‘Forget it,’ said China. ‘Your eyes are the wrong shape.’
‘Who is she?’
‘Daphne Chien. Her mother’s Malaysian, her father’s half Chinese, ha if French.’
‘Amazing collaboration,’ Hatcher said half aloud, staring through the crowd at her.
‘Every gwai-lo in the colony has tried,’ Cohen whispered. ‘She won’t have anything to do with Westerners.’
‘Neither would the Tsu Fi and that didn’t stop you,’ Hatcher answered. ‘You know her?’
‘Yeah, I know her,’ Cohen answered with an air of apprehension. Social confrontations, particularly in an event of this importance, made him uncomfortable, so he added, ‘And I’m telling you, she particularly hates Americans.’
‘How come?’
‘Her father was a very successful tailor here, built up a very nice business with a few quality stores in the States. Along comes a big American combine, decides his little company has big potential, makes him a lot of promises, then screws him to the wall, edges him out, and starts mass-producing blue jeans using his name and reputation. They got big, big, big, but the old man never saw a dime of it.’
‘What was the company?’
‘Blue Max, you’ve probably heard of them.’
‘Everybody’s heard of it.’
‘The old man was so humiliated he tried to kill himself. She saved his life. . .
Hatcher was already off and running. Cohen rushed after him.
‘Introduce me,’ said Hatcher as he threaded his way through the black-tie crowd toward her. Cohen followed, trying to talk as he made his way through the jabbering guests.
‘You haven’t heard the rest of it,’ Cohen said, shouting above the cocktail din.
‘So what’s the rest of it?’
‘She started a new business. Knockoffs.’
Hatcher stopped and looked back at him with a wide grin. ‘She counterfeits American blue jeans?’ he said.
Cohen nodded. ‘She counterfeits Blue Max American- brand blue jeans — at about half their price.’
‘Fantastic.’
Cohen nodded. ‘Ripped them off for enough to start her own label, became their biggest competitor, then merged with them. And ended up in control. And ended’ up firing the whole greedy bunch.’
‘Beautiful,’ said Hatcher.
