Ma Shanglong ｜ Materializing Chinese hegemony, wealth, and homesickness in the age

Original, Ma Shanglong, Shanghai Xiaolong Lane

Women love tianjiao, men like to dominate. When Santana couldn’t afford it, men made their dream a Rolls-Royce – the Rolls-Royce of the moped drove to Shanghai. Baofu’s advertisement is "Rolls-Royce of the moped".

** the most powerful thing is to reduce the 50cc light ride to 49cc, no longer belongs to the motorcycle series, and can ride without a driver’s license. The flood of mopeds and ** also began

Piaggio should be translated as "Piaggio", but "Baofu" seems to be more domineering. It is not particularly exaggerated to call it the Rolls-Royce of the scooter. When Baofu first entered the Shanghai market, it was only sold in overseas Chinese stores, not only for money, but also for overseas Chinese exchange coupons. Driving on the road, compared to the "one-pull" permanent scooter, Baofu was very angry. At that time, there was no concept of private car buying.

The Chinese are really good at taking advantage of loopholes. The moped is a concept that only China has. Bawu belongs to the moped in Italy, which is the "light ride" in the Chinese concept. Its power is 50cc, not 250cc or more of motorcycles. Although it is a moped, it still belongs to the category of motorcycles and has a government-stipulated light ride driver’s license. The most powerful thing about the Chinese is that they downgraded the 50cc moped to 49cc, which no longer belongs to the motorcycle series. You can ride without a motorcycle driver’s license. Later, the flood of mopeds in Shanghai started with 49cc, what Thomson, Firebird, Jialing… Later, the all-powerful traffic police brigade disappeared like this. Why? You know.

At that time, more than 10,000 yuan a Baofu, now it seems that it can be compared with the car around 200,000?

The real "materialization era" of the Chinese people began in the 1990s.

Before, especially until the 1980s, the Chinese mainland had been in the "age of dematerialization." A person who was named a model worker was rewarded with a certificate on the wall, at most an enamel cup and a notebook, and society was very poor in material goods – a typical dematerialized society.

After the 1980s, society used material things as a standard and weighing instrument to transform into spiritual life. Giving high rewards to advanced workers is a materialized reward, donations to help the poor and disaster relief, and materialized goodwill; a diamond ring "passed down forever" at a wedding is a materialized love. Material has shown an unprecedented role in any aspect of society – the age of materialization has arrived.

The whole people are doing business, the overnight wealth of stock subscription certificates, the sudden emergence of "Yang Million" and other social coordinates, and the desire of the Chinese to get rich can be said to be "suddenly like a spring breeze, thousands of trees and pear blossoms".

Diamonds last forever, one will last forever, provided that there is money, there must be enough money — the core value of the materialized era

In 1994, there was an advertisement for making a fortune that went with public opinion: "Hengyuanxiang, sheep make a fortune". It’s really funny in the new year. Shanghainese people prefer to read it as "making a foreign fortune". Making a foreign fortune is the ability of Shanghainese in the old days, making money from foreigners, and it is also a true record of going to Japan to study in Australia in those years to really make a foreign fortune.

1994 was not the Year of the Sheep in the lunar calendar. Apparently, Hengyuanxiang was excited about his "Sheep Fa Cai" advertising ideas, but he couldn’t wait for the next round of the Year of the Sheep to arrive in 2003. So in the year of brainstorming, he took it out and shared it with people, singing loudly: Hengyuanxiang, Sheep Fa Cai. I remember that the TV station also did advertisements one after another on each channel. It was much more cultured than the current Granny Zhang sea cucumber and decoration advertisements, like a child’s voice reciting the "Three Character Classic": Hengyuanxiang, Sheep Fa Cai. "Sheep Fa Cai" is an octave high with an exclamation mark.

The dream of making a fortune is the true Chinese dream of the Chinese people

But maybe Chinese people still like to "make a fortune in silence". A few days after the sheep made a fortune, the TV advertisement was changed: Hengyuanxiang, sheep, sheep! Still like a child’s voice reciting the "Three Character Classic", still "sheep, sheep" is an octave high with an exclamation mark.

The 1999 Hengyuanxiang calendar card I saw is still "Sheep Fa Cai". I believe that this is no longer Hengyuanxiang’s social advertisement, because the calendar card has long been out of the enthusiasm of Shanghai people every year, and may just be a small gift from Hengyuanxiang’s sales channels.

The unintended spin-off of "Beijingers in New York", Kong Fu’s wine, is homesick

Also in 1995. The 1990s was the most memorable and memorable decade in many Chinese people’s lives.

The materialized era brought material things, people would be materialized, and things would also be humanized. "The wine of the Confucius Mansion makes people homesick" is the most successful integration of materialization and humanization.

The separation of family ties among the Chinese people was the most prominent syndrome of the 1990s. A large number of foreign people who cut the queue made a fortune, but at the expense of family ties and even the breakdown of marriages and families; there is a more turbulent wave that has already hit, that is, the wave of migrant workers that has not yet calmed down.

"Homesickness" became the voice of the times for the first time, and that bottle of wine took advantage of the opportunity to imitate Dukang and relieve sorrow.

From the educated youth going to the mountains and going to the countryside in the 1960s, to the foreign queue jumping in the 1990s, to the emerging migrant workers, homesickness has become the theme of social and people’s livelihood in China for half a century

The endorsement of this advertisement is Wang Ji, and the background song of this advertisement is Sun Nan’s "I Pursue You for Thousands of Miles". Before that, in 1993, the TV drama "Beijingers in New York" was a big success, Wang Ji was the star, and "I Pursue You for Thousands of Miles" was the theme song – it can be said that the full value of Kong Fu’s wine is almost this advertisement, which is such a eight-word sentence: Kong Fu’s wine makes people homesick.

Family love, in the materialized era, has become a social public issue, and a bottle of wine is the first to be handed in in this public issue examination room.

This article is the third of "The Three View Curve of Shanghai Street Advertising in Forty Years"; one of the two is the first two official accounts "Jinsky blinked out the desire of Chinese women" and "The leader of the Celebrity Gate, the new wife, the girl in red, how to rival her wearing Tianjiao".

Thank you to many friends for leaving messages on my last official account, giving their impressive advertising slogans, and I also enjoyed it.

(The photos in this article are all selected from the Internet, and I would like to express my gratitude to the photographer and editor of the original photos.)

Ma Shanglong

Member of the Chinese Writers Association, director of the Shanghai Writers Association, deputy director of the professional creation committee of prose reportage; editor

Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Committee Publishing and Media Committee

Chairperson of Mingfu Library, Huangpu District, Shanghai

Consultant of Shanghai Pingtan Troupe Art Committee

Ma Shanglong Director of Haipai Culture Studio

The works are mainly divided into three series, namely the essay series such as "Humor Should Laugh at Me" and "Students with Celebrities", the Shanghai series such as "Made in Shanghai", "Why Shanghai" and "Shanghai Women", and the essay series such as "Roll Sign Language" and "Some Meaning You Never Understand".

The new book published in 2019 is "Shanghai Road Numbers".

Several books published in recent years are available online, at publishers and in physical bookstores.

The original title: "Ma Shanglong | Materializing Chinese Hegemony, Wealth, and Homesickness in the Age"

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