April 2, 2007
China’s New Petit-Bourgeoisie
I had afternoon noodles yesterday near the old Bell Tower with one of my companions. (I’ve stopped saying “girlfriends” because of the stream of emails I’ve received whose messages range from “your wife must be a saint” to “you need psychiatric help.”) We went to this cool invitation-only or “private” Tibetan tea house, which I may or may not report about later (probably be nice to keep this place a secret).
My girlf… companion mentioned that the term 小资 (Xiao Zi), which is short for 小资产阶级 or petit-bourgeoisie, is back in vogue. This was a highly charged political term in the fairly recent past in China; remember Mao’s four classes: the working class, the peasantry, the urban petit-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. Anyway she explained (I think) that it’s now a kind of comic label for fashionable yuppies. [Knowledgeable readers please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong.]
I asked her the best way to identify the new 小资 and she said, oh that’s easy: they’re the pretty girls sitting in Starbucks reading Harry Potter.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
I know your not a saint, and I hope you don’t need psychiatric help … I think what you really need are helpers to keep your girlfriends — er, companions — er, business contacts — happy!
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
OMG, Harry Potter is so, like, 15 minutes ago.
April 2nd, 2007 at 9:39 pm
steve: He’s still pretty cool here apparently.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:19 pm
I prefer ladyfriends.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
dnf: Yeah, ladyfriends ain’t bad but it sounds a little dated to me.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Do you have any opinion of SBUX and China? Is it like something that could really take off? I’ve been wondering if its uninspiring performance of late might look like a great buying opportunity 5 years from now.
April 2nd, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Bhh: There are already a lot of them here (well, not a lot compared to London which must have the highest density of SBUX in the world), and there’s a lot of copy cat competition, and the Chinese don’t really drink coffee, but aside from that the future looks great (i.e. I think the market has already discounted SBUX’s potential here).
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:20 am
I’ve always been both curious and facinated with your relationship with these companions, but thought it rude to inquire any further. Clearly they each ply you with stimulating conversation and superior insight into the pulse of their respective socio-economic sects. Uncertainty surrouning any additional pleasantries only enhances your aura of mystery. Nonetheless, as every bluesman knowns, double entendre is the currency of grand lyrical art.
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:23 am
how about ‘friend’? if it’s platonic, wouldn’t that cover it? or is that too simple?
April 3rd, 2007 at 8:50 am
Brad: You have a way with words, lol.
Babak: I think of it as Platonic Plus… sexual desire has *not* been entirely suppressed or sublimated. As John Cleese might ask about platonic love: where’s the pleasure in that?
April 3rd, 2007 at 12:45 pm
1)Three more descriptions in Chinese: 红颜知己; 准二奶; 小蜜 (I don’t know appropriate counterpart in English, sorry for any impoliteness. But petie(or mimic or mini)-Bourgeoisie would say:男人不坏,女人不爱)
2)There is big difference for SBUX between in China and in the states from business point of view: SBUX do more in-store sale than to-go in China while it’s just the opposite in the states. It’s not about coffee. It’s about life style.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
re:ladyfriends
Outdated yeah! That’s why it is cool. I love using old terms that nobody uses to keep the language alive.
Ok, I’m not cool….
My friend uses, ‘galfriend’
April 4th, 2007 at 11:32 am
dnf: “galfriend” might be a reason to drop her right there. ;-)
April 4th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
JWang: Fabulous additions… I’ll explain them a bit for non-Chinese readers. 红颜知己 (hong yan zhi ji) is a good description for a close female friend (not a lover) … 准二奶 (zhun er nai) is a very derogatory term for a lover, a “kept woman” or mistress … 小蜜 (xiao mi) is derogatory but less so than 二奶, also used to describe a lover or mistress.
A related post about 二奶: The Return of the Concubine
April 6th, 2007 at 6:44 am
How about, girl friend. When seperated it seems to change the context of the term girlfriend from a date of sorts to just a female friend. Simple yet effective