A hundred years ago, most of the Chinese were poor and hungry, but at that time, there were also a very small number of rich people and celebrities who walked in the forefront of the world, running fashion shows, driving famous cars, building department stores, and leading consumer fashion. It's almost the New Year, and today we will talk about this flashy dream, the "chopping hand" past of the building collapsing.
Leading the way in fashion
One winter night in 1936, at the Shanghai International Hotel, the crowds were boiling, and on the middle hall runway, two models with slender figures were showing off their tight cheongsam.
Next to the showway, there are all kinds of celebrities, ladies, and hotel guests watching the liveliness. In this audience, two people are fashionably dressed and eye-catching, as if they are the center of the show. These two people are both oriental faces, but also the organizers and designers of the show, named Zhang Jingying and Daisy respectively.
The model walked on stage, and the two of them whispered views in pure English, holding cigarettes at their fingertips, lazily lying on the sofa next to them, sipping coffee from time to time.
The reporter of the "Current Affairs News" who personally witnessed the show vividly described:
"In the midst of this burst of applause flowed coffee and cake, and the fragrance of perfume powder, the sound of 'English' and piano, the soft light and the rich installation with fatigue, the white light fog, the layers of smoke rings."
In Shanghai in the 1930s, such fashion shows were very rare. In addition to the fashion shows held by Zhang Jingying and Daisy regularly, the fashion shows organized by social celebrities Lu Xiaoman and Tang Ying are more well-known.
It should be said that this was the first major event to open up the atmosphere and lead the consumption fashion at that time, and it was not in China in the past.
Later, because of the war, such catwalk performances were interrupted for a long time, until the mid-1980s, affected by the Hong Kong "Hong Kong Sister" beauty contest, Guangzhou after the reform and opening up restarted similar catwalk performances.
The fashion show organized by Zhang Jingying and Daisy is more special. Because the clothes on the models are all designed by themselves. Of course, the price is also quite expensive, one piece, about 50 yuan-80 yuan, or even up to 100 yuan or so, ordinary people can not afford to spend.
At that time, the writer Mao Dun worked in the "Novel Monthly" of the Commercial Press, and his monthly salary was only about 100 yuan.
Born rich
Why did Zhang Jingying and Daisy have the ability to lead the consumer fashion of China's most prosperous cities?
Let's start with Zhang Jingying.
Many people may not have heard of her own name, but when it comes to his father Zhang Jingjiang, I believe many people know it. This big man, from a rich family, their family used to be a famous Jiangnan silk merchant, rich enough to rival the country. Zhang Jingjiang himself, who was more enthusiastic about politics, was known as one of the "four elders of the Kuomintang" and was once the "money bag" of Sun Yat-sen's revolution. Sun Yat-sen called him a "revolutionary saint" and Chiang Kai-shek praised him as a "revolutionary teacher."
Zhang Jingying is the youngest daughter of Zhang Jingjiang and holds the pearl in her hand.
This big lady is not an ordinary person, studying in the United States, baptized by Western-style concepts, dressed fashionably, avant-garde style, nails coated with black nail polish, fingertips also added green, in the era when many people have never seen a car, she can drive around in a car, a month of exhaustion of gasoline, more than a contradictory month's salary.
She studied fashion design in the United States, and after returning to China in 1935, she found Daisy, a middle school classmate, and proposed to open a fashion salon. She was in charge of fashion design, Daisy was in charge of the operation, and the two of them hit it off and opened this fashion salon called "Jinni".
To be friends with such a cow's sisters, Daisy certainly can't be an ordinary person.
Daisy
Daisy's father is named Guo Biao, and he is one of the founders of Yongan Department Store.
Before World War I, Guo Biao and his brother Guo Le drifted from Guangdong to Australia to earn a living. The two brothers were quite business-minded and made a lot of money by opening a fruit shop. In the First World War, because of the increasingly serious anti-Chinese sentiment in Turkey and Macao, the two brothers decided to return to China for development.
It so happened that Sun Yat-sen, who was raising funds for the revolution everywhere at that time, also invited them to return to China to preside over the mint, so the two brothers moved to Shanghai in 1917.
In 1917, Daisy was only 8 years old, and she only remembers her father telling her, "I came to a restaurant in Shanghai to eat." ”
When she first moved to Shanghai, Daisy could hardly speak Chinese, did not Chinese name, and temporarily stayed at the East Asia Hotel in the Xianshi Department Store. This hotel is the property of Daisy's mother, the Ma family.
