1、 外文翻译 原文 China s Shoe Manufacturing and the Wenzhou Model: Perspectives on the World s Leading Producer and Exporter of Footwear Material Source: Journal Eurasian Geography and Economics Author:Y. H. Dennis Wei INTRODUCTION The global map of industrial production is in a state of nearly unprecedente
2、d flux, reflecting Chinas spectacular rise and success in becoming a dominant player in the world economic arena. Although still identified with communist ideology, the countrys most dramatic growth in output has occurred in exportable consumer goods such as clothing and footwear. Exports from China
3、 have flooded global markets, so that the country has by now earned the well-deserved reputation as the worlds factory. In 2008, its GDP became the worlds third-largest, surpassing that of Germany and challenging the leading position of the United States. How has China achieved its remarkable rise i
4、n production, and what roles have its industries and regions played in the process? The countrys footwear industry represents a clearexample of Chinas rise in manufacturing, and thus provides some revealing answers to that question. The limited Western literature posits that Chinas footwear factorie
5、s are concentrated in the export-oriented Pearl River Delta (PRD), where growth is driven by foreign investment and external production under a blueprint for development popularly known as the PRD model (e.g., see Scott, 2006). But while this picture reflects the situation in the early 1990s, it nee
6、ds to be updated, if for no other reason that several major centers of footwear production including Quanzhou (Fujian Province), Chengdu (Sichuan), and Chongqing and Wenzhou (Zhejiang) also have by now been established in China. This paper attempts to expand our knowledge of industrial and regional
7、development by presenting a study of footwear industry in the Wenzhou Municipality, which could be called Chinas capital of local capitalism. The municipality is known for the Wenzhou model of industrial districts and regional development, based on bottom-up development of family-owned small busines
8、s enterprises embedded in dense local institutions. Wenzhous districts resemble those of the Marshallian industrial districts (MIDs) more frequently studied and cited in the literature (see A. P. L. Liu, 1992; Y. L. Liu, 1992; Parris, 1993; Ma and Cui, 2002; Sonobe et al., 2004; Ye and Wei, 2005; Wa
9、lcott, 2007; Wei et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2008). The resemblance, however, tends to fade since the late 1980s, after Wenzhous family enterprises have undergone two major rounds of institutional change and faced several strategic choices, in conjunction with the emergence of multiregional enterpri
10、ses (MREs). In this paper, I will attempt to interpret the development and restructuring of Wenzhous footwear industry in an effort to provide a clearer picture in the context of Chinas regional development models (e.g., PRD, Sunan, and Wenzhou). In so doing, I challenge both the New Regionalism lit
11、erature that focuses on small firms and local assets, as well as perspectives that place undue emphasis on integration with global networks and exogenous factors of development. I will argue that neither approach provides adequate explanations of regional development in China. THE RESEARCH SETTING M
12、y research activities focused on the Municipality of Wenzhou (in southern Zhejiang Province; Fig. 1), which covers an area of 11,784 km2. Inhabited by an estimated 7.9 million people in 2008, it had a concentration of 1.42 million in its urban district (WSB, 2008). The district (Wenzhou City) formed
13、 the traditional economic core of the municipality, which in aggregate accounted for 81.5 percent of its gross regional product (ibid.). My research on Wenzhou was initiated in the late 1990s, and from 2003 to 2005 involved surveys and personal interviews with local companies and government official
14、s. With renewed funding, we began another round of extensive field research in August 2008 in Wenzhou in collaboration with local researchers affiliated with the Wenzhou Institute of Economic Construction and Planning and a group of faculty and students from the Department ofUrban and Regional Econo
15、mics at East China Normal University. Our team included more than 40 researchers and students from Wenzhou as well as from other cities. Together we interviewed almost all business associations in Wenzhou (N 20) as well as more than 100 firms recommended by these associations and representing differ
16、ent sectors and enterprise sizes; many are among the most influential enterprises in the region. With regard to its footwear industry, we interviewed the two relevant business associations and 15 typical companies, providing a representative sample of the entire shoe manufacturing cluster and produc
17、tion process. Interviews, averaging 1.5 hours, were conducted with business owners, general managers, and other high-level functionaries in charge of production, investment, and public relations of the shoe-making firms. Because our study of Wenzhou is deeply intertwined with the remaking of the Wen
