China Youth Watch by China Youthology

Season’s Greetings | New Year P-A-R-T-Y @ China Youthology

China Youthology — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:59:41 +0800

It’s holiday season again! China Youthology has ‘survived’ another year and grown closer to where we want to be. We are really grateful for all the support from our clients, experts, and young and old friends! And we really hope to celebrate the holiday with our friends! ^_^

As always we are dedicated to be a ‘bridge’: providing support for the youth, and bringing ‘the older ones’ closer to the youth’s world. We are much honored to host Ray Lei’s solo exhibition and hold a live show of SNP and MC J-fever & MC Ray Lei in Qing Gong Guan. Join us with our friends from music, art, media, sports, technology, and youth-focused brands…

27th Dec, Sunday

LINE UP AND AGENDA

3PM
Opening for Ray Lei Solo Animation Art Exhibition at Qing Gong Guan

7PM
Live show of MC J-fever (MC Battle National Champion) & MC Ray Lei
Live Show of SNP (Super refreshing Indie Pop band)

ADDRESS

No. 23, Chaibang Hutong, Andingmennei Street, Dong Cheng District, Beijing
北京东城区安定门内大街柴棒胡同23号 (See MAP below)

Drinks and snacks are provided

MORE ABOUT RAY LEI, J-FEVER, AND SNP BAND
J-Fever (小老虎): http://www.douban.com/artist/jfever/
SNP Band: http://www.douban.com/artist/snpmusic/
Ray Lei: http://www.douban.com/people/2485936/

Ray Lei Animation Art Exhibition

MC J-Fever

SNP

Give us a shout here or via email if you would like to come!

Dream of a Chinese Skater

China Youthology — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:28:23 +0800

By Lisa Li

Recently China Youthology immersed a lot with Chinese action sports community (skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding) by talking to players, hanging out with them, and following them on SNS, with the purpose of understanding the values or culture codes of this community in Chinese context.

The community is still very small in China – far from comparable to the west. However, with more than 15 years of history, action sports community have much richer culture and legacy than we expected. Several generations of enthusiasts have made great effort. However with the lack of infrastructure, media exposure, and steadfast commercial support, it has been extremely difficult for the community to grow.

The video is about the dream of one of the skaters in China. Hope the video shows a bit about the valuable inspirations we got from a deeper dive into this youth subculture. If you are interested in finding more about the skater, you can check out his website kickerclub.com.

Great Minds Think Alike, Or Not: interview with W+K Planning Director Nick Barham

China Youthology — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:07:46 +0800

Making Noise in Youth Marketing

By Jay Mark Caplan

Nick Barham is planning director of Wieden and Kennedy, the agency behind the 2008 Converse Love Noise campaign. Fans of Chinese indie rock lauded the Converse- sponsored five city rock road trip and the campaign built around it as a great platform for Chinese bands. Converse certainly cemented the loyalty of the niche indie rock audience. But how do mainstream Chinese youth relate to their ‘edgier’ peers? Are rockers viable influencers? Here Barham speaks at length about youth marketing in China and teaming up with emerging youth cultures to reach a mass audience.

CY: What was the idea behind Lovenoise?

Nick: When we started working with Converse, we wanted to come up with something more meaningful than what other youth brands were doing, something that has a better connection with the audience.

CY: What kind of marketing did you want to depart from?

Nick: Most youth brands have a similar strategy: they all identify one or more safe and highly visible celebrities, and create a brand world or image that’s aspirational - perfect and slick, and they communicate an anodyne bland message. In markets like Europe or the US, a lot of brands have co-opted an underground aesthetic, a rebellious point of view. They have explicitly gone out of their way to make tightly targeted communications that might not be understood by the older generation, consciously appropriating a rougher language. I don’t think that’s happening here, and I don’t think that’s because younger kids can’t understand it or take it in, I think that’s where brands are at. Most marketing is happening at a safer level.

CY: Why do you think everyone is locked in this model?

Nick: There’s a mainstream dream that’s been peddled in China which goes: if you’re a good kid, and do well in exams, go to college, then you’ll get a nice white collar job and house with a mortgage. This is the middle class promise being held out to families, to people growing up in China, and a lot of people are still at the point where that’s massively interesting.

Being edgy, having a provocative or slightly rebellious attitude, is a luxury, and it comes once you’ve got the basics of enough money to have food, clothes, education. So in a lot of tier two, three or four cities, many kids are still very interested in branded clothes, or not working at the shitty job their parents had and having something slightly better. They’re looking for more comfort or more material goods or a higher income, and are not that interested in a particular style or attitude that challenges the mainstream because they haven’t even made it into the mainstream yet.

So by that definition, I think you can understand why a lot of brands don’t want to come up with confrontational or provocative messages because it’s completely over the heads of the emerging middle class audience interested in material goods and status rather than turning things on their head.

CY: If that’s the case, what choice do marketers have?

Nick: Brands should be brave enough to behave differently, because young people are more tolerant to difference, although it depends on how you do it. The way you talk about edginess must be different than elsewhere. Converse is about rebellion and original creativity, and that has a different sense here than in other countries. You have to be edgy without being negative or destructive or too rebellious.

CY: Are edgy youth viable influencers for campaigns?

