The Notion
"The notion, recently put forth by the luxury-goods executive François-Henri Pinault, that European houses can show Chinese consumers how to be sophisticated is ridiculous, Ms. Prada said, and quite possibly will only lead to banal products." -
Cathy Horyn
just a thought: all these westerners pontificating on the taste - or rather the lack thereof - of 'Chinese', by which they mean the newly affluent Mainlanders, seem to have forgotten the influence of one not insignificant segment of the overall Chinese population, and that is: we Overseas Chinese. who know just as much, if not more, about this so-called european sophistication, and are doing our bit to 're-educate' our Mainland counterparts.
ReplyDeleteMrs Joyce Ma & Joyce Boutiques Shanghai & Beijing anyone, just for starters?
Dear Anon: As Ms Horyn seems to be pointing out, there is more than one variety of 'sophistication', a concept not monopolised by westerners. i think it's a greedy narrow mindedness that causes these pronouncements and of course a kind of shocking arrogance only the very ignorant are capable of.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to want it all ways don't they? It's hubris. The Chinese should just not buy into the rubbish they are churning out nonstop.