英國首相卡梅倫開通中文微博 獲大批粉絲關注

When British Prime Minister David Cameron returns home from his carefully choreographed trip to China, he will be surprised by the dozens of business contracts that will start to flow in, as well as by endless questions from thousands of his new Chinese friends on social media.

當英國首相卡梅倫從精心籌劃的中國之行返回英國時，數量巨大、紛至沓來的商業合同以及社交媒體上成千上萬的新中國朋友無盡的問題將會令他驚訝不已。

I have long observed foreign politicians trying to engage with Chinese fans, sometimes in the millions, through social media. Their teams waste no time uploading their schedules, speeches and short ideas in English, French or other languages.

我早就觀察到外國政客試圖通過社交媒體接觸數以百萬計的中國粉絲。他們的團隊抓緊時間用英語、法語或者其他語言上傳政客的日程、言論和想法。

However, these messages usually fail to reach the Chinese public, mainly because they are not written in Chinese.

但是，中國的民衆通常看不到這些信息，主要原因在於它們都不是用中文寫的。

So I have drawn the impolite conclusion that Most efforts by foreign politicians and their handlers to involve ordinary Chinese via social media have been pretty much failures.

所以我得出一個有點失禮的結論，那就是外國政客及其團隊通過社交媒體接觸中國大衆的努力全都是白費。

But Cameron's team has made a difference. It set up a micro blog for the prime minister on Sina Weibo. Cameron is a latecomer, but for the prime minister it has been a case of better late than never.

但是，卡梅倫的團隊明顯與衆不同。他們爲首相開通了新浪微博。卡梅倫是遲到者，但是對於首相來說，遲到總比不到要好。

By Wednesday, Cameron had uploaded seven posts, even though he only started to use the tool on Friday. Of the seven, three were posted as warm-up messages before he began his China tour.

雖然卡梅倫11月29日纔開始使用微博，但是，截至12月4日，他已經發表了7條帖子。這7條中有三條是在他開始中國之行前發佈的熱身信息。

Cameron has used the Chinese language in all of his posts, and two are bilingual. This marks a huge difference from the posts of other global political figures in the past.

在他所有的帖子裏，卡梅倫都用了中文，有兩條是雙語的。這與以前其他外國政客的帖子有明顯不同。

In terms of content, Cameron's posts are all simple and original, and accompanied by photos. They are not mere recaps of official documents, schedules and speeches.

從內容上來講，卡梅倫的帖子都很簡潔，具有原創性，還添加了圖片。這些帖子並不只是官方文件、日程和言論的翻版。

Not shy of advertising, Cameron has even managed to publish two posts about Land Rover in a short time, in an effort to help market the car brand to China's new rich.

卡梅倫從不羞於做廣告，他甚至在短期之內發了兩條關於路虎的帖子，希望能夠幫助這個汽車品牌進入中國新富市場。

The most interesting part of Cameron's excursion into Chinese social media is his team's ambition to set up a dialogue between the prime minister and the public. In one recent post, Cameron asked his followers to leave questions for him, saying he would answer some of them before he left China.

卡梅倫中國社交媒體之行的最有趣之處就是，他的團隊期望在首相和中國大衆之間開展對話。在最近的一條帖子當中，卡梅倫請粉絲們爲他留下問題，並承諾在他離開中國之前他會回答部分問題。

The number of Cameron's micro blog followers surpassed 260,000 in one week, roughly equal to the number of subscribers to two of his country's newspapers, The Guardian and The Financial Times.

在一週之內，卡梅倫的微博粉絲突破26萬，這差不多相當於英國《衛報》和《金融時報》訂閱者的數量之和。

Cameron does not have the largest number of followers among the dozens of foreign politicians in China's social media community. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who opened a weibo account in 2011, has more than 3 million followers.

