They buy more Bentleys than the British, fill their luxury homes with more Swarovski crystal than the Swiss, and spend more on Louis Vuitton and Versace than the French or the Italians. But one precious commodity has eluded the Chinese in their extraordinary rise from peasant nation to superpower: good manners.
他们比英国人买了更多的宾利汽车、比瑞士人买了更多的施洛华世奇水晶珠宝、比法国人和意大利人买了更多的路易威登和范思哲服饰。但是对于中国这样奇迹般的从一个满是农民的国家到超级强权，却有一样宝贵的东西他们买不到，好礼仪。
Officials are so exasperated by the tendency to spit, shout, slurp and push in at queues that they have taken to pleading and cajoling. It is not long since Shanghai launched a ‘Seven Nos’ campaign: no spitting, no littering, no vandalism, no damaging greenery, no jaywalking, no smoking in public places and no swearing. It was a dismal failure.
中国官方对于中国人随地吐痰、大声喧哗、吃饭时声音过大以及随便插队等坏习惯感到很恼火，虽然他们曾经多次请求劝诱人们不要这样做，但似乎效果不大。很久以前上海市政府就推出了“七不要”运动，不要随地吐痰、不要随手扔东西、不要破坏公务、不要践踏草坪、不要随便穿马路、不要在公共场合吸烟、不要说脏话，这项运动却以惨败收场。
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a squad of 1,500 supervisors was sent out to discourage fighting at bus stops. Paper bags were handed out by volunteers in uniforms emblazoned with the Chinese characters for mucus.
But when a Beijing university set up a ‘civic index’ to calculate the level of politeness, researchers concluded glumly that the city was still a long way off international norms and the index was quietly dropped.
在2008年北京奥运会期间，1500名监督员被派到各个车站以劝阻在公交车站发生的各种纠纷。身穿制服的志愿者们随时分发卫生纸以处理中国人随地吐痰、鼻涕等习惯。北京大学设立了一套“文明索引”来衡量礼貌程度，研究者们得出沮丧的结论，这座城市距离国际标准还有很大的差距，这套索引也随之无声无息的消失掉了。
Now, however, a school of etiquette is about to open in Beijing with classes based on the deportment of the British aristocracy – and the decorous behaviour of the Duchess of Cambridge.Sara Jane Ho, a Hong Kong businesswoman who grew up in London, is offering lessons in being classy to an exclusive clientele for an appropriately princely sum: courses at her Institute Sarita, based in the five-star Park Hyatt Hotel in Beijing, cost from £2,000 to £10,000.
然而现在，一所教学内容基于英国贵族礼仪及剑桥女公爵的行为规范的礼仪学校即将在北京出现。Sara Jane胡，一位成长在伦敦的香港女商人，在位于北京五星级的凯悦酒店为她专门的客户提供如何变得更有品味的课程，每个人的学费大概2千到1万欧元。

　　　　　　　　　　　　
Model behaviour: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is the inspiration for many young, high society Chinese women
模范榜样:凯瑟琳，剑桥女公爵，激励了很多中国年轻的上流社会女性
Zaozao will pay between £5,000 and £6,000 for her course and says she is already amazed at what she has learned from two introductory sessions, adding: ‘We were taught how to shake hands, and how you should always have eye contact when you’re talking to people. Before the course, I didn’t know how to wipe my mouth properly with a napkin or how to fold it before placing it in my lap – or even how to tear a piece of bread and put butter on it.’She pauses, then adds with a shudder: ‘It’s only now that I realise how terribly rude I must have seemed.’
Zaozao将会为她的课程支付5到6千欧元，在2次的指导课程上她感觉自己已经学到了很多东西，她说道：“我们被教到如何握手，学到了在与别人交谈时候应该眼神交流，在学习课程之前，我不知道应该如何用餐巾合体的擦嘴或者如何叠好餐巾，以及如何切一片面包并把黄油涂在上面。”她突然停下来，颤栗了一下说道：“直到现在我才意识到我以前的举止有多粗鲁”。
China’s lack of manners has become something of a national embarrassment, with academics openly debating in the state-run media how habits can be changed. Certainly, public behaviour can come as a shock to Westerners.
中国人缺乏礼仪的情况已经让这个国家感到了尴尬，国有媒体公开讨论如何才能改变劣习，毕竟，公共行为会让来访的西方人震惊。
On one of my first visits in 2004, I learned not to put my head out of a bus window. When I did so, a man three rows ahead spat expertly and copiously out of the window and scored a direct hit on me. It is not uncommon to see people blowing their noses without a handkerchief.
我第一次到中国是2004年，我学到了不要把头伸出窗外，因为当我这样做的时候，坐在我前面三排座的男人熟练的往窗外吐了一口痰，直接命中到我的脸上。并且很少看到人们用手帕擦鼻涕。
My translator told me, however, that many Chinese believe phlegm is toxic and that spitting it out expels poison from the body. To them, she said, our habit of blowing our noses into a handkerchief and putting it in our pockets is just as repugnant.
我的翻译告诉我，很多中国人认为痰是有毒的，所以他们把痰吐出来使身体排毒，对他们来说，我们把用手帕擦鼻涕并放到兜里的习惯是令人厌恶的。
Sara Jane hopes that the perfect manners she is teaching will trickle down to the rest of Chinese society: a new form of cultural revolution. ‘When I say I’m starting an etiquette school the first thing people say to me is, “Thank you. China needs this,” ’ she says.
Sara希望她所教的礼仪能够对改变中国社会起一点作用，一种新式的文化**。“当我说我准备开办一所礼仪学校的时候，人们的第一反应是对我说，“谢谢，中国需要这个”，她说到”。

　　　
　　张梓琳身上散发的那种知性气质，却是她最与众不同的地方。这种知性不在学历的高低，而是真正的文化积累。