Looking out of the hotel window, there is a building under construction, with layers of bamboo scaffolding, indicating that it will soon be completed. This is the Yong'an Department Store building built by Guo Biao and Guo Le brothers.
Department stores at that time were rare, just like the fashion salons run by Daisy more than a decade later, targeting the rich or at least the middle class or above the consumer market.
The world's earliest department store, which appeared in Australia, where Guo Le and Guo Biao had previously struggled, was opened in 1886 by the descendants of a British colonist named Sam Horton. Before the Guo brothers returned to China, they had specially visited it.
The so-called department store, the biggest feature, is that it is a large retail store, the price is fixed, no counteroffer, cash trading, allowing customers to freely enter and exit, dissatisfied can be returned.
This is completely different from the past commodity stores, as well as bargaining markets, the consumer experience is completely different.
Department stores are always at the forefront of consumption, building walls are generally set up with huge advertisements, there are all kinds of beautiful window display goods, at night, neon flashing, reflecting the latest products, very fashionable, customers can see it when they walk on the road.
Therefore, the department store is also the most important symbol of a city's "urban sense".
A new shopping experience
Daisy, the "fourth oldest" among the guo family's brothers and sisters, everyone in the family calls her "four misses".
It usually wears British dresses and eats Western-style desserts. Although the family settled in Shanghai, they maintained a Western tradition of Christmas. Every holiday, family gifts are piled from the living room to the living room, and dinner includes turkey, plum pudding, cake, etc., authentic Western style.
Her father sent her to the most famous aristocratic school in Shanghai, the Zhongxi Girls' School, the alma mater of Song Qingling and Song Meiling, where Huang Huibao, daughter of Shanghai World Boss Huang Chujiu, and Zhang Jingying were studying. The school taught pure English, and the library contained not only the most popular American novels of the time, but also the English version of Capital.
At the suggestion of her classmates, modeled on the writer Xie Wanying, who was famous for her pen name Bingxin at the time, Daisy gave herself Chinese name: Guo Wanying. Daisy of girlhood, immersed in the honeypot of happiness, her face full of joy, slightly fat, and her face bright and rosy.
Her family's department store, which opened in her second year in Shanghai, was booming, hitting the boom in Shanghai's middle-class consumption.
But the competition is also fierce. At that time, there were four department stores in Shanghai. The first is the Xianshi Department Store opened by Daisy's mother's family Ma Yingbiao in 1917; the Yong'an Department Store opened by the Guo brothers in 1918; the Xinxin Department Store opened by the senior employees of the former Xianshi in 1926; and the Daxin Department Store opened by Cai Xing and Cai Chang, employees of the former Xianshi Hong Kong branch in 1936.
This is the famous "Four Companies" in Shanghai Beach. The founders of these "four major companies" are all from the same place, Zhongshan, Guangdong. But the competition between them does not talk about hometown friendship. From the design of department stores, to the types of goods sold, to the introduction of new marketing methods, the fight between each other is fierce.
Take, for example, the appearance of their respective buildings.
The first to be built was a five-storey high-rise building, which was the tallest building on Nanjing Road at that time, and then Yong'an built a six-story high-rise building, which overwhelmed the first Shi, and the new building was added to 7 floors, and the last building was built to 10 floors.
Wing On Department Store
Their exterior design is also very aesthetic, all using the world's most popular classical Baroque style at that time, and are characterized by balconies, window carvings, and cylindrical supports.
The array of department stores makes the whole city look foreign and modern.
In 1936, the Yong'an Company, which made a lot of money, rebuilt a new building, named Yong'an New Building, the designers were American designers Hassard and Flyley Perth, inspired by the New York landmark building Iron Building, the building is divided into two front and back buildings, connected by a flyover in the middle, the front building is 24 stories high, the back building is 10 stories high, and the roof is equipped with the word "Yong'an" neon, which is bold and compelling, and has a sense of heroism.
Yong'an New Building
At this point, it is a complete comparison of other homes.
In addition to the appearance of the building, the marketing methods of the department store are also very avant-garde. So far some department stores play the marketing means, they play the rest.
For example, the window display.
Yongan Company has 40 shop windows on all sides and on both sides of the corridor, which are replaced once a month, and the window next to Nanjing Road is changed from time to time according to the season. Later, "situational" shop windows were developed, using shop windows and goods to tell stories.
Wing On Department Store window
One year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yong'an Company designed a round of bright moon in the window, and there was an elegant costumed palace girl walking around, taking the meaning of Chang'e running to the moon, and a variety of attractive mooncakes for sale were placed in the foreground.
