中国文化成为外国汽车制造商揽客良方

Mandarin has become a new vehicle for foreign automakers to woo Chinese customers.

普通话现在已成为外国汽车制造商招揽中国消费者的新手段。

It sometimes even sings — such as when Nicholas Speeks, a Briton who heads sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz in China, drew cheers on last Monday by serenading a crowd at Auto China in Beijing with the ballad Great China.

有时候甚至是唱歌--比如身为英国人的梅赛德斯·奔驰中国区市场销售总裁倪恺，就在上周一的车展上演唱民谣《大中国》，从而引来人们的喝彩。

"We have the same home, and its name is China," Speeks crooned in Mandarin to applause at the company's booth at the show.

倪恺在公司的展台上用普通话这样唱道："我们都有一个家，名字叫中国。"

That was a day after the brand's new E-class car was unveiled to the tune of the Chinese classic song In the Field of Hope. Participants joked that the country truly is "a field of hope" for Mercedes-Benz.

一天之前，梅赛德斯·奔驰还用一首中国经典歌曲《在希望的田野上》拉开了新E级车全球首发的序幕。与会者开玩笑称，中国真的是奔驰公司的"希望的田野"。

China became the automaker's largest market when it sold 373,500 vehicles on the mainland last year. Sixty-seven percent of its vehicles were manufactured in China, 12 percentage points more than in 2014.

去年，中国大陆共售出37万3500辆汽车，从而成为了汽车制造商的最大市场。其中，67%的汽车都是中国制造的，这一数字相比2014年增加了12个百分点。

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth ended his speech at the auto show by declaring in Mandarin, "I love China." His speech centered on the company opening an aluminum workshop in Jiangsu province earlier this year, its first such plant outside the United Kingdom. Speth also referred to a saying used in both Chinese and Western cultures: "Teaching one how to fish is better than giving fish to him."

此外，捷豹路虎集团首席执行官斯佩思在北京国际车展上以一句普通话"我爱中国"结束了自己的讲话。他演讲的中心主要是今年早些时候在江苏省开办的全铝车身车间，该车间也是其在英国本土之外的第一家工厂。在演讲中，斯佩思还引用了一句中西文化通用的谚语："授人以鱼不如授人以渔。"

"Showgirls have not been allowed at the auto show for the past two years. So car companies are trying something new to attract attention," said John Zeng, managing director of Shanghai-based consultancy LMC Automotive.

上海艾尔西汽车市场咨询有限公司总经理曾志凌对此表示，在过去两年里，车展上禁止出现车模，因此车企纷纷尝试能引人注目的新手段。

"Many carmakers have localized, and such behavior is part of localization," said an auto analyst.

一位汽车分析师称："许多汽车制造商已经本土化，这些行为就是本土化的一部分。"