10 weirdest products you would not believe are so popular in China

The E-commerce revolution brought some of China’s weirdest products to the center of the stage, and they are top-selling products! So we decided to summarize some of them here. We will remind you that China is a different culture and that there are different needs in China which you would not find in other countries so, although it looks weird to us, you can find the culture gap fascinating sometimes.

1. Whole face mask

Chinese are obsessed with keeping their skin white, the reason for that originates from an older conception, where the upper class was differentiated from the lower class by skin color, as in the times before WW1 when China was still under dynasties control. Back then, you could easily see who is a simple peasant who works under the sun the entire day, and who is an aristocrat by the color of their skin. These assumptions are still held deeply, and white considers to be beautiful and transmits quality in China.

It is funny because, in the west, tanned people in many countries are considered to be more attractive. Tanned skin relates to living lives of comfort which allows you to go on many vacations. Well, in any case in China people prefer to go like bank robbers or samurai, than to get some tan.

2. Chicken feet

One of the bestselling snacks in China - the picture will probably speak for itself...

3. Cucumber potato chips

It took time for the western potato chips to penetrate China’s market and to do so, they had to make some new ‘adjustments.’ You can find flavors such as cucumber, seaweed, shrimp and other weird but interesting chips variations.

4. Weird sleeves

It is hard to explain why they wear it. These sleeves are originally made for children to wear in kindergartens to prevent their clothes from getting dirty (never saw it elsewhere). The thing is they continue to school, high school, university and work and still wear it! Not sure why it is only the sleeves and what is the obsession with protecting the clothes but…

5. Standing AC

Most of us probably used to wall or central air-conditioners, however this standing AC is the most popular in China, it is not clear why but this is what sells there.

6. Snail Cosmetics

Going back to the obsession of being white, Chinese women believe that the snail slime has anti-aging and skin whitening abilities, so it is harvested and made as a skin treatment. Companies create products based on snail slime and miraculously the gross part in all this is being ignored-

it's all about the right marketing!

7. Green tea ice Cream/ Matcha

For those who never heard about Matcha, it's a finely ground powder made of green tea leaves. This flavor is becoming popular around the world, but it started in China and Japan. McDonald's and Starbucks made it boom in China when McDonald's made Matcha ice cream and Starbucks made a Matcha latte; the green weird stuff has been reinvented.

8. Rabbit head

Yes, Rabbit heads

9.Rice Cooker

You would expect the nation whose most common food is rice, to know how actually to cook it, but thanks to this machine only (some of the) 50+ year-old people are cooking rice traditionally. Why make things difficult when you can simply throw the rice into the cooker and turn it on?