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Oscar Holland

 

For the Year of the Tiger, can luxury fashion change its stripes?

 

An estimated 2 billion people — in Asia and beyond — will celebrate the Lunar New Year on February 1. For many, this means welcoming one of the Chinese zodiac's 12 animals (this year, the tiger), their sequence following the order in which they finished the Jade Emperor's folkloric Great Race, from rat to pig.

 

Astrologists claim that each creature heralds different fortunes for the months ahead. At the world's major fashion houses, however, the drill remains the same each year: release animal-themed collections in the hunt for all-important Chinese shoppers.

 

For 2022, Burberry has rendered its signature monogram in beige and orange. Kenzo's capsule collection meanwhile includes a $565 windbreaker emblazoned with a tiger graphic. Even brands that traditionally eschew fleeting trends in the name of sustainability have joined in, with Stella McCartney releasing a pair of luxury striped bags.

 

Last time the Year of the Tiger rolled around, in 2010, China accounted for just 12% of luxury spending.

 

Prada was among the few luxury labels to experiment that year, vying for a slice of New Year spending with simple tiger-themed accessories, including tote bags, phone straps and key-holders. But the novelty Lunar New Year market was largely left to sportswear brands like Nike, Reebok and Converse, which all released tiger sneakers.

 

What a difference 12 years makes. With China expected to account for 40% of luxury spending by 2025, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Company, the number of labels ignoring this annual business opportunity is now vanishingly small. And with holiday spending in the country rising to 821 billion yuan ($128 billion) last Lunar New Year, who can blame them?

 

Fun as they are, the resulting novelty fashion items are often unlikely to live beyond the annual cycle, drawing the ire of environmental critics who consider holiday shopping binges wasteful and unnecessary. Recent years have seen gimmicky and literal designs flourish — from a pig-shaped gold handbag to a sweater featuring New York's infamous Pizza Rat and a pair of loafers plastered with cow heads.

 

2022's collections, on the other hand, could enjoy a surprising degree of longevity.

 

After a succession of decidedly unglamorous animals — the pig, the rat and, last year, the ox — the rotating zodiac has finally landed on a more familiar muse. Big cat motifs were popular among fashion designers long before executives began chasing Chinese money, and brands appear very much at home with this year's theme.

 

Take Italian label Valentino, which delved into its own history of tiger prints to produce a range based on one of its collections from the late 1960s (pictured top). Or Balenciaga, which stuck with classic items, but simply reimagined them with black stripes on orange and taupe.

 

Moschino, meanwhile, looked to pop culture, this time bringing "everyone's favorite childhood breakfast icon into the world of Italian luxury" (in other words: models dressed in Tony the Tiger caps, hoodies and T-shirts, diving into life-sized Frosted Flakes in campaign images). While Salvatore Ferragamo invited Beijing-based artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu to create a bag inspired by traditional Chinese paintings. 

 

Whether these designs are timeless enough to be worn when the tiger rears its head again in 2034 remains to be seen. But the animals' standing in Chinese folklore may help.

Admired for its prowess and strength, the tiger is considered one of China's favorite zodiac animals (second only, perhaps, to the dragon). Stripes on the creatures' foreheads are said to resemble the written character "wang," meaning "king," and so they were often associated with power and royalty in ancient times. They have also been a common motif in Chinese art, design and even historical clothing, with "tiger-head" shoes — featuring toe caps decorated to resemble tigers — once widely worn by children to ward off evil spirits and protect from disease or misfortune.

 

As such, there's a good chance this year's holiday gifts could live a little longer in the wardrobe than recent efforts. The question, then, may be: Will 2023's rabbit theme prompt a return to the cheesy, wasteful ways of old?

 

A tiger may not be able to change its stripes, but maybe fashion can.

Racial abuse by fans

American basketball player Sonny Weems was subjected to racial abuse from fans after playing a game in China last Thursday. In a video circulating on social media, fans can be heard repeatedly shouting the n-word and "get out of China" at 35-year-old Weems, who plays for the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The abuse came after a fight broke out between Weems and a Chinese player during the game, which resulted in both players being ejected. In the video, Weems is seen exiting a bus with the rest of the team when a crowd of fans yelled the racist slurs. Weems appears to ignore the crowd. In a statement Friday, the CBA said it has a "zero-tolerance attitude toward any discriminatory words or deeds," and in an open letter to fans asked them not to engage in "uncivilized behavior" and "vulgar words."

