Late last month, when news of a fake Apple Store in the Chinese city of Kunming was burning up the global Internet, one user of China's popular Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo jokingly asked whether the country would eventually produce a fake Steve Jobs.

　　上个月月底，当中国昆明出现山寨苹果店的消息在全球互联网上被热议的时候，在中国广受欢迎的新浪微博上，一名用户开玩笑说，中国最后会不会造出一个山寨版乔布斯（Steve Jobs）来？

　　Following the reaction in China to Mr. Jobs's decision to step down as Apple CEO, it wouldn't be surprising if some local master of the knock-off decided to take up that challenge.

　　看到乔布斯辞去苹果首席执行长的决定在中国引起的反响后，如果这时有中国某些山寨高手决定接受这个挑战，或许就不会令人意外了。

　　While few in China are likely to remember Mr. Jobs's early work (the revolutionary Apple II came out when the country was still a year away from the start of Deng Xiaoping's market reforms), consumers in what is now the world's second largest economy seemingly can't get enough of the Apple founder's fashionable gadgetry. Apple's stores in Beijing and Shanghai attract an average of 40,000 visitors a day ─ four times the average of its American stores.

　　虽然中国可能很少有人记得乔布斯早期的工作（革命性产品苹果电脑第二代（Apple II）问世时，中国还有一年才开始实行邓小平的市场经济改革），但在目前身为世界第二大经济体的中国，消费者们对这位苹果创始人的时髦科技产品似乎怎么买也买不够。北京和上海的苹果店平均每天吸引4万人光顾，人流量是美国苹果店的四倍。

　　It should come as little surprise, then, that news of Mr. Jobs's decision has hit hard in China, where urban residents have only recently started to enjoy the levels of disposable income necessary to partake in the Apple phenomenon.

　　因此，乔布斯决定辞职的消息在中国引起巨大轰动也就不足为奇了。在中国，城市居民可支配收入最近才开始达到融入苹果热所必需的那种水平。

　　The response was particularly strong on Sina Weibo, where Mr. Jobs's announcement ranked as the most-discussed topic Thursday.

　　人们的反应在新浪微博上尤其热烈。乔布斯宣布辞职的消息周四位居热门话题排行榜首位。

　　On a special page dedicated to the news, Weibo's largely white-collar users expressed a range of emotions from awe and appreciation over what Mr. Jobs had accomplished to anxiety over whether they would be able to buy the iPhone 5 (the 'last Jobs iPhone'). By late Thursday afternoon, the story had garnered nearly 1.6 million comments.

　　在为该消息设计的专题页面上，微博上为数众多的白领用户表达了各种各样的看法，有的对乔布斯的成就表示敬畏和欣赏，有的则担心自己是否能买到iPhone 5（也就是乔布斯在任的最后一部iPhone）。截至周四下午晚些时候，该专题相关的微博已经有近160万条。

　　“Every day I use my iPhone 3 to make calls, send posts to Weibo with my iPhone 4, listen to material downloaded from iTunes when I run, listen to music on my iPod, download clients from the AppStore, use my Mac to go online never has one company's products been so deeply intertwined with my life,” former celebrity TV anchor-turned-Internet entrepreneur Wang Lifen wrote on her Weibo account, calling Apple “the epitome of a great company.”

　　由知名主持人转行为创业家的王利芬在微博上说，我每天用iPhone 3打电话，iPhone 4发微博，用iTunes的下载内容在跑步时听，用iPod来听音乐，偶尔从AppStore下客户端，用Mac上网，从来没有一家公司的产品如此深入地与我的生活紧密相连。她称苹果是伟大公司的代表。

　　Another celebrity Weibo user was more succinct: “You've led us on a journey, now it's time to rest,” real-estate mogul Pan Shiyi wrote, echoing a sentiment expressed by a number of others on the site.

　　另外一位知名新浪微博用户、房地产巨头潘石屹则更为言简意赅，他写道：你带领我们走一程了，歇歇吧。很多新浪用户也表达出来同样的感情。

　　Chinese business magazine The Founder, meanwhile, chose to respond with numbers: “Two surgeries, three children, eight years battling cancer, 11 classic products, 100-fold stock-price increase, 10 million iPads, 100 million iPhones, 270 million iPods, billions in output value brought to mainland China.”

　　与此同时，中文商业杂志《创业家》则以数字加以回应：两次手术、三个子女、八年抗癌、11个经典产品、100倍股价涨幅、1,000万部iPad、1亿部iPhone、2.70亿部iPod、给中国大陆带来数十亿美元的产值。

　　Among noncelebrity users, some predicted larger crowds than usual would descend on Apple's stores, while others joked that Mr. Jobs's resignation meant he had “bought a ticket for the ark” a reference to the large boats built by China to save the rich and powerful in the 2009 blockbuster film “2012.”

　　在普通用户中，一些人预计光临苹果门店的人会比平常更多，而有些人则开玩笑说，乔布斯的辞职意味着他买到了一张船票。这里指的是2009年的大片《2012》中中国为拯救权贵人士而建造的大船。

　　In an unscientific Weibo poll that had attracted roughly 4,000 responses by Thursday afternoon, users were split on how Mr. Jobs's decision would affect their view of Apple. Slightly more than a third said they would continue to support the company, while nearly a quarter wondered whether Apple would continue to be Apple now that its founder had stepped away.

　　在一个非科学性的新浪微博调查中，截至周四下午，有约4,000用户进行了投票，他们对于乔布斯的决定会如何影响他们对苹果看法意见不一。略多于三分之一的人说，他们将继续支持苹果，而有近四分之一的人怀疑，既然苹果创始人离开了，苹果是否还会是以前的那个苹果。

　　In a separate user poll attracting nearly 5,000 responses, 20% said they would stop buying Apple products with Mr. Jobs no longer at the helm, while 49% said they would at least buy the iPhone5.

　　在另外一项调查中，有近5,000名用户进行了投票，其中有20%说，乔布斯不是苹果掌门人后，他们将不再买苹果产品，而有49%的人说他们将至少会买iPhone5。

　　At least one commenter was convinced the company would be OK. “I believe that in the last few years, Apple has already developed its own soul as a company,” wrote a Weibo user going by the name Big Boy Playing with a Remote Control Car.“It's the same as with a prosperous nation: You can't rely solely on one generation of leaders. You need to tap the soul of the people.”

　　至少有一名发表评论的用户相信苹果将不会有问题。新浪微博用户“玩遥控车的大男孩”写道，我相信，苹果这些年来，已经培养出了自己的灵魂，一个属于苹果的灵魂！如同一个名族的兴旺，不能只靠一代领导人，还要靠这个民族的灵魂。

　　Still, getting started on the fake Steve Jobs project couldn't hurt.

　　尽管如此，开始着手山寨乔布斯项目也不会有什么坏处。