What is reality?
Posted by ampontan on Sunday, August 14, 2011
THAT won’t be an idle question after you read this article in the Weekly Standard:
Last month an American woman living in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan Province, wrote about her experience in a fake Apple Store. An entire store selling Apple products—iPads, iPods, laptops, and software—was replicated. It looked like a real Apple Store. It had the same stainless-steel-and-natural-wood style you see in upper-middle-class suburbs across America. It had the same posters on the walls and product displays on the floor. The employees were wearing Apple Store uniforms. The only tip-offs were shoddy construction on the store’s spiral staircase and the fact that the words “Apple Store” incongruously appeared beneath the Apple corporate logo…
The fakery was so complete that even the employees thought that they actually worked for Apple. Once the story of the faux Apple Store got out, the manager assured customers and the press that even though the store was “unauthorized,” all of the gadgets they sell are genuine. And maybe they are—because most of the silicon goodies Apple sells are made in China, too.
How fitting that the source of all this is China.
I make a point of avoiding posts based only on links, but I thought the story and its multiple dimensions deserve as large an audience as possible.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at 1:07 pm and is filed under China, I couldn't make this up if I tried, New products, Popular culture, Social trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
camphortree said
My husband’s friend owns a small business near Shinseng深圳, China. Many things still astonish him.
One industorial park manager was campaigning hard to change the Chinese village’s name into the U.S.A.
China has already transformed some of their towns’ long old names into the names of Japan’s prefectures and towns. Then China has patented those new names and export their products to the U.S.A. and the rest of the world.
For instance, Aomori（青森）for the famous Fuji apples brand prefecture, Akita（秋田）for the top rice brand prefecture ( Akita-komachi), Sanuki for the Japan’s traditional udon making town etc…
I have seen the kanji letters 青森 printed carbon boxes in my supermarket Albertson’s. I asked the store manager from where those products were brought. He replied, “China ma’m. Everthing from China. Hahaha!”
Who knows how many more names of Japan’s prefectures and towns have been stolen in China.