Rolex Oyster – Long a Sought After Item in Shanghai
Posted: March 24th, 2012 | 1 Comment »I met an idiot the other day who insisted that Chinese people and their current fascination with luxury brands and expensive products was a new thing. What utter tosh…of course mainland Chinese people had no time or interest in luxury items during the horrors of the Mao years or the poverty that followed. Funnily enough filling your belly and keeping warm and alive took priority. However, of course people liked and appreciated fine things prior to the Maoist debacle of 1949, as did many Shanghailanders too. Rolex is one of those appreciations that seems to have jumped the nasty bit of Maoism in the middle. Alexander Clark was selling Rolex Oyster’s from Sassoon House (the shopping arcade and office portion of the Cathay Hotel on Nanking Road and the Bund, now renamed The Peace Hotel). This ad is from 1940 and a 1940 Rolex these days is a very nice thing to own!
what utter tosh
Surely the ad would have provided a more convincing case of long-standing Chinese fascination with luxury brands if it had been, you know, in *Chinese*. Not a foreign language. ;)
Still, can’t argue with the premise. Reminded me of this article in World of Chinese about the obsession for buying the “Three Bigs” (bike, fridge, watch) in the 70s.
http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2010/05/what-dajian-do-you-have/