Chinese is cheap right? It surely used to be. Still, it is, yet Chinese becoming more and more expensive nowadays. Have you experienced this lately?
I had a Chinese phone once.
I had a Chinese phone once. In around 2010. When the world moved towards smartphones, I couldn't afford a super brand phone. So, I bought a Chinese phone. It was fun. I was living far away from home in university at that time. So, I needed a phone. We never had phones until we left our homes on our own. That was the norm, not by rules those days. This Chinese one was maybe my second one.
I can remember going to the market to buy a phone. The shop owner showed us different phones. Budget was minimal, expectations were high. I wanted a big, screened phone, so chose a cheap chines one big screen. The phone was not a real android smartphone. It didn't have many apps installed. It had an antenna, and I could watch TV on it. Just with TV signal. And when he showed me the phone it made me smile with happiness. With glistening eyes, I grabbed it. I know I am cheap; I would be labelled as cheap when I take it out in public. I did not care. Who cares, often I spend my time alone. If it doesn't matter to me, it won't matter to anyone.
I can remember those days. Having a smartphone was like showing off. It's not so much today. But that was the time where transition occurred. Everything is smart today.
We lived in a world where everything was analogue. Sometimes I wonder what happened. Surely, I was lonely and surely, I was less informed in analogue world. We had to wait for the television programs to be broadcasted. We could not skip those TV advertisements. If you miss the program, you will miss it. There is no way to rewind. But still, I cannot say we did not enjoy. We did enjoy a lot. And the experience still remains viable for today. I can remember as small kids we used to pretend that we had small TV in our hands. And watch imaginary cartoons in those imaginary TVs. And that may be the reason for me to have a TV phone.
Few of my friends at the university also had TV phones. But they broke. Often within months. But mine did not. It worked for three years! I know I had no excuse to buy a new phone. I was dependent of my parents until I passed out and got my first salary. So the legendary TV phone carried three years with me. I can remember we used to watch cricket matches in it in our dormitory with few of my friends. I think that Chinese phone did work for me like a slave for three years giving value to every penny I played for that.
Chinese is not cheap anymore.
Recently I went to buy some gifts for kids, at the Hemley's. Guess what, lot of toys were made in China. Surely, they must be cheap, but not so much. Of course there are cheap ones out there. But everything looks great had a nice big price tag in them. So, I thought what happened to Chinese after all. Maybe Chinese went from being cheap to being quality now markets are flooded with their items and as others products are over powered do they have a monopoly in the market?
Well, I am not an economist. I am just a customer with few hundred dollars in my pocket. Although it seems that increase in wages, oil prices and material costs all have affected the price tag. Even the covid had a global effect in economy in recent years.
Going back to my Chinese phone, I can see that I was both proud and ashamed at the same time? Can it even occur? These feelings have opposite effects. How can they occur together?
I was proud I didn't spend too much on a phone from my parents hard earned money. I was happy when it helps me have my childhood dream come true. I was ashamed of my kid like attachment to a cheap Chinese phone, sometimes I did not want to bring it out in public.
Yet now two decades later when I think about it alone at the Gatwick Airport, typing in my modern smartphone. I can feel I miss my old Chinese phone more than any friend I had in the university (introvert problems). More than anyone I have met along the way. Maybe I will have a Chinese friend one day.
Time is the greatest teacher, only if you take your time to study the book of time. How often you have seen the antiques shops, sell seemingly valueless items with big price tags on them. Even a painting gets more valuable when it gets older. Of course, I am not saying everything will be valuable when it ages. But the idea of value is not in the car, not in the toys at Hemley's or not in the phone. it is in our minds. Price tag is in our minds, and it changes with time. Maybe my cheap Chinese phone was not cheap in my mind. Maybe it had a price tag of a modern iPhone at that time in my mind. Who is anyone to judge.
IN summary my cheap Chinese phone:
Life is too short to give attention to haters and hooters.
Something cheap today is not going to last forever cheap, with the time it will become vintage.