China Markets
Cynthia Chan — 27 February 2009
It seems that the power of the current financial crisis is hitting every corner of the world, including China. The country's economic growth slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, dragging down the annual rate to a seven-year low of 9 percent.
About 20 million of China's migrant workers, who were once working in the cities, have returned home to the countryside after losing their jobs. Everyone says 2009 will be "possibly the toughest year" since the year 2000.
Different measures were being put forth from the government and private organizations to tackle the situation. And in this country that housed over 180 million Internet users, an interesting website emerged, bujingqi.com.
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Cynthia Chan — 12 August 2008
It's 8:08pm on August 8th, 2008. Beijing's Olympic opening ceremony caught the attention of the world. People are equating the opening ceremony to China's debutante. China is indeed showing herself to the world but at the same time, she's also showing her people their own country.
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Cynthia Chan — 6 July 2007
Shanghai is one of the legs of Live Earth concert series today (July.7.07.) The 24-hour Live Earth concert series, promoting global warming awareness, is scheduled to begin in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007 and continue across all seven continents with events in Tokyo, Shanghai, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Hamburg, and Rio de Janeiro, before concluding in New York.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I can be at the concert in person even though I’m in Shanghai right now. I heard that the tickets are all sold out! However, it’s definitely interesting to see how climate change and global warming issues are playing out in China.
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Cynthia Chan — 20 March 2007
As Denise introduced in her earlier blog , we recently boarded an eye-opening journey to China via online social networks. China kick starts our initiative to further understand youth culture in several emerging markets around the world.
We conducted the first of two rounds of digital ethnographies with several young people in both top and second tier cities in China via QQ, one of the most popular social networking sites in China. We gave each respondent a week-long assignment that included blogging, picture-taking and posting. They were also asked to post links to their favorite websites on their home page, and to invite friends to join the forum.
What we got back were page after page of dynamic real-life stories. We were so excited as we read their blogs and browsed through pictures they took every day during that week. As ethnographers who have conducted many ethnographies in person, we were pleasantly surprised by the energy that came through these web pages. We also had the luxury to interact with our respondents digitally for the entire week!
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Denise Klarquist — 13 March 2007
Three things get us excited at Cheskin: people, culture, and change. Talk about technology innovation or new new types of emerging behavior and we start to drool. Combine that with meaty challenges from clients where we can substantially contribute to their bottom-line success, and it's almost more than we can bear.
On the topic of emerging markets - those developing economies that are becoming more market-oriented and include Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and China - Wikipedia states, "It appears that emerging markets lie at the intersection of non-traditional user behavior, the rise of new user groups and community adoption of products and services, and innovations in product technologies and platforms." So, it comes as no surprise that we're tantalized by emerging markets.
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Terri Ducay — 20 February 2007
Today, February 18, 2007 is the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It is reported that as many as 1.3 billion people in China will usher in the Year of the Boar. As a consequence millions of migrate workers who work in the major cities will travel back to their rural hometown for a week of holiday. Some have described this as one of the world’s biggest human migrations. It is also estimated that nearly 14 billion text messages will be sent during this time.
This is not only the Year of the Boar, but 2007 is the year of the ‘golden boar’ which only happens once every 600 years. It is considered one of the most prosperous and favorable years in the Chinese zodiac. No doubt this will bring a boom in babies born as those who are born this year are said to have the luck to become very wealthy.
Cynthia Chan — 2 January 2007
Shopping has always been a public experience in China. Traditionally, it involved colorful, open-air markets with fresh meat, produce, and wares for customers who had to bargain hard. The decades under Mao’s Communism saw dreary stores providing few choices, and clerks with no incentive to sell. But all that has changed in recent years. According to retail analysts, in the last six years more than 400 large malls have been built in China. Within two or three years, China will be home to seven of the ten largest shopping malls in the world.
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LiAnne Yu — 21 December 2006
China has a long tradition of guanxiwang, the concept of a personal connection between people in which each may prevail upon the other for a favor or service. In a recent trip from Beijing to Shanghai, we personally experienced how guanxiwang works.
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Cynthia Chan — 15 December 2006
Since the market reforms of the late 1970’s, China has gained a global reputation for mass production of cheap, often low-quality, consumer goods. No one expects this massive market of fakes to disappear suddenly or for the country’s manufacturing to be on par with that of Germany overnight, but China clearly is not content to be the world’s cheapest copycat. From having no design schools at all until 1982, China now boasts 450, with hundreds more in the planning phases.
