What Are Your Plans for Shopping Armageddon?
Thoughts on China’s grand celebration of consumerism
I have never bought anything on Double Eleven, which probably speaks to my unaccountably austere life more than anything. When I need something, I buy it; I don’t buy it if I don’t need it. It’s a simple philosophy that most people don’t pick up until they’re about twice my age.
Back home, I always said that it was probably for the good of the economy that most people aren’t like me in this regard. After all, what it is that drives the American economy if not one-upmanship and impulsivity? Ah, but this is one of the differences between our societies. Americans are a people in love with our credit cards, always in debt; the Chinese are savers, guided even today by Confucian principles of frugality and caution.
And yet here we are, staring down the barrel of the world’s biggest shopping day. Black Friday? A mere sideshow compared to Double Eleven. November 11th is going to kick off a frenzy of shopping the likes of which we Western pikers can’t truly fathom. All of that big talk about the splendor of Communism and the supremacy of a harmonious society are going to give way to something decidedly more consumerist in its bent.
Some of you, no doubt, are familiar with Double Eleven — as it’s grown bigger over…
