All of that may be true, but is there even a remote possibility that some Chinese people are growing out of their obsession with Western luxury brands, just as I grew out of my obsession with jeans?
I vividly remember the first time I saw blue jeans. I was in middle school and one day a girl in my class came to school wearing a pair of jeans that fitted snugly around the hips and thighs, but flared dramatically at the legs. They boasted two back pockets with visible stitching, accentuating her buttocks. Ah, these were “cowboy trousers.” Such a striking and daring style.
Jeans are literally called “cowboy pants” in Chinese. I first heard the term “cowboy pants” during a short-lived political movement a few years ago. The movement campaigned to “clean up spiritual pollution” and planted the idea in me that denim jeans were a symbol of Western decadence and somehow corrupting my mind.
That was the beginning of my obsession with jeans. I didn’t realize it until it was over.
