恶人谷

“In shopping, you’ve got to buy things that are unique, cao,” he says, punctuating himself with a word that translates most literally as fuck but has various connotations depending on the tone. “Don’t buy the same as everyone else, cao.”

The businessman looking to flirt is at the Costa Coffee shop at Beijing’s Shin Kong Place, one of the highest-grossing malls in China. He flashes his diamond-rimmed Patek Philippe watch while accusing the barista of watering down his latte. He says his name is Shijun, and no more than half an hour goes by before he makes his first (quasi-contractual) bid for my affections: “How about 40,000 yuan per month?” (That’s $6,270 plus free rent in a special apartment.) He speaks with a heavy Sichuanese accent, China’s version of a southern drawl. He made his fortune in office-building and housing development in China’s western frontier, the Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces, where the central government is “encouraging” Han people to settle. Shijun’s wife is in Italy, or maybe Switzerland, and his daughter is in high school in the United States; he doesn’t know where exactly. He doesn’t have much else to do today besides cruise for new clothes and women.

“It’s not about vanity. It’s about the value of your existence, your worth in this society. Sometimes people say Chinese people buy out of vanity. I say vanity is a necessity. It proves your self-worth; you’ve worked hard to earn it, and this is what you’ve earned.”

Knowing wrote:And the rest of us girls can chuckle gleefully as we watch :"Ha, I knew it! Those rich and pretty mistresses are so dumb!"

Knowing wrote:但是这是很笨啊，奢侈品牌每年花那么多钱做广告营造高不可攀气氛都被她们毁了！她们是奢侈品的拥有者，在争取把vanity合法为necessity 的时候，就失去了luxury 的本意。 花两千美金告诉别人你花了两千美金根本不是炫耀。花两千美金买了包的潜台词是：哇她可以随便用两千美金买个包，一定可以随便花上十万买车五百万买个游艇吧！一定跟上流社会有来往吧！孩子一定在瑞士上寄宿学校吧！现在 LV已经在某种程度上变成中产阶级制服，就没人会做后面的联想了。
把奢侈品代换成。。。哈佛MBA学位吧。。。拥有该学位的人，在有人批评这个教育太昂贵没有用的时候，绝对不会跳出来说：很有用是人生必须品！正确的做法是把它神圣化浪漫化稀有化。你知道每批哈佛商学院MBA 有九百多一千人么？两年就毕业一批。比起很多其他专业完全是批量生产。但这个数据从来不被宣传，因为把该事物说成人人应该争取拥有，不符合任何已经拥有者的利益。

Jun wrote:忽然想起最近听的一个报道，Neiman Marcus 要开始跟 Target 合作卖东西了，为的就是让奢侈品下放到平民家，开拓市场。看样子这是全世界的潮流。