- Residents in locked-down Shanghai have found a way to show off their wealth — using shopping bags.
- These bags are hung on front doors, containing residents' Covid tests for health workers to collect.
- Many are using paper bags from the likes of Prada and Hermes to decorate their doors.
Shanghai may be under a strict lockdown, but the city's well-heeled has still found a way to show off their wealth and status — using paper bags.
In recent weeks, it appears that paper shopping bags of luxury brands have become more coveted than the actual designer handbags themselves — and can be seen hanging outside apartment doors all across the city.
Residents are using the bags for their Covid antigen rapid self-test kits, which are collected daily by health workers as part of efforts to minimize contact, per Chinese luxury news outlet Jing Daily.
While residents could have used any old plastic bag to do the same, many have chosen to whip out their paper shopping bags from fashion houses such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes.
Hundreds of photos of the trend have circulated on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo, drawing laughter and mockery from other internet users.
"Covid tests are so small, and these bags are huge. Are there 20 people living in that apartment?" one person said in response to a picture of a large Chanel paper bag hanging on a door.
Others commented how the trend is proof that residents of Shanghai — a wealthy financial hub of 26 million — live different lives from those in the rest of China. "They're in their own materialistic world," another Weibo user commented.
Since late March, the city has been under a strict and indefinite lockdown amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. Public anger has been mounting over the authorities' handling of the situation, with people across the city claiming that they are running out of food — and patience.
On Tuesday, the city recorded 2,494 symptomatic Covid cases and 16,407 asymptomatic cases, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.