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Cynthia Chan — 24 August 2006
The economic and developmental changes transforming China on a daily basis have created a new demographic familiar to most Western countries but new to China. This new segment of society is the middle class. The notion of middle class in China did not really emerge until the mid-to-late 1990’s, and it’s still a relatively amorphous concept. In fact, although “middle class” is loosely translated zhong chan in Mandarin, the expression is not widely familiar. If a Chinese citizen has a stable income sufficient to afford an apartment, a car, a child’s education, and assorted more discretionary purchases like vacations, entertainment, and fashion, he or she is likely to be regarded as a member of the middle class. For our purposes, a family with an annual income ranging between 30,000 to 75,000 yuan ($3,750 to $9,375 U.S.) or assets of 300,000 yuan could qualify.
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LiAnne Yu — 8 August 2006
Under Mao, individuals gained status by adhering to socialist doctrine. Displaying Mao’s image at home and carrying around his Little Red Book were signs of correct thinking. Those symbols are largely irrelevant to today’s young urban Chinese except as kitschy fashion statements; other icons are gaining power in their place. As young Chinese come to view what they buy as symbols of their growing prosperity and engagement in modern lifestyles, products, brands and celebrities have become the newest signs of correct thinking.
China calls this generation of status-seekers the “xin xin renlei,” meaning the “new” new generation. The label describes those young adults whose lifestyles include designer clothing, the latest technology, cars, pampering through spas and a host of other luxury goods and experiences. No longer limited to buying generic goods from state-owned department stores and markets, these status conscious consumers can shop in some of the largest and most elaborate stores in the world, choosing from an expansive selection of domestic and foreign products. Although still a relatively small percentage of the population, these high-end consumers are very visible and influence a wide swath of followers who emulate them with “knock-offs.” A foreigner strolling down one of Shanghai’s downtown streets could leave with the impression that most of the city’s population can afford Chanel sunglasses, Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton handbags. In most cases, it would take an expert to tell that these aren’t the real thing.
Cynthia Chan — 26 July 2006
A phrase as commonly heard as “hello everyone” may have greater meanings than what it is trying to convey in different contexts or in different cultures. Our friend Gordon Gray, from Beijing China Liaison, has an interesting perspective with a similar phrase he heard over and over again in China.
Here’s the blog from Gordon:
The 'Big Family'
Watch any variety show on Chinese television and you may hear the common Mandarin greeting 'Da Jia Hao', meaning 'hello everyone', or literally translated as 'Big Family Good'. This phrase conveys a great deal of meaning about how the Chinese view themselves and their world, closely identifying the individual as a member of the larger social family in the 'Big Family'. This is deeply rooted in the Chinese way of thinking and organizing that has developed over thousands of years of history and is incorporated into basic everyday language.
For the individual, this social model as a member of a larger family starts with the circle of family and friends, the 'pengyou' (friend) network, extending to business associates and beyond. The concept of the 'Big Family' organized as ever wider circles within circles is perfectly expressed in the structure of Beijing's modern city freeway system, setup as logical interconnected concentric circles of increasingly larger Ring Roads, starting at the center of the city at Tiananmen.
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Cynthia Chan — 12 July 2006
Ask any young Chinese what they want to be and you’re likely to hear them explain that they are not sure yet, but they want lives that express their personalities and their individual uniqueness. This might not be surprising coming from a New Yorker or young person living in London, but until very recently, the idea that life should reflect individual tastes was unthinkable in China. Life there was dictated by the community, the family, and tradition. The desires of an individual were irrelevant and potentially disruptive. But capitalism thrives on individualism, so Chinese society is adjusting to accommodate it. In searching for their personal identity, China’s young adults are happy to be the country’s guinea pigs for this.
That’s not to say they do this easily. In addition to the Maoist legacy, China has a long history of collectivism that prioritizes the needs of the group over the individual. To value self-expression is to confront deeply entrenched behaviors and beliefs, and it would be naïve to suggest this doesn’t cause tension and conflict. Nevertheless, the trend is gaining steam and spreading well beyond the relatively sophisticated coastal cities. Right now, expressing personality is about the hottest thing a young Chinese can do.
