This is just too good.  Via Danwei, and Shanghaiist, comes a press release from a US advertising firm, JWT, entitled: “Twelve Facts About the Confucian Consumer”.   The funniest is number 2:

2. In China, “fresh” means “alive.” Daoism is still a force in the
People’s Republic. Daoists believe our natural state is the only
“balanced” state. Therefore, Chinese have a deep aversion to manmade
preservatives. For that matter, Chinese women get prickly about
chemicals in shampoo.

    To which Danwei’s Jeremy responds:

When you visit a Chinese supermarket and see row upon row of
preserved meats and vegetables, cheap ham, instant noodles, and
1000-year eggs made with various substances, you can really feel the
Daoism.

Chinese people would never go for artificial preservatives.
Nor would anyone here even dream of actually using the glow-in-the-dark
fluorescent yellow shampoo available in every supermarket from Dalian
to Dali. Oh no. It’s all about nature in the Middle Kingdom.

   Feel the Daoism!

    Besides the fact the none of the twelve points have anything at all to do with Confucianism, much less Daoism, I thought number 10 was especially misplaced:

10. The smartest guy in the class is the coolest guy in the class.
Girls really and truly go for brains, not bodies. In a dog-eat-dog,
hierarchical Confucian world, intelligence is the ultimate weapon.
Health clubs will always be niche.

    You know, "dog-eat-dog" is always the first thing that jumps to mind when discussing Confucianism.  The fact of intensive population pressure has nothing to do with the competitiveness of Chinese society,right?  And, of course, New York and LA are kinder and gentler places…

    And I would be remiss if I did not take up the challenge of interpreting Chinese attitudes toward underwear:

3. Brands used inside the home are locally produced and cheaply made.
Brands shown publicly are foreign made and expensive. In a Confucian
society, social status is an investment, so consumers will pay a huge
premium for mobile phones and high-end alcohol. At home, price
sensitivity is extreme. There are no designer bedspreads. Victoria’s
Secret doesn’t stand a chance.

   Of course, designer underwear has just always been the rage in the US, right?  I mean Victoria’s Secret has been around since at least the Civil War….And would somebody please tell these poor Chinese women (shown here at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in Beijing last July) that they are just being culturally inappropriate?