Nick: I don’t think there necessarily is an influence connection between edgy kids and mainstream kids.

We did some interviews with skateboarders, and they look like skateboarders everywhere else: they have the clothes, the moves- they look like a cool subculture. But they believe that other kids in their age group see them as scruffy losers, not as having chosen to do something that is about free will and self expression and hanging out, but as dropouts that don’t have any money.

This is particularly interesting amongst professional skateboarders, people who are being paid or supported by brands, and therefore making fair bit of money out of skateboarding, because they’re still perceived by people outside the scene as dropouts or losers despite the fact that they probably have a better income than people making those judgments.

CY: Why did Converse choose to work with Chinese rock and roll?

Nick: Converse is a lucky brand: if you look through rock history you find people like Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain wearing Converse. That strong connection with music is especially interesting in China [where rock music is relatively new]. We felt, here is a lively creative scene, and no brands have gone there because it doesn’t fit their model of what an interesting aspirational scene should look like.

CY: So in doing the Love Noise campaign, what was your strategy for using indie rock figures to reach the mainstream?

Nick: We tried to share the spirit that inspires people in bands in a form that went beyond people who are hardcore into indie music. The Love Noise road trip appeals to a few hundred thousand people, and we captured it in a photographic and film campaign that makes that spirit appealing to a broader group of people, and gives these niche musicians broader visibility and appeal. If you look at the work, I think it strikes a nice balance between a unique aesthetic and captures that scene spirit, but without presenting something too niche or grubby or difficult.

CY: Was this a successful approach?

Nick: I think it worked out pretty well; since that campaign you’ve seen a lot of brands adopting a similar message and aesthetic suggesting that this kind of creativity now has more credibility, and is becoming more aspirational.

Guest blogger Jay Mark Caplan: Over the last four years, Jay has been in Greater China working as an advertising copywriter, market researcher, blogger, and television show host. Currently, Jay is back in Canada working in film production and applying to Masters programs, but he will certainly return to China soon.

Let’s Spread: Butter Youth Conference

China Youthology — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:13:21 +0800

By Lisa Li

It has become a cliché to say that Chinese youth are eager to express. Marketers wanted to provide ‘stage’ for them to ‘express themselves’. Under the surface of the various fancy forms of expression (you name it, from singing, dancing, bands, to design, graffiti…), hardly ever did any of the ‘stages’ care to know why the youth want to express and what they want to express.

China Youthology Butter Youth Conference wants to provide a platform for edgy youth as well as common youth to talk about what they aspire, what they fear, what inspires them… It is not a gathering of elites, but a platform for diversity of youthfulness, and hopefully a platform for marketers to know more about what youth care to talk about.

This year China Youthology visited more than 40 universities in various cities. And we were lucky enough to have the opportunities to work on a couple of exciting projects that covers a wide variety of communities. An overall feeling is that the evolving individuality expands their horizons as well as takes them to bigger anxieties. Chinese youth are searching for meanings, searching for their unique identities, while feeling the tension of dream and reality. Yes all previous generations struggled with dream and reality, but today’s youth are exposed to the biggest number of possibilities while probably more conscious about the increasing uncertainties and risks than the post 70s. Butter Youth Conference hopes to inject courage to youth by sharing of the dreams, enthusiasm, and efforts of their peers.

Thankful to TEDxShanghai in June, the organizing committee of which invited China Youthology to introduce young speakers for a ‘youth section’ in June. The young speakers surprised us. Their genuine passion really engaged and inspired the audience. The inspiration led to today’s Butter.

The first Butter on Nov 14th invited 6 speakers. Fangfang talked about how the hobby of photography has given him a new angle of experiencing life. Gaigai talked about his experience of dancing on the opening of This Is It and how dancing as a hobby inspired his life. Zhang Xin spoke about a 5-year project of China Arts Academy on ‘China family aesthetic ethnographic research’ and his new work inspired by the project. And Candy’s ‘toy travel’ stories, Ryan’s street singer investigation, Tao’s own experience of ‘when post 80s teacher meets post 90s students’.

LET’S SPREAD!

Fangfang talked about how the hobby of photography has given him a new angle of experiencing life.

Gaigai talked about his experience of dancing on the opening of This Is It and how dancing as a hobby inspired his life.

Zhang Xin spoke about a 5-year project of China Arts Academy on ‘China family aesthetic ethnographic research’ and his new work inspired by the project.

Candy’s ‘toy travel’ stories.

Ryan’s street singer investigation.

Tao’s own experience of ‘when post 80s teacher meets post 90s students’.

China Youthology ‘Qing Gong Guan’ (‘青公馆’)

China Youthology — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:59:32 +0800

By: Lisa Li & Zafka Zhang

China Youthology has moved to Chai Bang Hutong (close to An Ding Men Bridge 安定门桥 and Guo Zi Jian 国子监 Hutong). ‘Qing Gong Guan’ (‘青公馆’) can mean youth’s ‘manor’ (more like joking) or youth public space (this translation makes more sense).

As we always believe, China Youthology is least close to conventional market research agencies. We are an open research platform and a bridge between youth brands and local youth culture/ communities. Qing Gong Guan is designed to be ‘office’ plus ’space for youth’ plus ‘platform to bridge’.

What to expect?

