Extreme

KFC Ripoff Contest: Beijing vs Tainan

From Tainan…

KLC: A family chain (of one), selling fried chicken and burgers:

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From Beijing…

Yonghe Dawang: a nationwide chain first launched in Beijing, serving Chinese-style fast food:

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KFC Ripoff Contest results:
Beijing 1, Tainan 0.

Photo credits:
Anonymous medical student on rotation in Taiwan; doreamon, Slums of Shaolin.

By Jason Li | Also posted in Mainstream | Comments (0)

Account of an online group purchase (团购)

tuangou

From Sam Flemming, over at the China IWOM Blog:

  1. …Anyone interested in participating in the group purchase can join the QQ group and continue discussing the details of the purchase.
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  2. …The group leader plays a very important role in the group purchase process. On one side, he communicates with group members and collects their specific requirements… On the other side, the group leader acts as the group’s representative in talks with car dealers…
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  3. The last step is to meet at a predetermined time at the car dealer to pick up the cars. At the dealer, the members of the group finally meet each other face-to-face for the first time.
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  4. It may seem that the group car purchase has ended, but in fact though the purchase process is over the after-purchase communication between the members is only just beginning… Group members will often organize together again to purchase accessories and upgrades, or meet for offline activities. Once the group purchase is over, the group leader’s leadership position and influence continues on.

See the full post here, or the original Chinese post here. (Image from here.)

By Jason Li | Also posted in Mainstream | Comments (0)

What an average Chinese mobile user wants

blackvodapod

From Danwei:

The Black-Voda-Pod, also known as the Voda-Pod-Berry, encapsulates the dreams and realities of China’s average mobile phone user: It is a fake BlackBerry device, sporting a fake Vodafone logo, and running a fake iPhone operating system, including a fake Opera web browser. And it works too.

The owner, a local soldier, did not seem to find this to be unusual in any way. “The only problem”, he told me, “is that the BlackBerry Push Mail in not working. It’s just not available in China”. Strange, mine seems to work.

Further investigations with local community revealed that the “Emulational Mobile Phone” (山寨手机) is gaining popularity due to its sleek design, low cost, and general appeal.

And within the comments:

it’s a very common mobile in Vietnam. In my office of 50 persons, there is at least 10 of this mobiles.

View the full post at Danwei. Via Frank Yu’s twitter.

By Jason Li | Also posted in Mainstream, Trendy | Comments (1)

“Modern sightseeing agriculture”!? (updated)

Update:
Red Leatherman over at Boing Boing points out that the size of the pumpkin shot is the result of an optical illusion — a photographer with a large lens would not stand that close to it.

The real size can be seen from the pumpkins in the background of the photo (it’s not that big).

Apologies for the sloppy journalism. Now the question, did Sina intentionally use this photo to tell a tall tale?

From Sina:

A photographer takes photo of a huge pumpkin growing in an intelligent greenhouse in Xiqing District in Tianjin, north China. The greenhouse is built to show new agricultural technologies, such as soilless culture and drip irrigation etc., as a model of modern sightseeing agriculture.(Xinhua/ Wang Deqiang)

(Thanks Paul for the link.)

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Local vs. global fashion at the Arrow Factory

Collaboration partner 1: 别具一格 Bieju Yige

Collaboration partner 2: Le Divan

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New exhibition of works by Ni Haifeng:

Using shreds of fabric that have been discarded after commercial factory production, the artist has collaborated with two different design teams to produce a pair of unique “high-end” fashion garments… Ni has chosen to work with two workers with incongruent backgrounds—one is a Chinese run “mom and pop” tailor shop Bieju Yige (别具一格) located in the hutong adjacent to Arrow Factory that subsists on tailoring, mending and patching clothes for the neighborhood residents, and the other is Beijing based French-Australian designers Aurelien Lecour and Tony Saint Hua, creators of Le Divan Studio who work in the creative sector of fashion industry.

Full details at Arrow Factory website, the show runs from now till January 7.

By Jason Li | Comments (0)