Marlboro. The very first time I stepped foot in mainland China, in the mid 1990s, the first thing I saw crossing the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen was a big billboard advertising Marlboro cigarettes. It was not exactly what I was expecting. I’m reminded of that once again this week attending the Intertextile trade show in Shanghai. Before the show began, I had a little time to go exploring the city, which if you took away the signs in Chinese could resemble almost any Sunbelt city in America…albeit one on steroids. I visited a small museum that is located in the same building where the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held, one where a fellow named Mao began his rise to near-deity status among the Chinese. When I first visited this site eight years ago, I was flabbergasted to see a Buick parked in the driveway next to the building. Like the Marlboro billboard a decade earlier, it was not what I was expecting. So, imagine my shock when I saw what was outside Chairman Mao’s political birthplace this time: a jet-black Ferrari. You can trot out all the statistics, reports and commentary about how China has changed and what’s really going on here, but nothing says it better than a Ferrari parked in front of one of the most famous spots in communist party history. In China, you need to continue to expect the unexpected. - WS
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:11:19 +0000
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