Nostalgia for the Communist Past
page 1 of 5
by Victor Gomez 17 November 2004
Why Central Europe’s young are dancing, dressing, and drinking as their parents did before 1989.
When they were young, they longed to wear real Levi’s blue jeans and thirsted for Coca Cola. Today, many East-Central Europeans are switching back to the brand names of their youth. They wear communist-era sneakers, dance to the synth-sounds of aging 1980s pop bands, and drink cheap Coke imitations.
A wave of nostalgia for the cheap and often shoddily made consumer products of the long-gone communist era is sweeping across this region. In eastern Germany, they call it Ostalgia, a play on the German word Ost, for East. But the trend is obvious in practically every country of the region.
In Hungary, last year’s re-appearance of the communist-era Tisza brand sneakers were a massive hit. In the Czech and Slovak republics, aging rock bands from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Olympic, are not only still around but have been enjoying a surge in popularity in recent years.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com