Gold Digger Buzz on Chinese Forums
Thanks to French blogger Olivier from Marketing Chine for this xx
This video by Aussie animation production Studio Joho is creating quite some buzz on Chinese forums where it is named 别以为打败boss就能过关, or “Don’t think it’s over once you win over the boss”…(as in the boss in video games, although it makes sense in real life too).
Why is it making a hit here ? Let’s just say young and vigorous males in China, besides having a huge pressure to struggle let alone to succeed, have to deal with high expectations from the ladies here.
No, it is no shocker there are all kind of diggers everywhere, but China is the kind of country where men are perceived naturally as providers – it is common practice that the guy buys an apartment for the couple before even getting engaged.
Any comments ladies & gentlemen?
Must-read : The REAL Chinese you never learned in school
Wandering between air gates with a lot of time on my hands, I entered a book shop in Shanghai Pudong airport with the vague hope of finding an alternative to Vogue Australia or How to succeed in China in 5 minutes.
And for once, my low expectations weren’t disappointed : the title “NIUBI ! The Real Chinese you were never taught in school”, says it all. This book, brace yourself, contains words and phrases that would embarass the sneakiest passenger next seat looking over your shoulder..
You will learn many useful stuff including that Niubi means literally “cow cunt”, how to write the original character for “fuck” that actually disappeared of phones and computers typing systems and many, many other phrases that my education forbids to disclose here because my mum reads this blog sometimes.
I’ll just say it contains anything from flirting and dating to gay slang, internet slang, sex, and even words for the kind of action you regret the next morning (you, not me, cause of course I never do such thing as regret).
A short introduction
Niubi ! is abso-niubi-lutely hilar, and not in a gross stupid ha-ha way, because the author Eveline Chao conducted her research religiously and to the point of adding historical references, Chinese characters, pinyin pronunciation and even notes on regional slang differences. Don’t laugh, there is some serious work involved there. The book does carry some flaws that only a true connoisseur of Chinese language with sharp eyes would spot, but this only calls for a second edition. Would be fun for Eveline Chao to include some high-profile language specialists in the process for a brush-up. Just sayin’..
Available in any indecent bookstore or on Amazon here
PS According to China Smack, it did cause some controversy among Chinese netizens, if you have nothing else to do, read their comments
The Fast Food Fight Club
McDo waitresses © Si Mao Savait
I was always told it is rude to play with food but fast food doesn’t really count, right?
I just love the latest marketing operation of Mc Donald’s in China : coupons from KFC and Burger King can be used at Mc Donald’s until March 23rd. This is priceless : imagine you being in KFC marketing team, working your ass off, trying to get budget from the account guys for investing in some campaigns, standing behind the designer until it is done, doing silly excel tabs for planning, only to get your clients stolen by Mc Do…That’s infuriatingly brilliant.
You can read the original article (in French) on Si Mao Savait – If Mao only knew…or just order a take-away :
KFC arrived in China in 1987 with a shop near Tiananmen Square. Actually, that’s where I had my first KFC when my Chinese friends took me there in 1992 and I remember being quite happy having something else than noodles (for my defense, I was 12) but I digress. KFC with 2000 locations is the leader on the Chinese market with “localized” menu with a chicken base and a family . The ratio here KFC vs McDo is 2:1, the opposite of other markets throughout the world. If you should order, dial 4008 823 823. But you should know that my uncle’s cats, which are fat greedy thieves, don’t eat KFC…
McDonald’s came first in Shenzhen in 1990 and counts today around 1000 locations. Interestingly, McDo is perceived by Chinese people as foreign : only 8% think it is a Chinese brand, vs 25% of Chinese considering Coca Cola as local. McDo is also opened 24/7 with delivery available at 4008 517 517 (517 pronunciation in Chinese is close to “Wo Yao Chi” meaning I wanna eat) and the company recently signed an agreement with Sinopec to develop Drive-Ins in gas stations throughout the country.
Last but not least, Burger King has around 30 locations and adopts a “higher” positioning with menus around 28 Y vs 15 Y for its competitors, playing the foreign card with allegedly swiss cheese melted in their buns and high-end locations (like Beijing Airport latest Terminal 3), and you can order in Shanghai on Sherpa’s.
One last for the road : McDo @ 4am
Google in China, 99.9 percent boring
Death by boredom or Will Google leave China Cliffhanger
The Financial Times just published an article creating a huge buzz - 32 million search results for the term “China Google 99.9%”. Quote :
“Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.”
I am truly impressed by this information. Honestly? A “person familiar with the company’s thinking” saying Google is “99.9 per cent certain” to leave? Give me a break.
Is this article saying anything we don’t know? No. It just contributes to remind us ”Meanwhile, in a far, far away land called China, Google is almost sure, but not quite to leave”. What do you think will happen ?
