I originally wrote this in response to a post by the always inimitable Jenny Zhu on the increasingly high quality of fakes in China and I thought the idea was interesting enough that I thought I’d just paraphrase it here too:

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the Chinese sneaker brand Feiyue, which I hear is really great for martial arts. I was surprised to learn that there is a store in Toronto which sells them and I kinda really am interested in trying a pair of these mysterious shoes no one here as heard of on. That being said, it’s not hard to imagine that part of what keeps the culture of imitation in China today going so strong is the low desire & cachet that locally branded goods hold both at home and abroad.

I once read somewhere that Japanese artists (photographers specifically I think), remain relatively obscure locally until they make a name for themselves in the western and european markets - and then suddenly, everyone at home wants a piece of them. I don’t know how exact it is for sure and how similar other Asian cultural markets are, but to draw the obvious parallel: maybe Chinese luxury & fashion brands may be able to create local desire only indirectly by generating foreign desire first or synchronously?

Off the top of my head, it’s hard to think of any Chinese identified brands or products that don’t try and sell themselves here by drawing on cliche stereotypical images of an Ancient, Mystical and Mysterious Orient no one really cares about. It would take a lot of effort to change peoples conceptions here overseas to the value of Chinese goods, but it certainly isn’t impossible either.