Not direct C-Cube. Returning to China............................
When I grew up, there was a saying: Even the moon is rounder in America. Foreign products in the "Friendship Store" downtown were sold only to foreigners. And outside the American embassy, there was always a line of young people anxious to leave their motherland for American dreams.
Nowadays, the tinted windows of the old Friendship Store have been replaced with bright, transparent glass. "Everybody welcome," a sign says.
Everybody with money.
"To get rich is glorious," Deng Xiaoping announced in 1978. And the people responded.
The rise in purchasing power has resulted in a phenomenon called the "three hot buys" san da jian.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the three items a Chinese family desired were bicycles, watches and radios. In the 1980s, households saved to buy color televisions, refrigerators and washing machines.
In early 1990s, all these had become passe. The China Daily speculated on the three hot buys for the 1990s in 1993 - some people said cars, houses and telephones - but, the paper reported, the Chinese had yet to reach consensus on the matter.
This year, the hot item on the market for family entertainment is the VCD, a combination VCR and CD player.
One day, my mother and I stood with a crowd of men in the electronics department of a giant local department store, examining more than a dozen brands of VCD machines. Colorful banners hung all over the store: Bloody Sale! Suicide Sale! On the Chinese market, trends come and go quickly. Retailers often sacrifice some profit to make a sale.
After the persistent salesman promised to give us a free "virtual pet" bonus, my mother took out her wallet to buy a VCD.
Japanese Tamagotchi, the egg-sized computer critters that beep at all hours to be fed, cleaned, amused and educated, are so hot they are constantly out of stock. My 21-year-old sister had been looking for one for a week. I was not sure whether my mother was more interested in the VCD or the digital pet.
My mother pulled out a bright red plastic card from her wallet and extended it to my nose. "Have you ever seen this?" she asked, giggling. "It's an xin yong ka. You can take money out of the machine in the giant stores just like this." She shrugged her shoulders.
An ATM card. She was showing me an ATM card.
"My dan wei started direct deposit this year," she said, smiling proudly. "Do you Americans have this?"
I laughed. Not because of the card or her question. She was calling me an American.
So the Xi'an I'd returned to had changed.
More....
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