Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A8

June 10, 2023

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Feature » Art and Culture

Good quality is its own advertisement

By Zhang Ciyun | 00:00 UTC+8 June 10, 2023 | Print Edition

“LOCATION, location, location” has long been the favorite slogan of real estate sellers.

However, Chinese people seem to think that the good quality of a product is more important. They say jiuxiang bupa xiangzishen, which literally means “wine with a good aroma sells itself, despite its location in a deep alley.”

Or in other words, something of good quality doesn’t need to be advertised; instead, word of mouth will prove its most effective promotion.

This Chinese proverb sounds very similar to the idea William Shakespeare expressed in his play “As You Like It.”

In the play, the character Rosalind says: “If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true, that a good play needs no epilogue.”

Any English dictionary will tell you that the word “bush” in this quotation refers to a grapevine, ivy or other greenery hung outside an inn or public house to advertise the availability of drink.

Today, people say just the opposite: jiuxiang yepa xiangzishen, or “the location in a deep alley may hinder the sales of wine, even with a good aroma.”

That seems to echo what Shakespeare is quick to add in the aforementioned quotation: “Yet to good wine, they do use good bushes, and good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues.”

In other words, good quality is all fine and well, but good advertising really can help promote the sales of a product.

Art and Culture


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend