first discovered the concept ofservice-with-a-smile while living in Singapore. She told me, “In the West, Ifeel everyone is happy and full of smiles. But in China everyone is doing theopposite…. It’s like the environment: if everyone does a little bit, it getsbetter.” 学院大力推广管家培训，致力于提升中国服务业水平和行业地位，并为中国服务业赢得应有的尊重。考夫曼开始晚间课程之前，浪迹天涯C.E.O蔡玲玉（音）做演讲，称赞在场学生是新纪元的先驱者。“中国人对服务行业认可度不高，瞧不起服务业员工。但是，这种看法已经开始发生变化了，”她说道，“不止社会对服务业的态度变了，我们学生的自我定位也慢慢开始发生转变。”我见过很多学生，有护士，学生顾问，大四学生，前婚礼策划，其中曾从事服务业的寥寥无几。（和欧洲管家传统相反，中国管家大部分都是女人）但很多人同意蔡女士的观点。吴志友（音译）今年29岁，以前在深圳经营过船坞，她在新加坡生活时接触到微笑服务的概念。她和我说：“在西方，我感到每一个人都很开心，面带笑容。但在中国却恰恰相反,大家不快乐....和环境问题一样，众人拾柴火焰高，每人都要做点事情，大环境才能改善。”
Wu admitted that thismight sound idealistic. Rather than elevating service jobs or spreadinghappiness through genteel subservience, the Chinese butler phenomenon seems aslikely to promote new shades of class-consciousness in the intenselyaspirational New China. During dinner at the Academy, students took theirplaces at a long table set with a white tablecloth and freshly polished forksand knives. As they ate dishes of rice, tofu, and stir-fried meats, a group ofcoiffed, Birkin-bag-toting women sat with Cai in an adjacent sitting areaenjoying British-style tea. They picked at crustless cucumber sandwiches andFrench pastries, attended to by three butlers who refilled porcelain teacupsand refreshed petits fours. Between duties, one of the butlers, a graduate ofthe Academy, stood motionless in the corner, her gloved hands folded over ablack uniform—not a butler’s suit but a knee-length dress paired with pearls. “Ifeel so sorry for her—she looks like a waitress,” Wu whispered. “If I were her,I would quit.” 吴女士承认她的想法太理想化了。相对于提升服务质量或者用恭敬顺从的服务来传播快乐，中国管家业在事实上会给竞争激烈的中国带来了更多的阶级意识。在学院晚宴的白布餐桌上，学生们用锃亮刀叉吃着米饭、豆腐和炒肉。蔡女士和几名提铂金包、发型精美的女士们却坐在旁边的喝着英式下午茶。她们拿陶瓷杯喝英式茶，小口吃去皮黄瓜三明治和法式糕点，三个管家轮流上着新的花式糕点和茶水。在换班时，其中一名学院毕业的管家并没有穿管家服，而是穿着膝长的黑色裙子，上面缀着珍珠。她将戴着白手套的手叠在背后腰间，径直站在角落里。“我为她感到难过，她看起来像女招待，”吴女士在我耳边私语，“我若是她，就辞职不干了。” 注释： ①昆庭（Christofle）:来自法国的顶级奢侈品品牌，在银器、餐具、器皿瓷器和水晶制品方面都有其独特的创造。主要为皇室贵族提供御用品，法国国王路易·菲力普是其第一位尊贵客人。 ②醴铎（Riedel）：来自奥地利，世界上最专业，同时也是最富盛名的酒杯和醒酒器的专业制造厂，被认为是最顶尖、最专业的酒杯品牌，被誉为“酒杯里的劳斯莱斯”。 ③唯宝（Villeroy&Boch）:德国唯宝业务领域涵盖卫浴及康体设备、日用瓷器和瓷砖。有德国“卫浴国宝”之称，欧洲人称之为洁具中的“劳斯莱斯”，享有“皇家制造商”“欧式生活专家”殊荣。
翻译by Snare 校对 by 风云侠 终校 by Gabriellaz 树屋字幕组-文翻组 翻译仅供学习交流，严禁用于商业用途
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发表于 2015-12-18 12:50:24