1. Qing Gong Guan is part of the field for youth research (‘field’ for ‘fieldwork’). In its ‘open day’, everyone is welcome to come for a drink, a chat, a gathering, or an self-organized event. Qing Gong Guan Open Day will be part of the youth community that will launch in Nov.

‘Youth Lounge’ will be held regularly. It is similar to Focus Group Discussions, but more casual, flexible, participant-oriented, and involving more generative tasks. In the latest ‘Youth Lounge’ we held two workshops with students and working adults respectively to explore topics we are working on for Youthology Monthly. We abandon cash incentives but taking more effort to make it an experience that is valuable for participants (they can learn, socialize, and have fun here) and build long-term relationship with them.

Below are pictures of the latest ‘Youth Lounge’.

Photos of Youthology Lounge No. 1 @ Qing Gong Guan

View more documents from chinayouthology.

2. Space for youth. Probably more than anyone else, we understand and sympathize the desires and intimidation of Chinese youth in pursuing their dreams. QGG is a space and an empowerment. We provide a venue for their exhibitions, shows, parties, and events all for free. A few exhibitions will be held soon.

3. Insight catalyst and bridge for youth brands and youth culture promoters. ‘Youthology Saloon’ invite youth marketers and youth culture experts to investigate and explore innovative ways of youth marketing that bring both higher ROI to marketers and opportunities to nurturing local youth culture.

We held a pilot ‘Youthology Saloon’ at the end of Sep. Our team shared learnings on youth culture. Two students talked about their stories. And youth marketers (Pepsico and Lining) also shared their experience, insights, and questions about youth marketing. Special thanks to Jean who took a tiring one-day trip from Shanghai to Beijing particularly for this event! There’s a lot to improve. The office was barely furnished at that time and the saloon went much longer than planned. But we are glad that everyone found it a worthwhile experience.

Pictures of that ‘Youthology Saloon’ below…

Photos of Youthology Saloon No. 1 @ Qing Gong Guan

View more presentations from chinayouthology.

A house-warming party is being planned – but with the busy crew here it’ll still take a while to throw the party out. At the mean time, feel free to drop by for a drink, especially in a sunny day, you are so gonna love the breeze and twitter.

Kidult, The ‘Cure’ Style, And ‘Post-Idol Era’

China Youthology — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:03:14 +0800

By: Lisa Li

In the past several months, various topics have been discussed in Youthology Monthly (see here for information about Youthology Monthly), including post 90s’ online culture, Internet censorship and private space, the failure of Chinese education, summer vacation, music festivals and independent music, the changing reading preference, World of Warcraft community culture, online shopaholic, etc. We plan to achieve a good coverage of age groups (teens, university students, young working adults), youth culture (music, sports, game, tech, literature, art, etc), as well as cutting-edge and mass youth across issues. It is impossible to cover all in one issue, but with 6 - 8 issues, a big picture about Chinese youth culture can be depicted.

This post is a quick catch-up on three topics in Youthology Monthly that I personally find most interesting: kidult, the Japanese ‘cure’ style, and the ‘post-idol era’.

1. Kidult

Sometimes I wonder whether ‘Kidult’ is part of the ‘vintage’ trend, or ‘vintage’ part of the ‘kidult’ trend. What’s apparent is the general attraction to going back. The more cutting-edge youth start to celebrate June 1st ‘Children’s Day’ with parties and gifts; mass youth chase movies like Harry Porter and McDull, and they re-discover the ‘charm’ of Slam Dunk, Transformers, and Saint Seiya (圣斗士星矢)

More than merely fun-seeking, while indulging the ‘kidhood’ in themselves, youth are looking for something that are becoming scarce in their life, including passion for dream, sincere inter-personal relationship, non-material values, etc.

‘Everyone is a grown-up kid. Compared with the society, people are vulnerable. The society is like a metal board.’ Xie Liwen, Author of McDull

2. The ‘Cure’ Style (治愈系)

Japanese Anime 'Potemayo' ('Mayonnaise Loli')

A friend in university told me that it is popular to edit photos with excessive exposure to make a warmer tone… This is part of the ‘cure’ style (治愈系).

Originated from Japan, the ‘cure’ style (or the ‘healing’ style) is a ‘genre’ of creative works across music, anime, visual arts, and literature. This style is characterized by its warm and spiritual soothing tone. Representative artists include Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto and animation movie directorHayao Miyazaki, Taiwanese singers Chen Qizhen and Zhang Xuan, and Chinese 小清新.

The question is when youth are expected to be energetic and dynamic, why do Chinese youth today find strong resonance with a style with peace and warmth?

In the past several months, we did more systematic research on the ‘DNA’ of today’s youth (from a historical perspective) to find that the unique ‘DNA’ (from society, family, to education and Internet) has made them the first generation to grow up as individuals. Individuality is evolving from surface to substance. However under the unique context in China, individuality is not evolving along the same path of the west but paving a new route. The ‘cure’ style is one manifestation. Will do more research around this.

3. ‘Post-idol era’

'Brother Chun cult'

The idols with biggest buzz in the past several months are MJ, Susan Boyle, Zeng Yike, and Li Yuchun. Of course the mainstream stars such as Jay Chou and Super Junior are still the biggest idols to majority of the youth. However, youth today are more and more aware of the commercial interests and operation behind the ‘idols’. From the cult of Brother Chun and Brother Zeng, from the discussion about MJ and Susan, we see a post idol era emerging, an era against ‘idols’ built on advertising and hype, an era against any idols that are too overwhelming for a diversified scene.

