Cross-continental journey for Brand New China
For a long time, the Chinese middle class and young professionals have been dressing in European clothes, wearing European leather shoes, strapping on European watches and driving European cars as essentials of a trendy lifestyle.
Turning that logic on its head, two young Dutch men challenged the perception that Chinese brands are not worthy of top-tier consideration by taking a 20,000 km, three-month journey, during which they used only Chinese products.
On their 11-country Silk Road pilgrimage from Shanghai to their hometown of Rotterdam, urban planner Maren Striker, 29, and marketer Rogier Bikker, 27, drove a Chinese car, named the Chinesemobile, dressed in Chinese clothes down to their underwear and, of course, wore Chinese sunglasses. They dubbed their journey Brand New China.
