‘What Hong Kong needs is a good department store’: how Shanghai Tang was born in 1994
When China Club creator David Tang raised US$20 million from anonymous businessmen to realise a luxury Chinese brand synonymous with quality, not cost
“What Hong Kong needs is a good department store, says David Tang, cigar importer and creator of the China Club,” in the June 16, 1994, edition of the South China Morning Post. “His concept is an old-fashioned store, drawing down on the international fascination with all things Chinese, but with the sort of modern hardline brand-naming which has made Harrods, Bloomingdale’s, Marks and Spencer and the Hard Rock Cafe internationally famous.
“Mr Tang reports that he has US$20 million of backing from a clutch of the world’s richest but – in this case, Mr Tang insists – anonymous men.
“He already has the name: Shanghai Tang […] He also has the premises, the lower floors of the Pedder Building in Pedder Street. Logos, labels, even the carrier bags are already designed.
“‘Too many people think of Chinese goods as lower-class products. They don’t realise that the real quality is camouflaged under Western brand names.’”
On September 26, the Post reported that “the breezes of old Shanghai swirled fiercely around the Pedder Building when […] Shanghai Tang opened for business at the weekend.” Tang “himself was there in his regulation attire, now come to be known as ‘coolie chic’. And browsing around were a number of people, mainly expatriates for some strange reason, who seemed to have picked up on the Tang dress code”.