18、zhou model, I will now briefly outline how that model has changed as a consequence of institutional restructuring. INSTITUTIONAL RESTRUCTURING AND REMAKING OF THE WENZHOU MODEL The essence of the Wenzhou model is a system of production centered on family enterprises and embedded in thick, historical
19、ly rooted local institutions. Families typically form the main production units, relying on social networks and sales agents integrated within local markets for production factors and flexible marketing. Broadly speaking, Wenzhou has tended to be ahead of the reform curve (Y. L. Liu, 1992); in the m
20、id-1980s, when China was still dominated by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), family business units, many with red hats (fake collective ownership), had become the backbone of Wenzhous economy. 17 Shoes from Wenzhou began to penetrate the markets of Chinese cities, which were then still dominated by S
21、OEs and struggling to cope with the deprivations of a shortage economy. Nonetheless, the unfettered capitalism and protection afforded local firms by the Wenzhou government made the made in Wenzhou label synonymous with inferior quality. Wenzhou shoes had the reputation of lasting only for one week
22、(week shoes) or even one day (dawnevening shoes). In 1987, the municipal government in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province and one of the major markets for the shoes confiscated and burned thousands of pairs. By that time, the inherent problems of the original Wenzhou model had become serious, an
23、d local business leaders and governments pushed for change. The Wenzhou model underwent two rounds of institutional restructuring. The first, launched in the mid-1980s, was a bottom-up process initiated by local business people and supported by the local government. It centered on establishing share
24、holding cooperatives as a response to the needs to clarify property rights and improve scale economies, and transformed many family enterprises into cooperative ventures. By 1997, 36,000 cooperative enterprises existed in Wenzhou, with a gross output of 90 billion yuan comprising 70 percent of the m
25、unicipalitys total (Editorial Committee, 2008, p. 206). These firms possessed clearer property rights and became better organized. But in tandem with with the broadening of reforms in China as a whole, Wenzhou firms began to face intense competition from foreigninvested enterprises with better equip
26、ment and higher quality products, as well as from private enterprises that had improved their competitiveness. And despite the shift of some firms to cooperative forms of ownership, most enterprises in Wenzhou still were locked in the orthodox Wenzhou model, being small in size and producing low-qua
27、lity merchandise. The second round of restructuring, initiated in the mid-1990s, was devoted to quality and focused on the transformation from shareholding cooperatives to shareholding enterprises and limited-liability corporations. It resulted in the emergence of multi-regional enterprises,or de-lo
28、calized region-less groups/conglomerates. This round of restructuring was in essence a high-road strategy based on efficiency, competitiveness, and innovation, with more local state involvement and integration with the global economy. Both businesses and the local state launched campaigns to enhance
29、 the quality of products. Specific local government policies included financial support (and bank loans) to stimulate firm growth, allocation of land to large firms with large size and recognized potential, human resource development (especially worker training), import and export subsidies, and imp
30、rovements in urban infrastructure. As a result of these two rounds of restructuring, Wenzhous industry has been upgraded, diversified, and expanded in spatial terms; some observers now refer to a new Wenzhou model. Wenzhou has continued to rise in the Chinese economy, with its footwear industry bein
31、g one of the most representative sectors. Thus, while traces of the orthodox Wenzhou model can still be observed, a fundamentally new type of industrial district has began to emerge. THE NEW INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT MODEL Similarities with the Traditional Model In the past, when the industrial district f
32、unctioned under the orthodox Wenzhou model, it in many ways resembled a classical MIDa territorial agglomeration of small firms embedded in thick local institutions.19 First, Wenzhou has produced footwear for over 500 years, including shoes explicitly for the royal family during the Ming Dynasty. In
33、 1978, when China had just commenced economic reforms, Wenzhou already had 19 footwear factories producing 500,000 pairs of shoes annually (Huang et al., 2008). By August 2008, the number of such factories had climbed to about 2,700 (over 4,000 if informal, individual factories are included), suppor
