八八吧 · 88 Bar – Page 17 – A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design

The Long-list King of China Bloggers Returns

September 16, 2013 by Jason Li

When I first started blogging about China, Roland Soong’s EastSouthWestNorth was an essential destination for any China watchers at the time. This was back in 2005. A former media analyst, and now heir to some formidable Chinese-literary estates, Soong would translate page-long excerpts from multiple newspapers and magazines about the same “suddenly breaking incident.” Then he would throw in a few terse…

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Apple dominates in the Chinese MOOC space even though it’s not a MOOC

August 27, 2013 by Jason Li

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Spurred by this article on MOOCs taken hold in Hong Kong, I decided to do a survey on MOOC adoption by Chinese institutions. I did not, as you can see, survey any Chinese MOOC platforms (are there any?), so it’s a bit of a biased selection.

Typography Design

Chinese etymology meets modern graphic design

August 20, 2013 by Jason Li

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Entrepreneur ShaoLan Hsueh has teamed up with designer-illustrator Noma Bar to breathe new life into the age old practice of teaching kids Chinese characters using its pictorial etymology. And they need your support for their Kickstarter campaign.

Even though the campaign over sells itself (with prosaic catchphrases like “The real agenda behind…

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WeChat: Buying their way to the top of the world?

July 29, 2013 by Jason Li

I saw a version of this (adorable) ad on local Hong Kong TV a few weeks ago – it surprised me that WeChat had gone to new lengths to advertise its service. Before this, WeChat had been buying up traditional ad space on the tops of skyscrapers and in subway stations in Hong Kong (in the case of the…

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Mini-documentary on Cult Youth on making comix in China

July 17, 2013 by Jason Li

CULT YOUTH from Diesel New Voices (by Coco Wang and Mi You) on Vimeo.

Just discovered this gem recently, an 8-minute mini-documentary about the people behind Cult Youth, one of the leading underground comic groups in China today. What comes off as surprising for a group whose motto includes “If you were…

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Book Review

Book Review: Understanding China through Comics, Volume 3: The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

July 3, 2013 by Jason Li

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The third volume of “Understanding China through Comics” continues Liu’s epic quest to chronicle all of ancient Chinese history in comic form. As with the first two volumes, the book zips through Chinese history, in this case 907 to 1368 AD, with text and illustrations.

Liu spends more of the third volume explaining Chinese cultural ideology and geopolitical context than…

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Book Review

Book review: Factory Towns of South China

June 28, 2013 by Jason Li

“Factory Towns of South China: An Illustrated Guidebook” is, despite its title, more social science research than it is a real guidebook. But within the realm of social science and urban planning, it compiles an incredible wealth of information – from the history and sociology of factory towns under communist rule to a peek at a day in the…

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China Meme Report

The (Un)Life of Pig: Shanghai River Filled with Pig Bodies

June 10, 2013 by The Editor

Editor’s note: This article has been reposted with permission from The Civic Beat: World Report.
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(via)

SHANGHAI– Thousands of pig carcasses, nearly 16,000 as of last count, have been found in Huangpu River, one of the many that supply Shanghai, the bustling, rising megacity and…

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Example of a cultural mis-understanding forming a misleading business insight

May 20, 2013 by Tricia Wang

Reposted from Cultural Bytes.

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I love that The Atlantic has covered Red Associates’s work in ethnography and insights. They have brilliant ethnographers and I would recommend them as an awesome and insightful supplier.

Although the article contained a minor point that I believe is misleading.

These…

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Classic & Modern Chinese Landscape Paintings: Which is which?

May 9, 2013 by Jason Li

First up, a modern rendition of the Zhangye Danxia (a classic landscape found only in China) by Rebecca Mok.

(Via Rebecca Mok Illustrates.)

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Then, a classic Chinese landscape style rendering by Zao Lu…

(Via Co.Design.)

ZaoLu-NewLandscapes …except that Zao’s “paintings” are actually photoshopped pictures of trash…

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