Chinayouthology has a piece over on their blog explaining who the Chinese hipsters are. The term of “hipsters” in Chinese is 潮人, which literally translates to “trendy/hip person” and sounds a bit like 超人 (“super man”). The term is more straightforward than the American word “hipster” and not as unique a classifier. (Arguably, the term “hipster” in English has lost its subcultural roots as well.)
The post continues to define two types of hipsters, creative (those closer to being cultural producers) and mainstream (the followers). While I found the market segmentation of hipsters into two distinct categories too forced, I did enjoy their description of the creative hipster’s general sentiment:
Not all of the creative people look hip. But some of them do look really trendy. In fact they don’t care to ‘look’ cutting-edge but just care to be different. They usually HATE to be labeled as ‘Chao Ren’ which in their perception refers to ‘mainstream hipsters’.
招财童子 (the wealth-bringing-seeking children) are a suite of Chinese-themed, adorable, cartoon characters. For example:
Since I profiled their Opera-themed siblings in 2007 (here), they’ve become famous enough to appear on T-shirts, silly Flash animations and phone cards:
The New York Times has an interesting article about various artists who have chosen to go to China to maximize their creativity. Reasons include the cheap costs of materials and (other people’s) labor, an escape from the spotlight of the New York art scene, and China’s gritty lawless feeling that accompanies its rapid development.
Nowhere is it more engaged than in the triptych, where three panels show different views of a rock band playing on a club’s stage, fronted by a young female singer. In the lower left quadrant of each view, illuminated by stage lights that variously blare into your eyes, a uniformed soldier or policeman is seen from behind, intently watching the musical performance.
Song keeps shifting our point of view on the nightclub action, but it’s the official watching the free-spirited woman who seems to be the work’s true subject. Whether a performer merely being checked out by an unexpected fan, a symbol of youthful rebellion under the watchful eye of an authorized representative of government control or perhaps art being metaphorically monitored by shadowy proscriptions, the triptych mesmerizes. The show is Song’s U.S. gallery debut, and it represents a big step forward.
CNNGo, CNN’s Asia travel guide, recently published top “people to watch” lists for Asia, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The lists include an interesting mix of artists, entrepreneurs and corporate heavyweights, which gives a good albeit skewed flavor of what is going on at the fringes of (the well-polished side of) society.
“NeochaEDGE is a daily-curated, bilingual website and discovery engine dedicated to showcasing leading-edge creative content and emerging youth culture in China.”
Though pearl milk tea (or bubble tea) has been waning in Hong Kong for a while, it’s apparently still able to draw a crowd — particularly when it caarges only 12$ HK for a big cup.
Someone has delightfully made a machinima* clip of the final, climactic match from the famous Slam Dunk manga using NBA 2K9 (videogame). It intersperses panels from the manga with sequences from NBA 2K9. It’s intricate and quite well done.
The clip is originally from Tudou, the manga dialogue is in Chinese, and the author is Wong Weihe.
Above: 16-minute anti-war animation, visually rich, especially for a one-man team.
Backstory: Man works at ad agency. Man quits, returns home to live with mom, lives off of mom’s 1000 yuan/month retirement benefit, three years and half years later, the above animation was born.
Intended message: The Chinese animation industry is lousy and driven by short-term goals. They can do better. Look, I can do better.
Fun detail: Instead of credits, he lists idols, which include Pixar and Al “Core”
88 Bar is about finding bits and pieces in virtual China and examining them from the various lenses of our authors:
Lens 1: Designer
Jason Li has worked as an interaction designer, illustrator and researcher. Originally from Hong Kong, he has also lived in Canada, the US and Spain. He's writing a graphic novel in his spare time.
Lens 2: Cultural anthropologist
Lyn Jeffery is a research director at the Institute for the Future. She has spent more than 20 years living, working, and doing research in China.
Contact us if you're interesting in becoming one of our lenses.
