【文稿】Burberry中国特别款福字围巾，丑瞎一大片

Xiaohua: UK luxury brand Burberry recently tries very hard to cozy up to Chinese consumers by putting a Chinese-themed scarf on the market. However, out of their expectation, this design is being criticized and mocked on the nation's social media. 英国传统奢侈品集团博柏利的一条绣有中文“福”字的围巾在中国社交媒体遭遇争议。 So do you think it’s a failed attempt to appeal to the Chinese market? John: I think, you know, it’s one of the netizen’s comment really does sum it up. Someone said, what the fu… It’s just very symbolic. Heyang: Yeah, and“Fu”is, you know, the Chinese character for a good fortune and… John: Are you sure? Heyang：Yeah. John: You seem a little… Heyang: No no. I’m sure about that because I’m Chinese. And when you have that on a scarf, a Burberry cashmere scarf, first of all, it just looks very strange. It’s like two very contradictory paradoxical elements being put together and it doesn’t look good together. And further, the way that the design appears to be, it’s really… it’s so tacky. I hate to say this about Burberry, but it looks like something you would buy from wholesale in some Chinese market by 30 Yuan. John: Exactly. That’s what a lot of people online are saying as well. I think that’s where a lot of the flack is coming from. If you look at these pictures, it looks like just a regular scarf, regular Burberry scarf. I’m not familiar enough with their patterns and designs to say, to really tell the difference. But it’s a regular Burberry scarf, then with just like a stamp of a Chinese character, just kind of put somewhere. And the thing is it could almost be like someone did this by hand, just by themselves at home, or just some kind of ironed-on print or something that you can buy for clothes and something like that, or for other arts and crafts for kids. So, in the end, I mean looking at this, what’s the point really. Not only is it, you know, just a regular scarf, but it looks odd. Heyang: Yeah, it looks odd and I think I understand why the company wants to cozy up towards the Chinese customers since Chinese people apparently are buying a third of the world’s luxury products and Burberry sales have performed badly last year. But I mean if you want to incorporate exotic elements into your products then do it correctly. At least make the “Fu” in the right direction, you should put it upside-down, you know, showing that good fortune is arriving, you know, get to know Chinese culture a little bit better to make the design better or for it to make sense. But even if they made it upside-down correctly, I would still say this is a poorly designed product. However, it’s being sold like hot cakes, according to a HK store assistant. John: Yeah, that’s in HK and their taste may be a little different than us in the mainland, who knows. That’s the thing, it could be mainlanders who are buying all the scarves. It’s difficult to say, but I think what they are really trying to do again, as Heyang says is to appeal to the Chinese consumer. But it seems that many brands, luxury or no, I think the way they are doing it is substandard and disappointing, because these are fashion houses, these are luxury designers and brands. You would think they would be able to coming up with something a bit more original, a bit more creative rather than just make it basically stamping on a Chinese character on one of its well-known products. Xiaohua: Or is it that Burberry is exactly smart in doing so because they position their Chinese customers to be the “Tuhao” ones and you know, being “Tu” somehow means being lack of taste, so they design a tasteless scarf, especially for the Chinese, could be the story. Heyang: Maybe you are reading a little bit too much into it. I don’t think, I wonder if they can think in such elaborate ways. But certainly, this is not the only fashion house that has done a poor job in such this area, such as Charlotte Olympia, they’ve made horrible shoes that have Chinese stamps on it. And also I think BMW this year to cater toward the Chinese public with the year of the Horse, made some terrible designs, really tacky as well. So seriously, luxury fashion houses should just stay upon that pedestal and let us worship you, otherwise, you’re just crap.