Adventures In Chinese Vehicle Branding, 1988: CHEИD⅁U Van

During the late 1980s, my future wife spent several years teaching English in northern China. Back then, many Chinese manufacturers felt that showing off Western-language brand labels indicated worldliness, and so this Chengdu passenger van got a “CD” grille ornament and some somewhat garbled lettering above. I found this photograph, which was shot during a trip to Sichuan Province, in her collection and had to share it.