China is, on paper, a communist society. China is, in practice, a society of aspirational consumption, conspicuous consumerism, and a gaudy upper class. So how does Apple, with hippy roots, take control? By conforming, FP reports. iPhones are golden crowns. Whereas the tech colossus is adored in the west for its innovation and design daring, Chinese shoppers, Foreign Policy's Christina Larson reports, are in it for the attention.
It's simple. Apple products are hard to come by in China—four (official) stores, almost four million square miles of territory. That's ratio conducive to scarcity—and with scarcity comes craving. Apple is in China, more so than in other developed countries, a luxury brand among the Guccis, Pradas, and Louis Vuittons. Its name connotes wealth, status, and rarity. And in a class-hungry society like China, this means serious cash. It also means serious fanboys (and girls):
But like any luxury good, the high price and relative scarcity — and sense of exclusivity that creates — is part of its appeal. Before Apple products are released officially in China, a limited number are smuggled in through a vast gray market. Last summer, a few months before the iPad had even been released on the mainland, I noticed one young woman decked out in a shimmering silver miniskirt, red halter top, and fake eyelashes, and followed by a small camera crew, posing with her contraband (i.e., not-yet-released, not necessarily fake) iPad against the spiral staircase of Beijing's Guomao Starbucks. She was showing off, and recording for posterity, her lovely device, with languid poses that called to mind (or tried to) ads for luxury automobiles.
The FP's got a good point—but you have to wonder, to what extent is this a Chinese phenomenon? Class-obsession, fanboy consumerism, phone-as-status-symbol—sure sounds a lot like the country I'm sitting in right now. Let's not forget that the US is a country in which people sleep on the street to buy new Apple products, engage in multi-thousand word tirades defending them, and conspicuously garb them in leather cases. We're both rabidly consumerist societies—maybe China's just less ashamed of theirs.
Photo: ChinaFotoPress/Getty