The beautiful design turned the street into a beautiful scenery, so that it became a visiting spot for many school graduation trips at that time, and also became a tourist point recommended by the "Shanghai Tour Guide".
Another example is the display of goods.
Inside the department store, a water glass counter, customers can see the goods on display without dead ends, the key can be without psychological pressure salivating to see, no need to greet the clerk, there is no sense of oppression that must be bought.
This was a major initiative at the time, and consumers got an unprecedented shopping experience.
In addition, after customers enter the store, in addition to being able to see the goods and prices at a glance, it is also a great pleasure to stay inside. Because department stores are competing to use the most advanced sound and photoelectric technology.
For example, beautiful neon light box advertising was very common at that time. The author of the "Big Evening News" described this with amazement: "As if to say that the sun will never come again, and it can also illuminate the earth from them." ”
In addition to the lights, the Daxin Department Store also installed cooling and heating pipes, and the New New Department Store spent $200,000 to install air conditioners imported from the United States, allowing customers to get a shopping experience of "warm in winter and cool in summer".
Can you imagine? What would it be like to experience in an era when many people still have kerosene lamps in their homes and have never even seen an electric fan?
Then there's the elevator.
The four major department stores are probably the earliest places in China to use elevators. At the beginning of the opening of Xianshi and Yong'an, a lift was installed to carry passengers to the rooftop playground. However, it costs money to sit on the lift frame, two corners at a time.
Daxin installed the world's most advanced escalator. A lot of customers, not to buy things, just to bring a family of children, to experience the feeling of "up and down", originally free, but more people sitting, it has become a scenic spot, so that department stores have to control the flow of people through charging (a four corners).
Daxin department store escalator
In addition to the external shopping experience, the sales methods of department stores are also very pioneering.
In 1919, when American hot air balloon pilots visited Shanghai, Yongan Company seized the opportunity to hype up and attract countless customers to watch.
The company promised that it only needed to spend more than five yuan in the department store to get a ticket to watch the hot air balloon show. If you don't shop, you'll have to spend five corners to buy an admission ticket.
Another year, Yongan Company launched a "moisturizing soap", in order to promote the product, the company set up a performance stage, by two young female staff to operate a small machine, the soap flakes into powder and replastomized into strips, to show the process of making soap, many customers gathered around to visit, marvel, personally start, experience the fun of DIY.
The above-mentioned various measures and means have almost completely subverted the traditional business. Chinese consumers, it is also from this that they have experienced what is called "consumer is God", and consumption can also be used as leisure and fun.
In times of material scarcity, consumption is burdened with a sense of guilt. However, the four major department stores represented by Yongan Company almost perfectly dissolved the guilt of consumption, and entered the building to shop freely, freely look, and buy freely, even if they came to enjoy a moment of air conditioning, they could also enjoy the sweet smile of the salesman.
The window displaying goods on the street allows consumer desire to overflow the building, pour into the whole city, and penetrate the class, so that everyone who passes by can appreciate it.
From the top celebrities down to the rickshaw drivers, they can stand at the intersection of Nanjing Road or Zhejiang Road to watch and admire beautiful clothes and expensive watches. People who can't afford it for a while are therefore secretly determined to make money and make themselves a better material life as soon as possible.
In 1930, the "Declaration" once published a passage with a rather contemporary charm:
The husband walked into the new decoration store and asked the shopkeeper for a favor to temporarily remove the fashionable clothes in the window along the street, because he and his wife would pass by the store later.
The consumption habits of buying, buying, buying, and can't help but chop hands, as well as the self-deprecation of the public's optimistic jokes, were cultivated from that era.
"Miss Concling"
In 1933, Daisy married, the object is called Wu Yujun, it is said that Lin Zexu's descendant, at the age of nineteen was admitted to gengzi indemnity public funds international student, the United States massachusetts graduate. Daisy said he married Wu purely because he was "fun".
Unfortunately, the marriage is not happy. Wu Yujun is a big turnip with a heart. On the day the child was born, Wu ran to his nightlife. Finally, one day, Daisy and her second brother-in-law brought Mr. Wu home at the home of a young widow.
A year before Daisy got married, his father, Guo Biao, died. Yong'an Department Store ushered in the second generation of managers, that is, Daisy's cousin, Guo Linshuang, who is only 29 years old.
Guo Linshuang is a business wizard, but unfortunately his bad luck, before and after he took office, the company encountered a world economic depression and the shadow of war.
