Baby Boomer Stevie Burges left Dolphin Square, London to Jiangxi Province, China… What did she find?


nce you leave Beijing or Shanghai (representing only a fraction of this enormous country), you are in real China - the land of numerous tribes who have remained in their ethnic tribal settings for eons. China is a land where less than 10 years ago people were still fighting to put any type of food in their stomachs and certainly not considering which floor polish, soap, or toilet paper to buy, let alone confused over which moisturising cream or lipstick could change lives and make women stunningly gorgeous and years younger. Where I work in the Jiangxi Province, women over 30 (let alone 50) do not wear any cosmetics at all. At 50+ I assume that I must look like a clown with my dash of eye-liner, foundation and lipstick! To my unstructured Western eye, all of the population either looks pre-30 or post-80 years old. Pre-30’s have very little earned income as University tends to finish at 24 and unlike their British contemporaries, parents seem to have even less spending power than their offspring.


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and women have never heard of deodorant and when the product is explained to them, they look relieved, as they happily tell you they do not smell. Unfortunately this is not always true, sometimes a lack of regular body washing with pretty smelling soap, coupled with only spasmodic clothes washing makes the population less than fragrant. Hence, these is no advertising of general household goods which peculiarly Western consumers are convinced will make us become irresistible to our opposite numbers or be admired by our neighbours.


Cosmetic advertising concentrates only on goods from Western countries and advertising dominates the large expensive shops which most Chinese would never go anywhere near. Bartering is considered a huge skill by the Chinese but it seems very unlikely that Clinique, Givenchy or Gucci would welcome these bartering skills and reward accordingly.


So what advertising do we see in China?


Hoardings advertising cosmetic surgery for breast enlargements abound - we see no breasts, just big smiles! Chinese women’s bras, even with very heavy padding, still only weigh-in at a maximum size of a 32 AA-cup. Legs of Chinese woman, however, are to die for and advertising is clearly not required for Asians to keep their long shapely legs bereft of a single hair as hair doesn’t grow on their legs and hence no need at all for body razors, waxes or laser treatments. The denuded legs really make up for the long, semi-tangled armpit hair and complete lack of deodorant. Where I now work most Asian men


For the 50+ person in China, traditional Chinese Medicines are the thing! The advertising image of the mature Chinese consumer buying Chinese medicines depicts the consumer wearing the same semi-orgasmic grin as that of the Western consumer when being offered anything from body creams to dental fixtures that will surely change lives!!


A former professional trainer for many years with Deloitte’s in London, Stevie Burges reinvented herself in 2009 as an English teacher in China.


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