Choice
From Mod Mania
Living in a metropolitan, no matter how you hate the consumer culture. Consumerism is still around you. Consumer culture is a culture that is permeated by consumerism. Nowadays, people living in a developed country love to buy a lot of brand-named luxury, from clothing to handbags, bed sheet to mobile phone, almost everything. They think that their identity is build up by the things they consume. For example, youngsters think that, if you don’t wear a T-shirt with a brand name on it, you are from the lower class. And those office ladies may think, it is a shame if they don’t carry a Louis Vuitton hand bag to go to work.
In Hong Kong, this problem is even more serious. You can easily see a 14 years old girl who is wearing school uniform, carrying a Gucci hand bag with her, listening to ipod, using a latest model luxury mobile phone. In the next paragraph, I will use an interesting example for you to understand consumerism in Hong Kong more easily.
Which bag will you get if you see them in a boutique at the same time?
Everyone may think two of them are more or less the same,
same materials, similar design, either one will be good,
as long as it is durable. But when you take a look of the price of them,
you may have different thought, the one on the left cost AUD$ 2000-3000,
while the one on the right only cost AUD$ 2-3. The thing is, no Hong Kong
teenager will get the cheaper one, they will treat that as a shame if
they have to carry that to walk on the street. But for the expensive one,
they will queue and wait outside the shop overnight, all they want is to
be the first one the buy that bag, and they will be proud of it while
they are carrying this. WHY? Now, take a closer look of the expensive one.
Oh my god, it’s a Louis Vuitton hand bag! That’s the reason why they will buy it.
The Red White Blue plastic bag is a symbol of low income class in Hong Kong.
It is cheap and very durable. Almost everyone have one in the 50’s.
As time pass, people in Hong Kong become rich. They no longer need
some very durable, they can afford stylish, luxury bags,
and when the bag get old, they will just dump it and buy a new one.
Nowadays, you can hardly see people under 40 years old carrying a
red white blue plastic bag.
Even though the bag is not as popular as before, you can still find them everywhere in Hong Kong. Some people try to mod it, make it look more stylish.
To attract people to buy it.
The government had sponsor some designer to do a project on this bag, to remind people this plastic bag is part of Hong Kong culture.
It is interesting to see how consumerism change the social culture in a capitalism city.
I believe consumer culture will still be the trend in Hong Kong. Is it good? Is it bad?
There will not be an exact answer. People have there own choice while they are buying things.
I think brand-name shouldn’t be the first consideration.
