So far I have seen no data whatsoever to back up this idea that Asian people prefer gold more than other people in the world.
Articles like these simply take a racial stereotype and run with it to the conclusion they want to reach. That's racist.
India values gold disproportionately as well.
Those are such well known facts, maybe the authors didn't think they needed to explain them
https://www.google.com/search?q=gold%20in%20asian%20culture
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Importance-of-Gold-in-Chinese-...
http://heryyansen.hubpages.com/hub/The-significance-of-the-c...
In India, gold is usually part of dowrys. (I read a great National Geographic article which I can't find online)
Edit:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6431446
and the sibling comment
Of course they love gold. Everybody loves gold.
Americans are going crazy over the gold iPhone too. But nobody's talking about that, because they'd rather talk about Asians.
If it can be demonstrated that cultural preferences have translated into a disparate demand for gold iPhones in Asian countries, then and only then can this claim be made with a straight face. As it stands, it's just uninformed discussion about people who are "different".
That's racist!
^ This is what you sound like ITT...
Saying that BI is racist because they generalize the Asian market is what's wrong with the world. Not only do you generalize an entire continent by reducing it to race (racist against all Asian races?), but you then go on about how they can't generalize.
Almost all markets generalize. They need to. It's how you do business. If target age 24-32 female, white, etc...
Stop being such a white knight and attempt to read the article and bring valid points up for discussion instead of derailing it and wasting many a programmers time.
Until and unless the assertion is actually supported, it's racist BS.
I read the article. It completely fails to support its assertions. It talks about behavior the entire world appears to be engaging in, but singles out Asians for no reason.
They're telling a story they've basically made up, and are taking advantage of the "mysterious other" to do so.
This story would not pass muster if it were about black people. The author would get run out of town!
I believe that my points are perfectly valid. There's been a whole slew of articles about "Asians love gold" with absolutely no data to back them up, which are clearly based on a racist narrative rather than anything rational. How is that invalid?
"Wasting many a programmer's time"? That's hilarious. Even if the story is completely true, it's a waste of time to read and to comment about.
Personally, I think pointing out how casual racism is tolerated and ignored in certain situations is quite a bit more useful than the other comments on this article.
Saying "X is popular in africa" would not be racist either.
Personally, I find it more offensive when people get offended by non offensive things than by ignorant generalizations, like grouping all Asians into a race, by grouping all black people into a culture, by mixing up culture and race (this one is tricky however), etc..
The real ignorance spawned when you compare Asians (multi-racial, genetically diverse, many cultures) with black people (colour of skin). That is racist. You are generalizing a continent of people into one homogenous ethnicity.
Of course the author wouldn't group "black people" into a category. Firstly, "black people" are the most genetically diverse group of people on the planet. Africa is also home to again, many, many cultures.
I think you attempting to be PC, has clouded your judgement. Look at your upvote/downvote ratio. Do you believe most people are just "ignorant" to your "valid and true" beliefs on political correctness? You said it yourself that this is just casual racism. And to many (including me) it wasn't that at all. If anything, you were the one who brought race and conflict into this discussion. Ask yourself if you're truly right.
The story is simple. Apple got sold out of their gold iphones in parts of Asia. You're right, everybody likes gold. They state that in the article. Let's see the articles sources shall we?
> gold in Asia is perhaps even more fetishized than in the West.
Wow, talk about bias! Perhaps!?!?!?
> said Mr. Lian, who works at a local TV station. "Chinese people like gold."
What?!?! A Chinese person generalizing their society?!?!? Hold the phone. We got a self hater here says mikeash...
Now this is just hurrible... Of course this POS article doesn't have contrary opinions... Oh Wait!
> 28-year-old Chris Wong who works in marketing. “I think the metal casing looks much better.”
And there you have it. A different opinion.
But yes. The article is racist. I'm racist. The people who downvoted you are racist. The whole word is racist. How about you take your white knighting to tumbler social warrior! We'll miss you!!!!
"Parts"? Apple sold out of gold iPhones everywhere.
"You are generalizing a continent of people into one homogenous ethnicity."
Where the hell did I do that?
"If anything, you were the one who brought race and conflict into this discussion."
Excuse me? Race is in the fricken headline of the article we are commenting on.
[1] http://www.gold.org/investment/statistics/demand_and_supply_... [2] http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/08/19/india-gold-timeline...
I've been hesitant to assert cultural differences in another thread, but I think it's safe to say the color gold, like red, has a different significance in China than in the West. (Less sure about other Asian countries.) It's possible some people stupidly associate the preference with race, as if it's genetic, rather than cultural; I've just never encountered that stereotype.
Before the announcement, my overwhelming impression from American writers was not that they love gold. Quite the opposite: they did not expect to like the color, and were trying to come up with an explanation for why Apple would go that way. They were flailing for some conclusion, not rationalizing a conclusion they particularly "want[ed] to reach".
I'm skeptical of the theory myself, for a couple of reasons, but it doesn't strike me as racist. It might if I were convinced the racial stereotype was a common one that I happened to be unaware of.
It's not big data in the Facebook/Twitter sense of the word, but in this case, how quickly unavailability is reached seems to be the best data point.
That gold is preferred in Asia is not under dispute. What I dispute is the idea that it is preferred more than in other countries. I've yet to see any evidence for this, but that doesn't stop all of these articles from making the claim anyway.
I too would like to see data that supports the theory that a gold iPhone should be expected to do especially well in China. For example, have other companies benefited from making the same decision for their own product lines?