It was this time last year that I was en route to give a talk at a university in Wuhan.  During the drive from the airport, I began to chat with the driver.  Our focus soon shifted to trade between the US and China.  As we built rapport, he asked very frankly, “是不是美国公司就把这些垃圾食品卖给我们中国人吃?” (Are American companies just selling junk food for us Chinese people [to eat]?)  It seemed like a far-fetched notion at the time that American companies would dump low-grade products on the Chinese market.  If they did that, then they would have no competitive advantage over locally produced low-quality goods, to say nothing of locally-produced high-quality goods.

Having lived across the street from Beijing’s famed 秀水街 (xiu4shui3jie1 – silk market) as well as Shenzhen’s noted 罗湖商业城 (luo2hu2shang1ye4cheng2 Luo Hu Shopping City), I have seen no shortage of fakes, knock-offs, and imitations that were “not quite quite.”  My only possible explanation for the local government’s 睁一只眼闭一只眼 （zheng1yi4zhi1yan3 bi4yi1zhi1yan3 – one eye open, one eye closed) or staggered approach to combating fake goods is that having people employed selling fake goods is generally better for social harmony than having restive unemployed citizens.

The original appeal of 次品 (ci4pin3 – factory seconds) is that goods can be had at low-cost, not unlike the factory rejects often on sale at outlet malls or bargain bins like you might find in the States.  This concept extends beyond mere clothing, however.  Printers with iffy paper feeds, bookcases missing screws for shelves, and other consumer goods are all part of the 次品 market in China.

Knowing the importance that people attach to foreign brands and understanding of quality that exists among Chinese consumers, imagine my surprise to read the March 16 China Daily article describing how several world-famous 名牌 ( ming2pai2 – top brands) imported into China had failed routine quality inspections.

The girlfriend of an associate of mine works for one of the top foreign luxury brands in China, running a store in one of China’s second-tier cities.  She has observed how sales girls with employee discounts will skip one meal per day for months in order to scrounge up the money to purchase a bag from this company.  The revelation that the goods may not be up to par with the originals sold in Europe or the Americas quickly unravels the allure of getting such a product.

Readers, what have you experienced?