Confessions of a Materialistic Society

As far as I can remember, I spent my early teens in malls and movie theatres. To kids like me who once aspired to be as cool as Lindsay Lohan in the Parent Trap (yes, I know), a trip to the mall was the closest thing to being just as glamorous. As we grew older, we became fascinated with the lifestyle of a young urban professional (or Yuppies as we’d call them). As a result of all that, we're now stuck with a generation who make career decisions according to the perks that come with a job and not the job itself.

During my first trip to a Canadian mall since post-communist Europe, I cannot help but poke fun at everything sale that I saw.

Joke #1: Let's put it in a smaller bottle and call it something else...

Bath and Body Works is a new bath and beauty shop that produces everything from neon-coloured loofas to cartoon-character night-lights. This store makes European body care brands such as The Body Shop look old fashioned and dull. In different containers and packaging, you can find, body cream, body lotion and body butter. If you’d asked me during my college years, I’d tell you that each of them served a different purpose and it is necessary to have the entire collection.

Joke #2: Lancome says women have been doing it wrong for the past 10,000 years...

Isn’t it ridiculous how much women spend on skincare? Everyday, young girls are bombarded with commercials about different skin conditions. Can you imagine girls in Shakespeare’s time going through an intensive 3-step treatment every night before they go to bed? I don’t remember my history textbook saying ‘during the 16^th century, girls were a sight for sore eyes due to uncontrollable acne issues’.  

Capitalist societies have been very successful at creating demand out of nothing, which probably drives the backbone of our economy. However, I believe this has taken a toll on women’s (specifically young girls’) confidence. We’re brought up to believe a credit card can provide more comfort than anything else. If I ever have daughters, I’m going to make sure they know they’re beautiful despite whatever society tells them. 

Rediscovering the New World

I'm sitting in a Second Cup coffee shop in the suburbs of Toronto, drinking yet another variation of the cappuccino. When my mom had told me that there will be coffee-shops 'nearby', I didn't think she meant a 20 minute drive, on the other side of the highway. How do Canadians get around without cars?

Since I've left Europe, I've been bracing myself for a reverse cultural shock, I hear those are quite nasty and can be depressing. So I went on a good ol' road trip with my mom to New England. What great decision making skills - there's no better way of killing time for an out-of-practice driver than a 12 hour drive on the American freeway. Needless to say, I'm now quite confident of my driving skills.

Naturally, my mom (like all Chinese mothers), tried to get me motivated academically and apply to go to Harvard. I realized that after my yearlong escapade in Europe that I despise conformity, the thought of joining a cult such as a brand-name school was not that appealing to me.

Nevertheless, I loved almost everything about New England. The people here exhibited the best characteristics of the North American stereotype. I can't remember a single time that I've made eye-contact with someone and didn't get a smile back, customer service reps seem to genuinely care about how your day is and the people are probably quite happy as they reproduce A LOT. Yes, I have a theory that the happiness scale of a place can be reflected in the number of kids that I see.

This kind of atmosphere is exactly the environment that I would want my kids to grow up in. Another goal in life added to the list - move to New England at some point.

Other than that I've made the following hilarious conclusions:

1. A fitting room in any store in a North American suburb will probably be bigger than any room that I can rent in Hong Kong.
2. The 'All U.S. Citizens' lane at the customs now takes Canadians as well.
3. There are so many Canadian businesses going global that it's hard to figure out which side of the border you're on. I walked into a TD bank in Harvard to get quarters for parking.
4. Tim Hortons needs to improve their standardization manual because the Americans cannot follow it. For those who don't know about Tim Hortons, it is only the best casual dining restaurant ever.

Anyway, off to get some work done! Happy fall everyone!