A group blog about Chinese tech, media and design
Editor’s note: This post includes some of our favorite Instagram fieldnotes by An Xiao Mina from her latest trip to Shenzhen. This is part one, which focuses on the aesthetics of the city.
Shenzhen at night. The urban aesthetic of…
Continue readingShenzhen gothic not so gothic
China King of Fighting was created by a pro boxer-turned-cartoonist, who tells the life story of boxing living legend Zou Shiming after they befriend one another in the ring. Zou, commonly hailed as China’s most successful boxer, is famous for having won Olympic gold twice in a row, as well as winning and defending the WBO flyweight title for a…
Continue readingChina King of Fighting: An action graphic memoir that ended too soon
Dockless bikeshares in Europe predated the arrival of Chinese companies like Ofo and Mobike, at least in Berlin, but it was a recent trip in Shenzhen and Beijing that I saw their potential at scale. I am used to seeing Chinese tech phenomena remain just that, ie, limited to China. But the near omnipresence of these bikes in major cities — I…
Continue readingChinese tech globalizing like the US, with drones and bikeshares leading the way
After much fanfare, I had a chance to visit the two opening exhibitions at the new Design Society 设计互联 in Shenzhen – “China’s first design museum.” Freshly unveiled last December, Design Society is located at the newly-constructed Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shekou, one of the most historically-progressive areas in Shenzhen. That it is…
Continue readingDesign Society Shenzhen: conservative curatorial at a cutting-edge institution
The second Melon festival about “science fiction, innovation and the future” took place in Hong Kong on March 17 and was markedly more packed, slick and diverse than its predecessor. Festival organizers added a third set of speakers – scientists – to their roster this year on top of the previously-featured science fiction authors and…
Continue readingMelon Festival Year 2: emphasizing the science in science fiction
This was my first year at Toysoul, but the fair’s third year in operation. Billed as the “Asian Toy Fair,” this Hong Kong-based mostly-vinyl toy festival comprises products and designs from Greater China, Japan, Korea and Thailand. In sharp contrast to the more established ACGHK, Toysoul was a more…
Continue readingToysoul 2017: a focused and curated Asian toy fair
My Beloved Mother (机器妈妈) is a science fiction tale of dystopia about the frayed relationship between a boy and his android mother. Originally serialized in 漫友·动画100, the comic has won multiple awards, been re-published in Malay and English, and helped launch the career of its creator, Wang Xiao Yang. Today, we turn back to the clock to look at the…
Continue readingMy Beloved Mother: A Comic Book Epic About Human-Android Discrimination