Visit an Ikea in China and you'll see people getting comfortable --
very comfortable. They're dozing on Malm beds and curling up on Karlstad
sofas. It's as if they're trying on a new life: one that comes with
European-style furniture.
As a PR event, Ikea hosted a wedding for three couples in its Nanjing store.
In Western countries, couples in Ikea stores might be spotted
bickering over what bookshelf to buy, but in China the cheery, modern
showrooms spark dreams of domestic bliss. One Chinese Ikea even hosted a
trio of weddings.
The Swedish retailer, in fact, elicits surprising reactions here.
Ikea is proof that in China luxury labels aren't the only aspirational
brands, said Camilla Hammar, Ikea China's marketing director. "If you compare [Chinese consumers] with Europeans, people here still
believe that tomorrow is going to be better than today," she said. For
Ikea, the question then is: "How do you tap into that and make an
emotional connection to your brand?"
The company had a slow start at first after entering the market 15
years ago. But it lowered prices by about half since 2000 with more
local sourcing. It also learned what didn't work: Chinese-inspired
designs, for example. Consumers wanted Ikea's modern European look.
Now Ikea has 14 stores in China and plans to add three a year until 2020.
Ikea China says sales were up 17% year over year to $1 billion in the
year ending in August 2013. Meanwhile, competitors have struggled: Home Depot closed all its Chinese big-box stores last year.
Camilla Hammar, marketing director, Ikea China
Before joining Ikea in 2006, Swedish-born Ms. Hammar was the
marketing director at Shanghai Tang in Hong Kong. Ad Age caught up with
her in Shanghai to ask about in-store nuptials and customer catnaps. The
interview has been lightly edited.
Ad Age: When you walk into an Ikea in China, you see
people dozing on the beds. People take their kids there to play with
the toys. What do you do about it? Camilla Hammar: It's one of our strengths -- that people actually come closer to the [product] range and try it. So we actually welcome that. Ad Age: What's the craziest thing you've heard of? Ms. Hammar: People literally getting into the beds,
taking off their shoes, getting under the covers. Not just one person,
but sometimes as a couple or with a child. Ad Age: Sounds like they get pretty personal with your products. How do you tap into that with your marketing? Ms. Hammar: We've realized the store experience in
China is very different [than in other markets]. It tends to initiate
very romantic feelings. The first time some couples start talking about
getting married is in our showrooms. So that's something we've tapped
into.
Camilla Hammar, marketing director, Ikea China
We have had weddings in our store in Nanjing. We did that as a PR
event. It was a wedding with three couples, and we set it all up in a
Swedish style. I was there as one of the witnesses. My daughter, who is
blonde with curly hair, was the flower girl. We served Swedish food.
If you want to read more,please go to Ad Age
Last August, German skincare label Nivea announced that Rihanna
would no longer serve as the public face of the brand, dropping the
singer only a year after signing her to endorse its products.
As Stefan Heidenreich, incoming chief executive at Beiersdorf which
owns the Nivea brand, then put it, the Barbadian pop star had developed
“a no-go” reputation.
“I do not understand how Nivea can be brought into association with
Rihanna… Nivea stands for trust, family and reliability,” he added,
rather austerely.
A look at a few of Rihanna’s Nivea ads may help to shed light on the
matter. In one commercial a family is seen moisturising with Nivea
lotion while Rihanna’s sultry hit California King Bed plays in the
background. The original pop video for the song featured the star in
lingerie, writhing in bed with a male visitor. Not quite the association
that Herr Heidenreich has in mind, perhaps.
But in the Chinese market, Nivea might benefit from a slightly racier
image. Growth there has been slowing, with sales last year up by 11%,
less than in earlier years.
“The good old days of making easy money are long-gone,” Nivea’s newly
appointed general manager in China, Pan Yufeng, told 21CN Business
Herald.