LiAnne Yu — 10 July 2006
Myths and stereotypes about the Chinese abound in the press, in marketing books, and in presentations. One of the most prevalent false characterizations is that the Chinese are a homogenous people. In truth, China is a multicultural country that recognizes 56 nationalities within its borders. Ethnic groups often cluster in geographic areas, contributing to notable regional distinctions. The great majority of the Chinese population (92 percent) is Han, but this group subdivides into many distinct groups with significant linguistic, social, and cultural differences. As individuals stream into the large metropolitan areas from all points of China, they bring their differences with them and contribute to the mix of influences brewing in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and their sister cities along the coast.
Cynthia Chan — 28 June 2006
One hot afternoon in May, I was attracted to the crowd as I stepped into the New World Department Store on Nanjing Road. The much-fascinated crowd was mesmerized by the closeness between them and international stars Yao Ming and David Beckham. Flashes went non-stop from their digital cameras and camera phones as they take turns to measure up against Yao or fondly put their arms around Beckham.
Almost everyone in the world knows Beckham is in Germany playing in the World Cup, what I saw was actually his wax figure on display at the entrance of the newly-opened Madame Tussauds’ museum in Shanghai. Attracted by the city's fast-moving reputation, early discussions and planning of this sixth museum in the world started in 2004.
Sure enough, the museum attracted loads of Shanghai locals as well as Chinese tourists from other cities. Knowing Chinese’s passion of picture-taking, the museum plans a wide range of photo opportunities to suit visitors’ needs. They are even generous enough to let the crowd went up close with Yao Ming and Beckham at the entrance area.
One of my local friends stopped by the following day trying to get a glimpse of Beckham but found that he was gone. The staff says Beckham was sent to the repair shop. I’m guessing he was “melted” by the support of his fans in China! I am sure he will be back in action very soon.
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LiAnne Yu — 27 June 2006
China is in the news every day, but many business people we meet still don’t have a sense of the country’s magnitude. We think the simplest way to gain that is through comparison. China is geographically about the same size as the U.S., but it has four times the population. It has about 1/3 the rail and highway systems and a tiny fraction of the airports. Despite its lack of transportation infrastructure, it’s home to the only commercial MagLev train in the world. It’s also building modern subways faster than any other country.
In terms of its population of 1.3 billion, roughly half are under age 30. That’s more than twice the population of the U.S.—all under 30 years old.
Still thinking of China as an undeveloped country? It currently has 400 million cell phone users. As of the government’s last report in 2003, nearly all urban households owned a washer, a refrigerator and at least one color TV. More than half of urban households owned an air conditioner and a DVD player. Nearly a quarter of urban households owned a computer. Given the country’s astronomical growth, these percentages are undoubtedly much higher now.
Christopher Ireland — 24 June 2006
When I was a young child, no dinner at my grandparents’ house was complete without a stern warning from my grandmother: “Eat your dinner! Children in China are starving!” I never could figure out why eating my dinner had any connection with children in China, but I believed her and for decades afterward thought of the Chinese only in terms of hungry children without enough rice.
That image is gone now. As I and my co-authors, LiAnne Yu and Cynthia Chan have spent the last six months writing “China’s New Culture of Cool,” (available in September), the hungry children have been replaced with the faces of millions of optimistic, ambitious and confident young people who are reaching out to each other and the rest of the world. They’re not seeking food this time—they’re seeking their future.
Over the next few months, LiAnne, Cynthia and others from our China team will post excerpts from our upcoming book along with the personal comments they normally provide. I’m taking a brief sabbatical, but will return in time for the book’s launch.
Cynthia Chan — 11 June 2006
I flew into Pudong around 6:30 PM yesterday night. Everywhere I looked were signs of the World Cup--even though it's taking place thousands of miles away in Germany. As we landed, I saw planes from Lufthansa and Emirates decorated with the World Cup decal. The nose of the Lufthansa plane was painted to look like a soccer ball. As I headed into the city, billboards with World Cup sponsorships were everywhere and on the street, Chinese were wearing t-shirts from the teams they support. Pubs and restaurants have hauled in the latest plasma screen TVs to accommodate fans and there's plenty of content to keep them happy. In my hotel, I wrapped up the evening switching from one station to another--more than half of the channels were covering the World Cup in one way or another. If this is how China reacts to the World Cup, imagine the receptions they'll give to the Olympics in Beijing.
