Stop buying all those handbags and shoes, Hong Kong – the price is too high

Kelly Yang says the obsession with shopping for ‘stuff’ we don’t need is damaging both our self-esteem and the environment, and we need to liberate ourselves by learning that lasting pleasure can be found elsewhere

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It’s true that shopping gives us a high – but it doesn’t last. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:33pm, 17 May 2016Updated: 2:33pm, 17 May 2016

Why do Chinese women love to shop? Well, because we’re hoarders. There’s really no other explanation for buying 200 pairs of shoes or 50 handbags.

And even though we have so much stuff and nowhere to put it, our No 1 regret when we go on holiday? Not buying more stuff!

It’s got to the point that there are now Gucci handbags for dead people. The streets of Sheung Wan are lined with them, paper replicas of Gucci goods to be burned at funerals for the deceased to carry around in the afterlife. The real Gucci freaked out when it found out; first, it said it was illegal, then did a U-turn and said it was OK. At HK$10 a bag, I have to say, it’s a pretty good deal. I almost bought one for real life.

Paper replicas of luxury goods come at a fraction of the price. Photo: AP

Why Hong Kong people are the biggest losers in the Gucci paper handbag row

Some say the Chinese shopping obsession stems from the fact that we used to have so little and now we can have so much. That certainly explains my relationship with Häagen-Dazs. Others liken it to a type of substance abuse. If you’ve ever read Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians, watched the YouTube sensation Ultra Rich Asian Girls, or heck, set foot in Causeway Bay on a Saturday, you know what I’m talking about: the wide eyes, rapid breathing, sweat beads forming on foreheads as shoppers hone in on their prey.

And it is true that shopping gives us a high. New research from the University of Michigan found that the high we get from shopping is similar to the high we get from sex. It’s no wonder that while 40 per cent of Hong Kong men surveyed recently by online travel agency Zuji said they wished they’d had more sex on holiday, only 18 per cent of women felt the same. The other 82 per cent were probably too busy ogling a cute top.