Perhaps that’s not so surprising for a brand that has been in China
for almost a century, arriving long before competitors like L’Oreal and
P&G. The German firm sent its sales representatives from Hamburg to
sell its products as early as 1914. But the fact that it was such an
early player in the market can mean that Nivea struggles to excite some
of China’s local consumers. Like many German consumer brands, says Pan,
the problem hasn’t been a lack of brand recognition. The real challenge
is that some shoppers have found the brand “boring”, Pan admits.
At present, China contributes about 5% of Beiersdorf’s revenue. But
it wants China to be a larger part of its global business: in five
years, the goal is for the percentage to reach 10%.
To achieve that target, Nivea has its sights squarely set on men’s
skincare and to generate more of the ‘cool’ factor it has hired
Taiwanese actor Ke Zhendong as the spokesperson for its men’s skincare
line. The move was designed to appeal to a younger demographic, although
Pan admits it was controversial at head office, with his German bosses
reluctant to sign up new celebrity endorsers after their recent
experience of parting company with the anything-but-boring Rihanna.
If you want to learn more, please go to Week in China.
Recently, I am reading a book titled "Chip Kidd", and unexpectedly found a British artist who has created fabulous book covers for Penguin China. Here are some of them.
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:
Chickens occasionally appear in Chinese ink painting, and I think the birds themselves have a certain arrogant, disgruntled look about them so….
Kafka’s Metamorphosis:
This is a longhorn beetle, which I found in my garden. I’ve never seen a
bug like it in the UK, so for me it is a very “Chinese” beetle. The
Characters on it’s wing case spell out the book title.
Orwell’s 1984:
Taking 1984 to be a hell on earth, with Big Brother as a Chinese devil….
Melville’s Moby Dick:
I have another version of this which looks more “Chinese”, the
calligraphy making up the whales tale. Unfortunately that image was too
dark for the series, so we’ve got…
If you want to learn more about Jason Pym, please go to his blog.
A Bite of China (舌尖上的中国) is a 2012 Chinese documentary television series on the history of food, eating, and cooking in China.It first appeared at the China Central Television in May 14th, 2012, and quickly gained much popularity. Having started filming in March 2011, this seven-episode documentary series introduces the history and story behind foods of various kinds in more than 60 locations all around China. The documentary has also been actively encouraged as a means of introducing Chinese food culture to those unfamiliar with local cuisine. It's an amazing journey on Chinese food culture and history. It has seven episodes, I hope you enjoy them like me.
Nature’s Gift
The Story of Staple Foods
The Inspiration of Transformation
The Taste of Time - This episode focuses on the different preservation techniques and preserved food across the regions
A pioneer in the food world, Cecilia Chiang (江孙芸)introduced Americans to
authentic northern Chinese cuisine at her San Francisco restaurant, the
Mandarin, in 1961, earning the adoration of generations of diners,
including local luminaries such as Marion Cunningham, Ruth Reichl, and
Chuck Williams.
In The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco, Chiang presents a classic
collection of recipes framed by her gripping life's story. Beginning
with her account of a privileged childhood in 1920s and 1930s Beijing,
Chiang chronicles a 1,000-mile trek on foot in the wake of the Japanese
occupation, her arrival in San Francisco, and her transformation from
accidental restaurateur to culinary pioneer. The book's recipes feature
cherished childhood dishes and definitive Mandarin classics, while
showcasing Cecilia's purist approach to authentic Chinese home cooking.
Cecilia Chiang, the San Francisco-based chef who made refined, regional Chinese food part of America's restaurant scene, is to receive the 2013 James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. Chiang, 93, is to Chinese cuisine what Julia Child was to French food.
Born and raised in China, Chiang never planned to become a restaurateur. But during a visit to San Francisco, she happened to get stuck with a restaurant lease that some friends had reneged on.
