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Only 'silly swine and deer' rhapsodize about vulgar cars
By Ni Tao |
April 29, 2011, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MAJOR global luxury car makers are making a vigorous push to tap the China market like never before, as evidenced at the Shanghai auto show which ended yesterday.
They used to reserve their best product lineups for the car shows in Tokyo and New York City. Not anymore. Some limousines and deluxe sports cars have made their debut at the Shanghai auto fair.
This shift in market targeting has wide-ranging implications, not just for the industry itself, or for global crude oil supply, but for China's national psyche as well.
Aware of the purchasing power of China's newly minted rich, some car makers sold vehicles valued at between 4.7 million yuan (US$690,000) and 47 million yuan at the auto show, Xinmin Evening News reported on April 22.
A sizable portion of the deluxe cars up for grabs were snapped up within days of the auto show's opening by patrons reportedly from coal-rich Shanxi and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
For coal mine bosses who are often despised for their bloodstained wealth and offensive demeanor, these cars flatter their vanity in a way no other merchandise can. Asked about his motive for spending lavishly on a car, a buyer replied curtly that he didn't know much about cars but could win clients' trust only by driving an upscale one. For those who label China an automobile society, that description hasn't gone far enough. In many ways China is already a nascent limousine society.
Vanity fair
The vanity fair at the auto show is anathema to an ancient culture that preaches against flaunting status symbols. Thanks to some media's seductive talk, the panache of tooling around in fancy cars is now publicly endorsed and irresistible to young minds.
In its "advertorial" for the auto show, Tencent, a reputable news portal, runs a banner headline on its website, shouting, "I have money! I will buy a luxury car!" - regardless of the strident materialistic message.
When consumerist impulse is given free rein, it leads to pandemonium, as Hainan Province recently discovered. Keen to boost its tourism revenues, the resort island has introduced consumption incentives that enable tourists to buy duty-free goods at designated stores during their stay.
The first such store was engulfed in a buying frenzy when it opened on April 20, the first day the policies took effect. The overcrowded store had to limit the number of customers on its premise. Even so, name brand cosmetics and wrist watches were sold out quickly. A single day's turnover hit 10 million yuan.
Some economists lament that their sound economic advice - that China should save less and spend more - has made little headway.
The fact is that the nation has long been influenced by Western economic thinking, both for the better and for the worse. With their shared tenet of market liberalization, Reagonomics and Thatcherism impacted China's economic reform in the 1980s.
Yet Deng Xiaoping, the reform's general architect, had long ago foreseen and warned of the danger of reckless development. His musings, delivered in a dialogue with his brother Deng Ken in 1993, were published in July, 2009, in the Study Times. In the dialogue, Deng said growth had engendered no fewer problems than there were before the reform, most notably the yawning wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
Consumption
While the government seems to be readjusting its course on growth, there is no letup as yet in its efforts to stimulate consumption. Conspicuous consumption can only thrive in a liberal atmosphere where the public is spoon-fed baloney such as "to buy a house is glorious!" while the government sits idly by and lets all this happen.
The lack of ability, or simply the will, to call the bluff of baloney talkers leaves the public susceptible to further brainwashing.
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) scholar Ji Xiaolan wrote in his collection of essays of a student of Confucian classics, who was scolded in his dream by a saint for sleeping naked and sprawling under a temple roof. The student retorted that his was also the way of small-time merchants and laborers, only to be chided even more ferociously that an educated person like him ought to know better than those "silly swine and deer."
Although its moral smacks of the intelligentsia's pretentiousness, the tale is illuminating in a modern context.
In an age when "silly swine and deer" are actually smart enough to magnify their voices through the megaphone known as free speech and advance their interests in subtle and not so subtle ways - just as Tencent and many media did in rhapsodizing about the auto show - we should remain true to our morality, beliefs and perhaps even prejudices, if we still claim to be the better men.
They used to reserve their best product lineups for the car shows in Tokyo and New York City. Not anymore. Some limousines and deluxe sports cars have made their debut at the Shanghai auto fair.
This shift in market targeting has wide-ranging implications, not just for the industry itself, or for global crude oil supply, but for China's national psyche as well.
Aware of the purchasing power of China's newly minted rich, some car makers sold vehicles valued at between 4.7 million yuan (US$690,000) and 47 million yuan at the auto show, Xinmin Evening News reported on April 22.
A sizable portion of the deluxe cars up for grabs were snapped up within days of the auto show's opening by patrons reportedly from coal-rich Shanxi and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
For coal mine bosses who are often despised for their bloodstained wealth and offensive demeanor, these cars flatter their vanity in a way no other merchandise can. Asked about his motive for spending lavishly on a car, a buyer replied curtly that he didn't know much about cars but could win clients' trust only by driving an upscale one. For those who label China an automobile society, that description hasn't gone far enough. In many ways China is already a nascent limousine society.
Vanity fair
The vanity fair at the auto show is anathema to an ancient culture that preaches against flaunting status symbols. Thanks to some media's seductive talk, the panache of tooling around in fancy cars is now publicly endorsed and irresistible to young minds.
In its "advertorial" for the auto show, Tencent, a reputable news portal, runs a banner headline on its website, shouting, "I have money! I will buy a luxury car!" - regardless of the strident materialistic message.
When consumerist impulse is given free rein, it leads to pandemonium, as Hainan Province recently discovered. Keen to boost its tourism revenues, the resort island has introduced consumption incentives that enable tourists to buy duty-free goods at designated stores during their stay.
The first such store was engulfed in a buying frenzy when it opened on April 20, the first day the policies took effect. The overcrowded store had to limit the number of customers on its premise. Even so, name brand cosmetics and wrist watches were sold out quickly. A single day's turnover hit 10 million yuan.
Some economists lament that their sound economic advice - that China should save less and spend more - has made little headway.
The fact is that the nation has long been influenced by Western economic thinking, both for the better and for the worse. With their shared tenet of market liberalization, Reagonomics and Thatcherism impacted China's economic reform in the 1980s.
Yet Deng Xiaoping, the reform's general architect, had long ago foreseen and warned of the danger of reckless development. His musings, delivered in a dialogue with his brother Deng Ken in 1993, were published in July, 2009, in the Study Times. In the dialogue, Deng said growth had engendered no fewer problems than there were before the reform, most notably the yawning wealth gap between the rich and the poor.
Consumption
While the government seems to be readjusting its course on growth, there is no letup as yet in its efforts to stimulate consumption. Conspicuous consumption can only thrive in a liberal atmosphere where the public is spoon-fed baloney such as "to buy a house is glorious!" while the government sits idly by and lets all this happen.
The lack of ability, or simply the will, to call the bluff of baloney talkers leaves the public susceptible to further brainwashing.
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) scholar Ji Xiaolan wrote in his collection of essays of a student of Confucian classics, who was scolded in his dream by a saint for sleeping naked and sprawling under a temple roof. The student retorted that his was also the way of small-time merchants and laborers, only to be chided even more ferociously that an educated person like him ought to know better than those "silly swine and deer."
Although its moral smacks of the intelligentsia's pretentiousness, the tale is illuminating in a modern context.
In an age when "silly swine and deer" are actually smart enough to magnify their voices through the megaphone known as free speech and advance their interests in subtle and not so subtle ways - just as Tencent and many media did in rhapsodizing about the auto show - we should remain true to our morality, beliefs and perhaps even prejudices, if we still claim to be the better men.
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