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Conspicuous shopping indicates a common malaise of overseas Chinese travelers
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RECENTLY my sister took a 10-day trip to Japan.
As she traveled with three friends, going independently instead of through a travel agency, I had thought her tour would be gratifying, at least in the sense that she would be spared the ordeal of so many shops.
What’s more, they would spend quite some time in Kyoto, which is known for its buildings modeled on Chang’an and Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
When she returned to Shanghai after the tour, I was appalled by her luggage.
She had purchased at least 10 Thermos water bottles, and she complained the time she spent shopping these 10 days was about the time she would spend shopping in an average year back home.
Regarding the absolute necessity of shopping, she had to defer to the wisdom of her travel companions, some of them frequent overseas travelers. They had the knack for finding the places with longest queues of Chinese shoppers.
None of them are competent Japanese speakers, but that in no way compromises their ability to turn so many Japanese cities into shopping meccas.
Mainlanders are known for their overseas shopping sprees, but my sister found at the airports that some travelers from Hong Kong and Taiwan were also staggering under their luggage. Some of their luggage even included such items as rice steamers, which her companions had to forego for fear of being overweight.
In these overseas destinations, an item can be prized for any number of reasons: being cheaper, being expensive, or just being made outside of China.
It would be hypocritical to call a Thermos bottle priced at hundreds of yuan “cheap,” but they are perceived so because the same brand bottle can be much more expensive in China.
Wagyu beef, arguably the most expensive beef in the world, is so sought after exactly because it is expensive.
A meal including the legendary beef in the right restaurant cost each of them about 2,000 yuan (US$320) for a lunch, and they were so satisfied with the beef — or price — that they tried the same beef at another restaurant for dinner.
A cousin of my wife, an assembly line worker in Shanghai whose salary could not exceed the average wages in the city, spent quite a fortune on the famed beef while touring Japan early this year. That was obviously the highlight of her tour.
But recently she had a nasty row with her in-laws over who should pay for the anti-theft iron grate window in her own flat. She insisted her in-laws foot the bill.
Standard satisfaction
In the age of wechat, you have a hard time trying to live up to the expectations of your friends, relations, or colleagues. It would sound airy to claim how you are impressed by Kyoto’s ancient architecture, but a picture of a piece of overpriced beef provides unmistakable evidence of standard satisfaction.
We can imagine the ritual before the enjoyment of the morsel: clicking of pictures, to be shared by WeChat friends.
If would be embarrassing if someone mentions the beef, and you have to find an excuse for not having it.
An item can be valuable just because it is made not in China. Last year while waiting for my flight in a Japanese airport, I overheard an exchange between two Chinese passengers about the amount of baby formula powder they managed to cram into their luggage.
My sister bought her husband a belt, because she believed the made-in Japan item would probably last longer than its Chinese counterpart.
Given these many motivations, it’s difficult to give a sweeping diagnosis of the malaise, but an analysis of the pervading superstition about overseas brands can be attempted.
A brand expert once said that, contrary to common belief, poor people are actually very sensitive to brands.
“If you are poor and can wear Nike, you probably want to show that, after all, you are not so poor,” the expert said.
That probably applies to many of our Chinese big-spending compatriots. By consuming items subtly perceived as aspirational, like a LV bag, or Wagyu beef, our fellow Chinese are actually making a statement that they belong to a certain tribe, or enjoy a certain niche.
Before long they will find how precarious that niche can be.
Chinese tourists will continue to be welcome in overseas shops, so long if they have money. The challenge is for them to earn respect outside the shops.
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