A very surprising commercial practice.
There are a lot of bars for expatriates in China but I also wanted to go to a typical Chinese bar where we would not be only among foreigners.
I was very surprised by the fact that the waiter gave us money so that we stay in the bar consuming.
He did it in order to attract Chinese people.
Indeed it seems that having foreign guests makes it easier to attract Chinese ones.
In France such a practice would not be possible.
It would be almost a public outcry.
Press would speak about racism, discrimination...
Moreover such a bar would be prosecuted.
I noticed that the Chinese ideal of beauty is to look like to a westerner.
Most Chinese people want to have a white skin, a western hair cut… This phenomenon is especially noticeable is Shanghai because it is the most westernized city in China: dress code, models in the ads who look likes westerner…
But this phenomenon is also true, to a lesser extent, in some western countries.
For instance, in some country of Western Europe, the ideal of beauty is to look like a North African that means to be tanned.
Why do people want to be identified as a foreigner?
Running in China.
In France, I practiced athletics a lot.
So I hoped that I could go on running here in Shanghai.
But I quickly realized that Shanghai is not a very convenient city to run.
First and foremost, I have hesitated because of the pollution.
But I have also noticed that “running just for running” is not usual in China.
It is very rare to see a Chinese people running in the street or in a park in Shanghai (it is different in the campuses).
I think there is two main reasons.
First the streets are not adapted to running (too much shops on the pavement).
Second, running is not part of the Chinese culture.
We were told in class that Nike is trying to sell running stuffs in China but that it uses a different speech for its Chinese ads than its European ads because running is not part of the culture yet.
However, with the “westernization” we can see more and more young Chineses running (especially in campuses).
But it is easy to notice that it is something new to run: some of them run in jeans, they don’t have adapted shoes… But I was told by a French teacher that running in Western Europe is also something relatively new and is part of the “Americanisation”.
Some people have been practising athletics in Europe for a long time.
But what is new are people who run just to stay fit and not to be prepared to a race The number of stores which sell specialized athletic shoes (to run on an athletics track) have not increased.
However the number of stores which sell running shoes (to run in the streets) have increased greatly for some years.
In my opinion, if more and more people run in Europe and in China it is also because it is fashion.
Indeed, even in Europe we can see a lot of ads for running stuffs which stress on the running elegance and style more than on the sport performance.
For instance in France, people who want to run just to stay fit go to Decathlon whereas people who run because they practice athletics go to small specialized stores.
October 2015
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