The other day while in the check-in line at the Beijing airport a middle aged man in smart business casual dress, with a modest rollaboard suitcase just also happened to be plugged into his iPad watching a Hollywood blockbuster. The bustle of the airport, the crowded checkin line, the juggling of luggage in one hand and the precarious balancing of an expensive, unprotected 4th generation 3G iPad in the other, made me cringe. A single unexpected bump or slip and […]

Categories: China, Consumption, Gear, iPad, Objects of Power • Tags: capital, conspicuous consumption, distinction, iPad, iPads, Pierre Bourdieu, Social Class