‘Brother Chun Cult is our weapon to the vulgar pop culture. We won’t endure and consume whatever the commercial entertainment circle want to promote to us. When you create a ‘idol’ with no taste and style, I give back a remixed ‘idol’ to you. Let’s see who’s been fooled!’ Bloger Mei Yiqun.

An Interview with Ray Lei: ‘A One-Man Animation Film Studio’

China Youthology — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:45:53 +0800

By Zafka Zhang, Helen Yu

‘My animated works are independent—a freestyle, so to speak. They are my language, or even better, for they can be both seen and heard, and they are so much more colorful…’

Hunting cap on head, black-frame glasses, and a huge schoolbag—that’s Ray Lei, 24, from Jiangxi. This new-generation animator, having just graduated early from a postgraduate program of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, calls himself “a child who speaks the language of animation”. Being no stranger to graphic design, illustration, short comics, graffiti and Hip Hop music, Ray is a close friend of J-Fever, whom China Youthology has previously interviewed. Together they invented the ‘League of Mike Snatchers‘, an all-embracing gig dedicated to freestyle rap.

Ray’s reputation among animators dates back to his school days. 2005 is the landmark year when Ray set up his very own Raydesign Studio and won the Golden Award of ‘Zongri Cup Design Contest’. In 2007, his animated short film ‘The Face’ was named ‘Best Art Design’ in Aniwow!, and his ‘Border Project’ was shown in the ‘2007 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture’. The year 2008 saw Ray’s ‘Moon Landing Plan’ being shown in the Nike Dunk Exhibition, and his ‘Pear or E.T.’ being a part of the ‘Instant Comix’—an independent comic show in Hong Kong (Click here for more of Ray’s works). Not long ago, Ray was asked to make the official animation for the ‘Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture’, and was invited to take part in the meeting of Ted X Shanghai. Another invitation from Lijiang Studio later took him to Yunan for a mural project. And then, just two days ago, out of his tight schedule, Ray brought himself to Shenyang, presenting his special-made ‘Nike Air Max LeBron VII’ shoes to NBA star LeBron James.

According to China Youthology’s categorization, Ray is definitely a star in the young animators’ community. We talked with him over dinner, and like J-Fever, Ray became a new friend of China Youthology after the interview, which, as always, has been conducted with an admiration for those daring enough to pursue and try. Now we simply must share the records of the interview, so that you can get to know, just as we do, the true Ray. For the sake of better understanding, his experiences as we know them are put under three subtitles: 1) Identity: A Land of Paradox and Loneliness; 2) Self-Expression: The Language of Animation and Personalized Experience; 3) Young Artist and Brand: Personal Space and Creative Work.

1. Identity: I paint. Even without a single supportive audience, I keep painting. That’s how I identify with myself.

‘I have been living in a tangle of paradoxes…I think we all have two faces: one for others, the other for ourselves. But that’s exhausting.’

China Youthology: Tell us about you, will you?

Ray: I am from Nanchang, Jiangxi. In the national college entrance exam years ago, I made it to Tsinghua University. How proud I was at that time! My freshman year was spent on Tsinghua campus, as a major of science and technology. By taking part in all sorts of things like singing contests, student associations, and poster-making, I kept myself quite busy. The second year was, however, spent in the Academy of Arts & Design, a campus on Guanghua Road so tiny that even our dormitories had to be built outside the campus, and I started fooling around. But one day, I realized I shouldn’t have lived like that. By junior year, the academy was relocated from Guanghua Road to Tsinghua University, and somehow I found myself transformed. I began doing things that I came to love: graffiti, drawing with sprays, and skateboarding.

China Youthology: How did you get involved with skateboarding?

Ray: Through a friend who makes skateboards. I once visited him in Shanghai. He found my drawings interesting and asked me to help paint his skateboards. In fact, at that time, I was alarmingly ill-informed back in Jiangxi, without much experience or ideas. Luckily I had my friends. J-Fever, for instance, is my music mentor. Before I met him, my only passion for music was Jay Zhou the Taiwan musician, and my only musical feat was singing a few raps of Jay’s in KTV.

And later on, I realized a lot of people live that kind of life that conventional thinking would call “fooling around” or “playing”. But to be honest, their version of “playing” is awesome, and no less awesome than the academic type. This came as an epiphany to me: not everyone has to be a bookworm; you can do what you want and be good at it.

China Youthology: Of all universities, why did you choose Tsinghua?

Ray: I kept painting and drawing in high school, but I had never been formally trained in that way. In the second year of senior high, however, I passed the entrance exam of Sichuan Fine Arts Academy, and my grade was among the national Top 20. I was so encouraged that I decided to apply for the art program of Tsinghua.

China Youthology: Then how did you start painting?

Ray: My father is an art editor with Jiangxi Science & Technology Publishing House. He taught me Chinese painting when I was a child and I took to it instantly. By the time I entered junior high school, I became the kind of bad kid who would spend the whole class painting instead of listening, despite all efforts of the English teacher. I was so into drawing that I started my own series of comics in junior high. I made up stories, all sorts of them, about football, basketball, and robots. I often got asked by my classmates, ‘How does the story go today?’