Chiang decided to plunge into the business and offer "real Chinese food" rather than the chop-suey and egg-foo-yung fare typical of Chinese eateries then. In 1961, she opened the Mandarin, an upscale restaurant serving cuisine from Shanghai, Sichuan and Beijing, all places where she'd lived. James Beard, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Wolfgang Puck were among the regulars. Food luminaries like Beard, Julia Child, Alice Waters and Marion Cunningham took cooking classes that Chiang taught.
Chiang sold the Mandarin in 1991, and it closed in 2006. Her son, Philip, is a co-founder of the restaurant chain P.F. Chang's.
Called the "dean" of American scene design, Ming Cho Lee shaped the face and future of design in professional theater and opera in America beginning in the late 1960s through his work on Broadway, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the Metropolitan Opera and by teaching design at the Yale School of Drama.
Ming Cho Lee(李名觉) is considered to be the most influential stage designer in the United States in the past forty years, and one of the most respected designers in the world. He is one of Tony Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 nominations.
Born on October 3, 1930, in Shanghai, China, Lee came from a wealthy family. His mother Tang Ying was a well-educated woman, and a member of high society in Shanghai. Tang, who also performed in some plays, often took her son to watch operas instilling in him a love of theater. She also arranged for him to be tutored by the well-known Chinese landscape painter Zhang Daqian. Lee's father was a 1919 Yale graduate who was in the international insurance business. When his parents divorced when he was six, Lee was sent to live with his father.
In 1948, Lee left Shanghai for Hong Kong with his father and completed high school there, but he was denied entry to the University of Hong Kong due to poor English skills. He then enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles, majoring in art so that he would not have too many English-language courses to pass. Because he came to the U.S. as a college student, Lee never felt like a part of the Chinese American community. "I never had experience of growing up as Chinese American or being part of a family who came over as true immigrants," he explains. "I never experienced that kind of prejudice. I was always accepted as a guest."
Lee then went to the University of Southern California (USC) to study film. During 1948 and 1949, he watched many films in Hong Kong where his uncle owned a film studio. But after studying film for a summer, Lee soon switched his major to speech at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after deciding he would go into the theater, and his first scene design was for a 1951 student production of The Silver Whistle, a comedy by Robert McEnroe. He received his B.A. in theater in 1953 and continued to design as a graduate student at UCLA. He impressed stage lighting designer Eddie Kook, who recommended him to the famed New York designer Joe Mielziner. Mielziner hired Lee as his apprentice in 1954. After five years he became an assistant designer.
Stage models for Electra designed by Ming Cho Lee. Photos: Shi Hao
"Essentially, I spent eight years as an assistant designer, working for Jo and some other set designers, which is a longer period than many other American designers. That is because I didn't go to Yale, I didn't know a lot of people, and I was known only as an assistant designer," he said.
After a jobless year, he worked for the San Francisco Opera as an assistant designer. Later, he was interviewed, and hired by Joseph Papp from the New York Shakespeare Festival.
1962 saw Lee's first Broadway play The Moon Besieged as a scenic designer, and this was followed by more than 20 Broadway productions."The 12 years, from 1962 to 1973, working for Joseph Papp made me become a set designer in my own right," he said.
Because of his long interest in opera, Lee later designed for many opera houses including the New York City Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera.
Now long retired from designing, Lee devotes his time to teaching and training. Many successful set designers active in the US and on the world stage today have received instruction from Lee.
To listen to what a master stage designer said about the scenic route.
An infrequent visitor to Shanghai, Lee returned to China mostly for work projects. In 1978 he visited Suzhou with a curator from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who was looking for inspiration for a traditional Chinese garden for an exhibition at the museum.
In 1994 Lee came to Shanghai to work on a production of The Joy Luck Club with the Shanghai People's Art Theater. And at the same time, he was designing Nine Songs with Taiwan's famous Cloud Gate Dance Theater (choreographed by Lin Huai-min), and spent this time shuttling back and forth between Shanghai and Taipei.
"I have been Americanized - strictly and completely. I am American educated and trained. I have forgotten my Chinese language, while in some way I'm still aware of my Chinese identity in the background." Lee admitted that as he got older, many of his Shanghai relatives suggested he should present his life's work to the people of his birthplace.
