Big-Big Eyewear in China's Halls of Power

"Enter a Beijing eyeglasses shop, and you’ll invariably see a special case filled with thick, oversize spectacles. Salespeople refer to them as lingdao (leaders) glasses," reports Global Spin. "They are considered the preferred style of China’s political elite, who currently are gathered in Beijing for the National People’s Congress’s (NPC) annual confab, a largely symbolic exercise in which some 3,000 political deputies wave through legislation with little in the way of real debate. Lingdao eyewear, although not necessarily on the cutting edge of global fashion, can cost remarkable amounts of money. A version with 18-karat-gold frames, for example, runs for $13,000. Run-of-the-mill pairs, say Beijing salespeople, start at $1,000." Read more.