A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design
It was nearing the end of May. With less than two months to go before the Hong Kong Book Fair 2016, Ah To’s book still hadn’t yet hit the presses. In fact, it was looking like the book might not be published at all. Talks had broken down between the author-illustrator and his unnamed, major Hong Kong publisher. Despite a promising start,…
A few days ago, Tech In Asia published the provocatively titled article, Twitter is now worth less than its Chinese clone. Coming fresh off the heels of Twitter’s recently-failed acquisition talks, the article definitely resonated with many members of the tech community. But as many of us know,…
Continue readingExplaining why Twitter is worth less than its “Chinese clone”
Electrocat and Lightning Dog is an indie webcomic set in a futuristic world of talking animals, aliens and psychedelic strawberries. Inspired by Pendleton Ward’s Adventure Time, it follows the tried-and-true formula of two best friends going on random adventures, except that Electrocat and Lightning Dog is even more zany and non-linear than its progenitor.
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Continue readingThe psychedelic art of an Adventure Time-inspired Chinese webcomic
By Jason Li, Lokman Tsui
A Traditional Chinese translation of this article was first published on Inmedia on August 4, 2016.
Activists at this year’s Hong Kong July 1 march made a big push for mobile chat app Telegram, but for all the wrong reasons. While we marched…
Continue readingDear activists, please stop telling everyone Telegram is secure
It was business as usual at this year’s ACG (Animation-Comic-Game) Con in Hong Kong. Big international videogame and toy brands dominated, and attendees diligently lined up to shop for Japanese manga merch, to play test games in VR, or to marvel at finely-crafted toy figurines from Japan or the US. This 90% off gacha booth was, for example, swamped…
The Hong Kong Book Fair 2016 continues the city’s longstanding tradition of hosting consumer-obsessed, discount-supermarket-style book fairs. As with previous years, it was mobbed with students towing suitcases to buy in bulk, 20%+ discounts all around, and bookstore-publishers cross-selling each other’s books (but promoting their own most prominently). The books themselves include both fiction and non-fiction, with a large selection of titles…
Tom Mullaney (professor of Chinese history + technology at Stanford) is running a Kickstarter campaign around exhibiting and preserving the fascinating history of the Chinese typewriter. One highlight of his exhibition will be centered around how Chinese engineers cracked the puzzle on creating a typewriter…
Continue readingThe History of Chinese Typewriters Needs Your $upport
The Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen is a niche travel guide to the famed electronics market/complex – often referred to as SEG or Huaqiangbei – in Futian, Shenzhen. The guide draws on the author Bunnie Huang’s many years of experience as an engineer, entrepreneur and foreigner in Shenzhen. In a way, this guide is the physical, book version of…
Ping Pong #03 is all about the printed, physical object, and the results are stunning. Eschewing the convention of a single, bound book, Ping Pong #03 comes as a lushly-packaged set of seven booklets, written and illustrated by seven different artists. While every booklet looks visually distinct, they all bear the mark of the risograph printing process: bright,…
Continue readingPing Pong #03: a visually-stunning package of risograph comics