With regards to his inspiration Lee said: "I immerse myself in a story, and ideas emerge from that story as opposed to me contemplating a certain external look."
As the co-chairman of the Design Department at the Yale School of Drama since 1979 and one of the most influential set designers and mentors in the US today, Lee has worked on more than 200 shows including Broadway and off-Broadway productions, operas and dance events both in the US and overseas. In 1983 the Broadway production K2 earned him a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. In 2002 he was also honored with the National Medal of Arts.
The Design of Ming Cho Lee by Delbert Unruh presents the designs of this widely regarded and well known theatrical designer, mentor, and teacher. Foreword by Jon Jory. The book contains lovely illustrations of set models, renderings, production photographs, and discusses the major designs of this widely regarded and well known theatrical designer, mentor, and teacher. The story of Mr. Lee's career is accompanied by a list of his production credits, awards and nominations, and memberships.
If you are interested in story about Ming Cho Lee, please visit china.org.cn
Zheng Yue,a young woman from China
who is teaching her native language to students in this town on the
Oklahoma grasslands, was explaining a vocabulary quiz on a recent
morning. Then a student interrupted.
“Sorry, I was zoning out,” said the girl, a junior wearing black eye makeup. “What are we supposed to be doing?”
Ms. Zheng seemed taken aback but patiently repeated the instructions.
“In China,” she said after class, “if you teach the students and they
don’t get it, that’s their problem. Here if they don’t get it, you teach
it again.”
Ms. Zheng, 27, is teaching Chinese in Lawton — and learning a few things
herself about American culture — because of a partnership between an
agency of China’s Education Ministry and the College Board.
China wants to teach the world its language and culture, and Ms. Zheng
is one of about 325 guest teachers who have volunteered to work for up
to three years in American schools, with their salaries subsidized by
the Chinese government. A parallel effort has sent about 2,000 American
school administrators to visit China at Beijing’s expense.
Ms. Zheng left her teaching post at a provincial university south of
Beijing two years ago to come to Lawton. She is out of her usual element
in this city of strip malls and car dealerships surrounded by cattle
ranches and an Army base. The culture of American schools is also
different.
“My life in high school was torture, just studying, nothing else,” said
Ms. Zheng (pronounced djung). “Here students lead more interesting
lives,” partly because they are more involved in athletics, choir and
other activities.
“They party, they drink, they date,” she added. “In China, we study and study and study.”
In interviews, several other Chinese teachers said they had some
difficulties adjusting to the informality of American schools after
working in a country where students leap to attention when a teacher
enters the room.
One Chinese teacher who has built a successful language program in
Wisconsin, Hongmei Zhao, said a few students sometimes disrupted classes
by speaking English so rapidly that she cannot understand them.
“Then the whole class laughs, maybe because of my accent,” Ms. Zhao said.
Ms. Zheng said none of her students had been disagreeable, and Samantha
Weidenmaier, an assistant principal at the school, MacArthur High, said
that in Ms. Zheng’s classes “the respect levels are kicked up a notch.”
Still, Ms. Zheng said she believed that teachers got little respect in America.
“This country doesn’t value teachers, and that upsets me,” she said.
“Teachers don’t earn much, and this country worships making money. In
China, teachers don’t earn a lot either, but it’s a very honorable
career.”
If you are interested the story, please go to The New York Times for detail.
As Chains Pop Up Daily, Biggest Marketing Challenge Will Be Cultivating a Coffee Culture
A wooden sign in the lobby of Starbucks' China headquarters lists the
provinces where the company operates and the number of cafes in each
locale. But the coffee chain is growing so fast that it's become
impossible to maintain the tally. "We can't update that board!" said Starbucks China Chief Marketing Officer Marie Han Silloway, bursting into laughter. "Forget it!"
