"Covet" is a celebration of the mass accumulation of commodities. Basically, it's just seeing purchase-worthy stuff around Shanghai and sometimes purchasing it.

Item: 103" 1080P Panasonic HD Television TH-103PF9UK

Store: Best Buy

Cost: 880,000rmb

Not really too much explanation needs to be done for this one. I want the biggest TV available to me in Shanghai. Price is no object. I'm looking for something absurdly large and domineering, something excessive, something frightening, something that would inspire silent humility in anyone who enters my apartment.

I don't want a full-on movie screen, per se, but rather a gigantic, high definition flat screen monstrosity on which I can blast the classic Nicolas Cage / John Travolta vehicle Face/Off, anything from the collected works of Michael Bay, and the upcoming Roland Emmerich disaster movie, 2012.

I want the 103" 1080P Panasonic TH-103PF9UK.

About the size of a baby elephant, the 103"-er is the largest plasma screen television in the world, and offers a viewing experience that is best described as terror, mixed with panic, mixed with a sense of reverence to the ineffable absolutes of human potential.

In my search for big ass TVs -- or rather in my search for the biggest-assed TV in Shanghai -- I went to three places: Carrefour, Best Buy, Gome.



Carrefour, although one must commend them on the serene and prosaic shopping atmosphere they provide, doesn't have much in the way of enormous TVs. The biggest one they have in there is a 52"-er from SHARP (17,490rmb). In my research, I've discovered that the 52"-er is pretty much the middle line between BIG TVs and TVs the ownership of which indicate mental instability. Carrefour is alright for "big TVs" -- they got stuff in the 40" to 50" range -- but that's about it.

But a 52-inch plasma (about the size of fridge door) is just bush league shit; I kept looking.

Gome, one of the biggest electronics retail chains in China, is about twice as good as Carrefour in terms of stocking a variety of extreme TVs. They've got 55"-ers, 65"-ers, and 70"-ers in the western name brands (Sony, Panasonic, Phillips), as well as the same sizes by Chinese manufacturers (Blony, Blanasonic, Blillips). The 55" Sony was 41,999rmb and the 65"-er was 79,600rmb.



This brings us to discovery number two: anything above 52 inches and the price jumps disproportionately high. This further confirms the theory that a 52"-er is the ceiling for normal TVs. Apparently the demographic that covets TVs larger than 52 inches are as unrestricted by constraints of scarcity as they are the limits of practicality.

Gome is good, although shopping there is a bit baffling. There's streamers and balloons on everything, 90 store clerks walk with you everywhere, and all the display electronics all look kinda disheveled. How does a display laptop in a store get so dirty?

The biggest plasma screen TV in the world -- the 103" 1080P Panasonic TH-103PF9UK -- is at Best Buy. It's positioned right at the top of the escalator as the centrepiece to their TV section. It costs 880,000rmb. It is the future.

When you walk in front of it checking it out, all the store clerks leave you alone because they can sense that you're in the middle of a private religious moment with it. When you look up and catch eyes with them, you exchange a knowing glance at each other and a half smile -- this is probably the TV that Easy-E, Winston Churchill, and Jesus Christ are watching Different Strokes reruns on up in Heaven.

So there you have it: largest TV available in Shanghai (or the world) is the 103" Panasonic, and it's 880,000rmb at Best Buy. Here's a video about it.

All Nightlife Articles » All Articles »

All Dining Articles » All Articles »

All Art & Stage Articles » All Articles »

All Activities Articles » All Articles »