三星共和国的挫败 Note 7召回打击韩国
South Korean teacher, Kim Jeong-min was at Narita Airport in Japan this month when he watched a television news report that Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone was banned on airplanes because it was prone to catching fire.
韩国首尔——本月，前韩国教师金正民（Kim Jeong-min，音）在日本成田机场(Narita Airport)看到电视新闻报道称，三星电子(Samsung Electronics)的盖乐世Note 7智能手机(Galaxy Note 7)因容易起火而被禁止带上飞机。
Mr. Kim, 58, said he had felt humiliated, as if the non-Koreans in the airport lounge were looking at him.
58岁的金正民称，他感到羞愧，好像候机厅里的非韩国人都在看他。
Though he does not own a Galaxy Note 7, his reaction was typical of the intense feelings South Koreans hold toward Samsung, the most dramatic corporate success story to emerge from the country’s transformation from a war-torn agrarian nation to a global economic powerhouse.
虽然他没有盖乐世Note 7，但他的反应反映出韩国人对三星怀有的典型的强烈感情。三星是这个国家从遭战争破坏的农耕国家转变为全球经济强国过程中出现的最激动人心的商业成功故事。
“Whether we like it or not, Samsung is to the global market what our national team is in the Olympics,” Mr. Kim said.
“不管我们喜欢与否，三星在全球市场上相当于奥运会上的韩国代表团，”金正民说。
Calling Samsung this country’s biggest and most profitable company hardly describes its special (but not always favorable) place in minds here. Some South Koreans say they live in the “Republic of Samsung.”
称三星是韩国最大、最赚钱的公司还不足以描述它在韩国人民心中的特殊（但不总是受欢迎的）地位。有些韩国人说他们生活在“三星共和国”。
Life can literally begin and end with Samsung: One can be born in a Samsung hospital; attend a Samsung university; honeymoon in a Samsung hotel; stock a Samsung-built apartment with Samsung appliances bought with a Samsung credit card; take children to Samsung amusement parks; and have one’s body, upon death, taken to a Samsung funeral center.
一个韩国人的一生可能从头到尾都与三星有关系：他可能出生在三星的一家医院里；上了一所三星的大学；在三星的一家酒店里度蜜月；在三星建的公寓里装满用三星信用卡买的三星电器；带孩子去三星的游乐场；去世后，遗体被运往三星的一家殡仪馆。
For South Koreans, the company’s progression from an assembler of clunky transistor radio sets to the world’s leading producer of flat-panel television sets, computer chips and smartphones is a source of national pride. Last year, Samsung accounted for 20 percent of South Korea’s $527 billion in exports. That pride was dented, and economic unease deepened, when Samsung recalled more than three million Note 7 smartphones globally and decided not to produce any more because some devices heated up and burst into flames.
对韩国人来说，这家公司从一个装配笨重晶体管收音机的工厂发展成为生产平板电视、电脑芯片和智能手机的世界领先企业是该国的一个骄傲。去年，三星的出口额占韩国5270亿美元的总出口额的20%。因有些设备过热并起火，三星在全球召回300多万部Note 7智能手机，并决定不再生产这款手机，这让韩国人的荣誉感受到伤害，并加深了他们对经济的不安感觉。
“This is not just Samsung’s trouble. It’s trouble for the entire economy,” the opposition leader Moon Jae-in, a potential contender in next year’s presidential election, said this month, referring to the Note 7 crisis. “Because people take pride in Samsung as a brand representing South Korea, it is their trouble, too.”
“这不只是三星的麻烦。它是整个经济的麻烦，”本月，反对党领导人文在寅(Moon Jae-in) 在提起Note 7的危机时表示。他是明年总统大选的一个潜在竞争者。“因为人们认为三星代表着韩国，为它感到骄傲，所以这也是他们的麻烦。”
On Thursday, President Park Geun-hye voiced concern about the Galaxy Note 7 recall’s impact on exports. The economy has taken recent hits from rising unemployment rates and the bankruptcy of Hanjin, a major shipping company. Its shipyards, among the world’s largest, are laying off thousands after posting huge losses because of shrinking orders and competition from lower-cost rivals in China.
周四，朴槿惠总统(Park Geun-hye)就盖乐世Note 7的召回对出口的影响表示担忧。最近，该国经济已经因为失业率上升和大型船运公司韩进(Hanjin)的破产而受到打击。该国的造船厂跻身世界最大造船厂之列，但是由于订单减少以及来自中国的低成本对手的竞争，它们出现巨额亏损，导致数以千计的员工下岗。
Samsung is the best-known brand name South Korea has ever produced, ranking seventh in the 100 best global brands compiled by Interbrand, a brand consultancy. Its Galaxy smartphones have lifted its — and by extension South Korea’s — high-tech image more than any other Korean product.
到目前为止，三星是韩国最著名的品牌，在品牌咨询公司Interbrand选出的全球最佳品牌100强中，三星排名第七。盖乐世智能手机在提升该公司以及该国的高科技形象方面做出了超过其他任何韩国产品的贡献。
Having already overtaken Sony and other Japanese companies it once mimicked, Samsung has grown powerful enough to challenge Apple, an icon of American innovation.
