Pizza, a polar bear notorious in China as being the world’s saddest, has been removed from his cramped enclosure and placed in an animal reserve after months of controversy that have highlighted the sorry state of Chinese shopping malls.
因生活环境糟糕而被称为世界上最悲惨北极熊的Pizza，告别了它生活的狭小馆舍，被送到了一处动物保护场所。数月来围绕Pizza展开的争论突显出中国购物中心的艰难处境。
Pizza’s plight was the result of a trend for using animals, entertainment and children’s playgrounds to pull customers into China’s giant shopping centres and department stores.
中国最近出现了用动物、娱乐设施和儿童游乐场来吸引顾客进入大型购物中心和百货商场的趋势，Pizza的遭遇就是这种趋势的结果。
Which have been built in their thousands despite the nation’s growing preference for buying online.
尽管中国人越来越喜欢网购，但数千家购物中心和百货商场仍拔地而起。
Bricks-and-mortar stores are grappling not just with ever-greater competition from online retailers such as Alibaba and , they must also contend with an underlying slowdown in the retail sector.
实体商店不仅要艰难应对阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和京东()等在线零售商的激烈竞争，而且还得应对零售业根本性放缓带来的影响。
Sales growth, which in 2008 reached an annual rate well above 20 per cent, has been falling steadily in recent years and hit 10 per cent in October, according to National Bureau of Statistics data released on Monday.
2008年中国零售总额年增长率曾远超20%，但最近几年持续下降。中国国家统计局周一发布的数据显示，今年10月的零售总额同比仅增长10%。
Pizza became an internet celebrity in July when a shopper uploaded a photo of the three-year-old bear in an enclosure at the Grandview Mall in the southern city of Guangzhou.
今年7月，广州正佳广场(Grandview Mall)的一位顾客将3岁Pizza被关在馆舍里的图片上传到网上，Pizza因此成为了网红。
The country’s nascent animal rights community launched a rescue campaign and cheered when the Grandview said over the weekend that it would temporarily return him to the ocean park in northern China where he was born.
中国新兴的动物权益保护组织发起了营救行动，这一行动终于成功——上周末正佳方面表示，将把Pizza临时送回其位于华北某海洋公园的出生地。
Other Chinese netizens have outed an elephant used to attract mobile phone buyers to a Suningelectronics outlet in Beijing and a sad tortoise housed alongside reptiles in grimy tanks in a mall in the northwestern city of Xi’an.
其他中国网民还曝光了苏宁电器(Suning electronics)北京一家门店利用大象来吸引顾客购买手机，还有西安一家购物中心把一只悲惨的乌龟与其他一些爬行动物养在肮脏的水箱里。
The use of animals and other attractions comes as malls combat overcapacity, a problem immediately apparent to anyone who has turned up at a dusty, half-vacant shopping centre in China’s provincial cities.
中国建设了过多的购物中心（任何人只要走进首都以外城市的一家布满灰尘、一半商铺空置的购物中心，就能马上发现这个问题），正努力应对这个问题的购物中心不得不使用动物和其他法子招揽顾客。
The country has an estimated 4,000 malls, more than the US, and plans to reach 7,000 by 2025, according to Mall China, an industry organisation.
行业组织中购资讯(Mall China)表示，据估计中国有4000家购物中心，比美国还多，而且按计划到2025年时会达到7000家。
Foot traffic is dropping dramatically, said Shaun Rein, founder of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group, describing a lot of panic as e-commerce decimates mall sales.
中国市场研究集团(China Market Research)创始人雷小山(Shaun Rein)表示，客流量大幅下降，随着电子商务导致购物中心销售一落千丈，购物中心非常恐慌。
Shops are becoming more choosy.
商铺越来越挑剔。
Before, they said: ‘Who cares which mall?’ Now they are looking at the mall’s business and its other attractions.
以前他们说，‘入驻哪家购物中心不都一样’？如今他们要考虑购物中心的生意如何以及有哪些其他招揽顾客的招数。
Malls are starting to bring in a lot more entertainment and a lot more food, he added.
他补充称：购物中心开始引入更多的娱乐设施以及更多的美食，
There is also a big focus on children — playgrounds, learning centres, even museums.
并且致力于吸引儿童, 用游乐场、学习中心，甚至是博物馆。
Last year 83 shopping malls gave up the fight and closed, according to a blue book on the commercial sector by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
中国社会科学院(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)发布的商业领域蓝皮书显示，去年有83家购物中心放弃努力关门大吉。
They will be joined this year by Marks and Spencer, which announced last week it would close several stores in China in an effort to boost its flagging fortunes.
今年，马莎百货(Marks and Spencer)也会加入进来——该公司上周表示，将关闭中国的数家门店以求扭转命运。