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As a young democracy activist, Chen Chu was thrown into jail for opposing the military dictatorship that ruled Taiwan until the 1980s. Decades later, a more matronly Ms Chen is now mayor of Kaohsiung, the second most populous city, and the battle she is fighting is not political but economic.
当年，作为一名年轻的民主活动人士，陈菊曾因反对台湾军事独裁政权而锒铛入狱，这一独裁政权统治台湾一直到上个世纪80年代。几十年后的今天，更为稳重的陈菊在台湾人口第二多的城市高雄担任市长，她现在仍然在抗争，不过，今天她的抗争已不是政治抗争，而是经济抗争。
The industrial port city in the tropical south was once dominated by industries such as ship building and petrochemicals. But competition from cheaper Chinese rivals forced many of those companies to shut or move their factories to mainland China. Even by the standards of Taiwan’s slack economy, Kaohsiung has struggled, economists say.
这个地处台湾南部热带地区的工业港口城市，以前曾被造船和石化等行业主宰。但来自中国大陆成本更低的竞争对手的竞争，迫使许多高雄企业倒闭或将工厂转移到大陆。经济学家表示，即便根据萧条的台湾经济的标准，高雄现在也是步履维艰。
Now Ms Chen is trying to attract investment and to help new kinds of businesses set up in Kaohsiung to reinvent the once-thriving city. Most strikingly, although a star of the opposition Democratic Progressive party, known for its hostility to China, she has travelled there many times to study its development and to promote her city.
如今，陈菊正努力吸引投资，并帮助新型企业在高雄创业，以令这个一度繁荣的城市复苏。最引人注目的是，尽管身为台湾反对党民进党(DPP，以对中国大陆怀有敌意而闻名)的明星人物，但她曾多次访问大陆，考察大陆的发展并推介高雄。
How she fares is crucial, not only for Kaohsiung but for the rest of Taiwan.
她能取得多大成功很关键，不仅对于高雄如此，对于台湾其他地区也是如此。
“Taiwan needs to create products which will make us competitive,” she says. “Otherwise it will be really difficult for us.”
“台湾需要创造出让我们具备竞争力的产品，”她表示，“否则，我们的确将遭遇困境。”
While industrial Kaohsiung has been hit harder than other Taiwanese cities, it is not alone in its struggle to compete against cheaper and sometimes more innovative rivals from elsewhere.
尽管工业城市高雄受到的冲击超过台湾其他城市，但在与其他地区成本更低、更具创新性的竞争对手展开艰难竞争方面，它的处境并非是独一无二的。
Growth in Taiwan for 2013 is expected to have hit 1.7 per cent by the government’s official forecast, compared with the prediction of 3.5 per cent that it made last January. In 2012, growth was 1.3 per cent, the slowest rate since 2009.
根据台湾官方预测，预计台湾2013年的经济增速将达到1.7%，而2013年1月的预测为3.5%。2012年，台湾经济增长1.3%，为2009年以来最低。（此文写于2014年1月27日，台湾行政院主计总处(Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics，DGBAS)在1月28日公布的数字显示，台湾2013年经济增速为2.19%——编者注）
Weak growth reflects Taiwan’s reliance on exports, which account for 70 per cent of its economy but have suffered as the eurozone crisis and uncertainty in the Chinese economy dragged on global demand. At the same time, Taiwanese groups such as smartphone maker HTC and Acer, which manufactures electronics, have been overtaken by foreign rivals such as South Korea’s Samsung and China’s Lenovo.
增长乏力反映出台湾对出口的依赖，出口占台湾经济的70%，但由于欧元区危机和中国经济的不确定性拖累全球需求，台湾出口受到影响。同时，智能手机制造商宏达电(HTC)和电子产品制造商宏碁(Acer)等台湾企业被韩国三星(Samsung)和中国大陆的联想(Lenovo)等竞争对手所超越。
Those troubles have been compounded by the continued growth of Taiwanese-owned factories in China and southeast Asia. While production there helps companies’ profits, the impact on the economy is minimal.
设在中国大陆以及东南亚的台湾工厂的持续增长，更是加重了这些困境。尽管那些地区的产量有利于台湾企业增加利润，但它们对台湾经济的影响微乎其微。
Many, if not most, economists are downbeat about Taiwan’s prospects. Most worrying, says Marcella Chow of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the widening gap between exports and export orders.
很多、甚至大多数经济学家都不看好台湾前景。美银美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)的玛塞拉•周(Marcella Chow)表示，最令人担忧的是，出口与出口订单之间的差距日益拉大。
The former measures exports from Taiwan, while the latter includes goods made elsewhere. Recovering global demand has boosted orders, but exports of Made in Taiwan goods remain sluggish. “That’s a big structural problem that Taiwan is undergoing,” says Ms Chow.
出口衡量的是来自台湾的出口，而出口订单则包括其他地区制造的商品。全球需求日益复苏增加了订单数量，但“台湾制造”商品的出口仍显乏力。玛塞拉•周表示：“这是台湾现在面临的一个重大结构性问题。”
Since Ms Chen took office in 2010, she has been aggressive in promoting Kaohsiung to investors, including Chinese ones during her trips there, and trying to make a city polluted by years of industry more attractive as a place to live.
自从陈菊2010年上任以来，她一直大张旗鼓地向投资者推销高雄，包括在访问大陆期间向大陆投资者的推介，她还努力让这个受到多年工业污染的城市，变成一座更具吸引力的宜居城市。
Former sugar and banana warehouses have been turned into chic cafés, shops and offices for digital animation companies, including one involved with the production of the Oscar-winning film Life of Pi. The port authority is expanding capacity to serve more cruises and cargo ships that shuttle goods from China to the west and need a stop-off, says Cheng Chien-Yu, harbourmaster.
曾经的白糖和香蕉仓库被改造为时尚咖啡厅、商铺和数字动画公司的办公场所，包括参与制作奥斯卡(Oscar)获奖影片《少年派的奇幻漂流》(Life of Pi)的一家公司。高雄港港务局务长程建宇表示，港务局正在扩大吞吐量，为更多游船以及从大陆向西方运输商品并需要短暂停留的货船提供服务。
But local businesspeople say the shift from traditional industries to more modern enterprises is still slow going. One of the few groups to have made the transition is Brogent. Founded by a former Acer engineer, the group makes amusement park simulators whose seats jump and shake in sync with specially made animations.
但台湾本地商人表示，从传统行业向更现代企业的转型仍进展缓慢。智崴资讯科技(Brogent)就是为数不多的已转型成功的企业之一。该集团由一位前宏碁工程师创建，生产体感模拟游乐设备，其座椅可以与特殊制作的动画同步跳跃和摇晃。
The city helped find the land it needed to build its offices and the space it uses for testing and construction, says CH Ouyang, chief executive. Only in Kaohsiung, he says, could Brogent find the software developers as well as the steel workers and construction yards it needed. But, as he points out, few start-ups mix old and new industries as smoothly as his. “We’re just taking a first step,” says Mr Ouyang.
智崴首席执行官欧阳志宏(CH Ouyang)表示，高雄帮助该公司找到了兴建办公室和用于测试和施工的土地。他表示，只有在高雄，智崴才能找到它所需要的软件开发人员以及钢铁工人和施工场地。但正如他指出的那样，很少有初创企业能够像该公司这样顺利地将新旧行业结合起来。欧阳志宏表示：“我们只是迈出了第一步。”
