Store Mannequins

During the last several weeks I have, mostly because of the Christmas season, found myself shopping more than I usually do. As a group we recently made a trip to Jinan for Christmas shopping, and I have been to the center of Qufu (the shopping district, more or less) on several occasions, the latest being today.

While I have been largely unsuccessful with regard to the actual shopping (I'm really, really bad at buying presents, even in the states) aspect of these trips, I have been noticing some interesting store mannequins.

Most mannequins found in department stores, like most clothing advertisements (or food advertisements, tourist advertisements, toilet paper advertisements, heater advertisements, water advertisements... you get the idea), are either modeled after, or use, westerners or extremely pale-skinned Chinese people. Call it what you will - westernization, californication, "American imperialism;" It's just kind of the way it is. Well, long story short - these mannequins are sometimes on the comical side... as witnessed by my examples.

This one was found in the Jinan "RT Mart," which is similar to a K-Mart or a Wal-Mart type store:

The baby has sad eyes.

This one I found in a clothing store in Qufu:

I'm a waiguoren! please notice my bulging forehead veins and handsome, well-groomed facial hair!

The same mannequin, but this time with an American flag bandanna (sorry about the glare):

I'm a meiguoren! Yeah!

As you can see, store mannequins = big fun.