On August 13, 1937, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai. Ten days later, Japanese warplanes skimmed over Shanghai, dropped a bomb on Nanjing Road, and bombed the Yong'an and Xianshi department stores. The newly built Yong'an New Building was shaken out of a large hole by shells, killing 15 employees and injuring nearly 100 people.
Guo Linshuang had to stop business and go all out to rescue the wounded, and he also announced: "All Yong'an people have joined the anti-Japanese salvation movement."
During this time, he donated money to the wartime service desk and gave away a large amount of food and daily necessities.
Later, Shanghai was not defended and was occupied by the Japanese. Yong'an Department Store was also forced to accept Japanese military trusteeship. Guo Linshuang, who had funded the anti-Japanese resistance, was deprived of management rights, and he and his wife Du Hanhua were placed under house arrest on the top floor of the Yong'an New Building and were not allowed to go out.
It was not until 1945, when Japan was defeated and rolled out of China, that Yongan Company resumed normal business (there were also operations during the period, but it was not normal). However, in 1948, due to the "financial and economic emergency punishment order" of the National Government and the issuance of "golden yuan coupons", it caused serious inflation and caused the company to almost go bankrupt.
Fortunately, Guo Linshuang is not only good at business, but also has a soft body, and in the turbulent times, he can always be fierce. In response to the crisis, he engaged in several successful marketing attempts.
For example, when the national disaster was in the head, he followed the initiative of the National Government and vigorously promoted domestic products, which hit the consumer psychology very accurately.
At that time, like Huang Chujiu's invention of the Dragon and Tiger brand Rendan, as well as domestic old brands such as Jinhua ham, rooster brand towels and Samsung brand mosquito coils, sales soared in this boom. By 1946, the proportion of Yong'an domestic sales increased from the original 2% to 65%, which not only improved the company's profits, but also gained a patriotic reputation.
He also has a more ruthless move, that is, to activate and recruit female clerks.
This was a very avant-garde move, as most women were not yet in the habit of working outside the home. Of course, Yongan's recruitment conditions are also very harsh: the age must be 18-20 years old, the height is 157-163 cm, the weight is 45-54 kg, and it must be "innocent, upright, healthy, and no myopia".
This is not to mention, he also gave the beautiful female clerk a variety of names, what "sock queen", "milk bag Xi Shi" and the like, to attract male customers to stop and inquire.
"Miss Conkering", who sells Conker token pens, is probably the most well-known of them. Hong Huang's grandmother, Zhang Hanzhi's mother Tan Xueqing, is the "Miss Kang Keling" of the pen counter of Yong'an Company.
Concoring advertising
Pretty salesmen, like movie stars, are often on the cover of the media. Their divorces, pregnancies and gossip are the talk of people after dinner.
In addition to the beauty saleswoman, Yongan also introduced a fold similar to the nature of a credit card.
This kind of folding, mainly for foreign expatriates, the function is that the usual shopping can be deferred from payment, accumulated to a certain season and then settled together. Later, Guo promoted this "credit card" to all customers, which greatly promoted Yongan's sales.
In the new promotion model, Yongan withstood the turbulence of the times, compared with 1938, 1941 Yongan company's turnover not only did not decline, but increased by 5 and a half times, profits rose by 12 times.
Abrupt changes
On May 26, 1949, Guo Linshuang did not return to his residence on Xiafei Road and stayed in the office on the top floor of Yong'an Xinxia. In the early morning, he heard a noise outside the window, got dressed and looked out the window, and the streets were lined with gray cloth soldiers with guns in their arms sitting on the ground.
These fighters were the first PLA troops to invade Shanghai. In order to ensure the safety of the lives and property of millions of Shanghai citizens, the troops left mules, horses and artillery in Xinzhuang, a suburb of Shanghai, before entering the city, and strictly implemented the instructions of Chen Yi, commander of Sanye: "Catch rats in porcelain shops."
In order not to disturb the citizens, Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yi formulated the "Rules for Entering the City" before the 100,000-strong army entered the city, and the two most important of them were: no heavy weapons were used in the urban area; no people's houses were allowed.
At about 1:00 a.m. on the 26th, the troops slept in Nanjing East Road in strict accordance with the regulations. It was a light rain, and the Shanghai night in May was still a little cool, from the intersection of Zhejiang Road to the intersection of Xizang Road, more than 500 meters of cold cement road, sleeping with thinly clad PLA soldiers, many of whom were Shanghai natives.
