马文, a graduating student creates a self promotional video featuring a demo of his motion graphics / computer interface work, uploads the clip to Youku and the internet loves it.

The stats: 885,662 views in 26 days and nearing 3000 comments.

A collaboration between JWT Shanghai and some artists.

Via the Longyin Review.

In a recent post, 56minus1 offers a great overview of some of the ways people in China have been using video:

“Paike” (拍客) refers to content that can largely be described as “citizen journalism”… The videos themselves are often entirely netizen-shot and edited: one Sina Paike video is a classic case of a…

Continue readingOverview of video in virtual China

Article from Yale Environment 360 entitled China’s Grand Plans for
Eco-Cities Now Lie Abandoned:

Premise:

• Big plans from the West: Planners included McKinsey, Arup and William McDonough himself.
• Success on the ground in China: Zero.

Reasons:

In the case of Dongtan, as Paul French explains in a podcast…

Continue readingWhy China’s eco-cities failed

According to Kevin Li, an analyst at In-Stat Research, there were approximately 1 million iPhones running on China Mobile’s network in 2007. The number running on China Unicom was unknown (source).

Given that it is 2009, and iPhone popularity hasn’t waned, it must have exceeded the 1 million mark by now.

Via Shoujimobile’s blog.…

Continue readingMore than 1 million iPhones in China

Subtitled interviews with hip hop artists in China about why they choose to rap in Mandarin or their hometown dialect.

Some vouch for the large reach of Mandarin, while others vouch for the authenticity and history of their regional dialects. Watch the tensions play out above.

(Via Patrick Searle’s Twitter.)…

Continue readingTension between national and regional languages in Chinese rap

From an O’Reilly Radar interview with Chumby founder Andrew “bunnie” Huang:

The way it works is a lot of these large [U.S.] brands have almost no engineers on the inside… office consists of some product managers and maybe a couple of product engineers. And what they do is they just write kind of a Word document…

Continue readingUS to China, design to manufacturing

Above: “Hidden Elders” a RTHK documentary depicting the plight of the elders in the helter skelter modern Hong Kong. It was animated by Postgal Workshop and won the top prize last year at TBS Japan’s digicon.

Go to the awards page and watch the links labeled 2/3 and 3/3 -or- watch it from…

Continue readingAward-winning animated documentary from Hong Kong

From Tainan…

KLC: A family chain (of one), selling fried chicken and burgers:

From Beijing…

Yonghe Dawang: a nationwide chain first launched in Beijing, serving Chinese-style fast food:

KFC Ripoff Contest results:
Beijing 1, Tainan 0.

Photo credits:
Anonymous medical student…

Continue readingKFC Ripoff Contest: Beijing vs Tainan