China Youthology: What subjects would you pick at that time?

Ray: Haha, the most popular things of the time –Gundam, for instance, when it was a hit; and the most read novels.

China Youthology: I see. That is why you’ve become such a great story-teller and short film-maker, right? You just played your way into success.

Ray: Thank you for the compliment. But indeed. When we first moved to Tsinghua, there were so few resources that we had to rely upon ourselves. I started to immerse myself in my passion, and it was so much fun, and so rewarding that I was even a recommended postgraduate candidate.

When I started the postgraduate program, I lived in Tsinghua, but I didn’t feel belonged. Most of my classmates simply stayed at dorm and dreamed up their theoretical research, but that’s not how you do animation. As I walked along the corridor of Tsinghua’s postgraduate dorms, I saw, from room to room, against the background of the rotating CCTV News Broadcast, everybody was reading at their desk with big glasses on. This bookish climate was such a far cry from what I expected that I was in much anguish. Those days, the minute classes were over I would take the railway to the 798 District, and stroll around aimlessly until sunset. It was the only place where I found whatever comfort and inspiration I could.

It was the same in Gulangyu Islet. Everything, from shopping, eating, to seeing a doctor, could be done within the boundary of the campus. The motto of the Academy of Arts & Design (before its being merged with Tsinghua), as I remember it, was to create the four essential requirements of life: food, clothing, housing and transportation. But the four requirements could all be fulfilled on campus when I was a freshman. I think that’s why we students gradually turned inward…Well, in a way, it could help academic research, but not artistic creation, for I felt like my thoughts were confined to an ‘islet’. I remember a Tsinghua student who was seen running naked and caused a sensation. He once said in an interview he did that for the purpose of adding a humanistic touch to the Tsinghua campus. But I am not buying any of it. First of all, I don’t like that arrogance of self-claimed humanistic touch, and second, art should be performed not for the sake of others, but for oneself.

China Youthology: It is all about finding your identity. It’s a painful process, I’m sure.

Ray: I paint. Even without a single supportive audience, I keep painting. That’s how I identify with myself. Some people call me an ‘independent artist’, but I prefer to be called a ‘free artist’, or not an artist at all.

China Youthology: What art seeks is freedom, not the title of an artist, because it doesn’t matter. It is life that matters, but its perception could easily be distorted by the shackles of the label ‘artist’. Being an artist is a sign, an identity, or even an occupation. At the end of the day, it all boils down to your attitudes toward life, and the loneliness you so keenly feel.

Ray: I have been living in a tangle of paradoxes. I’ve always thought that I should lead a stable life, have a decent job so as not to let my parents down, and boy, they have always expected so much of me. On the other hand, if I must live that way, I couldn’t do the kind of things and create the kind of thoughts that I want, so I have to extricate myself.

I am a bit neurotic, and I frequently feel depressed, or contradictory, or pessimistic. Well, when I someday reach a bottleneck, I can always become a teacher. I think that is the one good thing about our education system. That way, at least my parents would have no complaints. So if five years from now, I suddenly become an animation doctor, please don’t despise me, although I think I would despise myself.

I think we all have two faces: one for others, the other for ourselves. But that’s exhausting. I am now teaching a training course for further studies, where my students come to learn techniques. But I don’t like the idea of it. I think I am against everything mainstream. How paradoxical is that! But this job offers a good salary, and allows my girlfriend and me to live better.

China Youthology: What is your life like right now? And how about your friends?

Ray: My ideal way of life is like this: Rent an apartment with white walls and a wooden floor. It must be very clean, and big enough to house all my toys and books. Every year, I would make two animated films, sponsored by someone, lucrative enough for my girlfriend and me to live comfortably. That’s it. I don’t want a lot of money. That’s the life I want, and I am sure it will get better and better.

But don’t you think this kind of life is easy to come by. The first thing I need is capital, but that calls for the right opportunities. Moreover, I feel lonely. I know which community I belong to, but I must remain detached; otherwise I would risk being too mundane. Therefore, I need several good friends to handle the loneliness.

My girlfriend counts as one such friend. Another is J-Fever, to whom I feel a connection. He reads profusely and has lots of cultural insights. I can turn to him whenever I need guidance. Another such friend is Li Xingyu, the music composer for my animated works, who stood by me in my darkest poorest days.

Still, I feel intensely lonely. My classmates from high school and college all went their separate ways, and it is difficult for us to see eye to eye with each other.

China Youthology: Maybe a good artist has to feel lonely sometimes. By the way, you once worked with Ou Ning. How was it like?

Ray: It was a wonderful experience working with him. To get back to what I was saying, I realized recently that I am surrounded by people who are not my age, and the people who are my age I simply can’t communicate with. I don’t know. Maybe I have come too far.

2. Self-Expression: Animation is a more colorful language, a quiet personalized experience.

‘My animated works are my language, or even better, for they can be both seen and heard, and they are so much more colorful…My works are quiet, never loud, never mainstream, always in pursuit of small happiness and wonder.’

China Youthology: Would you tell us about your works? We have seen ‘The Face’. Was it difficult to make?

