Der Economist stellt eine "verdächtige" Konsumfreude in China fest und wirft die Frage auf, ob die Chinesen die Japaner als Weltmeister beim Shoppen ablösen: The industry estimates there are now around 10m-13m mainland customers for luxury goods—mostly entrepreneurs and young professionals working for multinational firms. Most live on the country's eastern seaboard in big cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Dalian. Many luxury firms see Chinese shoppers as the new Japanese—a potentially huge group of status-conscious, increasingly wealthy people hungry for brands and fanatical about shopping. But the Japanese, long the industry's stalwart shoppers, are increasingly spending their money on cultural and culinary pleasures. In China, attitudes to luxury have changed dramatically from just a few years ago, when any form of ostentation was frowned upon. Today's Chinese, above all the young, love to flaunt their status. Claire Kent, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, says that, whereas people in the West are buying more discreetly branded luxury goods identifiable only by those “in the know”, the Chinese favour prominent logos that shout, “Look, I'm rich.”