Teenage Angst
Last weekend, I went out with my Mom and Grandma for lunch all the way over to Richmond. For those of you who don't know, Richmond is another city in British Columbia (a twenty minute drive from downtown Vancouver). It's an area that's 90% populated by Asians (specifically Hong Kong immigrants). A lot of my Asian friends choose to hang out there over the weekends. A place covered in arcades (featuring street-racing games) and bubble-tea shops.
We had lunch at a hot pot restaurant called Posh and then went to Aberdeen Centre to shop. Aberdeen caters to the Asian market as well. Almost all their stores sell Asia-inspired items. So it came to my surprise when there were protesters. They were protesting against Pappas Fur. It wasn't surprising that there were protesters, but it was because they were all speaking English. They were screaming things like, "Aberdeen Centre should be ashamed! Close down Pappas Fur!". I understood what they were saying, but my Mom and Grandma had no clue why they were holding up pictures of bloody bones. You may be thinking that they got their message across since I understood. But, the people who actually buy mink coats are a lot older and they don't understand what "ashamed" and "cruelty" mean.
Three short teenagers were standing in front of the mall protesting. *Sigh* Nice try. I'd say that was just plain bad marketing. Before you protesters take out more neon cardboard signs and vegan lunches, re-think the Four P's and try again. Just kidding...sorta.
[related links: I Don't Ever Want To... and PETA]
We had lunch at a hot pot restaurant called Posh and then went to Aberdeen Centre to shop. Aberdeen caters to the Asian market as well. Almost all their stores sell Asia-inspired items. So it came to my surprise when there were protesters. They were protesting against Pappas Fur. It wasn't surprising that there were protesters, but it was because they were all speaking English. They were screaming things like, "Aberdeen Centre should be ashamed! Close down Pappas Fur!". I understood what they were saying, but my Mom and Grandma had no clue why they were holding up pictures of bloody bones. You may be thinking that they got their message across since I understood. But, the people who actually buy mink coats are a lot older and they don't understand what "ashamed" and "cruelty" mean.
Three short teenagers were standing in front of the mall protesting. *Sigh* Nice try. I'd say that was just plain bad marketing. Before you protesters take out more neon cardboard signs and vegan lunches, re-think the Four P's and try again. Just kidding...sorta.
[related links: I Don't Ever Want To... and PETA]
8 comments:
Do the protesters know how nasty a live mink is?
I don't mind protesters. Most genuinely want to make the world better.
It's the ones who become violent and assault people that scare me, however just their cause.
seraphine, I'm all about making the world a better place as well. But, until they start bicycling to their protests or stop wearing jeans made in a sweat shop, they shouldn't be talking about animal cruelty. It's a bit hypocritical.
And yeah, some of them are totally crazy...especially the PETA people. They're so abusive.
I've never heard of richmond hell i've never been to vancouver but i hear there are a lot of asians there like australia!
theres a small chance i might be going to vancouver in april or may because my bf has a business trip but they haven't firmly decided on the location :P
PETA do great work.....I see where your coming from about jeans, driving, but still that doesn't change the work these people who go out and protest for a cause do...
So did you flung your fur jacket dramatically over your shoulder, slip on the sunglasses and walk on by? :-)
Anna Wintour would have done so.
90% of all the people living in Richmond are of Asian descent?
More like 60 percent, at most.
Hi there,
I'm the organizer of the Close Pappas Furs campaign and I genuinely appreciate any sort of feedback that helps us make our protest better. I see how your mom and grandmother might have been confused. My mother doesn't speak a word of English either. And this is why we have Chinese signs and bilingual pamphlets (in Chinese and English).
Perhaps you got there when we were just setting up... because I always make my announcement about why we are there in both Mandarin and English on my megaphone. Recently, we've added a large screen TV to our protest showing animals being skinned alive for fur.
If you love animals too please help us out by calling Aberdeen Centre @ 604-270-1234 and ask them to shut down Pappas Furs.
Thanks for your feedback. I will make some more Chinese signs for next week's protest. Oh and thanks for calling us teenagers! None of us have been teenagers for AT LEAST 15 years!
Check out our website - www.liberationbc.com
Joanne Chang
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