HONG KONG — On Java Road in Hong Kong, a new pair of brown leather Gucci loafers, lovingly wrapped in cellophane, hangs from a storefront — the deal of a lifetime at less than $3.

香港——在香港的渣华道，一家店里摆着一双崭新的棕色皮革古驰(Gucci)乐福鞋，外面周到地裹了一层玻璃纸——它的售价不到3美元，简直是一辈子最划算的买卖。

Just not this lifetime.

只不过不是这辈子。

The shoes are paper replicas, meant to be burned as offerings to relatives who have died — a modern twist on an old Chinese custom. At specialty shops across this city, the bereaved can choose from an impressive array of goods to send to their departed loved ones, including Italian sports cars, smartphones, six-packs of beer, cigarettes, dress shirts and sport jackets.

这双鞋是用纸做成的仿制品，用来作为祭品烧给去世的亲人——一项中国古老风俗加入了一点现代变化。在遍布全港的专营店里，失去亲人的顾客可以从品类相当繁多的商品中，给逝者挑选祭品，包括意大利跑车、智能手机、半打装啤酒、香烟、正装衬衫和休闲夹克。

One store, next to Hong Kong’s Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, even sells paper replicas of McDonald’s value meals, complete with fries, soda and a package of something called “Chicken MuNeggtc.”

香港万佛寺旁边的一家店里甚至有纸做的麦当劳超值套餐卖，套餐里有薯条、饮料和一包叫做“Chicken MuNeggtc”（“麦乐鸡”的错误拼写。——译注）的东西。

But the Gucci handbags and shoes that grandmother may have cooed over when she was among the living now appear to be out of her ethereal reach. A shopkeeper quickly snatched the loafers away from one inquiring customer, explaining that they were no longer for sale.

但如今看来，在冥界的奶奶可能将无法享用自己生前心仪的古驰包和鞋子了。一名店主迅速地从一名询问情况的顾客手里拿走了那双乐福鞋，说它已经不再对外出售。

It seems Gucci’s zeal to protect its brand extends into the hereafter.

看来古驰保护自己品牌的热情已经延伸到了死后的世界。

Last week, its parent company, Paris-based Kering, sent a letter to six local stores that sell the paper offerings, telling them to stop selling replicas of Gucci products because they were using its famous trademark that graces shoes, wallets, hats, jewelry and women’s purses.

上周，古驰的母公司、设在巴黎的开云(Kering)致信香港六家卖纸质祭品的商店，要求它们停止售卖仿古驰产品的祭品，因为它们使用了该公司的著名商标。这个商标会出现在古驰的鞋、钱包、帽子、珠宝和女装手包上。

“What we are trying to do is let them know that Gucci is a trademark and we are trying to protect it,” Charlotte Judet, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Kering, said by telephone. “We fully respect the funeral context.”

“我们的目的是让他们知道，古驰是一个商标，我们在努力保护它，”开云驻香港发言人夏洛特·茹代(Charlotte Judet)在电话上说。“我们完全尊重丧葬祭祀这一用场本身。”

Elaborate paper offerings for the dead are for sale the world over, available for purchase by the living across Asia, from Cambodia to mainland China. In China, the bereaved, with a few clicks of a mouse or taps on a smartphone, can buy replicas of everything from bonsai plants to flat-screen televisions for home delivery.

全世界都有用于敬献给逝者的精美纸质祭品。从柬埔寨到中国内地，亚洲各地的消费者都可以买到。在中国，只需点几下鼠标或智能手机，失去亲人的消费者便能买到从盆栽植物到平板电视的一切仿制品，并且还是送货上门。

As incomes have soared and consumerism has taken hold across the continent, the cardboard replicas, once limited to fake currency, have become increasingly elaborate. One shop offers a paper wall-unit air conditioner, presumably for relatives who may be in the lower reaches of the hereafter.

随着收入的增加以及消费主义在全亚洲的发展，曾经仅限于纸钱的纸质祭品变得越来越精美。其中一家商店出售纸做的壁挂式空调，大概是给死后可能要到冥界更底层的亲属使用的。

The practice has even migrated across the ocean. In 2011 in New York, one Chinatown shopkeeper was arrested for selling cardboard replicas of designer handbags and loafers, and charged with copyright infringement.

这种做法甚至已经传到了大洋彼岸。在2011年，纽约唐人街的一名店主因出售用硬纸板做的名牌包和乐福鞋仿品而被捕，并被控侵犯版权。

But Gucci chose to make a stand in Hong Kong, not in Beijing, New York or Bangkok. The forces at play essentially define Hong Kong’s place in the world. Here is a city that combines a no-holds-barred consumer culture, a strong bond to China’s old traditions, and a robust legal system, inherited from the British, that respects and enforces intellectual property rights. Hong Kong is, at its essence, a fusion of Eastern culture, global capitalism and Western law.

但古驰选择在香港，而不是在北京、纽约或曼谷来捍卫自己。此事涉及的各方力量基本上定义了香港在世界上的位置。这座城市将百无禁忌的消费文化、与中国古老传统的紧密联系和强健的法律制度结合在了一起。香港的法律制度继承自英国，尊重并保护知识产权。这座城市在本质上是东方文化、全球资本主义和西方法律的融合体。

“People in Hong Kong are law-abiding,” Alice Lee, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who focuses on intellectual property, said in a telephone interview. “We have had the benefit of British rule for such a long time.”

“香港民众遵纪守法，”主要研究知识产权的香港大学法学院副教授李雪菁(Alice Lee)在接受电话采访时说。“长期以来我们一直享受着英国的统治带来的这个好处。”

But Ms. Lee said Gucci would have a difficult time proving that makers of paper offerings infringed on its trademark. To successfully sue for trademark infringement, she said, a company has to demonstrate that people confuse the cardboard replicas with real Gucci products, which is highly unlikely.

但李雪菁说，古驰要证明纸质祭品的生产商侵犯了自己的商标会比较困难。她说，要想成功地提起商标侵权诉讼，公司必须证明人们混淆了用硬纸板做的祭品和真正的古驰产品，但这种可能性非常低。

Her colleague Haochen Sun, a professor who studies trademark protection of luxury brands, said Gucci might have a case under Hong Kong law if it argued that the paper offerings, sold in shops only blocks from the company’s own retail outlets, blurred “the distinctiveness” of Gucci’s brand or caused it harm.

出售纸质祭品的店铺，与古驰自己的零售店只隔了几个街区。李雪菁的同事、研究奢侈品牌商标保护的教授孙皓琛表示，在香港的法律下，如果提出那些祭品模糊了古驰品牌的“独特性”，或是给品牌造成了伤害，古驰的官司也许还有的打。

The subtleties of trademark law have yet to trickle down to the street level.

街边的商贩尚不了解商标法的微妙之处。

Instead of laughter, Gucci’s letter, which threatened no legal action and asked for no compensation, prompted compliance from some of the shops that sell the paper offerings. Along Java Road, Gucci-branded offerings for the dead disappeared from the shelves, as shopkeepers feared that their tiny businesses could collapse if subjected to a lawsuit.

古驰的信未威胁要采取法律行动，也未要求赔偿，但它并没有引来笑声，而是促使部分售卖纸质祭品的店铺服从了信中的要求。古驰品牌的祭品从渣华道沿街的货架上消失了，因为店主害怕如果惹上官司，他们的小本生意会遭遇灭顶之灾。

Sitting on a stool in the back of one shop, past the incense and ersatz packs of cigarettes from brands like “Danhill,” Lucky Strlke,” “Marlbero” and “Sailem,” one proprietor, who asked to be identified by only her last name, Chan, said she and others had little choice because their businesses were so small.

在其中一家店里，只愿透露自己姓陈（音）的店主坐在后面的凳子上，铺面上是香烛和一包包仿制香烟，品牌包括Danhill、Lucky Strlke、Marlbero、Sailem等。她说她们这些人别无选择，因为生意实在太小了。

For Gucci, it was an easy win, even though its letter did draw some ridicule in the local press.

对古驰来说，这次赢得很容易，尽管那封信在本地媒体中受到了一些嘲笑。

“The symbolism of a global, multibillion-dollar luxury company ‘warning’ perhaps some of the poorest retailers in the city over items that could not ever be taken for the real thing just seems a little bullying,” Jing Zhang, fashion editor for The South China Morning Post, wrote Tuesday.

“因为永远都不会被当做正品的物品，一家资产数十亿美元的跨国奢侈品公司，对或许是本市最穷的零售商发出‘警告’，似乎有些持强凌弱的的味道，”《南华早报》的时装编辑章婧周二写道。

Ms. Lee, the law professor, had a different interpretation. “Purpose served,” she said. “They want to show the world that they are taking their intellectual property rights seriously.”

对此，前述法学院教授李雪菁则有不同的解读。“目的达到了，”她说。“他们想向全世界表明，他们很重视知识产权。”

The shopkeepers lament what they see as the absurdity of it all. Their target market — the dead — does not appear to intersect with the well-heeled, or aspiring-to-be wealthy, living and breathing Gucci customers who frequent the outlet’s shops in Hong Kong, one of the company’s top markets.

认为此事荒谬至极的店主表达了自己的不满。他们的目标市场——亡者——与经常光顾该公司香港门店的那些富有——或渴望富有——的大活人并无交集。香港是该公司最大的市场之一。

“Our customers are totally different,” said one shopkeeper outside Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery, who gave only his surname, Lan. “They burn these things to send to the spirits.”

“我们的顾客完全不同，”万佛寺外一名只愿透露自己姓蓝（音）的店主说。“他们是把这些东西烧给亡灵的。”

Neither Ms. Chan nor Mr. Lan had received a letter from Gucci. Ms. Chan read about it in a local newspaper and quickly moved to exorcise her store of any paper replicas of Gucci projects.

前述陈姓店主和这位蓝姓店主都没收到古驰的信。在通过当地一家报纸了解有关这封信的情况后，陈姓店主迅速行动，撤下了店里所有的仿古驰纸质祭品。

Actually, the word “Gucci” rarely appears in the world of paper offerings. In almost all instances, the enterprising manufacturers — from somewhere in mainland China — alter the spelling. Those “Gucci loafers” at the shop next door were labeled “Guuci.” Mr. Lan, who as of Monday had not heard of the warning letter, had one paper “Gueei” purse on offer.

实际上，在纸质祭品的世界里，“Gucci”这个词很少出现。具有创业精神的制造商——来自中国大陆某个地方——几乎总是会改变拼写。隔壁店里的那些“古驰乐福鞋”上的标签是“Guuci”。那位蓝姓店主一直到周一都没听说警告信的事，他店里的一个纸做的小包上写着“Gueei”。

Ms. Chan said the whole idea of Gucci threatening such action was odd. “It has nothing to do with us,” she said.

陈姓店主说，古驰威胁采取行动这件事很奇怪。“这和我们毫无关系，”她说。