LiAnne Yu — 18 February 2006
In China, food is love. Food represents familial ties and status between people: the elderly and most prestigious guests are always served the first and best parts of the dish. Food represents commitment: business deals and marriages aren’t sealed with paperwork but by the opulence of the dinner banquet. Food represents all that Chinese parents feel but aren’t in the habit of saying: parents will spend without limit on fancy packaged snacks to show their love for their little emperors and empresses. And increasingly, food represents China’s window to the world.
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LiAnne Yu — 4 February 2006
It’s commonly believed that Asians value collectivism over individualism – and that’s what differentiates them from Westerners. This dichotomy is attractive because of its simplicity (and its subtle implication of Western superiority), but fails to capture the complexity of modern-day Asian consumer lifestyles. Our ethnographic research across the region has captured many of the tensions between the traditional values of group conformity and the increasingly potent desire to lead modern lifestyles based on self-expression. The most successful brands in Asia have captured the spirit of Asia’s unique forms of individualism.
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Cynthia Chan — 31 January 2006
Li Yuchun made the TIMEAsia list of “heroes” for 2005.
Li was the winner for the “Super Girl’s Voice” (an American Idol-type singing contest) held in August 2005. The show drew in the largest audience in the history of Chinese TV. Li, some says, didn’t top other contestants with her voice or dance moves, however, her unique appearance and personality helped her draw in most audience votes via SMS to win the contest. As of now, she’s still one of the most searched/mentioned names on various websites in China.
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LiAnne Yu — 6 November 2005
I recently spoke on two separate panels, both addressing China’s consumer revolution. One was at the U.S. - China Executive Summit, which included business and political leaders. The second was for World Trade Week in NYC, which included leaders in design and brand management. The key question on everyone’s mind was this: can Chinese brands compete successfully with global ones, like Nike, McDonald’s and Sony? The economists in the crowd were skeptical, citing irrational business practices and a dearth of Western style management skills in China. As an ethnographer and consumer trends watcher, I approach the question from a different angle.
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Darrel Rhea — 2 October 2005
About a year ago, an ex-employee who now lives in China called and asked me to be on the board of directors of a Chinese brewing company he had the opportunity to buy. While that venture didn't come together, my friend has his fingers in a wide range of other businesses ranging from exporting organically grown foods and ingredients to the Chinese music business, where he is very successfully managing and producing his eldest daughter’s career. Not only is she on her way to being a Chinese rock star, but they are branching out into ad jingles for the European market. He’s definitely an opportunistic entrepreneur operating on the frontier of a developing market.
Though the venture he is building is still small, he is a good example of what is happening with business in China these days. Where opportunities abound, opportunism rears its interested head. Many, like my friend, are scrambling to take advantage of the openings provided by changes in regulation, changes in values, changes in capital availability, and changes at almost every other level. What is especially interesting about this situation is that the dynamic nature of this market makes it exceptionally hard for businessmen to plan and manage based on “sound” (traditional) principles and expect long term success to come of it. As Donald Sull termed it, in his excellent recent publication, Made In China, it’s “the fog of the future.”
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Cynthia Chan — 4 August 2005
One of the many reasons clients send us to China is to help them create brand names that work in a country with over a billion people spread across a vast geographic area. This is both an art and a science, as this recent article by Doris Ho implies. Formal rules and guidelines exist, but creativity also plays a crucial role in finding the right name and expressing it correctly. For example,
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LiAnne Yu — 25 June 2005
China is once again on the cover of Time. I’m happy to see the coverage, but I'm concerned about the media's obsession with the so-called U.S.-China “competition.” Articles focus on questions like “What does China want?” as though the country were a petulant child or indecipherable woman.
Why are the consumer longings of the Chinese always cast in a suspicious tone? For some reason, the media seems to need to portray Chinese consumerism as a political practice with the goal of toppling the U.S. That's not only inaccurate, it's inflamatory and completely undervalues the immense opportunity that China represents to the U.S.
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Cynthia Chan — 23 June 2005
Walking down Wangfujing Street, a pedestrian shopping zone in Beijing, I was mesmerized by the range of brands I saw in stores that lined both sides of the street – brands from all over the world. The most interesting and intriguing aspect of this scene was how brands in China are behaving in a more bold and dynamic way than they did in the past.
