SHU YING PING
Shu Ying Ping works as a government official in foreign affairs
as well as working as an interpreter at international conferences.
She is married and has an 18 year old daughter.
I am a middle-aged woman - for toilet rolls I choose
jumbo packs but strong paper and always white, Chinese brand.
I buy boxes of folded tissues for my dining room
and my reading room and for that I prefer them with a nice pattern.
We use them for the nose and for when we are eating, especially
when we invite friends or relatives for special occasions. When
it is just my husband and myself, though, we use white for economy.
I buy small packets of wet ones quite often because
I travel a lot with my job. When you travel by train, particularly,
it is very nice to have perfumed ones to clean your hands before
you eat. I like the ones with an anti-viral agent on them, too,
because they are fresher and more hygienic. This makes you feel
much more comfortable when you travel. The colour is not important
with these.
I like tissues with pattens on them and it would
be nice to have tissues with perfume and anti-viral agent too.
I always carry a packet of pocket tissues and I like to buy colourful
ones. I would like these to be perfumed too.
We seldom use kitchen towels in China. I bought
them once to try but we use cloths in the kitchen. No-one uses
them.
LIU JING NI
Liu Jing Ni works as an operations manager with international
exhibitions. She has worked abroad on cruise liners for two years
but now lives at home with her parents in Shanghai.
For family things usually I buy the tissues. In
boxes I choose coloured ones; last time I bought pink but white
is OK too. We live near Carrefour supermarket (it has been there
for about three years) and we usually shop there.
For pocket tissues I like cute ones. My friends
ask me where I get them - all young people like cute ones. They
are expensive but if they are not double the price I will buy
them and if they are very cute I will sometimes buy them even
then.
In supermarkets like Carrefour; you can find flowers
but not the really cute ones. Sometimes the packaging is coloured
and cute, Hello Kitty for example, but the tissues are white inside.
They are not expensive, though, so I buy them. You can sometimes
find them with a cute picture in the corner but that's all.
I bought a Japanese pocket tissue pack once, Nepia
, with a smell -
like Boss - and I
like this. Even the boys like tissues like this with perfume -
and girls can give them to boys if they sweat! It costs about ¥8
for 10 packets (compared with ¥5 for white ones). Of these
tissues (pictured) I prefer the teddy
bears to the butterflies
and I don't like the company name on the paper.
Toilet rolls - my Mum always buys white toilet paper.
There are a lot of brands but the price is almost the same and
they are not expensive. We usually buy Jie Yun, a local brand.
I haven't seen toilet paper with patterns or flowers on it very
often - maybe Jin Yun brand once with small flowers. I would buy
this but my Mum wouldn't. I wouldn't like perfume on it. Chinese
people don't like that.
My Mum doesn't use kitchen paper at all. Young newly
married people use it now but people my Mum's age use a cloth.
We open our eyes now and see other people using it and I say next
time we should try it but older people are not interested. Also
I think my Mum would always like white paper and older people
don't care about pictures or perfume.
Speaking to Lisa, Foreign Sales
Liuzhou Jingrou Printing and Packaging Machinery
Co Ltd prints and
packages the butterfly and teddy bear design tissues shown in
the photo. Its main business is coloured napkins and printing
for pocket-pack tissues accounts for about 10% of what it does.
It has 3-4 designers and prints on tissue paper from two Chinese
suppliers. It also exports to Europe (Belgium, Germany, UK and
the Czech Republic), the USA, Australia and New Zealand, spokesman.
CLAIRE WEUSTENRAED
Claire Weustenraed comes from Belgium and works in the logistics
department of a Luxembourg-based steel company in China. She has
been living in Shanghai for three years.
I don't buy cheap Chinese toilet paper - it's low
quality and uncomfortable. I always buy one that's a bit more
expensive but it's threeply, a Chinese brand, in Carrefour. It's
a bit more expensive but it's worth it.
In China I always carry pocket tissues; everyone
does. You need them for the public toilets here because paper
is not provided. In my job I visit factories a lot and they never
have paper in the toilets so you have to take your own. You always
have to have something with you here.
In the office everyone has a box of tissues on their
desk - everyone has their own. We buy them in packs of three in
the supermarket, Chinese brand, always in cardboard boxes and
we use them for when we have a cold, to clean our mouths, to put
biscuits on . . . everything. Kitchen towels? I use them sometimes
but the Chinese don't. Everyone here uses wet towels though. You
can often get them in restaurants, on airlines and such; they
are mostly Chinese and they put their advertising on them.
One thing you do find here a lot is 'girly girl'
products. The Chinese girls love tissues with Hello Kitty and
Nancha (Japanese - little rabbit?) and other pictures on them
but I don't buy them. Sometimes I might if I go to a party but
maybe I am too old for this.
I don't use any foreign tissue products. It doesn't
make any sense to buy foreign makes when the Chinese ones are
high enough quality. I do buy western brands that I know for other
products, cosmetics and creams for example and toothpaste, or
I bring them from home.
But not personal hygiene things. I know other expats
would probably buy the western products because they want to live
the life they have in Europe so they want the same brands they
have there. Especially those with kids, I'm sure. But my friends
and I live more like the Chinese people.
ISABELLA LIU
Isabella Liu is a third year student majoring in Italian. She
also works as a cultural program coordinator at the Shanghai Istituto
Italiano di Cultura and as an Italian/Chinese interpreter.
Isabella spent 10 months as an exchange student
in Trento, Italy, living with an Italian family and going to school.
We asked her what was the first thing that struck her in the use
of tissue paper there.
When I first went to Italy I was surprised at kitchen
paper. Every family seemed to have it and I didn't know what it
was for! In China we don't use kitchen towel.
Also in Italy young people don't always carry tissues.
When I was young at elementary school we always carried a cotton
handkerchief and our school principal would praise us if it was
clean and folded nicely. Then we began to use tissues and today
all Chinese teenagers carry a packet of tissues - always, but
Italian teenagers don't seem to do that. I think people in Shanghai
are very influenced by the Japanese and maybe if they begin to
use beautiful cotton handkerchiefs again, we will too.
The most important thing for me with tissue is that
I like to use environmentally friendly products. I meet a lot
of foreigners in my studies and work and I hear a lot of people
criticizing our Chinese government, saying it is not environmentally
aware and just doesn't care. So I try to do what I can - I buy
the smaller size, I don't buy threelayered ones and I use small
quantities. I don't like colours or perfumed tissues. I choose
my own perfume and use that so I like all other things to be perfume-free.
A white tissue is the safest choice.
I usually buy Napier brand boxed tissues; the design
is nice and they have a lot of choice. There used to be Tempo
and that was very good quality but quite expensive but they don't
seem to be here anymore. In my dormitory at college every girl
has a box of tissues in a plastic wrapping on her desk - not in
a cardboard box. These are fine for most people in China; the
ones in cardboard boxes are more expensive. I buy pocket packs
of tissue but I can't imagine using ones with pictures on. When
you sneeze or blow your nose and you see a cat or something it
would be weird! You throw it away immediately so any value would
only be for a few seconds. White is better.
Napkins? We don't really find them in China; we
use tissues. I have bought them in IKEA though and have used them
when I have invited foreign friends for dinner or tea. But not
for Chinese people.
I live in a dormitory at college but also with my
Mum and Dad and I
often do the grocery shopping. I tell my Mum we must use environmentally
sound products and she agrees. China is consuming a lot and I
cannot change everyone but I do what I can and that is a good
start. A lot of young people are paying attention to this issue
today and the general public supports this. TW
