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[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

Make America Dated Again: The Chinese Reproducing US Vintage

A growing number of Chinese collectors and artisans are obsessing over items from America’s past, but will their nostalgic subculture stand the test of time?

 

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Zhang Xiaolei poses in a silver Shelby Cobra at Songsan Motors’ Museum of Premium Vehicles in Beijing, April 22, 2019. Kenrick Davis/Sixth Tone

 

SHANGHAI — When Shen Wei smokes a Cuban cigar and plays big-band music through his decades-old American radio, he’s whisked to a bygone era.

“The sound — it brings you back to that age,” says the 38-year-old artist and entrepreneur. “You can imagine, 80 years ago maybe, a gorgeous lady sitting over there, listening to some beautiful music. You have some connection with it.”

The cavernous ground-floor showroom where Shen traverses time is filled with U.S. military memorabilia he’s collected over the years: uniforms, helmets, hats, sunglasses, gloves, jewelry, and watches. Under a wall-mounted American flag and model fighter plane sits the large tube radio Shen bought on eBay six years ago, produced by General Electric in 1940.

. . .

Zhang Xiaolei, owner of the vintage vehicle workshop Songsan Motors, is familiar with the challenges of carving out a niche market. His business creates motorbikes — designed in the U.S., then assembled in China — in both vintage and modern styles. It also imports classic American cars, which the company soon hopes to replicate and manufacture itself in China.

Zhang has largely found that China’s nouveau riches have little appreciation for vintage products, preferring instead to buy increasingly expensive and modern supercars. “Our vehicles are only for people who understand cars, not for people who have money but no culture,” says the 45-year-old, speaking as fast as the automobiles he sells. Indeed, classic-car culture has stalled in the country for a number of reasons: Imports are prohibitively expensive due to tariffs and mechanical adjustments required to make the cars street legal, and buyers don’t see the value of locally produced versions.

 

 

 

[Allon]

 

 

Zhang has largely found that China’s nouveau riches have little appreciation for vintage products, preferring instead to buy increasingly expensive and modern supercars. “Our vehicles are only for people who understand cars, not for people who have money but no culture,” says the 45-year-old, speaking as fast as the automobiles he sells. Indeed, classic-car culture has stalled in the country for a number of reasons: Imports are prohibitively expensive due to tariffs and mechanical adjustments required to make the cars street legal, and buyers don’t see the value of locally produced versions.

 

He has a good point that makes the study of China so interesting. The narrow question is, does capitalism come with (a sense of) new culture? I think so, albeit it for China in most regions (Shanghai and Beijing exceptions, maybe Chengu too) it is slow in coming but welcome when it does? There are books devoted to this subject......

[Randy W]

the reverse nostalgia - from Goldthread on Facebook

 

https://www.facebook.com/342615829579497/posts/858123318028743/

 

“The 1980s was when Chinese people could start to take more control over their destiny, choosing not just the clothes and haircuts they wanted but also the jobs and skills they would make their living from.”

 

 

Nostalgic photos show how much China has changed in the past 40 years

 

 

Internationally, the 1980s were about MTV, big hair, and even bigger shoulder pads.

 

But what was it like inside China?

 

The decade arrived just two years after leader Deng Xiaoping set course on a set of economic reforms, dragging the country out of decades of isolation and giving its people their first glimpses of the outside world.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/342615829579497/posts/858123318028743/