Royal replicas feed Beijing’s vision
威廉王子訂婚讓中國沾喜氣

Within 24 hours of the engagement of Prince William last month, Bruce Zhou was selling replicas of the famous Diana engagement ring on Alibaba.com for a few dollars each. The rings are made in Yiwu, capital of all that is cheap and trashy about Chinese exports. But in all their cubic zirconian splendour, these royal wedding replicas tell an important story about how China is haltingly moving away from a sweatshop past towards a more upmarket future. Beijing is working hard to shake off the image that the China price is always cut-price and nowhere more so than in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, where the 4m square metre Yiwu International Trade City has 62,000 shops selling 1.7m products at razor-thin profit margins. Yiwu is famous for trading the bulk of the world’s Christmas decorations – not to mention buttons and zips, hairbands and earrings by the million. But Fisher Sam of the Yiwu Unnar Jewellery Company, aims to make it famous for high-end royal wedding memorabilia. When he heard news of the engagement on the internet, he downloaded a picture of the famous Diana ring and immediately rushed hundreds of replicas into production, aiming for first-mover advantage. Although being far from the quality of the original, the reproductions are hardly the tuppenny trinkets westerners usually associate with China. With a 14-carat white gold-plated band, blue cubic zirconia stone and sparkling crystal setting, these rings sell overseas for $30 to $40.