Ray: It was made when I was a senior student in college. About a face that changes so many times that it loses itself. In order to make this short film, several of us shut ourselves in a rented studio, which was dirty and sultry. We stayed there for three months, a very painful three months! All the more painful because we were still doing by learning. We didn’t learn much at college and we had to grope about in the dark. That is my first piece. I was an angry person then, angry with the whole world, so that first piece is full of violence. And very Japanese, too. When I now come to think about it, I pretty much followed a cookie-cutter approach, sort of. As to the allegations that I was copying from Hayao Miyazaki and Katsuhiro Otomo, I don’t really mind. We grew up watching their works. We must have been unconsciously influenced by them.

Now things are easier. I don’t do big production any more; instead, I make short ones that can be finished in 15 days, to instantly express whatever feelings I develop. My latest work ‘Magic Cube’ is an echo of a previous work. What I wanted to say is people are just drifting about, not really connected to the society, and that as common citizens and lookers-on, we can do nothing but watch. That is the way of the society. Even if it pisses you off, you don’t have to fight against it, so I keep playing my ping-pong. I am no longer that angry now. Maybe I just don’t want to make a fuss any more.

China Youthology: Why were you so angry three years ago?

Ray: I think it’s because I hadn’t figured things out. I didn’t really know why I learned animation, and I couldn’t understand the education system. Now I have straightened out the confusion, but I know the tension of my anger has grown, even without my showing it in the old way.

China Youthology: I heard that you attended the crosstalk “Social Space and the Post-’80s Generation” organized by the Shao Foundation. Why did you want to go? What do you think of the remarks by the speakers and the audience?

Ray: I didn’t make any remarks. I think, in life status and in background, I am very different from those speakers on the stage. But it is the audience that I don’t agree with. They seemed to be imprisoned by life and trying to fit into something; the speakers, by comparison, were more insightful and mature.

The ideal social space for me should be inclusive of all possibilities, so that everyone has his or her own space, where similar minds can meet. A space that allows spiritual diversity is what the post ‘80s generation really wants.

China Youthology: Can you be more specific about the spiritual space and diversity?

Ray: The spiritual space is like the house that I previously talked about, with white walls and a wooden floor, where I do things that I like. As to diversity, it is a subject very close to my heart. I used to think that Indie Rock is so cool and so hot. But one day when I was talking with J-Fever, I came across a question: Indie Rock is almost the most popular music abroad, then how could it possibly be independent? Later I figured it out. It’s not a question of being mainstream or not. In the same way, independent animation and industrial animation are not comparable, for the two are too different, but they can coexist. In the world of animation, diversity is welcomed. It is up to you which way to choose.

China Youthology: How do you describe your animated works?

Ray: I have envisioned a path, but I seem to have reached a bottleneck. Recently I made three short animated films, of the freestyle type. I am interested in lots of stuffs: animation, rap, skateboarding, graffiti…But my passion is mainly animation, and it is a language in which I can fully express myself.

China Youthology: What did you want to express in the first three works?

Ray: Warmth and peace, listening and thinking, modesty and eagerness to learn.

China Youthology: Why these themes?

Ray: I chose warmth because of gratitude. When I was in college, many people offered me help, but I did little in return. Now I want to make up for that. As to being quiet and modest, I learned that from J-Fever. MC Battle left me the impression of being aggressive and competitive, but after listening to No Mark on the Internet, I realized Hip Hop doesn’t have to be like that. Then I watched J-Fever’s Battle and he told me the various ways of wording in raps, and I realized rapping could be very soft, very Chinese.

China Youthology: I think that is also what you called ‘diversity’. Can you talk more about your works?

Ray: I hope to diversify by working with as many different elements as I can. I have now cooperated with many people, Ou Ning the artist, Li Hu the architect, and Ying Liang the movie director. I also worked with Nike for a commercial project, and with a HK poet Chihoi for a poem collection. That is my idea of being diversified. I don’t want to be constricted by a narrow industrialized mindset.

From the very beginning, I have been bent on independent animation. I heard from Ou Ning that Qiu Anxiong, whose goal is to be ‘a one-man animation film studio’, would lock himself in a room and single-handedly finish key frames, animation, editing, and scripts—everything except for music. I admire him for that, and I want that independence too, free of all processes of mass production.

China Youthology: What is the relationship between your independent animation and ‘freestyle’?

Ray: Freestyle is a form of independent animation. But the word ‘independent’ sounds too non-mainstream, so I don’t like it. Animation, in the first place, is a language that facilitates self-expression. It is an open entity that combines audio, video and endless other choices such as installed animation. Being ‘independent’ doesn’t mean you have to do it alone, but that you don’t have to rely on others’ funding and don’t have to unthinkingly churn out works on the production line.

It is important to know where you are and where you want to be. Take myself for example. I don’t prioritize technicalities by maximizing the number of key frames, like Disney does, because that is almost impossible for a one-man studio. For small studios like mine, the focus should be on the expression of feelings.

China Youthology: So you are an animation artist.

Ray: A true artist can command animation to narrate history and story. Qiu Anxiong, for one, is a fanatic for such greatness; he is in no mood for small delights though. Whichever way, people like us just express our thoughts through animation.

China Youthology: What other feelings do you express in your works?

