Etro, silk poodle-print scarf for sale at Holt Renfrew in Mississauga
with a special Year of the Dog tag (price CAN$450)
(Full image of scarf here)
[Photos By: KPA]
We just had a week of hyperactivity around the Chinese New Year at Mississauga's self-proclaimed city centre: The Square One Mall. But what exactly are the Chineses contributing to Canadian (and Mississaugan) culture except for fast (and often NOT hard) cash? What are the new cultural insights of excellence that we are receiving?
For example: Where are the Chinese (bona fide, like French, English or even Brazilian designers, and not some Chinese-Canadian/Chinese-American) who had their work exhibited at the SQ1-Chinese-New-Year-at-Holt's event?
From the long list of designers available at Holt's website, I found one Chinese (who works in China), who is a jewelry designer and who had a dog pendant for sale during the dog-year festivities.
Qeelin
Wang Wang Small Bulldog Mario Pendant
Diamond, 18K White & Rose Gold
$4,500
But alongside the benign face of Wang Wang, Qeelin also displays more exotic, and ferocious, figures such as:
Jewelry Designer Qeelin's Male and Female Spirits
The King & Queen collection captures the majesty of the powerful dragon and the enchanting phoenix in a range of pieces fit for royalty. These two mythical animals are often paired in a potent balance of male and female energy, of yin and yang. [Qeelin.com]But what do these "two mythical animals" symbolize?
Dragon (long龙)Mississauga is busy courting Chinese, but what happens when the Chinese money runs out? What will happen to the over-priced Holt's "the luxury store" when people stop going? Another addition to the ghost town that will be Mississauga.
The Chinese dragon is the ultimate symbol of the cosmic energy qi气and the most powerful symbol of good fortune. Ranked first among mythical beasts, it can bring rain to parched lands,which in turn represents abundance and relief. A dragon and phoenix (king of all winged creatures) symbolise the emperor and empress as well as marital bliss. The dragon is often used as an emblem of high rank and power on the robes of emperors and princesas well as on imperial art objects.
Phoenix (feng凤)
The phoenix is the ‘king of birds’ and symbolises good fortune and opportunity as it appears only in times of peace and prosperity. In Chinese mythology, the phoenix is a benevolent bird since it does not harm insects, and each of its body parts represents one of the virtues of benevolence (ren仁), righteousness (yi義), propriety (li礼), knowledge (zhi智) and sincerity (xin信).
The phoenix is also the symbol for the empress and, shown with the dragon, it stands for a perfect marriage. [Source: The British Museum]
Qeelin for sale at Holt Renfrew
And all that will remain are plastic Made in China renditions of phoenixes and dragons decorating the lower level Food Central's
Shanghai 360 or Szechuan Express.
Welcome to the Multi-Culti Kool Aid.
Below is an excerpt from an article asking questions similar to mine about China, especially the last sentence of the excerpt, "If China consumes, produces and exports such a vast amount of clothing, why are we still wearing clothes designed in America, Europe and Japan? Why aren’t we seeing Chinese fashion brands in shops all over the world?":
It’s a strange paradox China finds itself in at the minute. Nearly half of all the world’s luxury goods — 46 percent to be precise — are bought by Chinese shoppers. Luxury stores across the world employ Chinese-speaking staff to cater for the countless retail tourists walking through their doors. Every high-ticket shop on the planet relies on China’s globetrotting nouveau riche to pay their bills, and luxury brands have invested so heavily in the country that the thought of another economic slowdown there makes executives shudder. When Chinese shoppers reined in their spending back in 2015, Burberry CEO and Creative Director Christopher Bailey had to take a 75 percent pay cut to offset the brand’s plummeting sales.
It’s not just buying power that makes China the mightiest fashion consumer on the planet. It’s the workshop of the world, the country that makes the phone in your pocket and the clothes on your back. President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ shtick promised to take back many of the countless jobs that have been outsourced to China in recent years. That won’t change the fact that pretty much every manufacturer on the planet has China incorporated into its supply chain in some way or another—and fashion brands are no exception.
China’s manufacturing might have created a stupendous amount of wealth in the country, and like emerging middle classes all over the developing world, being seen spending your money is a vital sign of success—hence all the luxury shopping. The world’s most populous nation is now flexing its muscles abroad—China is investing in vast infrastructure projects in over 60 countries, from a nuclear power plant in the UK to Africa’s first transnational electric railway. Oh, and its navy is currently building islands in the middle of the South China Sea to claim ownership of the seaways that carry a third of the world’s shipping.