This is one of those things that seemed really weird when I first got here in 2006, but that I hardly notice now. If you are in a relatively well trafficked area of Shanghai after about 10pm most nights, mobile Teddy Bear dealers like the one shown above will come out. If you tend to over-think things, this raises a few questions: First, who's buying Teddy Bears at three in the morning? Second, is there a Teddy Bear kingpin of Shanghai (all signs point to yes), and do rival Teddy Bear outfits ever have 'rumbles' over territory? And last, are all the Teddy Bears made in some factory town in Zhejiang Provinces that specializes in just Teddy Bears, supplying 40% of the world's carnivals with over-sized stuffed animals?
1 comment:
Another mystery destined for the annals of ancient Chinese tradition.
I wonder if in 100 years, when historians and economists are recounting the emergence of China as a world superpower, they will have the insight to attribute the dynamic "Nighttime Teddy Bear racket" to the 600 million people lifted out of poverty since the reforming of their economy in 1978.
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