I tried to treat my blog as a daily diary. I wanted to capture the different things I did on the trip and I wanted to create something that I could look back on years from now to jog my memories of Hong Kong. But there are somethings I didn't touch on in the daily diaries because I couldn't. I needed to put them together as a whole. Good thing I had over 15 hours on the flight back to think about it all.
Reflections on Food:
I'm obsessed with Peeking Duck. Obsessed. I've had duck before, and liked it. But peeking duck is different. It's amazing. My first taste was at the restaurant Spring Deer. It was so good I got it again at Jumbo. And I'm going to track it down in Virginia Beach.
But seriously. I knew going in Chinese food in China would't taste like what you get in Norfolk. But I loved it. I'm an adventurous eater and will try most things. But the food was really awesome. I do feel like I went most of the trip without eating any vegetables. Clearly, the food in restaurants there is not a reflection of what they eat on a daily basis. There is no way they could eat like that and be such a tiny culture of people!
The conduct of waitstaff when you go out to eat in China is remarkably different. I could sense that sometimes they were very frustrated with us. This is not a culture where you "split checks" to say the least - or think you can get the check quickly.
In fact I think it was the human aspect of eating in China for me that put together some of the biggest culture shocks.
Chinese Marketing:
If I was just about to graduate, had been on this trip and wanted to create a job opportunity for myself somewhere international I would seriously consider going to China and teaching some of the manufactures about the importance of marketing in your brand strategy and image. I mean it was amazing to me. I spent a lot of time at booths of higher end children's manufacturers. I like the clothes, I liked the quality and I would go to get the literature and was simply astounded. It. Was. So. Bad.
I mean I am a stickler for branding in marketing. I see a brand as a whole. But, like we were told in one of our showroom visits creativity is not as highly valued (or maybe the right word is encouraged?) in China. It's nuts. I think I could go on and on about it. I probably need to save it for my reflections paper since my blogs have been so lengthy I think they have take up most of what I want to write about. But, really. I think there is some seriously wasted potential going on here.
Reflections of Fashion Week:
Like I said in an earlier post I felt a bit let down by Fashion Week. I expected something a bit bigger and grander. If I didn't know better I would have thought it hadn't been established as long as it had. While I was highly impressed with the first show I attended the second was something I feel like could have been put together by a group of high schoolers. There weren't as many vendors as I would have like to have seen!
The sixties trends are still coming on strong in women's wear. The shapes were very mod, even among some of the children's wear I looked at. I saw little pea coats that looked like they belonged on Mad Men! Among the other trends I noticed were some serious pieces of statement jewelry. It definitely wasn't something I saw in street wear around Hong Kong but, it was really prevalent at Fashion Week. I will say though, it felt like some of the color stories I was seeing was a few seasons behind us. That surprised me based on so much manufacturing coming out of China - I think I expected more fresh color trends!
The People:
I was surprised by how rude I sometimes felt the Chinese were. The pushing, the abruptness (assuming of course that wasn't caused by some sort of language barrier). I didn't find much warmth in my interactions with the Chinese (with a few exceptions of course). My last day I was kind of over it. I had a few times that just drove me up the wall. A pushy guy at Disney, the waitress at sushi. Oh, and I remember on the day we went to the Chinese dept. store getting yelled at by two people checking me out for expressing concern that they rang my CC on two machines and I had to sign two receipts. I think I'll be much better prepared the next time I go to China. At least I hope so!
The Tour:
Oh, Pamela. You really let me down. I feel like we were on a glorified shopping trip sometimes - of everywhere that you wanted to go. The tour didn't feel very efficient. It felt like we doubled back a lot and wasted a lot of time - and a lot of great outfits to boot. I really believe you meant well. I do. Better luck next time.
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