Shop till you drop ... or look at labels

I never pay attention to fashion and brands. I wear what I feel is comfortable and convenient. Decades ago, my 10-year-old Italian nephew asked me for jeans from Canada when I visited.

Upon seeing them, he exclaimed they were not Levis. "What does Levis mean?" I asked naively.

Later, I was preparing to come to China when my Sichuan friend ordered jeans for her daughter. "You mean Levis, I guess?"

"No, Benetton," she said.

Living in China I realize the impact brands have on people here. Once I bought a pair of sandals because I needed sandals. More non-Chinese than Chinese told me, "Wow! You wear them? You have money!" I didn't know why they thought 150-yuan ($22) sandals - obviously fake - were for wealthy people. I had never heard that brand name (which I can't remember) before.

While visiting my family in Canada, we were talking about false-fraud-fake products in China. I assured them I would never buy imitations. As a writer, I don't accept that readers pirate my books and I would consider myself a thief if I ever buy counterfeits.

A young relative once asked, "What about your purse?"

"What's the problem with my purse?" I countered.

"It's a Yves Saint-Laurent; do you mean you paid the full price?"

"How can you think I bought a YSL? I bought it because of size, color and price."

She picked up the purse and pointed to the 3-cm steel YSL on the flap. Believe it or not, I had not noticed it till then.

When Hong Qiao Market (Pearl Market) used to sell fake watches, I happened to need a watch and went there for the large choice they offered. What I wanted was a watch to see the time, I insisted.

They had no Chinese brands, only Cartier, Citizen, Seiko, Rolex Desperately, I finally bought a Gucci for which I paid 20 yuan, bargained down from 168 yuan. It still works after 14 years.

Recently, in a store at Zhongguancun, young vendors noticed my watch and asked me how much I paid. I joked: "20,000 yuan." Expecting a laugh, I got an "Oh!" full of admiration. I gave them the watch to examine, but that only ended up convincing them it was an authentic Gucci.

"I want to sell it, I'm tired of it. What about 2,000 yuan?" I said.

"It's still too much for us."

I then did what Chinese merchants do: "How much do you want to pay?"

No one dared give an answer. "Well, I will leave it for 200," I concluded.

"Is it fake?" someone in the crowd finally asked.

Two years ago, a family member needed an inexpensive watch with a blue plastic wristband for a special occasion, "something that looks nice on a little girl," she said, adding "a local, not-famous brand".

Hong Qiao was the market for children's watches. Having refused several ming pai copies, I was leaving without buying when I saw a blue plastic one.

"Diesel, what a strange name for a watch," I thought. Wasn't diesel something that went into a gas tank? The transaction went quickly; I offered 35 yuan and left with the watch. Again I had been naive, I discovered later.

As for DVDs, I never buy pirated ones. Knowingly, I mean. I used to get them from a shop for 15 yuan instead of 5, and I have established a lending system to prevent my colleagues from buying fake ones.

Until the day China Daily published a report on a dozen DVD stores being closed down by the police. I wrote asking them to publish an article on how to distinguish fake from genuine, but I'm still waiting for it.