八八吧 · 88 Bar – Page 5 – A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design

Chinese tech globalizing like the US, with drones and bikeshares leading the way

May 1, 2018 by An Xiao Mina

Photo of bike share in front of the Eiffel Tower

Dockless bikeshares in Europe predated the arrival of Chinese companies like Ofo and Mobike, at least in Berlin, but it was a recent trip in Shenzhen and Beijing that I saw their potential at scale. I am used to seeing Chinese tech phenomena remain just that, ie, limited to China. But the near omnipresence of these bikes in major cities — I…

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China Meme Report

From rice bunnies to grass mud horses, an interview with An Xiao Mina

April 16, 2018 by An Xiao Mina

In this Refinery 29 podcast, host Elisa Kreisinger speaks with An Xiao Mina about how internet memes and social movements are intertwined in China.

Topics cover include:

How the #MeToo movement tripped up trying to cross the Great Firewall only to emerge as a series of cute homonymic emojis: 🍚🐰 (rice bunny)
How An’s…

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Design Society Shenzhen: conservative curatorial at a cutting-edge institution

April 9, 2018 by Jason Li

After much fanfare, I had a chance to visit the two opening exhibitions at the new Design Society 设计互联 in Shenzhen – “China’s first design museum.” Freshly unveiled last December, Design Society is located at the newly-constructed Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shekou, one of the most historically-progressive areas in Shenzhen. That it is…

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Melon Festival Year 2: emphasizing the science in science fiction

March 29, 2018 by Jason Li

The second Melon festival about “science fiction, innovation and the future” took place in Hong Kong on March 17 and was markedly more packed, slick and diverse than its predecessor. Festival organizers added a third set of speakers – scientists – to their roster this year on top of the previously-featured science fiction authors and…

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An inside look at one of China’s first Taobao villages

January 9, 2018 by Jason Li

Over on e-flux, Stephan Petermann takes us on a narrated tour of Dong Feng, one of the first “Taobao villages” in China:

When we arrive in Dong Feng in the spring of 2017, the number of Taobao shops has increased from the initial three to nearly 16,000, with an average density of more than three per capita, the highest…

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Toysoul 2017: a focused and curated Asian toy fair

December 21, 2017 by Jason Li

This was my first year at Toysoul, but the fair’s third year in operation. Billed as the “Asian Toy Fair,” this Hong Kong-based mostly-vinyl toy festival comprises products and designs from Greater China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. In sharp contrast to the more established ACGHK, Toysoul was a more…

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Chinese Comics Review

My Beloved Mother: A Comic Book Epic About Human-Android Discrimination

December 6, 2017 by Jason Li

My Beloved Mother covers

My Beloved Mother (机器妈妈) is a science fiction tale of dystopia about the frayed relationship between a boy and his android mother. Originally serialized in 漫友·动画100, the comic has won multiple awards, been re-published in Malay and English, and helped launch the career of its creator, Wang Xiao Yang. Today, we turn back to the clock to look at the…

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China Meme Report · Ethnography of Tech

Follow the Magpie, a rare stream of primary research about social media in China

November 17, 2017 by Jason Li

Christina Xu, Tricia Wang, and Pheona Chen just launched a new newsletter about the conversations and trends happening on the internet in China today and we should all subscribe now.

In their opening essay about the project, they write:

Our goal is to create something…

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Peak bike-sharing in China?

November 13, 2017 by Jason Li

From Samantha Culp‘s Instagram:

Compared to four months ago, I’m seeing many more of these signs (on private buildings/driveways) as cities try to manage the chaos of the bike-sharing boom

…it’s just that there are too many of the shared bikes (competing startups flush with…

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Chinese Comics Review

Original Indie Comic Con in HK #3: A window into Hong Kong’s bustling indie illustration & manga scene

November 6, 2017 by Jason Li

Last Sunday heralded the third Original Indie Comic Con in HK (第三屆原創誌交流展). Hosted on the eighth floor of a co-working space in an industrial part of Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, the one-day convention was small but bustling, and showed off an often-overlooked side of Hong Kong, where the comics scene has long been derided as being in…

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