Shanghai H&M and other stores are doing business as usual, with no boycott or protest in sight and customers still patronizing them. Special correspondent of Apple Photo source: Apple News
“Dinner smashing pot! While boycotting Xinjiang cotton, and still want to make money in China? Idiotic!” “Take it off the shelves! H&M, no one is paying for your absurdity!” “H&M Group has both bet on the wrong treasure and made the wrong calculations, and will surely pay a heavy price for its wrongdoings.” With the Communist Party’s official media leading the way, Swedish clothing brand H&M has suddenly been subjected to an overwhelming wave of criticism on the Chinese internet since the 24th over a statement issued late last year. However, a special correspondent of Apple News was in Shanghai and found that H&M, or Adidas, MUJI, Uniqlo, etc., which were boycotted by Chinese netizens, business was not affected at all and the flow of customers was as usual. The reporter asked a female customer why she did not respond to the “hot blood” on the Internet, only to get a sneer in response.
Taobao, Jingdong, Jindo and other local Chinese e-commerce platforms, in this wave of boycotts quickly shelved all H&M products. 24 evening onwards, even Baidu map, Gaode map has been unable to search for H&M physical stores.
In the face of such a stern atmosphere, the outside world may be expected, H & M next day even if not smashed stores, in the Chinese market is also afraid of the end.
However, the paradox is that on the morning of the 25th, H&M in Shanghai all stores at ten o’clock, all on Time and open for business normally, the door can not see to protest the bloodthirsty youth, but on the contrary, the consumers continue to come to the door, as if nothing has happened. Online and offline China are like two worlds.
The H&M store on Huaihai Zhong Road, the first floor, three floors above ground, the morning of the 25th, there are not many customers in the store, but it does not feel less than usual, after all, that day is still a working day. Ask a long-haired girl picking a blouse on the first floor, online everyone cursed hot, how to buy clothes today? The girl sneered and said, “Hot-blooded? What to do what to do it!”
Shanghai H&M and other stores are not affected at all by the “boycott” appeal. Photo by Apple News
In response to the paradoxical phenomenon of China’s “straight talk”, where the Internet is full of patriotism but the bottom is always buying, a Chinese media personality from within the system said, “The top and the bottom are both acting, fooling each other! “Many people at Home (meaning China) actually know the situation in Xinjiang, either playing dead or being forced to stand in line.”
He said that now China is incited to all kinds of nationalism, in fact, nothing is true, “Life is like a play, all based on acting!”
And after the outbreak of the incident, in addition to H&M, Aidida, Nike, CONVERSE, Uniqlo and many other spokesmen named by the Chinese official media, including: Song Xi, Chen Eixun, Yang Mi, Diligaba, Yi Yang Qianxi, Jing Boran and other major Chinese celebrities, all rushed to jump out to clear the relationship with these brands. A number of Taiwanese artists who are developing in China have also been followed up to take a stand.
Even Ouyang Nana, who sang the Chinese patriotic song “My Motherland” with Chinese, Hong Kong and Macau artists at China Central Television’s 11th National Day Gala last year, also ran to join the fun, following the announcement to terminate the partnership with CONVERSE.
In response, a scholar in Beijing said that Hu Shih had said 71 years ago not, “We knew long ago that in a communist country there is no freedom of speech; now we know even better that even the freedom of silence, there is none there either.”
The Adidas store in Shanghai is still doing a brisk business. Special to The Apple Photo Credit:AppleNews.com
MUJI, caught in the storm, is not seeing fewer customers. Photo by Apple News
Shanghai customers didn’t even echo the boycott on the Internet. Photo by Apple News
Recent Comments