三星已经超越它曾经模仿的索尼(Sony)等日本公司，变得非常强大，足以挑战美国创新能力的标志苹果公司(Apple)。
To many South Koreans, the Note 7 recall, the biggest ever in the mobile phone industry, is just another painful lesson for Samsung to learn from and pay for — the recall is estimated to cost it $6.2 billion — in its quest to dominate yet another industry.
对很多韩国人来说，Note7的召回只是三星努力在另一个行业占据主导地位的过程中吸取的沉痛教训和付出的沉重代价。此次是手机行业最大规模的召回行动，成本估计高达62亿美元。
“All manufacturing companies, including the American and Japanese, make mistakes,” said Park Bo-yeon, 29, who was recently browsing in a handset shop in downtown Seoul where a notice urged customers to hand in Note 7s. “What matters is whether you can learn from them and move on. Samsung always has.”
“所有的制造企业，包括美国和日本的，都犯过错误，”29岁的朴宝妍（Park Bo-yeon，音）说。前不久，她在首尔市中心一家手机店里浏览商品。店里贴了一个提示，敦促顾客交回Note 7。“重要的是，是否能够吸取教训，继续前进。三星总能做到这一点。”
Ms. Park suspected that the Note 7 fiasco had been overblown by the American news media, which she said looked down on Samsung. She said she was disappointed that Samsung had failed to explain why some Note 7s heated up and caught fire. But she was equally impressed by Samsung’s “courageous decision to terminate the Note 7 before anyone died.”
朴宝妍怀疑，美国新闻媒体因为瞧不起三星，过分渲染了Note 7的此次惨败。她说自己对三星没有解释有些Note 7过热并起火的原因感到失望。不过，她也同样很佩服三星“在没有出现死亡案例之前决定终止生产Note 7的勇气”。
Among South Koreans, though, the name Samsung also evokes greed and secrecy. They often describe the company as a predator that makes profits not so much through innovation as by ruthlessly squeezing its numerous domestic parts suppliers.
不过在韩国人眼中，三星这个名字也代表着贪婪和诡秘。他们经常把这个公司形容为掠夺者，它不仅是通过创新获利，更多的是通过无情地压榨国内的众多零件供应商。
And Samsung has never shaken off its image as an imitator, though a highly efficient one. (Last year, it was ordered to pay $548 million in damages to Apple for infringing on its iPhone design patents, a case that is now at the United States Supreme Court.)
而且三星从未摆脱模仿者的形象，虽然它是一个非常高效的模仿者（去年，因侵权使用iPhone的设计专利，三星被勒令向苹果赔偿5.48亿美元的损失，目前该案正在美国最高法院审理）。
The Note 7 disaster raised more doubt about Samsung’s reputation. It also reminded South Koreans that their export-driven economy depended so heavily on Samsung and a handful of other family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol, that they often feel it is held hostage to them.
Note 7的灾难加深了人们对三星声誉的质疑，也让韩国人再次想到，他们以出口驱动的经济十分强烈地依赖于三星和其他少数几个由家族控制的企业集团（又叫财团），他们经常觉得韩国遭受了这些财团绑架。
“The saying that Samsung’s good and bad luck is our country’s good and bad luck is propaganda manufactured by Samsung and media and politicians beholden to it,” said Kim Sang-gyun, 32, who was visiting the same shop as Ms. Park. “Why should I worry about Samsung’s trouble unless I owned a Samsung share or Note 7? And I don’t.”
“三星的命运就是我们国家的命运——这是三星以及受惠于它的媒体和政客们宣传出来的，”32岁的金尚坤（Kim Sang-gyun，音）说。和朴宝妍一样，他也是那家手机店的顾客。“如果我没有持有三星的股票或拥有一部Note 7，我为什么要担心三星的麻烦？我不担心。”
Samsung is the most successful among the chaebol, which spearheaded South Korea’s industrialization by copying foreign competitors’ products but making them cheaper, better and faster.
三星是韩国最成功的财团，它通过仿造外国竞争者的产品并生产出更便宜、更好用、速度更快的产品而领导韩国的工业化进程。
China is now using the same model to threaten South Korea in the industries it has dominated through the “fast follower” strategy: shipbuilding, semiconductor and smartphones. South Korea sees itself as in a constant race to catch up with innovators like Apple while struggling to keep a step ahead of Chinese rivals.
现在，在韩国通过“快速模仿”战略占据主导地位的行业，中国在以同样的模式威胁韩国，比如在造船、半导体和智能手机领域。韩国认为自己在不断追赶苹果等创新者，同时努力领先于来自中国的对手们。
The Note 7 humiliation left many South Koreans wondering whether Samsung — and South Korea in general — is stumbling in that race.
Note 7的耻辱让很多韩国人担心，三星以及整个韩国正在那场竞赛中遭遇重挫。
“They say Samsung is the strongest among our country’s businesses,” said Mr. Kim, the former teacher. “That’s why its Note 7 failure worries me. It kind of shows our limit.”
“他们说三星是我们国家最强大的公司，”曾担任教师的金正民说，“这是Note 7的失败让我担心的原因。它似乎显示出我们的局限性。”