Ray: The pursuit of happiness, I guess. We all have our own pursuits; for me, I want a status of being, and tiny bits of happiness in life, nothing overly proper, nothing sensational. I treasure those feelings. They are warm and they are mine.

China Youthology: Looking forward, do you have a plan for future works?

Ray: My graduation has in a way changed my life, and my parents expect so much of me. My life is not very stable, which, surprisingly, helps. From ‘The Face’ till now, I have undergone a very painful period, but it gave me a breakthrough. Now, I think, is another time for pains and gains. But again, I have my worries and struggles, and I am not sure whether I can keep going without (the campus). My parents urge me to consider getting a doctoral degree, or a stable job with a big organization. I know they want me to have a sense of security, as if there is a warm bosom to return to.

China Youthology: I like your idea of trying to work with different people. It is a wonderful way to open up more possibilities for arts’ development.

Ray: Indeed. I love playing music with J-Fever, making little cartoons with Li Hu, and drawing on T-shirts with Ouyang Yingji. I am now looking for more opportunities to go abroad, for I want to broaden my horizon.

China Youthology: If it is up to you to decide, how many excellent independent artists and animators are there in China?

Ray: I personally prefer similar minds, not necessarily animators–for example, J-Fever, Tang Yan, and Qiu Anxiong, etc. I also like the works by ‘Eraser’, who would depict innocent joys like oversleeves we wore when we were children and cotton-padded jackets sewn by grandma. I believe he is a warm loving artist.

China Youthology: You say so because you too are a gentle, sensitive, and introspective artist. I notice that in many of your works, the ‘Magic Cube’ for instance, you used the artistic calligraphy your father designed. Is that an attempt at Retro fashion? How did you feel?

Ray: After the collection of red and blue ballpoint pen, I hardly dare touch it, for fear of getting caught up in the artistic retro camp of some young people. Haha, it wouldn’t be me, would it? My way of nostalgia is not the same as Beijing kids, and my father’s calligraphy touches my heart the same way Qiu Anxiong’s ‘one-man animation film studio’ does. I want to set up an animation film studio, making animation films, not cartoons.

It is said that being retro is like wearing Chinese-made clothes to pretend artistic tastes. But as far as I am concerned, that kind of retro style is playing on a theme, or self-branding. However, when you are truly honest with yourself, being retro is just a feeling, very private and personal, like all other feelings.

3. Young Artist and Brand: Give me space, and I will do my work.

‘I enjoy working with Nike. Unlike others that take you for Ogilvy & Mather, Nike gave me lots of space, so it was a pleasant experience.’

China Youthology: How do you feel working with Nike?

Ray: Nike gives you lots of space. I helped them with the Nike Dunk Exhibition. They don’t tie you hand and foot, and they offer handsome salaries, haha. What’s more, Ou Ning was the exhibition planner, and it’s always easier for an artist to deal with an artist.

I hope for the same in whomever I decide to work with. Give me space, and I will do my work. My cooperation with Nike is not 100% unrestricted, but it was much much more comfortable than working with, say, an ad company.

China Youthology: Did you work with brands other than Nike? Was there any difference?

Ray: Yes, I did, like with HP, Lenovo, Li Ning, and Tiger Beer, etc. Still, I like working with Nike, because they think of the exhibition as an art project, not an advertisement with outright commercial purposes. Some other companies, well, take you for an advertising tool.

China Youthology: Which country do you most want to visit?

Ray: Japan and the UK. Japan has the most cutting-edge fun stuffs, and the UK has Britpop. Whatever I do, I always follow my nose, and I am trying to have my mind enriched.

Zhangbei InMusic Festival, Ryan, and Summer Interns

China Youthology — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:50:28 +0800

By: Lisa Li

We have talked about music festivals in China for a couple of times (here and here). Our team members went to Zhangbei Inmusic Festival from Aug 7 – 9. From their videos and photos, we just see that the enthusiasm towards independent and music concerts/ festivals is continuing to grow in China. Many young people are just back from Zhangbei’s festival but already marked Modern Sky festival (in Oct) in their event calendar.

Hope the video clip by China Youthology’s young and passionate team can give a feel about the independent music community and fans in China. Zhangbei is located at Hebei province – more than 4 hrs drive from Beijing. The audience need to travel at least 4 hrs to come to the spot, yet we still see a big crowd of more than 80 thousands…

Despite the poor environment (the so-called ‘grassland’ is more like ‘mud land’ according to the audience), disappointing service and unreasonably expensive price for food and drinks, the young music fans highly praised the music performance, enjoyed the free air, and fully unleashed their passion there.

The movie was done by Ryan. And here a warm welcome for Ryan to join China Youthology (after several months of internship) for creative production! Ryan graduated from China Music Academy. He has a genuine passion for videos and creative. When people make ppt for our internal sharing events, this guy makes video clips and argues that making a video is much easier for him than making a ppt. Well, trust Ryan will continue to bring to us more video shots about China’s youth culture.

Great thanks to our talented summer interns Tao and Temple as well (who also went to the festival, did interviews, shoot videos, and had great fun). As I mentioned the other day on twitter – Tao and Temple made us feel so lucky and realized China Youthology should never bear not to live and work with the ‘real youth’.

