people's republic of desire
It's been five years since CC returned to China. But the Hong Kong-born, Oxford-educated returnee still hasn't succeeded in going native.
'Sometimes, coming back to China feels like time travel,' CC tells Niuniu over lunch at a Japanese restaurant. 'It's like living in Hong Kong 20 years ago. It's so hard to find people who are at my level, especially in regard to fashion sense.'
Like other returnees, one of CC's problems is that she's too far ahead of her time. In China, it's considered cool to carry a credit card, for instance, but CC has five or six. It's considered cool to drive a Buick, but CC was chauffeured in a Bentley as young girl. It's considered cool to drink Blue Mountain Coffee, but she's gone through her coffee-drinking phase and has moved on to green tea. It's considered cool to drop English words into your conversations even if your pronunciation is incorrect, but CC speaks fluent English. It's considered cool to know how to bowl, but she grew up playing golf with her parents. It's considered cool for middle-class women to discuss works of literature such as Jack Kerouac's On The Road and Allen Ginsberg's Howl, but she read them when she was a student.
'I can't stand people who bring their laptops to coffee shops to show off,' CC complains. 'Back at Oxford, everybody had a laptop. And, I can't stand people who show off their brand-name clothes that are at least two years behind New York and London fashions.'
Niuniu says: 'It sounds like those who think they are cutting-edge in China are actually out-dated by your standards.'
'Exactly,' CC says. 'I realise I'm so far ahead of everyone else with my New York-London style that I'm uncool in most eyes here. What I wear works on Madison Avenue, not here. It's not a matter of what one wears, it's where one wears it that counts. Just because someone looks good wearing something in Soho, doesn't mean it will be considered haute couture here.'
'Supposedly, you do in Rome as the Romans do,' says Niuniu. 'Plus, you're Chinese. So you should hide your western education and go native.'
'But I have to lower myself again and again in order to stay fashionable among my Chinese friends,' says CC.
'There are two choices for western-educated Chinese who return to China,' says Niuniu. 'You either hold on to what you've learned abroad, applying it to your new life in China to become part of its native-born expatriate community, or you could try to hide your western values and pretend to be native all over again. Apparently, the latter choice is an unnatural step backwards for you.'
'I don't want to go native,' CC says. For a while, I tried. But I can never forget that, at a beauty salon, some women thought I was the second wife of a Hong Kong man.'
'What happened?' asks Niuniu.
'I told them I was local, but they knew that the clothes I was wearing could only be bought at The Peninsula shopping arcade. So, they came to such a conclusion I could only be a second wife - I guess they must have a lot experience. From then on, I decided not to hide my Hong Kong roots any more. But the sad thing is my Chinese friends are all becoming CEOs and their companies are going public. Even though they're clearly behind the times, they've become part of the super-rich, whereas I'm still a PR account manager.'
'But you still have the potential to become the mother of the super-rich some day,' Niuniu says, trying to be comforting.
But CC isn't listening. She's admiring a woman's shoulder bag dangling off the back of a chair a few tables away.
'Niuniu, is that Prada real or fake? What do you think?'
Niuniu shrugs. 'You said that it's not a matter of what one wears, it's where one wears it that counts. I think a real Prada would still look fake here.'
'But a fake Prada would look real in London. She should be walking in London now.'
Niuniu thinks ...
'Maybe I should have my father's old Buick shipped to Beijing so that I can become a cool Buick-owner,' she says.