在衆多使用中國社交媒體的外國政客當中，卡梅倫並不是粉絲數量最多的一個。歐洲理事會主席範龍佩於2011年開通微博，已有300萬餘粉絲。

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has been working to expand her network in China and has accumulated more than 3.5 million followers. To my surprise, this Frenchwoman uses French and English most of the time.

國際貨幣基金組織總裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德在中國擴展社交網絡，擁有超過350萬粉絲。令我吃驚的是，這位法國女性大多數時間使用法語和英語。

Christiana Figueres, climate change chief of the United Nations, also has opened a weibo account that now has more than 45,000 followers, a relatively small number compared to the others. But she and her communications team have almost no experience in using the Chinese language on micro blogs, particularly when discussing this complex topic.

《聯合國氣候變化框架公約》祕書處執行祕書克里斯蒂娜·菲格雷斯也開通了微博，擁有4.5萬粉絲，與其他政客相比較少。但是，她和她的團隊幾乎沒有在微博上使用中文的經驗，尤其是在討論氣候這個複雜話題的時候。

Though Cameron has not responded to the mounting comments on his weibo account so far, he should be delighted by the responses from his followers, who can understand his messages in Chinese. His latest post has been forwarded and commented upon more than 20,000 times.

儘管卡梅倫到目前爲止還沒有對微博上如山的評論進行回覆，但是那些能夠讀懂他中文微博的粉絲們所發來的回覆肯定會令他非常開心。他最近的一條帖子被轉發和評論2萬餘次。

Van Rompuy had no such luck during his November visit to Beijing. His team published several posts related to his official meetings with Chinese leaders, but each attracted fewer than a dozen comments.

11月來訪北京的範龍佩就沒那麼幸運了。他的團隊發表了幾條有關他與中國領袖官方會晤的帖子，但是每條帖子只有幾條評論。

More recently, Van Rompuy made some progress by posting several short notices and comments in Chinese. But the number of responses was still small, given his colossal number of fans.

最近，範龍佩用中文發表了幾條狀態和評論。但是與他數量龐大的粉絲相比，回覆的數量仍然很少。

Van Rompuy welcomed Cameron to blogging in China on Tuesday in his latest post, expressing the wish that the British leader follow suit in making Chinese friends who are truly interested in building closer EU-China relations through social media.

12月3日，範龍佩在最近的帖子中歡迎卡梅倫開通微博，他希望卡梅倫也像他一樣，與真正期望通過社交媒體進一步密切中國-歐盟關係的中國人做朋友。

Van Rompuy is correct to encourage European leaders to invest time and energy. But in practice, he and other politicians should follow Cameron's example. While blogging in China is open, fast and interactive in China, it shares features with traditional media content.

範龍佩鼓勵歐洲領導人在這方面花費時間和精力的舉動是正確的。但是在實踐方面，他和其他政客應該像卡梅倫學習。儘管在中國微博具有開放性、快捷性和互動性的特徵，但是它也與傳統媒體有相同的特徵。

The politicians should bear in mind that content is king in social media, just as it is in journalism. It is the key to expanding a social media network and attracting a bigger audience.

與新聞業一樣，在社交媒體中，內容至上。這一點政客們應銘記於心。這是拓寬社交媒體網絡和吸引粉絲的關鍵。

Furthermore, using netizens' own language shows respect. It would be useful if foreign political figures followed Cameron and studied his team's efforts to carry on effective conversations with Chinese followers.

此外，使用網民的母語是表達尊重的一種方式。如果外國政客仿效卡梅倫及其團隊與中國粉絲進行有效對話，將會收到明顯成效。

I have become a follower of Cameron's. I sent him a question, in both Chinese and English, asking about his plans to maintain a smooth dialogue with the Chinese to avoid the ups and downs of bilateral relations. I am looking forward to his Fu Jing ( China Daily )

我已經關注了卡梅倫的微博。我給他發送了一箇中英雙語的問題，詢問他如何爲避免雙邊關係起伏不定而與中國大衆保持順暢對話。我期待他的回覆。