The Seattle-based
company has been in China for 13 years, with an initial presence
largely in major international hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou. There's huge potential for growth as it expands into
lesser-developed cities with newly robust discretionary spending. But it
also faces uniquely Chinese challenges when it comes to customs and
taste. Ms. Silloway's marketing strategy focuses as much on educating
the world's oldest and largest tea-drinking culture as it does
traditional branding and promotions.
The
company has more than 600 stores in the country and aims to reach 1,500
by 2015. It's a growth strategy that involves opening roughly one store
every day for three years. "We've been very blessed. Starbucks has very high brand awareness to a
lot of people in China, so when we go to a new city or existing city, a
lot of customers know about the brand already," said Belinda Wong,
president of Starbucks China.
Starbucks' greatest asset is that its target consumer in China sees it
as an aspirational global brand offering an international cafe
experience.
That integration was on display on a sunny late-summer day in the dusty
city of Nanchang, as Starbucks opened its first location in the
traditionally agricultural province of Jiangxi and in its 49th city in
China. The grand opening kicked off with coffee education for local media. An
ultra-perky barista named September told the packed room that "latte"
means milk in Italian, so a latte is a coffee with milk. "American-style
coffee is black coffee," she explained, "so if you order one in the
morning you'll be awake and alert all day!"
Who drinks coffee?
"I think coffee is more of a woman's drink, don't you?" Mr. Fu asked.
"If you were doing business with a woman then maybe you could bring her
to a coffeehouse. But if you were doing business with a man ... you go
to a restaurant and talk business over a meal or you go to karaoke and
make deals while you sing together. The idea of men talking business in a
place like Starbucks ... I think that's just ridiculous."
"There's definitely some people in Nanchang who have a habit of drinking
coffee every day, but they're really a minority," she said. "People
want to sit here and relax.
Starbucks also has room to grow its food selections. Although the
company has created products tailored to Asian preferences, such as its
black sesame green-tea cake roll, local competitors are more creative,
offering hot meals such as curry and pasta. Others sell dessert plates
with six mini egg tarts or other sweets, designed for the group dynamic.
"That's perfect for Chinese because they like to put a plate in the
middle to share. Westerners just want a big fat muffin each," Mr. French
said.
Starbucks' image as a trendy and modern brand helps mask the bigger
question: whether Chinese will ever actually like coffee, something
often described as "too bitter" to enjoy. Starbucks' R&D center in
Shanghai has responded to that concern by developing popular fruity
drinks such as Strawberry Soy Frappuccino and the Refresha line of juice
beverages.
HOW TO RUN A COFFEE SHOP
Starbucks is a place to socialize, and most Chinese visit in pairs
or groups. Seating is configured to reflect that, with large community
tables or living room-style setups of couches and armchairs clustered
around a coffee table.
In the U.S.,
many Starbucks are kiosks targeting the grab-and-go segment. But in
China, stores must be spacious enough to accommodate consumers who
linger for hours.
In China,
Starbucks does the majority of its business after 2 p.m. "People like to
come out for an afternoon coffee, a cake, meet up with a friend," Ms.
Silloway said. "Walk into any Starbucks at 4 p.m. ... it will be very
hard to find a place to sit."
Many Chinese
offices are drab and crowded, making Starbucks a popular place for
business meetings. A Starbucks meeting has the added bonus of making the
host seem international and sophisticated.
Consumer
education is essential. Starbucks' target consumers are urbanites
interested in international experiences, and they're curious enough
about coffee to spend $5 on a drink when an average office worker's
salary is about $1,000 a month. Baristas are trained to teach consumers
about the products, and stores regularly host coffee seminars.
When Michelle Obama wore a white, one-shoulder gown by Jason Wu to the Inaugural Ball in 2009, the then 26-year-old designer was, as the New York Times described him, “barely known outside the fashion beltway.”
