The Jesuits Influence In The Far East

Well worth watching for Asia watchers wishing to know how the venal Vatican targeted the Far East with a view to playing out their interest here. I've always wondered about the story of King Rama VIII and somehow I see the hallmark influence of the Jesuits from many different sides. Lots of Thailand (particularly Phuket), China and Japanese action here. Lots of unconnected dots suddenly snap tight.

The Face of Chinese Consumption

Guangdong 4-year-old Xiao Hao's weight is 60kg. He does not have a hormone imbalance, and below he is taking a nap at his kindergarten. More on the story over at China Smack.

More on this blog from my Bloated China post.

Does Advertising Numb Basic Human Compassion?

China's capital has banned outdoor advertising that promotes hedonistic or high-end lifestyles as the government seeks to ease public concerns about the country's widening wealth gap. This seems quite timely on the heels of my, is advertising immoral or unethical post. How long can pimping luxury products blatantly in the face of people who cannot afford them but create the wealth that purchases them continue? Something is shifting in the world with respect to conspicuous consumption. Full story over here and hat tip to David for finding the story.

Rise Of China

Martin Jacques the prominent (former) Marxist intellectual of the UK did a talk about China at TED. I like Martin Jacques so perhaps I'm splitting hairs over his mispronunciation of LENOVO in the talk but there is one point he makes about ignorance which is worth the the full 25 minutes. 

If you're reading this from the West and are more engaged with the goggle box for sports and know more about team members sex lives than any facts you care to choose about China then you may well be in for a surprise when the winds of cultural change unravel and blossom as quickly as they can.

Putonghua Internet

I've been saying for a long time that in terms of volume yes its a Chinese internet. But in terms of influence it's English. History is written by the winners. Not that I see anything to embrace with respect to the Anglo Saxon trans Atlantic rewriting of history. Indeed we're weird and I think it shows.

Foreigners In China

Propaganda

Nice find from the Granite Studio. The poster says "With Japanese, Chinese, and Manchu working together, a Great Peace can be brought to the world". It's interesting that this kind of message could even be peddled given how brutal the Japanese were with rapes and competitive beheading and of course the Chinese population are itching with revenge now to take Japan out. I'm not exaggerating.

However we see below that some things don't change. it's a subtle form of propaganda though given that it was paid for by the Royal Thai army backed regime who had just slaughtered over 90 Thais and alienated the majority of the electorate. Many were assassinated by telescopic crosshair sniper units. This is the same Royal Thai Army who then went on to massively increase their military budget to include the first submarine as part of the overall military package.


This is from an army that has never picked on a decent opponent like the Burmese Tatmadaw as the Royal Thai Army has since the 1930's historically performed much better at shooting its own people on behalf of the wealthy elite.

Naturally this could never happen in the U.S but there are still too many political reportage sycophants out there who think Obama is a saviour. Neither he nor anyone in the GOP is. It's the way it is. More on my propaganda and advertising thinking over here.

Disconnect to Connect

The Thai advertising for DTAC, a local mobile network carrier (with strong Scandinavian shareholding) is making waves in China for its Disconnect to Connect brand advertising.

MyCrAsian (Crazy + Asian) Mother

Consistently brilliant. Human, Insightful. More over here.

Second Coming

Paul has written a very useful gem over at Forbes: Chonqing Express. You heard it here first.

Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping has been promoted to the kind of senior military post which more or less ordains him as the next President of China after Hu Jintao stands down. China watchers have said he was next for some time now but it looks like a done deal. Each succession the leaders get more and more interesting. He's a plain speaker and staunch opponent of corruption. He's got his work cut out. Here he is below on his last trip to Japan.

Another Shit Presentation

You'd have to be brain dead not to pick up on how shallow, uninspiring and generally shit this presentation is between China Youthology and Ypulse. They're still obsessed with the word mashup when it's been embarrassingly unhip since the donkey mated with a horse creating the ass. You can have a quick flip through but the most stunning contradictions are the assertion that chinese youth (or is it just girls) are both materialistic and shallow (an aspirational life slide 7), feeling defeated and insecure (slide 10)  as well as evolving from surface to substance (slide 34).

China is huge, this is a tier one or two city surface report that could be culled from the web and while I know what they are trying to say they need to drop the mashup "it's groovy" speakeasy vibe, the superficial analysis and get down to the hard work of explaining those contradictions. Instead they'll use this to sell in to the multinationals who are looking for safe but edgy but safe generic catalog communications. ChinaSMACK is where it's at if you want to see where the dynamite is.

Ypulse Mashup presentation: Building deeper connectin with China youth

View more presentations from Lisa Li.

Google Retaliates Against China's Great Firewall

In a timely move leaked details of Google's beta firewall breaker is emerging on the internets. Could this be information warfare? Is the Empire Striking Back? More details over at Sinosplice.