SNS and the Changing Chinese Youth

China Youthology — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:07:23 +0800

By Lisa Li & Zafka Zhang

Just back from a trip in Shanghai and Shenyang where we spoke to boys and girls of 12 – 18 yrs. Different from approximately half year ago, Xiaonei is no longer ‘unfamiliar’ to high school teens (15 – 17 yrs) of both cities. Maybe not majority yet, but many teens start to use Xiaonei now. What surprised me most is middle school teens (12 – 14 yrs) are having fun on Kaixin now (while in the impression of many people, Kaixin has been mainly for white collars in Shanghai and Beijing).

We have been researching on the role of SNS since a while ago(click here for more), but couldn’t finish the report on one hand because we’ve been constantly occupied by various ad hoc projects on the other hand because the SNS scene has been developing/ changing in China almost every month.

While continuing our research on it, we have decided to share the working draft and discuss with the friends here on how we can understand SNS beyond surface and translate the understanding into best marketing initiatives.

(Pls find the slideshare deck below. If you have trouble viewing it, you may download the deck here.

SNS & the Chinese Youth

View more documents from chinayouthology.

Among the many ‘innovative’ use of SNS by marketers, I want to especially mention McDonald’s. As we discussed in the deck, the real challenge for marketers is to NOT understand SNS as another ‘touch point’ but as a crucial part of youth’s life (and NOT virtual life but real life) and a changing mindset.

McDonald’s recent initiative really spoke the youth’s language (‘add me’), manifest the understanding of youth’s life and aspirations (about the joy and needs gap of moderate socializing with friends on SNS), communicate through both online and offline touch points (TVC, SNS and non-SNS websites), link the SNS lifestyle with category needs (connect with your buddies at McDonald’s and enjoying new products). We are glad to hear from Ellen (head of planning in TBWA China) that they were inspired by our post on ‘moderate socializing’. It’s an impressive case on how the the youth insights can be translated into creative actions.

Monthly, 36, education, SNS, tech, sports, and office

China Youthology — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:53:14 +0800

By Lisa Li

Being a start-up means a frenetic lifestyle. Always excited about ideas we want to go for and only hate time and energy is limited. We should apologize for not blogging for a while. Will certainly keep this blog running and running cos we cannot afford losing the great conversation we have with our friends here.

The past two months actually mean a lot to us.

1. We have launched Youthology Monthly – a paid-subscription which aims to bring to life ‘the pulse of youth and youth marketing’ and understand the underlying meanings and implications of the trends/ happenings.

There are mainly two sections for each report:

youth pulse – what marketers need to know about the latest observation of Chinese youth.
brand pulse – what’s going on with the brands that target Chinese youth, especially the innovative initiatives

Each Youthology Monthly try to cover:

‘Sketch’ - what’s hot, what’s in, what’s changing
‘Feature/Topics’ - what are the underlying meanings of youth culture that we see, what are driving forces of the changes, what are the implications to marketers (as always it attempts to decode youth culture from the spheres of macro, community, and individual)

In the reports we want to

bring to life the youth’s world with real-life photos, quotes, and often time video clips (voxpops)
and give ‘experts’ perspective with interviews (we adopt our framework of looking at youth community and aim to cover the story of ‘mass’, and ‘edgy youth’, and ‘experts’)

And in the end there’s an optional ‘client confidential’ section that is tailor-made to client’s categories and brands.

We were glad to receive good feedbacks from the earliest subscribers/prospects. Pls contact me (lisa.li[at]chinayouthology.com) if you want to know more about it.

2. We were very lucky to have 36 (as his online nickname) on board as youth community manager. 36 started his e-magazine TOODAY 3 years ago. It’s a self-funded venture he has been working on in leisure time. With an group of young amateur writers gathered online, TOODAY has published more than 30 issues and become an influential online community. We were completely caught by his genuine intuition about Internet culture and community management and his dedication on getting things done. 36 is taking on the initiative of building a co-researcher community for China Youthology. Without an ambition (and any interest) of building a ‘panel’ of big ‘size’, what we want to do is to build a really neat geeky community with hand-picked young people who are as passionate as ourselves in finding the truth of youth culture. The community, although started only half month ago, has already started to contribute to our research learnings.

3. Foundation research has of course been our major focus as always. We have got lots of interesting learnings on various topics.

Macro/ context level, following our campus tour to more than 30 universities in 4 cities in May, we did some research on Chinese education system (from preliminary school to middle school to university) and how it has shaped the values of teens and youth. And we are continuing to research on what the changes in education (for example the new generation of teachers) may tell us about youth in 5 years.

We also want to talk about the reactions towards Internet Censorship. Far more than an ‘objection’, we have started to see hints of underlying movements in youth’ values.

Internet-wise, we have failed to finalize the SNS report until now partly because of our hectic schedule and partly because the SNS scene especially marketing on SNS has been changing so fast. Will anyway share on our blog our un-finished draft very soon.

We have conducted more fundamental research on youth & mobile tech and youth & sports. Will share with you the sports one soon.

4. Ups and downs with our new office. We have rented a great cute courtyard to be our new office, invited a good friend of us for the interior design and started renovating nearly two months ago but went into some ridiculous lawsuit with the landlord. Until now I still cannot tell when we are able to move in. Hope our lawyer rocks. Fingers crossed.