Chinese Luxury Goods Want to Compete with the West
Although Chinese consumers buy more and more western goods, signs are increasing that rich Chinese buyers are increasingly turning to their own house-made brands, rather than purchasing expensive goods from Europe, the USA or Japan.
Large Chinese companies are preparing to compete with western giants. Shang Xia, for example, was founded in 2008 and specializes in furniture, decorative objects, ceramics and clothes that have a special Chinese touch to them. Shang Xia opened its first shop in Shanghai in September 2010. Up to now feedback from Chinese customers has been very good. They feel proud that their country can produce goods of high quality. The company is expected to open up shops in Beijing and Paris soon.
Western business analysts are skeptical that the Chinese will come up with well-known brands that can compete with the west any time soon. According to them, building up an international brand takes not only quality but time and patience.
Not very many Chinese brands are known to westerners. Among the few are PC manufacturer Lenovo and mobile phone producer Huawei. Both have acquired a portion of the consumer market in western countries. One of the big problems of Chinese brands is that they still have a single image attached to them: “Made in China” relates to cheap products.
Although Chinese consumers are hanging on to western brands, more and more of them are going back to their roots, to ancient Chinese culture.
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Words
- according to = as said by …
- acquire = get hold of
- although = while
- analyst = expert
- ancient = old
- attach = connect
- brand = type of product made by a company, with a special design
- ceramics = goods, like pots and cups, that are made of soft earth and baked until they are hard
- compete = try to be as good as or better than…
- consumer = a person who buys things
- decorative = pretty, attractive
- feedback = what people think about something
- found-founded = start
- furniture = large objects, such as chairs, tables , beds etc..
- goods = products
- hang on to = stay with
- house-made = from their own country
- increase = to go up
- manufacture = produce
- patience = you have to wait
- portion = part
- proud = to have a high opinion of something
- purchase = buy
- relate = to be connected with
- roots = the place where you come from
- sign = signal
- single = only one
- skeptical = nor sure about something n
- touch = feeling, flair