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In WeChat era, overseas travel becomes another piece of conspicuous consumption
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Spring Festival traditionally provides an occasion for family reunion, but today it can also be a great moment to get away from home, as a growing number of Chinese chose to spend this festival traveling outside their native town, or native country.
In a new paradigm shift, the distance from your home can also be a gauge of your prosperity. My wife, while checking her WeChat account during the festival, marveled at the number of friends traveling in Japan, South Korea, Europe, or even the Antarctic.
Even if we allow for the fact that travel — particularly outbound travel — has a higher probability of being made known via social tools, there are reasons to feel awed by this epic Chinese wanderlust.
The Shanghai Morning Post observed last Friday that the “shared with friends” in WeChat had virtually turned into a “Japanese tourist promotion” during the Spring Festival.
It is estimated that nearly half a million Chinese spent nearly 6 billion yuan (US$959.4 million) in Japan during the festival. For quite some time mainlanders have been known to be snapping up electric rice cookers, Thermos water bottles and cosmetics in Japan.
Shopping spree
Recently added to this elongating shopping list was an uncanny commodity, Japanese toilet seats. First-time visitors to Japan are often tickled by the ingeniously crafted toilet seats that feel warm and can spurt a stream of warm water at the press of a button.
Some attributed this sudden Chinese interest in toilet seats to a blog written by some celebrities praising Japanese toilets. Among other qualities, some believe this kind of toilet seat can remove the odor emanating from the toilet.
It’s a pity that the weight of the whole toilet discourages some Chinese from carrying the total toilet. During the Spring Festival these toilet seats have been so sought after that they were quickly out of stock in many shops.
It has been reported that the influx of Chinese tourists during the festival had overstretched the handling capacity of Japanese hotels and airports.
In Ginza, Tokyo’s fanciest shopping district, during the first day of the Spring Festival special traffic police had to be sent in to cope with the coaches carrying Chinese tourists that arrived every five minutes.
Thanks to this influx, for the first time the Japanese public became aware of the distinctly Chinese Spring Festival. Business from Chinese tourists was so strong that in Akihabara, Chinese-speaking shopping assistants were hired to help Chinese with their purchases.
Last year, mainland Chinese tourists to Japan totaled 2.4 million, an 83 percent rise over the previous year, making Chinese mainland the third-greatest source of tourists after Taiwan and South Korea.
Lesson to be learnt
And cash-flush Chinese need little persuasion to move on to the next item.
According to Taiwan media, a Chinese citizen recently spent 1,500 yuan for five kilograms of Japanese rice, in the belief that unlike Chinese rice, Japanese rice had been grown without the aid of chemical fertilizers and on soil free of heavy metals contamination. Such rice is also touted in Taobao.
This superstitious belief in anything foreign formed a contrast to stated government efforts at promoting the use of local brands (“Government drops foreign brands,” February 26, Shanghai Daily).
Ironically, Chinese tourists are not much appreciated overseas except for their uncanny shopping power. Some of them are known to be noisy and ignore the rules governing public behavior. Their overseas exposure would be of inestimable value if they realize why they are so stigmatized in countries or areas they have excessively patronized. For many of them, overseas travel affords just another chance to go in for conspicuous consumption.
When the holiday evolves into a kind of consumption, this temporary abstinence from work falls neatly into place in the production-consumption mantra. Like in the workplace, travel becomes a highly competitive activity. In some Western countries, it would be embarrassing to be seen still in town when your friends are lying in the beaches.
We had not gone that far, and we should also realize that, seen correctly, overseas travel can be a truly educating experience, rather than just another excuse to buy, particularly in the era of WeChat, when pictures about your getaway can be so easily shared, real time.
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