【英语学习】flash mob：快闪族

flash mob：快闪族

“快闪族”是指一群通过互联网或手机联系、但现实生活中互不认识的人，在特定地点、特定时间聚集后，在同一时间做出令人意想不到的“行为”，然后迅速分散。

快闪是英文Flash Mob的中文翻译，它最早起源于2003年5月美国纽约的曼哈顿。当时一个名叫比尔的组织者召集了500余人，在纽约时代广场的玩具反斗城中，朝拜一条机械恐龙，5分钟后众人突然迅速离去，“快闪族”因此而闻名。

flash mob来自两个相关用语。一个是flash crowd，意指一帮人突然同时进入一个网站，通常是响应一些活动或声明；另一个是smart mob，意指一帮意见相同的人在无领袖下利用先进科技，例如手机、email和网站组织发起集会。

维基百科：
 A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.

Wordspy：
flash mob (FLASH mawb) n. A large group of people who gather in a usually predetermined location, perform some brief action, and then quickly disperse. —v., —adj.
—flash mobber n.
—flash mobbing pp.

The first flash mob

The first flash mob was organized in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine. The origins of the flash mobs were unknown until Wasik published an article about his creation in the March 2006 edition of Harper's. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather. Wasik avoided such problems during the second flash mob, which occurred in June 3, 2003 at Macy's department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four prearranged Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.

More than one hundred people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a "love rug", and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group.

Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about fifteen seconds, and a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.

Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a social experiment designed to poke fun at hipsters and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing."