25 years after its original release, Nokia’s 3210 is again making waves with trendy youth in China

U.S. studios' share of box office continues to shrink, which may contribute to nationalism in both China and the West

Success in China needs localisation, but not a general China-wide strategy, rather a targeted multi-variable approach

China's tech giants have read the tea leaves from Beijing resulting in pledges of billions to charity, with PDD making the smartest donation

China's fan clubs have become obsessive, and with changing family dynamics are on track to become more so, but Beijing is seeking change

Chinese sportswear brand ERKE was on the brink of collapse, but a well timed and executed CSR initiative has turned its fortunes around

On November 21 2020, Mei Wang who manages talent training programs at MI Group, made a comment at an annual China Human Resource Management Annual Conference in Beijing, saying “MI Group thinks who wins Diao Si who wins the world.” In short, their most valuable customers are losers. She then noted that “when they grow out of their diaosi stage, the company will consider making expensive smartphones.”

Beijing and Shanghai may be the first cities that most people associate with China, yet no city embodies the meteoric rise and confidence of modern China quite like Shenzhen in the south. Pre-China opening up, Shenzhen was described as a ‘backward fishing village,’ but after being designated as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in 1980, its proximity to Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs and capital, coupled with the ambition and scale of China’s migrant workforce have seen it transform into a dynamic metropolis at a scale that is unmatched in world history.

On 11 August 2020, Jun Lei the CEO and Co-Founder of Xiaomi gave an opening speech on the company’s 10th anniversary, sharing stories of their product launches and memorable moments over the last decade.

The telltale sign that China had contained the coronavirus was when children were allowed back to school. It began out west as early as mid-March as schools in Xinjiang started opening their doors again. It was a little longer before schools in China’s wealthy coastal cities were operating again – in April, one Beijing mother whose child had been at home for almost three months noted a popular sentiment in her WeChat mums group was “if the scientists don’t hurry up and develop a vaccine, the mothers will!” Thankfully, by May, most schools across China had welcomed students back, albeit with reduced class sizes, shortened lessons, staggered arrival times and the looming presence of thermal scanners.

Although China may have the second highest GDP of any country, when divided among its 1.4 billion citizens, it ranks down at number 65, just under Mexico and below the global average according to IMF 2019 estimates.

While some of our readers outside of China will be looking as beautiful or handsome as ever, many of you are likely to be a little unkempt, sporting a COVID-cut and just off a video call wearing your pyjama pants. That was the situation for many in China during its lockdown too.

Most in China think that the worst is behind them. Yet that sentiment remains tempered by concerns about the spread of the virus in the rest of the world, in addition to asymptomatic cases and a second wave of COVID-19 infections driven by imported cases.

As 2019 draws to a close, it's fair to say that it has been a year of twists and turns - even by Chinese standards. With the backdrop of a slowing economy and prolonged trade war, we're happy to say that Chinese consumers have remained the main driver of the economy, spending over 8% more than they did last year, fuelled by a healthy dose of credit.

Last Thursday, China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO) published a white paper: Equality, Development and Sharing: Progress of Women’s Cause in 70 Years Since New China’s Founding. “The founding of the PRC in 1949 ushered in a new era for women in China, changing their social status from an oppressed and enslaved group in the past thousands of years to masters of their own fate…” the paper began.

WeChat now boasts 1.1 billion active users, with most being in China. That’s great news for Tencent who have prodigious insights into the online, offline and commerce behaviour of a large swath of Chinese consumers. Yet its almost-100% saturation of China’s online population also presents challenges to Tencent, who is having to shift its strategy from growth by acquisition to extending the utility of WeChat and its data. To make things tougher, AI-driven competitors such as Douyin are cannibalising the screen time users spend on WeChat through services that are easier to use and more entertaining.

Since Australia established formal diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China in 1972, the country’s fortunes have become increasingly linked to the Middle Kingdom. No Western country’s economy has benefitted more from China’s rise than Australia. Much of China’s unprecedented economic growth has been built with Australian iron ore and powered by Aussie coal and liquified natural gas. In a way, Australia’s resource traders blazed a trail for Australian exporters, teaching cultural lessons about doing business in China, and raising China’s profile as a destination for exports.

Many people in the West still believe that China’s tech giants are built on thieving IP, not creating it. Those folk will probably be startled to learn that the US-based magazine Fast Company ranked a Chinese firm as the world’s most innovative company in 2019.