The Zoo Market in Beijing: Down and Dirty (2)

（CRI Online）  09:43, November 28, 2012

And a quick glance around explained her meaning. The Shijitianle International Costume Market where Tian is located is a particular hive of activity. Stacks of shirts and sweaters are amassed on the floor in front of their respective booths. Young men and women with flamboyant hairstyles and makeup swirl between the stalls as workers kneel to tally bills on the floor tiles. Techno beats from multiple sources overlap with each other, and Gangnam style is on heavy rotation.

Tian's eyelashes were impossibly loaded with clumpy mascara and framed by lensless glasses.

"It's cheap and fashionable here," she said, leaning out from her overflowing stall, "but maybe the service isn't so good. A lot of people shop in big shopping malls, but actually clothes there are expensive, and they're not fashionable."

It is evident that the idea of what is "fashionable" or not varies from one area to the next. The complex of buildings known as the Zoo Market has a wide variety of styles, but it's the gluttonous adoption of western fashion details that ironically creates a look that's uniquely Asian. English text is de rigueur, though grammar and spelling are not.