消失多年的小費在中國少數時髦餐館迴歸

For the past couple of decades, night owls with the munchies have flocked to a certain street in Beijing that is packed with all-night restaurants.
在過去的二十年裏，北京的吃貨夜貓子們會蜂擁到一條通宵營業餐館的街道上覓食。

The sidewalks are jammed with cars and have a perpetual patina of rancid-smelling cooking oil.
人行道上停滿了汽車，空氣中瀰漫的都是油煙味。

One of the trendier restaurants on the block is called A Very Long Time Ago. The decor is upscale Paleolithic, with silhouettes of cavemen traipsing across the walls.
“很久以前”是這條街上的一家比較時髦的餐館，它的裝潢是高檔的石器時代風格，穴居人的剪影在牆上走來走去。

The clientele is not so fossilized. They're mostly 20-somethings who roast skewers of food over hot coals.
不過顧客們則沒有那麼老朽，他們大多是20多歲的年輕人，在炙熱的炭火上烤着食材串。

Young Chinese restaurant customers willing to pay for better service are leading a small-scale revival of tipping not seen in Chinese restaurants for decades.
中國年輕一代的餐廳顧客願意爲更好的服務付費，他們正在引領付小費的小規模復興，這種做法已在中國餐館絕跡數十年。

The trend began at this restaurant last October, and is so far confined to Beijing, Shanghai and other top-tier cities.
這一趨勢於去年10月從這家餐館興起，目前僅限於北京、上海和其他一線城市。

Every few minutes at A Very Long Time Ago, a prerecorded message informs diners that if they like the service, they can use their smartphones to scan QR codes that the waitstaff wear on their sleeves.
在“很久以前”，每隔幾分鐘就會有一段提前錄好的語音提示顧客，如果他們對服務感到滿意，可以使用智能手機掃描服務員衣袖上的二維碼。

This generates a tip of 4.56 yuan, about 70 cents. Diners can tip as many times as they want.
這一做法會產生4.56元人民幣的小費。顧客想“打賞”幾次都可以。

"To customers, that's like just a game," says restaurant owner Song Ji. He invented this system, which he claims is the first of its kind in China.
“很久以前”的老闆宋吉表示：“對顧客來說，這就像是一種遊戲。”他是這一做法的發明人，據他表示，該店是全國第一家這麼做的。

The important thing, Song says, is to keep the tips small in proportion to the bill, so the bonus doesn't become an onus on customers.
宋吉稱，重要的是讓小費金額只相當於賬單金額的一小部分，這樣一來小費就不會成爲顧客的負擔。

"Where the average bill is $30 per person," he says, "I recommend a tip of no more than 70 cents."
他說，“如果人均消費30美元，那麼我建議小費不要超過70美分。”

He's just back from the U.S., where he visited restaurants in Chicago and Los Angeles. He says he felt that tipping has not only become a burden on American customers, but more importantly, it has lost its meaning.
宋吉剛剛從美國回來，在那趟旅行中，他去了芝加哥和洛杉磯的餐館，感到支付小費不僅成了美國顧客的負擔，而且更重要的是付小費已經失去了原本的意義。

"No matter how bad the service gets, you still have to give a 15 percent tip," he observes. "That's no good!"
他說：“無論服務有多糟，你都必須支付15%的小費。這樣不好。”

Song pulls out his cellphone to show me statistics on tipping at all of his restaurants. There's an app for that, of course, and it shows how many times each member of the wait staff has been tipped at each restaurant, and how much money they've earned in total.
宋吉拿出手機，展示了他所經營的所有連鎖餐館的小費統計數據。一款手機應用會顯示出每家餐館的每名服務員被“打賞”多少次以及他們賺取小費的總額。

This restaurant's top tip-taker is 20-year-old Liu Enhui. In addition to her base salary of about $450 a month, she says she can get as many as 60 tips in an evening.
這家餐館的最高賞金得主是現年20歲的劉恩慧。她表示，在每月約450美元底薪的基礎上，她每晚還可以得到多達60筆小費。

"It's important to me. I take in anywhere from $15 to $30 in tips a day," she explains. "Over the course of a month, it really adds up."
她解釋稱：“這對我來說很重要。每天我能拿到15美元至30美元的小費。一個月下來，確實挺多的。”

At A Very Long Time Ago, most of the customers do tip. One regular, who only gives his last name, Yu, says that at a restaurant like this one, service matters.
在“很久以前”，大多數顧客都會支付小費。一名經常光顧這家餐館的于姓顧客表示，在像這樣的餐館裏，服務很重要。

"Especially when you're grilling meat, you don't know if it's cooked through or not," he explains. "The waiter or waitress can show up at the right time to tell you when it's ready."
他解釋說：“特別是在烤肉的時候，你不知道肉熟沒熟。服務員會在正確的時候出現，告訴你什麼時候肉烤好了。”

Feng Enyuan, deputy director of the Chinese Culinary Association, points out that forms of tipping did exist in China before the Communist revolution. In some restaurants, satisfied customers would toss change into a bamboo tube next to the cashier. But the practice was wiped out in the 1950s.
中國烹飪協會副會長馮恩援指出，在公私合營前，老的飯莊都有打賞傳統。在某些飯莊，滿意的顧客會把找零扔進櫃檯旁的一個竹筒裏。但是在上世紀50年代，這一做法被廢除了。

Feng says reintroducing the practice of tipping has to be done slowly and cautiously. He offers this advice to restaurateurs:"Don't ruin a good thing," he counsels. "Whatever you do, don't make things difficult for customers or make them feel uncertain about what to do."
馮恩援會長表示，重新引入打賞做法必須謹慎地慢慢來。他向餐館老闆提出瞭如下建議：“別毀掉一件好事。不管你怎麼做，都別爲難顧客或是讓他們拿不準該怎麼做。”