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LiAnne Yu — 13 June 2005
As China continues to climb in prominence as a world market, it's become common for US companies hoping to expand in China to conduct focus groups and individual interviews with customers, especially in Shanghai and Beijing. But for companies really hoping to make a significant impact in this country, deeper insights are required. As such, early mover companies are hiring ethnographers to provide a richer, more culturally complex view of the country that inspires both strategists and design teams.
The pay off is tremendous, but doing this well is not easy. Here are some tips:
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Cynthia Chan — 8 June 2005
When I flew into Beijing International airport yesterday evening, it was obvious that the city is already gearing up for the 2008 Olympics. From what I can see, this preparation is not just limited to the official Olympic organizing team. The entire city seems to be collaborating to pull this off.
The first sign are the dozens and dozens of billboards from proud sponsors like Visa, GE, Budweiser and Samsung, crowded side-by-side from the terminal to the main highway. This is followed by unending construction in preparation for the influx of visitors the event is expected to bring--new highways, more trees, a new Ritz-Carlton. In the city itself, preparation for the Olympics is a topic that everyone can discuss. An article in the China Daily today talks about the Olympic Volunteer program the government put in place to attract recruits. The book "Knowledge our Citizens Need to Know about the Olympics" is prominently placed in bookstores, and includes a detailed history of the Olympics, descriptions of the opening and closing cermonies, a list of Chinese gold medalists and other topics intended to raise the population's awareness.
The world seems to easlily accept that China can efficiently produce a wide range of products. What we often don't see is how efficiently they've been able to transform their cities, not only for the upcoming Olympics, but throughout the country. China currently has 166 cities with populations exceeding 1 million. The US has 9.
Cynthia Chan — 6 June 2005
I flew into Beijing yesterday evening. Even though I've been traveling to China for many years, it's reinventing itself so fast, I can never get complacent about what I know. If China were a corporation, we would all be in awe at how rapidly and pervasively they are innovating. Here are a few interesting changes I picked up in Day 1:
- the city is clearly gearing up for the 2008 Olympics. I'll write more about that later this week.
- private companies are starting to offer health insurance (versus state-owned ones as before). This could be
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LiAnne Yu — 6 May 2005
The term Diaspora is traditionally used to describe Jews living in different parts of the world outside of Israel. But ever increasingly in academic and mainstream publications, we hear about something called the Chinese diaspora. This diaspora consists of over 50 million ethnic Chinese living outside of mainland China-roughly the population of Great Britain, and two and a half times the number of ethnic Indians living outside of India. Why, as brand and product design researchers, should we incorporate the concept of diaspora into our methods?
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LiAnne Yu — 2 May 2005
China is a multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual nation. In China there are 7 major language groups (with over 8000 dialects), 56 ethnic groups, and 200 million Muslims (that’s two thirds the total U.S. population). So why do marketers continue to refer to the country in homogeneous terms? Why is the U.S. perceived as multicultural, while China continues to be described as uniformly “Chinese”?
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Cynthia Chan — 29 March 2005
When you flip through magazines, zap through TV channels, or even walk around town, in China, it is not hard for you to spot lots of faces in various ads, commercials and billboards. You may not find these faces familiar but they definitely send messages out to the Chinese population in China.
Celebrity endorsements and the use of spokesperson were popular in Greater China for years, and they span across almost every categories of products and services, from skin whitening products, digital cameras and mobile phones, to refrigerators, air-conditioners and cars. There is more and more variety injected in the recent years as far as who marketers use as their spokesperson.
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Darrel Rhea — 4 March 2005
The growing impact of China on all of our lives has been frequent conversation here for a few years, but every few days it takes on a clearer focus for me. The most recent insight that stopped me in my tracks this week was a statistic that William McDonough and I talked about. Bill is one of the world’s leading architects and is currently designing new cities for China. He reported that the government will build housing for over 400 million people in the next 12 years.
Now, think about that: building housing for almost twice the population of the US virtually all at once. If you think about what that will do to the world’s demand for building materials of all kinds, you’ll quickly conclude that prices for many things you will need to buy are going to go up.
I was stunned by the scale of this undertaking -- and was suspicious that Bill’s passionate advocacy for environmental issues might have caused some exaggeration, so I brought up the issue at breakfast this morning with a very senior official in the Department of Commerce who leads our trade negotiations. He thinks Bill’s numbers are conservative! The Chinese government’s campaign to pull 800 million people out of poverty is perhaps the world’s most ambitious “bottom of the pyramid” development program. What an incredible opportunity for design to create a sustainable, human environment.