99.9% Leave
Google leaving China? Only Google.cn. The whole R&D center based in Beijing will unlikely poof! and disappear, because a) innovation is one of the of the G b) this would affect the company’s long term strategy and c) Chinese brains are less expensive then US ones. Let’s not talk about Androids phones in a market of 700 million subscribers…
0.1% Stay and compromise. I’m sure the PR guys in their sharp suits will come up with some brilliant plan to cover up both China and Google’s pretty faces and make everyone happy for ever after.
Perhaps that’s about time for Google to change their legendary “Don’t be Evil”. I suggest : “Don’t be boring.”
Who knows ? Maybe in the next episode, an anonymous insider will communicate some useless information. And maybe Kelly and Dylan will tell Brenda what happened last summer.
The Avatar Effect in China
No one's safe from the Avatar fever - Mud sculptures by Chinese artists
My geeky friends were stomping their feets like 3 yrs olds in front of the ice cream machine a couple months before its release. Every week, I’d hear stuff about this upcoming movie. Did I say movie? Thousands of people involved in the project. 20th Century Fox, Ubisoft, James Cameron…sorry it’s not a movie, it’s an “experrrience”. Whatever.
Worlwide release on Dec 18th. Golden Globe for Best Picture since and still dominating worldwide box office. Avatar, behind its “save the environment” message is making cash. Loads of it. 3-D showings have brought in $1.35 billion of the film’s total gross and predicted to gross at least $2.2 billion by the time it’s over. Can you hear Leo screaming “I am the King of the World”? That’s James Cameron now. And that ship ain’t sinking…
In mainland China, Avatar has earned RMB680 million (US$100 million) at the box office since it opened on January 4 (the run was allegedly delayed for Bodyguards & Assassins). The distributor China Film Group (CFG) also predicts that the box office takings will reach RMB800 million (US$117.13 million) by the time it finishes screening in Chinese cinemas.
But hey, China is not like anywhere else. On her early journey to Pandora, my friend (the geeky one with an even more geeky and brilliant boyfriend who designed my logos) went naively to the only IMAX 3D movie theatre in Shanghai, the Peace Cinema 和平影都...In fact of peaceful, people were lining up for a couple blocks and some were even fighting to get in to see Avatar, 阿凡达…
They went back home and tried to find a solution on Internet but only to find a raging war there too: the price had reached 18O RMB and only lowered again to 150 RMB after online protestation. Getting a ticket was Mission Impossible and paying 400 RMB to scalpers, well, pretty much out of the question.
This is how much people here were starving for this kind of entertainment.
Facing that unsual enthusiasm – and for a foreign movie, that is, the SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television) decided it was about time to take off Avatar from all 2D cinemas : this basically means stopping the screenings. Rumor has it the mega-hit had been ordered to stop to make way for Confucius, that masterpiece with Chow Yun Fat…
This weekend, the IMAX bookings for Avatar were still full in Shanghai. Perhaps people should go to Hunan instead. Over there, they have the Avatar’s Hallelujah mountain in the real life. A tribute to Cameron’s sensational contribution to the world and a noticeable attempt to boost the area’s tourism, the mountain “South Pillar of Heaven” 南天一柱 was renamed “Hallelujah Mountain”.
The moral of the story : a Chinese Rock star is born..haha
Top Chinese Tech & Online Trends for the Year of Tiger
New Year, new trends…Time to have a look around what’s going on here in China. What’s disappointing and odd however is to write a post about trends and using words like “blocked” and “banned”…Anyway, let’s see what we’ve got here…
E-Books
When a major online game company moves to litterature and sets up an independant e-book unit, there is no doubt about the growth in the e-book sector for 2010. This trend, causing issues of IPR, will also bring up opportunities for technology devices and content – let’s follow the evolution of digital novels and authors. To be followed : the latest Chinese e-book Bambook (in Chinese 连环书) launched by Shanda with 3G and wifi functions.
Cloud Computing
New government policies encourage domestic market growth, banning foreign-funded cloud computing firms from participating in this sector in China (sigh again…). Domestic firms like Kingsoft will continue reinforcing their applications suites as cloud computing services like Salesforce and GoogleDocs are still partially blocked here.
Chinese Search Engines & Mobile search
With Google’s threat of pulling the plug out of China, it is no surprise local rivals positions will be be even more dominating the search market : Baidu, Sogou and other smaller search engines will move to mobile phones with mobile-ready applications for targeting China’s 223 million mobile netizens.
Technology Events
Financial crisis and diminished budgets caused a high percentage of canceled events in 2009. This year should see more technology-related events, conferences and training programs in China and surrounding regions. Shanghai Expo should also be a trigger for top meetings.
Online Video Crackdowns
2008 and 2009 were certainly years of online restrictions, not only for foreign players like Youtube and Facebook, Google’s move but also for local privately-funded companies. Online video sharing websites are certainly the most targeted, hence a possible alliance between giants like Youku, Tudou and Baidu. Foreign investment in that sector is not recommended…
Viral ads
More rules to the online sector will lead to a more structured market and online content providers will look for optimizing their content to strengthen their positions. Meanwhile, booming numbers of China’s netizens will draw the attention of publishers for cost-effective solutions. This is where I’d put my 2010 budget.
What do you think?