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In Shanghai I found that the television show Sesame Street has been redesigned by Chinese educators to teach Chinese values and traditions. "We borrowed an American box," one told me, "and put Chinese content into it." In India, where there are more than 400 languages and several very strict religions, McDonald's serves mutton instead of beef and offers a vegetarian menu acceptable to even the most orthodox Hindu.
在上海，我發現中國教育者改編了“芝麻街”電視節目，用以傳達中國人的價值觀和傳統。一位教育者對我說:“我們借用美國的包裝，但裝進去的卻是中國內容。”在有400多種語言和幾種嚴格宗教戒律的印度，麥當勞出售的是羊肉而不是牛肉漢堡，甚至最正統的印度教信徙都可以接受他們銷售的素食食品。
The critical mass of teenagers—800 million in the world—with time and money to spend is one of the powerful engines of merging global cultures. Kids travel, they hang out, and above all they buy stuff. I'm sorry to say I failed to discover who was the first teenager to put his baseball cap on backward. Or the first one to copy him. But I do know that rap music, which sprang from the inner-city ghettos, began making big money only when rebellious white teenagers started buying it. But how can anyone predict what kids are going to want? Companies urgently need to know, so consultants have sprung up to forecast trends. They're called "cool hunters," and Amanda Freeman took me in hand one morning to explain how it works.
有時間、有金錢的8億青少年是融合全球文化的關鍵及主要動力之一。孩子們喜歡旅行、閑游，重要的是他們擁有購買實力。可遺憾的是，我不知道哪個青少年第一個反戴棒球帽，或者哪個青少年第一個模仿他。但是我確實知道只有當叛逆的白人青少年開始買票時，起源于市內黑人貧民區的說唱樂才開始因此大賺。然而，人們怎么預測孩子們的需求呢？許多公司迫切要了解孩子們的需求，因此出現了“獵酷人”顧問，由他們來預測未來趨勢。阿曼達·弗里曼—天上午拉著我，揭示了奧妙所在。
Amanda, who is 22, works for a New York-based company called Youth Intelligence and has come to Los Angeles to conduct surveys, whose results go to many important clients. She has shoulder-length brown hair and is wearing a knee-length brocade skirt. Amanda looks very cool to me, but she says no. "The funny thing about my work is that you don't have to be cool to do it," she says. "You just have to have the eye."
阿曼達，22歲，在總部設在紐約的一家叫作“青年情報”公司工作。她到洛杉磯進行調査，為很多重要客戶搜取信息。她棕發披肩，織錦裙及膝。對我來說，阿曼達很酷，可她不以為然：“我的工作有趣之處就在于你不必裝酷，可你必須有眼光。”
