Add a zero to that

There was a very important workshop at my work. The local government of Pudong had accepted our program to be part of the regular curriculum. The coming year is a test year and twelve schools are involved in redesigning the Aflatoun program to their needs. My colleague gave an open class for the officials, teachers and principals at one of the schools. Pudong district in Shanghai is special in that it hosts very poor, but also very affluent communities. And this particular school obviously had both.

One of the questions to the children was about how much money they have. "Not so much" said one girl "only RMB 100,000" that my parents gave me. "Not so much" said another boy "My mother always gives me the change when we go shopping. If she buys something for RMB 12 and she pays with 100 I get 82."

Our exercises have been designed for kids who own around RMB 1,000 and buy little things of a few kuai, and have bigger expenses of up to 800. Back to the drawing board for these spoiled brats! Obviously not everyone has that much money on their accounts. Many staid silent in the open class, overruled by their peers' stories.

At the wedding last week

Wei?! Ni Hao!

Looking for a landline reminded me to write something about online shopping in China. It's crazy. And fun!

I look up www.taobao.com, type 电话 (dianhua or telephone) and the adventure begins...

Almost 900,000 different kinds of phones and online phone shops pop up. Simple phones, funky phones, classic phones, Hello Kitty phones, you name it, they have it. And incredibly cheap most of it. This is where you realize again what "Made in China" means. 

So I browse and click, and google translate helps me to read what other people said about this product and what kind of rating the store got. I have a good laugh at some more crazy models.. 

When I decide against the €2 Coca Cola phone, and find a integer looking model from Siemens, I fill out my details, pay online, and close the browser. Delivery service is usually only €0.60 within Shanghai. 

Now I just have to sit back and wait for the next morning. It almost never takes more than one night for the courier to arrive, his scooter packed with parcels. He is always in a hurry, makes you sign and runs off to the next address. 

In this particular case, I unwrapped the phone, put the pieces together, and to my surprise, it has everything, except for the brandname. Siemens is nowhere to be found. Haha! 

Made in China

IKEA

"It's only with the arrival of tv-series like 'sex and the city' that Chinese have taken an interest in Western interior design." I read this sentence once, over a year ago as an explanation of the popularity of IKEA in China. I wondered since what the Chinese version of 'Köttbullar' (Swedish meatballs) is and if the products have a special 'made in China' feel to them. Today is our chance.

Getting to IKEA is a bit of a hassle. Although we'll find that the store is universal, the pronunciation of the name isn't. It takes a lot of gesticulation before the driver understands us. "Aija!" he jells and makes a sharp U-turn.
The Scandinavian design and colors have a whole different touch and feel in this Asian context. Whole families sit around on the flowered sofas in the showrooms and one mother has put her child to sleep in a children's bed. Everything else is exactly the same as it is in any IKEA anywhere in the world. No need for a floor plan, we follow the yellow arrows with our eyes closed.
Products that are hard to find elsewhere are available in big stacks and many colors. Candles, tea towels, baby beds. It's there, and it's called SOMNET, or RÖRVIK, just as it is at home. Looking at the endless flow of customers, these alien products are in high demand.
We settle for a children's bed (made in Rumania) and a mattress (made in Turkey). After check out, we buy chocolate (made in Germany) and knäckebröd, and consider cranberry jam and rösti. We settle for the usual ice cream (1 yuan only) and take a minute to look at a Chinese bachelor buying his complete interior.
It's only when we are back outside bargaining the price of the taxi ride back home that we feel back in Shanghai.

At home I read up on the topic of retailtainment in this funny article from The Wall Street Journal. Did we do this in Europe fifty years ago?