'New national products' gain more respect, get new lease on life

Growing passion

Yang is not alone. In recent years, the younger generation (people born after 1990) has shown a growing passion for, and a stronger desire to buy, domestically made sportswear and cosmetics, along with Chinese designer pieces, which usually highlight elements of traditional culture.

A report released in September by Aurora Information and Technology, a big-data provider and consultancy headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, showed that about 70 percent of people surveyed who were born after 1990 showed a marked preference for buying domestic products this year.

Domestic brands also saw a good performance during the annual Singles Day online shopping spree last month, with their sales holding up well against international brands on the Tmall platform, an e-marketplace operated by Alibaba.

Tmall's data show that in the 45 minutes after the shopping festival started at 12.01 am on Nov 11, domestic sports brands such as Erke and Warrior each saw their sales exceed 100 million yuan ($15.7 million).

Zheng Hong'e, a professor with the College of Humanities and Development Studies at China Agricultural University, said that while they are inspired by traditional culture, these new national products incorporate a number of state-of-the-art aesthetic and fashionable elements.

She added that the emergence and popularity of these products indicate Chinese people's increasing acceptance of domestic brands, rather than an obsession with foreign ones. "China has gradually shaken off the stereotype of being the world's factory and is reshaping its future into an innovative one," she said.

Liu Xiaoling, a 26-year-old fashion stylist from Beijing, said: "Why not? I mean, why not try Chinese brands, especially sports ones? They are cheaper, but they are high quality. What's important is that they are designed and produced by Chinese people."

She said that previously when her team produced styles for celebrities, she preferred to use European haute couture brands, along with designer items from South Korea and Japan.

"I have to admit that the fashion circle did have a prejudice against Chinese brands, which were usually branded 'countrified' and 'rustic'," she said.

"But in the past few years, Chinese designer and sports brands, highlighting traditional elements, have started to win a good reputation in the fashion industry, especially when Li-Ning appeared at New York Fashion Week in 2019, showing the world that China does have the good design gene."