八八吧 · 88 Bar – Page 15 – A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design

China Meme Report

Anti-shanzhai memes, copycat gamemakers and Korean popstars

July 28, 2014 by Jason Li

Left: Puzzle & Dragons. Right: Tower of Saviors. Image sources: AppAdvice, USGamer. — **Left:** *Puzzle & Dragons*, made in Japan in 2012. **Right:** *Tower of Saviors*, made in Hong Kong in 2013. (Image sources: AppAdvice, USGamer .)

This month, South Korean boy band sensation Big Bang arrives in Hong Kong as the newly-minted spokesperson…

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IBM teams up with the Beijing government to tackle its pollution problem

July 10, 2014 by Jason Li

ibm-evolving-temperature-and-wind-directions

From a Quartz article by Gwynn Guilford:

IBM plans to improve the quality of data by installing its latest generation of optical sensors, incorporating meteorological satellite data and running that through its artificial-intelligence computing system (a.k.a. Watson, that computer that trounced humans on Jeopardy). The visual maps it generates will identify the source and dispersal pattern…

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The future of Chinese language learning

July 4, 2014 by Jason Li

Victor Mair has some compelling thoughts on the Language Log on the future of Chinese language learning, and how we might soon be rid of brute force “rote memorization (sǐbèi/jì 死背/記 [lit., “deadly memorization”]).”

When I began learning Mandarin nearly half a century ago, I knew exactly how I wanted to acquire proficiency in the language. Nobody had to tell…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

Shanzhai Meets Open Source

June 11, 2014 by Jason Li

From Hacked Matter’s feature in the Atlantic:

Take, World Peace Industrial (WPI), a Taiwanese electronic sourcing company located in Shenzhen, as an example. The company’s application technology unit (ATU) spends millions annually to develop reference circuit boards, called gongban 公板 (“public board”). A gongban can be used by a variety of different companies, who either incorporate it in…

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Art Basel Hong Kong: What I Saw

May 20, 2014 by Jason Li

Art Basel Hong Kong ran from May 15-18. Here’s an absolutely subjective take on what I saw when I visited. Apologies for those works I’m unable to credit; it was a hectic Sunday and I didn’t have the time to note down the artist and gallery for every piece that I photographed.

First, the fun stuff.

ArtBaselHK2014KidsOnLeashes

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Ethnography of Tech

Coming of age in a culture of information paternalism in China

May 13, 2014 by Jason Li

Editor’s note: this is a summary of some of the ideas that are presented in Tricia’s recent talk the Berkman Center, Talking to Strangers: Chinese Youth and Social Media. The video of the full talk is now online, and we highly recommend watching it in its entirety.

Tricia’s research discusses how Chinese youth are experiencing their coming of…

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A sneak peek from China’s new animation-house upstart

April 23, 2014 by Jason Li

From its Youtube page:

“Little Yeyos” is the first short film from Light Chaser Animation, a startup animation studio based in Beijing. Light Chaser was founded in 2013 by Gary Wang, the founder and ex-CEO of Tudou.com, China’s leading video sharing website. Its goal is to produce top quality animated films.

Via…

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Maker City: Hong Kong

April 15, 2014 by Jason Li

Reposted from my personal blog.

JasonLiAtMakerCitiesShenzhenMeetup

Last Sunday, I was invited by the Institute for the Future as part of its Maker Cities program to speak about how makers are working to improve the future of Hong Kong. I was joined by other representatives from all over (New York, Kathmandu, Tel Aviv,…

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Back the new edition of the Kowloon Walled City book!

April 2, 2014 by Jason Li

We posted some of photographer Greg Girard’s photos a while ago, and it looks like they’re ready to jet set a new edition of their book along with previously-unseen photographs and research.

Back out their Kickstarter now.

Starting Up in Shenzhen

Join us at Maker Faire Shenzhen in April!

March 11, 2014 by Jason Li

mommyhacker

Join us at the upcoming April 6th Maker Faire in Shenzhen!

For starters, Lyn will be speaking there alongside an international cast of researchers, hackers and entrepreneurs. And there are also a series of great workshops, including a course by a “mommy hacker” (pictured above) for kids interested in electronics.

More information…

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