34、ted by 2,500 related firms specializing in leather, soles, machines, ornamental accessories, design, and other services.20 In aggregate, the industry employed ca. one million workers producing 1.2 billion pairs of shoes, and accounting for one-fourth of Chinas total output. In 2008, the value of ind
35、ustrial output derived from shoe production in Wenzhou was 65.2 billion yuan (Fig. 2). Wenzhou is one of the largest footwear-industry centers in China, commanding 17 percent of the Chinese market in 2007 and gradually evolving into a highly specialized andcoordinated industrial cluster. The Wenzhou
36、 Municipality can obtain most of its needs for components, semi-finished products, and services internally, including pig leather (supplied from Shuitou), man-made leather (from Longwan), buffalo leather (Yangyi), footwear manufacturing machinery (Wuniu), shoe bottoms (Baishi), accessories and ornam
37、ental materials (Huangtian), shoe production factories (Lucheng, Oubei, and Ruian), and trading facilities (Quxi) (see Fig. 1). Even half of the equipment needed by the industry can be purchased locally (WFLIA, 2008).21 Second, as in the MIDs, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have tradition
38、ally dominated production in Wenzhou.22 Among the 2,692 shoe enterprises enumerated in 2008, only 753 were classified as above-designated size by the State Statistical Bureau. Percentages of SMEs are even larger among companies producing footwear components (e.g., soles, leather, accessories), or en
39、gaged in tanning and trading. This phenomenon is somewhat unique to the footwear industry, and reflects the rather insignificant cost savings from increasing scale (Sorenson, 2003). Furthermore, the lack of intellectual property rights also prompts small shoe firms to produce without heavy investmen
40、t in expensive technological innovation. Third, the footwear industry is spatially concentrated within the municipalityin Wenzhou, Ruian, Yongjia, and Pingyangwith many towns/townships (the basic units of industrial districts) engaging in specialized production (Fig. 1). Most production and tradingc
41、enters have close functional ties, built on local tradition and facilitated by local government policies. And finally, as in the traditional districts, local institutions and guanxi (relationship) networks are intensely interwoven, bound by trust and culture, and maintained by mutual exchanges and p
42、ower relations. In recent years, many business associations have been formed in Wenzhou, responding to the need for networking and trade protection. Of these, the Wenzhou Footwear and Leather Industry Association is one of the largest and most powerful, assisting the industry in negotiating local re
43、forms and resource allocation, as well as in legal proceedings involving international trade barriers and disputes. Lastly, the crucible of institutional restructuring and creation of new businesses and networks has forged a new group of entrepreneurs and local government officials in Wenzhou with d
44、ecisive influence on public policy. Newly assigned mayors, who in prior decades often discouraged private enterprises, eventually became protectors of local capitalist activities and even accommodated the local push for marketization; as such they may be increasingly viewed like their counterparts i
45、n the MIDs. The significance of the footwear industry also makes it a natural focus of local government policies allocating such sought-after perquisites as additional land resources, bank loans, and tax rebates. In addition, the municipal government has lobbied heavily for local industry, seeking n
46、ational and provincial recognition as well as government contracts and special economic privileges (e.g., designation of economic zones). Diversification, Up-scaling, and External Linkages While resembling the MIDs in ways outlined above, Wenzhous footwear industry district has managed to change ove
47、r time. It has become apparent that the industrys rise, rather than being solely based on cheap labor (an assertion disputed by studies such as Lowder, 1999), is also due to important institutional reforms and industrial restructuring. The same can be said more generally about many other regions and
48、 economic sectors that have driven Chinas economic rise to the position of a global factory. Wenzhou has moved well beyond the orthodox industrial district model, expanding beyond SMEs, local agglomeration, and guanxi networks. As a result of institutional change in the direction of shareholding com
49、panies, a group of large firms and MREs producing brand name products has emerged and become active in Wenzhou. Overall, company size in the footwear industry has tended to increase, with sales income exceeding over one billion yuan in eight firms in 2007 (WFLIA, 2008); in the same year, four Wenzhou firms were included in the group of 10 most profitable firms in Chinas footwear industry. Restructuring also has improved the quality of footwear, with five registered as famous brands of China.24 Facing intense competition and shrinking pro
