A bag is a bag is a bag

This funny, light novel tackles several topics: the world of counterfeit luxury goods, the ethical dimensions thereof, the ambition and focus of Chinese immigrants compared to the naivete of second-generation Chinese-Americans, Chinese family dynamics. In this novel, none of these are quite what they might seem at the outset.

The two protagonists, Winnie Fang and Ava Wong, were roommates at Stanford. Ava is the perfect Chinese-American girl: diligent,hardworking, rule-following. Winnie came from China and

had a thick singsong accent. Each word she spoke curled in around the edges like a lettuce leaf. She struggled with the ‘th’ sound, so mother came out mo-zer, other, o-zer.

Twenty years later, Ava has been to law-school, is married to French-American surgeon Oliver and has one young child, Henri. Winnie, in contrast, dropped out of Stanford in somewhat mysterious circumstances after a year. Rumour had it that her vanishing was related to the 2000 SAT scandal, where Beijing professionals were being hired to take SATs in place of wealthy, connected Chinese applicants.

Ava and Winnie have not met in twenty years. The first thing Ava noticed were Winnie’s eyes.

They were anime-character huge, with thick double-eyelid folds, expertly contoured in coppery tones, framed by premium lash extensions, soft and full as a fur pelt. Then there was the hair — sleek yet voluminous, nipple-length barrel curls — and the skin, poreless and very white. And the clothes — sumptuous silk blouse. patent Louboutins. And finally, the bag — an enormous Birkin 40 in classic orange. […] The woman standing in the doorway of my neighborhood coffee shop looked rich. Asian-tourist rich. Mainland-Chinese rich. Rich-rich.

Despite the Stanford dropout, clearly Winnie has done well. And Ava? The superficial success hides a wealth of problems: two-year-old Henri doesn’t speak yet and throws tantrums all the time, Ava’s mother died just a few months earlier, they live in San Francisco but her husband works down at Stanford with a horrendous commute, and she is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. She is, therefore, vulnerably ready to be drawn into Winnie’s nefarious business.

This book is a fascinating peek into the world of counterfeit luxury goods. All of us from South Asia have seen jeans sold on the street with a tailor who will happily sew a ‘Levi’ label on, or cheap ‘YLS’ bags, or polo shirts with oddly-shaped gators. This is a whole different ballgame. These ‘knockoff’ bags are made in China to exacting standards, either reverse-engineered from originals or using original blueprints. The only thing differentiating them from the originals is that they were not commissioned by Hermes or Chanel.

Here’s how it works. Winnie goes to, say, Neiman Marcus, and buys a completely legitimate handbag. Perhaps a Birkin for $15,000. She imports boxloads of (essentially identical) counterfeit bags, so she already has a fake Birkin. She returns the fake to Neiman Marcus, and then sells the original Birkin online for $14,000. The next Neiman Marcus customer who buys the bag gets an identical bag, just one not sanctioned by Birkin. The online customer gets an original for a small discount. Everyone is happy. Except Birkin.

This sounds like a lot of work, but it’s worth it when each bag nets her over $10K. If you’re wondering why anyone would spend so much on a handbag, here’s Ava’s discovery:

I noticed passengers of all ages, from teenagers in faded jeans to grandmothers in orthopedic shoes, glancing my way. The pattern was always the same: their bored, tired gazes would sweep the hall, landing on my amethyst Kelly [bag], and their eyes would swell in admiration and envy. […] I felt like a minor celebrity. These strangers wanted to be me, or at least, to be my friend.

So this was why people spent money on gigantic diamond rings, flashy sports cars; this was the allure of ostentatiousness.

Is this the ultimate victimless crime? Still, straitlaced Ava is horrified when it’s explained to her. Winnie has an answer for every one of Ava’s reactions. Is it worse than

• selling a bag for ten times what it cost to make?
• manufacturing an entire bag in China except for the handle, and then embossing the handle with a prominent Made in Italy?
• forcing workers to go hours without bathroom breaks? Squeezing them for every cent and then turning around and selling their handiwork for thousands?

Is Ava quite as insecure and annoyingly hapless as she seems? Why did Winnie drop out of college? How long will they get away with their caper? And what is more American than ruthless moneymaking?

There are lots of issues tossed in: consumer culture, intellectual property rights, authenticity, family expectations, career success, new-parent woes, preschool admission paranoia, fresh-off-the-boat immigrants …. but it’s all treated lightly enough not to weigh the book down.

A good part of the novel is formatted as a detailed statement to a detective, and this makes for a slow reveal of the plot twists, quite well done. Just as the initial description of Winnie as the accented immigrant freshman is redrawn as the thoroughly elegant Winnie today, almost every initial assumption gets flipped somewhere through the novel.

There’s nothing remarkable about the writing, but the characters are interesting enough to keep it a light, quick read.