The People's Liberation Army "sleeps on the street"
Seeing this scene, Guo Linshuang was greatly touched.
Rong Yiren, 33, who had planned to leave Shanghai for Hong Kong at the time, also saw the scene on the same morning and was also deeply touched, recalling: "I remember driving a car to the road that day to see, and saw the PLA soldiers lying on the ground on the side of the road, without disturbing the people." ”
At the same time, several underground CCP members who had been lurking at Yong'an Company saw through the window the troops entering the street, and they quickly made contact with the troops. "Liberated!" It was proposed to raise a red flag at the highest point of the Wing On Department Store to welcome the People's Liberation Army. This proposal was approved by everyone.
So they drew a red cloth from the cotton counter of the building, and Master Jin Yongming, the tailor of the sewing room, made a bright red flag, and four young soldiers planted the red flag at the top of the "Qi Yun Pavilion" on the roof.
The Yong'an Department Store raised the first red flag on Nanjing Road during the liberation of Shanghai, and since then it has forever been recorded in history and is still a patriotic education base.
Wing On Building "Qi Yun Ge"
On the eve of the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, the times were uncertain, and many businessmen fled to Hong Kong and overseas. Guo Linshuang and his cousin Guo Dihuo chose to stay, and in response to people's concerns, Guo Linshuang said: "I am surnamed Guo, the second generation boss of Guo Jiamen, and should stay in Shanghai and be responsible for maintaining 'traditional' enterprises." ”
However, at this time, the "four major companies", including Yong'an, had long been called "the four major empty" because of the inflation engaged in by the Kuomintang. Coupled with the market positioning of department stores, it is oriented to the mid-to-high-end market. But on the eve of liberation, most of the rich businessmen, bureaucratic compradors, and large landlords were basically gone.
In this way, Guo Linshuang guarded the torn Yong'an Company until 1955.
This year, under the influence of the new society, the consumption habits of citizens have changed greatly. People recognize only state-run goods and not private goods.
The commercial and trade system has also been reformed, and public-private partnerships have become a general trend. Guo Linshuang actively told the chairman of the public-private trade union: "We strive for the first public-private partnership in the department store industry. ”
On January 20, 1956, the Shanghai Federation of Industry and Commerce held a party to celebrate the successful completion of the joint venture transformation, Guo Linshuang, as a opera ticket fan, took the stage to perform a "Golden Horse Boot", and Rong Yiren, who was also at the venue that day, also sang a piece of "Caoqiao Guan" on the stage, which was applauded by the whole hall.
Since then, a new page has been turned in the history of Chinese national commerce, and people's consumption habits have undergone earth-shaking changes.
On the street, the neon flickering window is gone, the fashionable tight cheongsam of the past is also gone, people have changed into dark blue people's clothes, hard and simple has become a new fashion, the desire to consume can no longer be revealed at will, and the luxurious life is more incompatible with the era of equality for everyone.
The Guo family, who stayed in the mainland with his cousin Guo Linshuang, as well as Daisy and her husband Wu Yuhua. After the joint venture of the company founded by Wu, the couple took the initiative to reduce their salaries and integrate into the lives of working people.
The family was no longer blatantly celebrating Christmas, and Daisy could only sneak around the house for a while of American-made glass stockings, and on the street, like everyone else, she changed to plain wrinkled people's clothes.
Daisy's husband, Wu Yujun, is relatively arrogant, and after the public-private partnership, he still drove a Ford to work. In 1958, he was removed from his post as chief of operations section, assigned to work as a cleaner, and later inexplicably imprisoned.
Before Daisy could rescue her husband, she was also sent to a "study class" that same year to learn to smash stones with a sledgehammer. She was assigned to a foreign trade market on the outskirts of Shanghai to feed pigs and sweep toilets.
When winter came, she was sent to the foreign trade export warehouse to peel northeast Chinese cabbage. The cabbage was wet and cold, and she had to peel off the rotten yellow skin on it and finally export it to Hong Kong.
Wu Yujun failed to cross the hurdles of life, and then died in prison inexplicably.
The death of her husband dealt a fatal blow to Daisy and her two children, not only did the family lack pillars, but the court also asked her to repay the fines that Wu Yujun had to pay, a total of 140,000 yuan.
In addition to suffering from flesh and skin and poverty, Daisy must face all kinds of interrogations and criticisms. In 1963, she was sent to teach English at the University of Foreign Trade and Vocational And Hkuza, and a female teacher pointed to her nose and said:
"When I went to Yongan to buy something, I once saw the sales ladies put the pieces of goods she wanted in front of her eyes, while she sat on the leather sofa, holding a cigarette in one hand and tea in the other, ordering whatever she liked, and never paying."
