Shoes and Chinese Medicine....

Ordinary Gweilo has a couple of interesting posts [here and here] on travelers from the PRC madly buying Clark shoes in British factory outlets. The Economist tries to explain the seemingly odd behavior this way....

According to Calum MacLeod, director of the Great Britain-China Centre, many Chinese still have an outdated view of Britain shaped by classic literature and old movies.

"Oliver Twist is a very popular book in China and the title of the Chinese version translates as Foggy City Orphan," he said. "When I tell people I live in London they often ask me how bad the fog is."

MacLeod says phrases such as "the home of the industrial revolution" or "the empire on which the sun will never set" still resonate strongly with many Chinese. "But not in a particularly negative way," he said. "They are very interested in the UK's history and traditions."

I noticed similarly odd behavior closer to home, specifically in the Watson's in the Hong Kong Airport. Throngs of PRC Chinese were in a frenzy [There always seems to be some kind of frenzy when there are PRC Chinese around] buying medicines and other therapies some of them being those that they could buy back home much cheaper.

This was quite puzzling to me since it did not seem to make sense. Why would these people buy ubiquitous goods easily obtainable at home? I puzzled and puzzled on this for my whole vacation till my puzzler was sore. But it finally dawned on me. Why these people were buying this stuff in the airport. It was because they were relatively assured that it wasn't FAKE! So, chances are the real explanation for the frenzied buying of Clark shoes may be something a bit more mundane in that these people want to buy shoes that last and not those that will fall apart after a week of wear.