Four years later, Wu, whom the First Lady wore again to the Inaugural Ball Monday evening, has reached mass recognition, having launched a diffusion line with Target in early 2012. The young designer has also partnered with St. Regis hotels on a luggage line and with faucet company Brizo on a bathroom collection, in addition to dressing celebrities such as Diane Kruger, Zoe Saldana and Michelle Williams for red carpet appearances.
The red, chiffon and velvet dress he designed for Obama on Monday night will only raise Wu’s growing profile. The sleeveless gown showed off Obama’s famously toned arms, and she accessorized it with a handmade diamond embellished ring by jewelry designer Kimberly McDonald, and shoes by Jimmy Choo.
Wu and Vogue's editor in Chief Wintour, alexisbittar.com
Jason Wu (吳季剛) was born in Taipei in 1982, then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at age nine. He learned how to sew by designing and sewing for dolls, and went on to study sculpture in Tokyo. Wu continued this career path at age sixteen by learning to create freelance doll clothing designs for toy company Integrity Toys under the lines "Jason Wu dolls" and later "Fashion Royalty". The following year, he was named creative director of Integrity Toys. He decided to become a fashion designer while spending his senior year of high school in Rennes, France before graduating from the Loomis Chaffee School in 2001, and studied at the Parsons The New School for Design, a division of The New School in New York. Now, he is a fashion designer based in New York City.
"I NEVER KNEW I was eating Hakka food (客家菜) when I was growing up," says Linda Anusasananan, a food writer and former Sunset senior editor. "I just knew it tasted really good." In the new Hakka Cookbook (University of California Press; $40), Anusasananan shares recipes from her grandmother's kitchen and beyond.
Part cookbook, part memoir, the book celebrates the little-known cuisine of the Hakka people, who, after fleeing central China in the fourth century, traveled to southern China, many eventually migrating to places around the world including Peru, Australia, and California. That nomadic lifestyle added layers of diversity to the cuisine's rich broths, salty preserved vegetables, and robust Cantonese flavors. Some think of it as peasant food, but Anusasananan calls it Chinese soul food.
If you want to learn more about this California-influenced, Hakka-style noddle buffet, adapted from her book, please read February issue of Sunset magazine. And please go to author's The Hakka Cookbook blog to learn more Chinese recipes.
Ping Fu, CEO of 3-D software company Geomagic, has
also been a prisoner of Mao's Red Guard, a kidnapping victim, and an
immigrant with $80 to her name. Here's how her unique past influenced
her leadership style.
When you speak with Ping Fu, the cofounder and CEO of 3-D software company Geomagic, you may not realize just how remarkable she is. Her company profile is impressive--Inc. named her “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2005, she had a role in the creation of NCSA Mosaic (the forerunner of Netscape), and sits on President Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship--but is nothing wholly unusual as far as accolades go. She passionately discusses her commitment to a future where everything is produced locally and individually, and, like most other entrepreneurs, the hardships she overcame on the way to success.
But when Ping talks about difficulties, she isn’t referencing the lean times before Geomagic began to prosper. She’s describing growing up in the midst of China’s Cultural Revolution and being repeatedly raped and beaten by Mao’s Red Guard, all because she had the misfortune of being born into a well-educated family, a history she recounts in her recent book, Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds (Please notice: you must be enjoying her book if it is a fiction, unfortunately, it's a faked memoir, and is getting more and more bad reviews at Amazon.com).
Image: Jonathan Fredin
Mao’s death improved Ping's lot, but her trials were not over yet. Her thesis on China’s one-child policy prompted China’s official press to comment for the first time on the increasingly common female infanticide in rural areas. Ping's research instigated an international controversy, leading to her imprisonment and exile. At 25, Ping fled to the United States with $80 in her pocket. Kidnapped shortly after arriving in Albuquerque, Ping shouted one of the three English phrases she knew--“help”--through a barred window for days.
Ping's book details her path from factory worker to the successful CEO of a company that is moving the world towards a custom-made future. Fast Company recently spoke with Ping to learn how her unique past has influenced her leadership at Geomagic, and where she's taking the company next.
