Satirical tea brand names

Reading notes

• The Writer §16 "Китайская эмблема, или Зависть конкурентов"

  "The Chinese Emblem, or the Envy of Our Competitors" is a fabricated proprietary tea name of the kind real Russian tea merchants used (compare actual period brands like "Karavan" or house-specific blends); the mock-grandiose double title parodies the era's advertising copy.

• The Writer §16 "Богдыханская роза"

  "The Bogdykhan's Rose" -- bogdykhan being the Russian term (from Mongolian/Manchu) for the Chinese emperor -- invents an exotic-sounding rose-scented tea brand trading on faux-imperial Chinese prestige, typical of the orientalist marketing language used to sell tea to Russian consumers.

• The Writer §16 "Глаза китаянки"

  "The Chinese Girl's Eyes" continues the invented-brand parody, paired later in the same passage with a tea caddy shaped like a naked Chinese woman -- Chekhov skewering the exoticized, mildly salacious imagery merchants used to dress up ordinary goods.