Sir John Hegarty & Chinese Advertising

I've had a soundbite about China since I last worked in Beijing. One that I hope reconciles the extremes while allowing for a Springboard away from the dull, middle of the road and bland marketing that practically every Chinese 'brand' takes refuge in (often at the encouragement of very influential advertising agencies leadership just chasing the dollar with little conviction for the effort needed to persuade clients about how to be interesting).

I've been saying that that China is both a couple of years old and a few thousand years old. It's a way of saying "look at the diversity of your contemporary culture". It's a unique one that is brand new and ancient at the same time. This is more than just words as you can feel it as well as see it. 

It's visceral.

I'm really pleased to see Sir John Hegarty of BBH articulate a lot of what I've seen over the years in mainland Chinese advertising from his recent speech at the China International Advertising Festival in Nanning on October 29th last month.

It's worth a read if you've anything to do with China and advertising. Here are the highlights:

You can read the full speech over at the IPA website here if you have membership.

LG

Way back here in my ChungKing Express post, when talking about the duplication culture of China and Asia excluding Japan, I tried to imply that while not seeing evidence of real innovation there was definitely an emergence of what I now see more clearly as a technology remix culture as evidenced by the solar panel and telescopic lens that came with my mobile phone now languishing in Bangkok storage until my next move is more clear.

Today I see that LG have taken this great idea of solar panel charged batteries and run with it for the launch of the LG GD510 phone which you can read more about over at the Pattaya Rag Blogspot. I knew what I was trying to convey at the time of my own post which was both critical of duplication culture (or copying if you will) but seeing the LG post has crystallized my thinking and I believe that Asia is emerging as a centre of technological remix culture which in this instance is both a smart idea and one that scores well on sustainable living metrics. Although since my own phone was stolen recently (yes, again) I've suffered from inaccessibility for work related communications but also lapped up the peacefulness and lack of interruptions which tucks nicely into my previous post.

I'm also trying to see the cops tomorrow for the identity parade for my stolen life, but the last time I spoke to the investigating team about it they hung up on me. Which is why I'm writing it here. So now we're clear.

Boom

There's a couple of sound bites that I always use when people ask me about China because I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Beijing and previously in Shanghai. I got to really think about those difficult questions that aren't easy to answer, or rather, I had many attempts to answer them and get a little better each time. One of them, and it still applies from the bottom of my heart because Beijing taught me that the people there are among the finest that one could wish for as future Leviathan capital city of the planet managing the largest population in one fell swoop is that 

"China is both a few years old, and a few thousand years old at the same time"

I say this because it's one of the most exciting countries on the planet and viscerally feels like a young country. Yet at every conceivable juncture the history of thousands of years in is evident in the customs, the pride, the food, the language and on and on it goes. It permeates the air, the posture of the people and is dense with a high viscosity should you ever get into the sensitive topic of culture in China.

The other quote that I use is more to tame the excesses of a young country (that I love) when considering the responsibilities it will need to face much quicker than any empire philosophical or otherwise to date.

"No country will grow faster, larger and older than China in the history of the world"

Now this might be a slight stretch as I think Italy is doing remarkable demographic time-bomb things as far as an aging population goes but in principle; in terms of size China is the fastest story ever. This incredible graphic below from the ever remarkable All Roads Lead To China Blog is as good as it gets for telling the story visually.

Chinese Food: A LINUX recipe.

I can't believe I missed this TED talk which appears to have been on the site since December last year and that Jason over at 88:Bar has picked up on. It's well worth a look and is particularly worthwhile when thinking about the importance of food outside of nutritional value alone. It's hugely important as a cultural and sociological dynamic. Much more than we would normally guess. Nice find Jason.

The Beginning

I don't know where the end is but if you asked me to guess I'd say somewhere around 850. I'll try and find a way to come back to this in a years time because all I've been doing is inhaling economics blogs and it's what goes unsaid that is most startling. I'm still very optimistic about the opportunity to rewire our global economy if we can find a leader who has the strength to coral the others into accepting what is clearly a logical imperative.

Over to you "Young Mr Obama" as the God of Junk Mail refers to him.

Via Rich

Erm....

Yeah OK maybe this changes things. But it's the planner that can admit their mistakes that moves things on. She was kinda hot too.

Planner Wanted In Shanghai

A friend of mine has asked if I can put the feelers out for the following role:

Aside from just saying 'hi'.....I'm actually writing to see if you know a planner that might fancy a stint at XXX agency Shanghai?  They are looking for  a solid operator with 5 years plus experience in planning. Can't reveal the client at this stage but its a multinational brand and would occupy 90% of their time.

Drop me an email which is in the 'about me' section of this blog if it's interesting and I'll put you in touch.