Hotpot ladles and brooms as decor? This Etsy shop is selling Asian household items as rare 'rustic vintage' finds

Brooms and hotpot ladles may be a common sight in many households, but it seems that some aren't using them for their intended purpose. 

In a Facebook post on Tuesday (July 26) in the group Subtle Asian Traits, user Alma Wu shared an Etsy shop listing advertising hotpot ladles as "rare vintage decor".

As of the time of writing, the post has over 3,300 likes and 600 comments.

The hotpot ladles are listed as pre-2000 "old brass strainers" and come in a set of six priced at $30.34.

The listing also described them as "an everyday item but with vintage charm that only age and use can create".

Wu claimed in her post that she tried to give the seller the benefit of the doubt and informed them that these were in fact hotpot ladles. 

"Apparently including that in the item description would make them 'less accessible to a wider audience' (read: white audience)," Wu wrote.

The Australia-based Etsy store is called WagtailVintage and sells handpicked vintage goods and homewares, according to its profile. 

While the listing for the ladles was still up on July 27 when AsiaOne did a check, it is no longer on the shop's page today (July 28).

Netizens in the comments found the listing amusing and one commenter compared the situation to other shops selling bamboo trays as wall decor.

Another user pointed out that these ladles can be bought at Daiso for much less. 

Meanwhile, some entrepreneurial netizens saw this as a business opportunity. 

But it doesn't stop there. The Etsy shop also sells straw brooms commonly seen in Asian households for $32.37, describing them as as "vintage grass fans".

According to the store, the "vintage hand-crafted fans or dust brushes" will "look great" arranged on a wall.

The fascination with Asian cultural items and their misrepresentation is not a new phenomenon.

Last month a two-piece co-ord that looked similar to the Singapore Airline's batik kebaya was marketed as a "vintage African Ankara dress" on the e-commerce platform Depop.

Over on Amazon, a traditional spittoon or chamber pot known as a "tan yu" was advertised as a "fruit basket" used to hold vegetables and fruit, and was priced at 20 times the original price in China.

It is said that the pots were used throughout Chinese history as receptacles for people to spit and urinate in before modern plumbing.

One person on WeChat wrote: "I wonder what foreigners' reaction would be after knowing what tan yu is used for in China."

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shanmugap@asiaone.com