It is becoming clear that China will be the driving global influence in the industrial economy. The US, fueled largely by California’s technology and entertainment sectors, will continue to drive the world’s definition of ownership of intellectual property. The collision of these forces will create conditions critical for business to navigate. How will it change your actions? What should you be doing differently right now?
Darrel Rhea — 4 March 2005
The growing impact of China on all of our lives has been frequent conversation here for a few years, but every few days it takes on a clearer focus for me. The most recent insight that stopped me in my tracks this week was a statistic that William McDonough and I talked about. Bill is one of the world’s leading architects and is currently designing new cities for China. He reported that the government will build housing for over 400 million people in the next 12 years.
Now, think about that: building housing for almost twice the population of the US virtually all at once. If you think about what that will do to the world’s demand for building materials of all kinds, you’ll quickly conclude that prices for many things you will need to buy are going to go up.
I was stunned by the scale of this undertaking -- and was suspicious that Bill’s passionate advocacy for environmental issues might have caused some exaggeration, so I brought up the issue at breakfast this morning with a very senior official in the Department of Commerce who leads our trade negotiations. He thinks Bill’s numbers are conservative! The Chinese government’s campaign to pull 800 million people out of poverty is perhaps the world’s most ambitious “bottom of the pyramid” development program. What an incredible opportunity for design to create a sustainable, human environment.
It is becoming clear that China will be the driving global influence in the industrial economy. The US, fueled largely by California’s technology and entertainment sectors, will continue to drive the world’s definition of ownership of intellectual property. The collision of these forces will create conditions critical for business to navigate. How will it change your actions? What should you be doing differently right now?
Christopher Ireland — 17 February 2005
One of the best parts about working at Cheskin is the voyeurism. For some, this may be a psychological weakness; for us, it's a job benefit. We literally get to peak in people's closets, watch them shop, and hear about their dreams. This has fed my voyeuristic appetite for decades, but it's reaching new heights of novelty as we spend increasing amounts of time in China.
I think you'll find our China insights just as intriguing as I do, so over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to relay thru this blog the adventures we're having in that amazing country. We have a team leaving in a couple of days who will be traveling across several regions, and they've promised to check in often with anything that captures their attention. Stay tuned!
LiAnne Yu — 30 January 2005
Economic change in China has slowly brought upon increased freedom of expression. And so I find it incredibly exciting and unprecedented to see blogging culture take off among China’s 90 million (and growing) Internet users. Bloggers, called “bo ke” in Chinese, are flocking to sites such as blogchina.com and CNblog.org. In addition, China’s 320 million mobile phone users can now use “moblogging” services, to send text and photos directly from their phones to their blogs.
How will the nature of news and information exchange develop in China? How will youths in the remote regions learn about (and maybe even influence) fashion, music, art, and literature? China’s bo ke culture may give us some indication.
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LiAnne Yu — 27 September 2004
Dichotomies between East and West have permeated thinking about politics, economics, and cultures for centuries. The West is thought to be dynamic, creative, individualistic, and forward thinking. The East is often portrayed as static, derivative, collectivistic, and traditional. During an event that I spoke at last week on design for Asia, these issues came up in the often repeated question: Can the Chinese develop a culture of innovation?
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LiAnne Yu — 1 June 2004
While flying to NYC on United last week, I caught a special segment entitled “Digital Cool,” featuring Samsung’s design vision for China’s mobile market. At the heart of this was a special on Chinese women and their mobile phones. Global companies have definitely caught on to the fact that women in China are defining their work, leisure, and romantic identities in ways that are very different from the generation under Mao’s regime. And in a society where the rules of status are being dynamically rewritten through product ownership, Chinese women consider mobile phones to be reflections of their newfound femininity and agency.
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LiAnne Yu — 13 May 2004
I read an article in Newsweek Asia recently about the new face of tourism: newly rich and mobile Mainland Chinese who are traveling outside of their country’s borders for the first time and in ever increasing numbers. It’s certainly common to see ethnic Chinese from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the West as tourists, but Mainland Chinese have not, until very recently, been allowed to leave their country for leisure travel. The lifting of political restrictions under the Communist regime and the economic boom have created, for the first time in China’s history, a middle class with the means and the itch to travel abroad.
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