From Feiyue plimsolls to the Shanghai watch worn by premier Zhou Enlai: how 3 made-in-China luxury items rose to fame
Do you know about these Chinese-made products and brands – from before and after Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1978 – that were once regarded as luxury items in China?
In 1978, China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping introduced a series of economic reforms which put the country on the road to prosperity.
Four decades later, China is now the second largest economy in the world, after the United States. According to data released in April by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s economy grew 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, topping all expectations.
People enjoy prosperous lives in many regions of China today. But 40 years ago, the picture was totally different; even owning a Chinese-made wristwatch at that time would have been a sign of relative wealth.
Other Chinese-made products and brands – from before and after Deng’s reforms – were also once regarded as luxury items. Today, such items have taken have a nostalgic value for many.
Let’s take a look at three of these brands; maybe doing so will bring some long-hidden memories to the surface, or give you a flash of inspiration.
1. The Shanghai watch – adored by Premier Zhou Enlai
A wristwatch was one of the “four big things” – along with a sewing machine, a bicycle and a radio – that people aspired to own in the period between the 1950s and the 1970s in China. At that time, not long after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (in 1949), economic development was slow, resources were scarce, and most people lived in poverty; therefore, owning the “four big things” was the preserve of the affluent.