Shanghai-. Sharmin Du breezes into the Coffee Bean in Xintiandi. She's wearing Diesel jeans, her yoga bag slung over a shoulder. It's 3 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, and she hasn't eaten yet, so she orders a smoothie and a scone. Her mobile phone buzzes; she answers, alternating between flirtatious Shanghainese and a more businesslike English. The pretty 32-year-old with round eyes and red highlights in her hair is living a life all but incomprehensible to her parents -with whom she lived until just this year. "I used to spend all my money buying namebrands: Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Hermes. If I want to travel or go out, I can do anything I want," she says. "But it's new for us. In the U.S., kids know what they like. But in China, no one in the past thought that way -what do I prefer? What do I like to do?- I am just starting to figure that out now." They're young, they're profligate, and they have western marketers positively salivating. This new generation of "Chuppies"?Chinese yuppies?is riding a wave of unprecedented
