Shanghai Style: The Chinese Bicycle
TweetWe’re just back from Japan here and there’s still so much to show and tell. First I’ll get past the jetlag and clear the pile on my desk. In the meanwhile you can check out the 550 or so photos of Japan I posted on Flickr. I’m patting myself on the back here for making them pretty entertaining and informative.
Meanwhile I came across a nice bit of bike and fashion parody out of Shanghai, China. Most of you probably saw the slightly silly but timely articles on Dutch bikes such as “Riding the It Factor” in The New York Times. Yours truly was interviewed for said article, WorkCycles bikes were mentioned and used as props and the super photos of my friend Marc (a.k.a. Amsterdamize) were used for an accompanying slideshow about Dutch cycling.
Well shortly afterward some “economic refugee” Shanghai expats showed up with “It’s the S**t!” Factor parodying the NYT article above.
A couple days later “5000 Years of Civilized Riding” appeared… their take on the NYT fashion shoot with some worthy quotes such as:
…in China, bicycles have been part of the culture for 5,000 years. Fashionable Qin riders first unified China’s sense of style in 221 BC…
Oh, and I learned an excellent new (for me at least) acronym: BINO (Brand in Name Only).
Thanks to Fred Shasta, writer of these pieces.
September 5th, 2011 at 03:05
thanks for the link. the ny times artikel is just one of those in that cycling is mentioned as something like anything but common. cycles are used as an accessoire for whatever. i am happy about every improvement of cycling, especially in china, and if fashion or style substitutes that, than hurray. but cycling in this article, and especially the photostream, substitutedes the fashion branch. if cycling in china will be toleratetd like automitive because of fashion, i wonder why cycling in japan is still something one have to handle like a padestrian. and japan is like a magnitude in asia..