两会代表展现出对书籍和衣着相似的品味

Some big topics on the Internet give an indication of what interests the public the most in the ongoing two sessions.

According to a report by the Internet science research center at Wuhan University, between March 3 and March 8, the five topics that generated the most public interest were Internet finance, smog, pay raises for civil servants, care for the elderly and genetically modified food.

The ratings were derived from surveys of micro blog posts and online media reports, which are thought to provide good benchmarks of the public mood.

Well, hot topics may be important but trivia is interesting, too. Here are some items gleaned from places like the hotel that is hosting the NPC delegates and national political advisers.

What do you think you might find in the lobbies of the designated VIP hotels?

Answer: an essential trinity - a State-owned Xinhua Bookstore, another stand selling ready-to-wear clothes and tailoring services, and a temporary post office.

I went to the bookstand and talked with a saleswoman who said she had provided best-sellers to the two sessions for the last four years.

The book New Words of Zhijiang sells the best, she told me right away. It's actually a collection of columns written by Xi Jinping for Zhejiang Daily while he was serving as the Party chief of the eastern province.

"The delegates like reading books concerning the nation's development and reform. Some are very academic - common readers don't pick them up," she said.

Another fairly popular one is about ancient Chinese poems. According to the woman, the books were chosen from a list of more than 3,000 titles collected by both the authorities of Xinhua Bookstore and the two sessions' organizing department.

"The books here are carefully picked for the delegates, and we seldom bring the popular books like fiction here," she said.

Seemingly the VIPs share similar taste in books. By the way, they get 10 percent off.

Moving to the stand selling clothing, I found several racks of clothes mostly in dark shades and sizes medium and large.

A saleswoman named Song Tong said the semiformal jackets for men sell best, priced from 900 yuan ($147) to more than 2,000 yuan.

"They like the dark blue best," she said.

At political meetings, officials often wear similar styles and colors, and an outfit clash never becomes a wardrobe malfunction. "Conformity is great," she said.

Also, compared with suits and Chinese tunic suits, the price of the jacket is much more friendly.

The most expensive tunic at the stand was priced at 13,800 yuan, but Song said on Sunday that not one had sold.

Interestingly, such clothes usually sell better among the NPC delegates than the political advisers, she said.

Nowadays the concept of big topics is everywhere. It forms the basis for big decisions. Trivial data is mainly for amusement, but sometimes it is revealing.

While conformity abounds among delegates in their reading and wardrobe, I hope they will maintain diversity of thought when considering what people care about most. Otherwise, we may end up rich in data but poor in meaningful change.

网上的一些热门话题反映出大众对于正在进行的两会最关心最有兴趣的是什么。

根据武汉大学科技中心的报道显示，3月3日到3月8日之间，大众关心的五个话题分别是互联网金融，雾霾，提高公务员待遇，养老问题和转基因食品。

这一排名是从博客帖子和网络媒体报道中得出的，想必可以比较客观的表达了大众的意见和观点。

当然，热门话题确实很重要，但是一些小的话题也很有意思。下面这些是从招待人大代表及政协委员的酒店等地点获得的一些话题。

您认为指定的酒店大堂有什么？

回答：三位一体—一个国有新华书店，另一摊出售将要穿的衣服并提供剪裁服务和一个临时邮局。

我去了书店，和售货员交谈，她说她向两会推荐过去四年最畅销的书。

她立刻说《之江新语》这本书卖得最好。实际上这本书是习近平总书记在担任浙江省委书记时为浙江日报写的一系列选集。

她说，“代表们喜欢读关于国家改革和发展的书。非常学术—一般的读者不会选择这些书”。

另一本相当受欢迎的书就是关于中国古代诗歌的书。这位女士说，这本书是从由新华书店和两会组织部门共同收集的一览3000多本书的书单中选出的。

她说，“实际上这本书是为代表们精心挑选出来的，而且我们很少把类似于小说这样的畅销书摆出来”。

看起来，代表和委员们对于书有相同的品味。另外，可以给他们九折优惠。

走到卖衣服的地方，我看到很多架子上卖的衣服都是深色的，有中号和大号。

一位叫宋童（音）的售货员说男士半正式夹克卖得最好，价格从900元人民币（147美元）到2000多元人民币不等。

她说，“他们最喜欢深蓝色”。

政治会议上，官员们通常穿相同款式和颜色的衣服，套装永远不会出错，她说，“一致是最好的”。

另外，和西服套装或中山装相比，夹克的价格更便宜。

这家服装店最贵的中山装卖到一万三千八百块，但是宋说周日一件都没卖出去。

她说，有趣的是，通常人大代表相比政协委员会更多地去买这些衣服。

当下，人们都在聊重大话题。它成了重大决定的基础。这些琐碎的小事情就成了闲聊的话题，但是它确实能反映出一些东西。

然而，代表们的阅读和衣着都充满了一致性，我希望他们在考虑人们最关心什么的时候能够保持多样化活跃的思维。不然就是纸上谈兵，徒有丰富的数据而没有实质性的改变。