ABSTRACT
In a Hong Kong taxi, the mainland Chinese driver listens to a Japanese pop singer crooning the tune, if not the original lyrics, of Midnight in Moscow. At the entrance to the Harbour Tunnel a large billboard running down one side of a multi-storey building advertises Matsutoya Yumi's latest album, Cowgirl Dreamin'. A major cosmetics company, Shiseido, uses former Hong Kong beauty queens in both its domestic and Asian region campaigns to promote its new range of Pieds Nus 'rouge stylish' lipsticks and 'futurism eyes' eye shadow (Figure 1). A Japanese fashion magazine, also sold on the streets of Hong Kong, includes photo reportages with such titles as Oriental Mania and A Dignity of China. In Japan itself, a headline for Seiko's Lukia watch range claims there is No Age, No Gender for a group of Japanese, Chinese and Caucasian young men and women standing in front of a China Motor Bus company's bright red double-decker bus. Meanwhile, Toyota Corolla's New Levin car is advertised with Hong Kong licence plates against a backdrop of neon street signs, the most prominent of which is Yue Hwa Chinese Products. Asia is, it seems, an integral part and extension of Japan's commodity culture.