The miserable life lasted until the early 1980s.
Everything that was once related to the "four young ladies", cars, bungalows, coffee, cheongsam, cigarettes, it was like a dream.
The desire for middle-class consumption, which belonged to the past era, has gradually withered away in the rough life of laborers. At that time, most of the Chinese, living as bitterly as Daisy, or even more bitter, and there were still difficulties in the stomach, let alone luxury and leisure consumption.
End
Fifth Avenue Cafe, New York, 1990. Daisy, who is 80 years old, met Her long-lost old classmate Zhang Jingying.
The two old men drank coffee, just like on that winter night in 1936. On the eve of the liberation of Shanghai, Miss Zhang left the mainland with her family and settled down in the United States. At that time, Daisy could have chosen to leave, but she insisted on staying, and the two separated the world from then on.
Between chats, Ms. Zhang gave Daisy a briefing on the "Jinni" fashion salon that the two had held, including a thank-you note written by a male customer that read: "Thank you for making my wife beautiful."
At this time, Daisy's face was wrinkled and her hair was gray, because of the heavy physical labor of many years, her hands had been deformed. After the reform and opening up, she continued to teach English at the vocational and amateur university and lived in a junior suite in Shanghai until her death in 1998.
In the late 1990s, many people came to visit the "Shanghai celebrity", including the famous American journalist Wallace, out of curiosity, but they were all rejected by the old lady. She is reluctant to reminisce about the past, let alone let others use her choice to reflect other people's lives, insisting that she does not regret staying on the mainland.
The people who came to visit her brought her a large number of gifts, piled up in the foyer, and she never had the heart to open them. Someone sent her money, but this Miss Guo Si, who once had a glorious wealth, frowned and asked the visitor in surprise: "Why do people like banknotes so much now?" Bills are spoken everywhere. ”
In fact, the old lady did not know that at this time, the consumption desire of ordinary people on the land of China had flourished again, and people's desire for money and material things had been revived again, without hiding any shyness.
Nanjing Road in Shanghai, in the year of Daisy's death, was built as a pedestrian street by the Shanghai Municipal Government. Shops lined the streets have revived their former bustle. Fashionable trends, and collagen-faced crowds, like a river that never stops day and night, fill the entire street, and fish enter all kinds of famous shops on the street.
In April 2005, the name of "Wing On Department Store", which was abandoned in a special era, was also reactivated. This marks that the consumerist culture it represents seems to have been re-emerged from the freezer, and the overdraft consumption, leisure consumption, and luxury consumption it once advocated have become the daily routines of ordinary Chinese in today's market tide.
Now Wing On Department Store
Relative to the rising high-rise of high-rise buildings, once at the forefront of consumption of The new building of Yong'an Department Store, has long lost its former style, after the rise of online e-commerce and cheap supermarkets, these old department stores, lost their market competitiveness. Nowadays, people think of them as museums of consumer culture.
Only the "Qi Yun Ge" in the Yong'an Department Store building has been raised by the first red flag in Shanghai and has become a patriotic education base and will always maintain its youth.
On November 24, 2018, Wing On Department Store was selected into the third batch of China's "20th Century Architectural Heritage Projects" list, which was better protected. This year also happens to be the 100th anniversary of Wing On Department Store. In the same year, China's total retail sales reached 38 trillion yuan, becoming the world's second largest consumer market. A year later, that number became $41.2 trillion, and China surpassed the United States to officially become the world's largest consumer market.
In the past 100 years, the tide of consumer culture has risen and fallen, and it is sometimes like a flood beast, abandoned by people, and sometimes like tempting candy, which makes people addicted. Behind the intertwining of love and hate and repeated abandonment, is the deep yearning for a better life in the hearts of all mortal flesh- and females, which will never die.
END
Key References:
1. "Building a Consumer Paradise: Department Stores and Modern Shanghai Urban Culture", by Lian Lingling, Social Science Literature Publishing House.
2. "The Golden Branches and Jade Leaves of Shanghai", by Chen Danyan, Writers Publishing House.
3. "Life History in the Silver Dollar Era", by Chen Cunren, Guangxi Normal University Press.
4. "The Logic of Life- The Intellectuals of the Republic of China in the Daily World of Cities", by Hu Yuehan, Social Sciences Academic Publishing House.