Would the Bad Guys Have Red Lightsabers in a Chinese Star Wars?

For decades, bedrooms and playrooms across the western hemisphere have been filled with Star Wars duvets, figurines, themed lego and other paraphernalia. Dress-up parties spanning all occasions have been embraced by people wearing Darth Vader and storm trooper masks, and more than 500,000 people have officially identified their religion as Jedi Knights. Since the first movie in 1977, the Star Wars franchise has amassed an estimated $65 billion in sales - more than any other media franchise that isn't a cartoon.

Yet the galaxy far, far away seems even further in China. Despite attempts to lure Chinese fans using live orchestra concerts, themed runs and selfie opportunities with storm troopers on the Great Wall, Star Wars has failed to captivate Chinese audiences in the way it has elsewhere. Ronnie Den, who starred in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story believes the franchise hasn't made money in China because Chinese haven’t grown up with Star Wars and don't understand its unique rules and quirks.

Disney is hoping to change that. The company is adopting a less-common approach to build grass-roots enthusiasm for the franchise. Through its partnership with Tencent's China Literature, it will make 40 "Star Wars" novels available in Chinese for the first time on the digital reading platform, at no cost for a week.

In the fast-paced, instant-gratification, short video-obsessed world of modern China, a lot of people still read books. China boasts a mouth-watering 454 million readers of online literature, with 217 million monthly active users and nearly 8 million authors on China Literature's various platforms.

As part of the initiative, Disney has commissioned popular Internet novelist His Majesty the King to write a new "authentic Star Wars story with Chinese characteristics." We will be watching with interest: the new edition promises to "bring in Chinese elements and unique Chinese storytelling methods." Given the underlying theme of Star Wars is a rebel alliance battling the empire, localising for China could be interesting. Will the bad guys' lightsabers still be red? Censors are likely to be paying closer attention than ever given the sensitivities around the Hong Kong protests, particularly when protestors are hanging banners and referencing a catch phrase from the similarly-themed movie The Hunger Games.

If any foreign company can make Darth Vader masks the go-to costume for Halloween in China, it is Disney. Between its Marvel, Pixar and other movie franchises, resort, merchandise and other assets, the company has a strong infrastructure and experience in market to help push the cause. We applaud them for trying the old-fashioned but less-traditional approach of books to grow Star Wars fans.In other news, China Skinny is honoured to again be working with Austcham Shanghai to deliver the third Westpac Australian Business Sentiment Survey. The 2017 and 2018 survey gave rich insights and trends into the health, opportunities and challenges in the Australia-China economic relationship, provided a valuable benchmarking tool for all organisations working with China and strengthened the Chamber’s advocacy efforts to advance Australia-China business relations. If you're an Australian or working for an Australian business who engages with China, we're hoping you can share your Yoda-wisdom and generously spend around 15 minutes to do the online survey – we’ll all be better for it! Take the survey here.

We hope you enjoy this week's Skinny. May the Force be with you.

Here are this week's news and highlights for China:

 Chinese Consumers

Insights from a Research-Sharing Session at China Retail 2019: Chinese cities are spurring night-time commerce to drive economic growth. Consumption from people who were born before 1990—including post-60s, -70s and -80s consumers—are more purpose-driven, typically planning their purchases in advance. Post-90s consumers, on the other hand, seemingly make random and casual purchases through impulse buying. Among older Chinese, females are driving consumption, whereas both men and women are driving for the post-90s consumers.

China's "Mainstream": Simple words like "innovation" and "mainstream" can have quite different meanings in China than the west.

Adapting Visual Identity for Chinese Consumers: Brand story, technology and colour palette are three keys to creating a strong visual identity in retail. 62-90% of consumer decisions are based on colour according to unnamed research. Red, yellow and gold are strong colours used in Chinese retail that connect with Chinese tradition but do not necessarily have the greatest impact on the visual identity of a brand. The choice of colour palette in retail design should be bold enough to create attention, while also connecting to modern motifs. The use of these colours should tie to the overall brand identity design or new products released as part of a collection.China's Q3 GDP Growth Slows to 6%, Slowest in 27 Years: Beijing has stepped up support for the economy with major tax and rate cuts and has scrapped foreign investment restrictions in its stock market. The EU Chamber says China’s new foreign investment law is ‘surprisingly accommodating’. Chinese consumers continue to drive growth, with retail sales up 7.8% on-year in September year-on-year, compared with 7.5% in August.

