Brands in Unusual Places...

One of the things I noticed early on about China was how a fair few of the familiar household brands from home appear here on a variety of different products, and with ‘copyright infringement’ being just a long, difficult-to-pronounce English phrase here, anything apparently goes! And I mean these things are just in shops being sold normally, as opposed to down a back alley on the hush hush. 

So here are a few famous brands* you see on a surprising amount of products:

~ Apple does… not only Macs, iPhones, iPods and iPads, but apparently also make scooters, perfume and nail varnish. Interesting…

~ Nestle does… water? Whuuuut? Is this a thing in the UK? (Though it’s not like we have to buy bottled water to drink there)

~ Hello Kitty does… you name it! As a MASSIVE name over here, Hello Kitty produces hair accessories, crockery, nail varnish, jewellery, food (sweets), stationary,… need I go on?

~ Angry Birds does… EVERYTHING. I ain’t even kidding. Another famous name over here, but not just for the game, oh no my friends. Angry Birds (and knock-offs) produce a crazy amount of stuff. Anything and everything as far as I’ve seen (stationary, crockery, clothing, belts, shoes, earmuffs, sleeping masks, phone accessories etc.)

~ Songs… just a quick note here. I can’t remember the amount of times a song has come on in a bar or in the gym that I’m all like ‘Yeah, I love this song!’, but then, oh wait, it’s a badly sung cover of the original. Sung in English, by someone who clearly doesn’t speak English; and this happens quite a lot. The covers sound odd, but A for effort I suppose. Or there’s also the case when you hear a familiar melody and then come the Chinese lyrics, just stealing the music unashamedly. Popular instances of song theft: Call Me Maybe, many-a-Michael Jackson song, Adele is another popular artist to rip-off, Doctor Jones (you know that song by Aqua – takes me back to primary school discos) and others I can’t think of at this moment in time

*not all are fakes, but Apple scooters? Yeah, I reckon.

Here are a few pics:

Yeah, I totally bought an Angry Birds pencil case.

Love the Hipster Hello Kitty purse

Yum yum for my tum!

On a side note: what in the world is the PG Tips
monkey doing in a little shop in China?!
I mean, WHY?? HOW??

Well that's the end of that! To be honest, there aren't going to be many more posts while I'm still in Fúzhōu. I don't do an awful lot of exciting things (as you can probably tell by the content of this post). Oh and for those who are interested, the Wednesday just gone marks the 4 weeks to go point! Eeeeek! I'm in utter disbelief as to how quickly the time has gone by. Seems like only yesterday I arrived, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed mess in Fúzhōu airport... How time flies.

Anyway, 再见!


xoxo