Hamster cull outrages pet owners

Hong Kong will euthanize about 2,000 hamsters and other small animals after a pet store worker and several rodents tested positive for coronavirus, as the city pursues an uncompromising zero-Covid strategy two years into the pandemic.

The announcement by the Hong Kong government on Tuesday was met with outrage by pet owners and animals rights advocates, with several online petitions urging authorities to reconsider.

It comes after an emerging cluster linked to the Little Boss pet store, where a 23-year-old employee was confirmed positive for the Delta variant on Monday. A customer who visited the store and interacted with the employee later tested positive as well.

After investigating the pet store, officials said on Tuesday that 11 hamsters had tested preliminary positive for Covid, raising concerns around the possibility of animal-to-human transmission.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been documented Covid-19 cases in animals who likely caught the virus from humans — however, there is far less evidence to suggest the possibility of animal-to-human transmission.

Environmental samples taken at the shop's warehouse, where other species of small animals are held, also confirmed traces of coronavirus, officials said.

 

On Tuesday, authorities seized all the small animals in the shop, including hamsters, rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas, to be tested and euthanized — regardless of the test result — citing a health hazard to the public.

All pet stores selling hamsters in the city have been ordered to hand the animals over to be put down, with similar orders for anybody who bought a hamster in the lead-up to Christmas, beginning December 22.

Photos on Tuesday night show Covid control workers in hazmat suits at numerous pet stores, disinfecting the premises and bringing out bulky red plastic bags.

All animals taken from the store would be dealt with "humanely," authorities said.

More than 20,000 people have signed the largest online petition urging the government not to cull the animals. Some social media users said many hamsters may have been bought around the holidays as gifts for young children.

"Hamsters are our family, everybody please think rationally, don't give them up because of one incident," said the Hamster Concern Society, a volunteer organization in Hong Kong.

China is urging central banks in the West not to hike interest rates too fast to fight inflation as it goes in the other direction to battle a sharp economic slowdown.

 

Chinese President Xi Jinping this week called on major world economies to spur growth by coordinating their policies as the world continues to pull itself out of the turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

"The global industrial chains and supply chains have been disrupted. Commodity prices continue to rise. Energy supply remains tight. These risks compound one another and heighten the uncertainty about economic recovery," Xi told attendees of the 2022 World Economic Forum on Monday during a speech delivered online.

 

He warned against the effects of raising interest rates too much too quickly, saying that such measures could threaten global financial stability.

 

"If major economies slam on the brakes or take a U-turn in their monetary policies, there would be serious negative spillovers," Xi said. "They would present challenges to global economic and financial stability, and developing countries would bear the brunt of it."

 

Many global policymakers are grappling with rising inflationary pressure, and starting to end their pandemic-era stimulus plans.

 

But China — the only major economy to grow in 2020 — is taking a different tack as its economy slows and it grapples with the challenges of maintaining momentum while holding firm to its zero-Covid strategy, a strict policy of locking down areas to prevent outbreaks that has isolated the country from much of the world.

 

Fearing an economic and debt crisis, the People's Bank of China on Tuesday pledged to roll out more policies to stabilize growth, adding that it would take pre-emptive measures to "avoid a collapse in credit."

 

"[We will] use a variety of monetary policy tools to maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity," said Liu Guoqiang, deputy governor of the central bank, at a press conference in Beijing.

 

The central bank's pledge came after it cut a key interest rate on Monday for the first time since April 2020. Last month, it slashed both the reserve requirement ratio — which determines how much cash banks must hold in reserve — and the loan prime rate, a rate at which commercial banks lend to their best customers, and which serves as the benchmark rate for other loans.

 

On Monday, China also reported that its economy expanded 8.1% in 2021. While that number outstripped the government's own targets, growth slowed to half that pace in the final quarter of the year and is expected to struggle even more because of Covid and a deepening real estate crisis. 

Around Asia

• A thick layer of ash covering entire island communities can be seen in the first images of disaster-hit Tonga to emerge following what experts believe to be the world's biggest volcanic eruption in more than 30 years.
• An earthquake rocked western Afghanistan on Monday, killing more than 20 people and destroying hundreds of homes, local authorities said.
• Pandas are famously picky eaters. They only consume bamboo — a poor quality diet low in fat. But the creatures appear to have evolved to get the most out of what they do eat, according to a new study.