As Demand for Genetic Testing Grows in China, Start-Up 23Mofang Can Now Tell if You Have Royal Blood: For ¥449 ($64) and a saliva sample, Chinese consumers can test ancestral information, hereditary disease risks, traits like alcohol tolerance level and even if you are a descendent of ancient Chinese royalty. 1.81% or about 25.3 million of China’s existing population are estimated to be descendants of Liu Bang, who went on to become Emperor Gaozu of Han – founder of a dynasty that spanned more than four centuries. China’s direct-to-consumer genetic testing market is predicted to reach $4.3 billion by 2023.

 Entertainment

Disney and Tencent to Put Out New Chinese ‘Star Wars’ Story: Disney has teamed up with Tencent’s China Literature to develop a new Chinese "Star Wars" online novel and release 40 older e-books in Chinese for the first time to cultivate for the franchise that is yet to take off in China. The popular Chinese internet novelist "His Majesty the King" will write the new "authentic Star Wars story with Chinese characteristics." It will "bring in Chinese elements and unique Chinese storytelling methods," according to a statement posted on the official Star Wars Weibo social media page. One of the author’s previous books was adapted by Tencent into a 2016 anime series.

Food & Beverage

German Wholesaler Metro Agrees to Sell China Business to Wumei: German-owned wholesaler Metro will sell a majority stake in its Chinese operations to local player Wumart, ending a 23-year stint in the country. Metro will retain a 20% stake, which values the business of 97 stores and real estate at $2.1 billion.

Anything With Bullfrog Can Prove a Hit: Bullfrog's light taste and tender texture between chicken and fish, is a crowd-favourite delicacy across China year round. In 2017, bullfrog and fish head hotpot was all the rage in Shanghai, with the bullfrog craze leading to the unexpected creation of bullfrog mooncake. Last year, the trend evolved to a double-deck bullfrog pot served in a traditional copper hotpot heated over charcoal.

Chinese Tourists

Facial Recognition is Coming to Hotels. I Stayed at Alibaba’s Hotel of the Future: At Alibaba's FlyZoo Hotel there are no key cards and everything is cashless. The lobby is completely bare: no check-in counters, no concierge, and no receptionists. It features facial recognition doors, in-room voice recognition, robotic arms at the bar and even robots that deliver items to guest rooms. Alibaba is using the hotel as a test bed for the technology that it hopes to license to hotel chains.

Sport

Why Rugby Has Yet to Convert the Chinese: As Japan takes the Rugby World Cup by storm, China’s diehard egg-chasers rue their country’s failure to grow the sport. “Japan plays amazingly well … But watching as a Chinese person, I just feel there’s a massive cultural gap in how China and Japan treat the development of sports,” says a rugby fan from Shanghai. China's mens team languishes at 80th in the global rankings, just below St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but it didn't always look that grim.

What Should be Done about the Fitness Industry in China?: The average price for the annual membership is ¥2,200 ($311) for fitness clubs and ¥2,933 ($414) for studios. In terms of revenue ratio, personal trainers contribute to an average 52.2% of the total revenue for gyms and clubs. An estimated 20%-30% of gyms and clubs in Beijing have gone bankrupt or are on the way of refining their management model. In order to survive, they need some new tricks to attract young consumers with peculiar taste. Outside of first tier cities, the penetration rate in most cities is lower than 3%, compared to 7.8% in Europe.

Education

The Value of a College Degree? A Shot at a Shanghai High School: Zheng Liang spent seven years and tens of thousands of yuan getting his bachelor’s degree — all so his kid could stay in the Shanghai school system.

 Healthy

Rose-Coloured Glasses? Asia's Stylish Set Prefers Purple Contacts: Consumers in China use lenses like makeup for eyeballs, with Chinese consumers preferring flashy colours and designs compared to their Japanese counterparts. Purple and green contacts are proving popular. In China, where a vivid blue sells well, three out of the six colour contacts offered by the company Seed were developed exclusively for the country. Consumers are choosing circle contact lenses depending on how they want to look, like makeup.

Late Bloomers: China’s Elderly Embrace Sex After 60: Chinese culture traditionally frowned upon sex after menopause as unhealthy and immoral, but there are now a growing number of elderly Chinese embracing their sexuality as a source of health and happiness. Though 85% of young Chinese believe their parents never have sex, Renin University found that 53% of Chinese people aged between 55 and 61 had sex at least once a month. The number of elderly respondents that reported having an active sex life, meanwhile, rose from 25% in 2000 to 39% in 2015. And as public awareness of sexual health issues grows, more retirees are seeking treatments to prolong their sex lives.That’s the Skinny for the week!

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