of Chanel, Gucci, and Cartier

I asked one of the sales kids if A Bathing Ape saw any customer backlash from being bought by I.T. He laughed and said no, in fact it’s the opposite. Bape is bigger than ever here in Hong Kong. Later, our local friends told us that’s true to an extent – Bape IS growing in popularity here but it’s not with the HK crowd, it’s the rich mainland Chinese who come here to buy up all the cool fashion to take back home. We heard stories of how they come to Hong Kong with literal bags of cash (because credit cards have a limit).

They’ll walk up and down the luxury brand row, throw their bags on the counters, and snag the best of Chanel, Gucci, and Cartier with little care or consideration of price-tags. Another story of a guy walking into a Toyota dealership and buying 20 cars set at $70,000 USD each, all with cash. And it’s not just clothes and cars, it’s housing and property. There’s an actual term for it, the practice of mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong realty, asking for the best residence on the market, and blindly purchasing with cash without visiting the pad first.

The world is turning in this direction, not just economically, but culturally, as a by-product of the gold rush. Just look how much the U.S. news talked about Chinese artist Ai Wei-Wei this week, whom I previously only ever really heard about when I was in Hong Kong. It’s history in the making every day here.

-bobbyhundreds

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Whats happening in China?! Gilaa