The Creators Project is a network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media, and around the world. It is featuring Chinese creatives such as the singer and guitarist of Carsick Cars, and animator Ray Lei, and it is going to end with a big 3-day finale event in Beijing this September. Stay tuned for upcoming events info.

Please see flyer below or click here for more details.

Charm Café is a youth focused creative centre located in Zhongshan Bei Lu, the creative street of Hangzhou. They provide a platform for Chinese artists and designers to present and sell their artwork, as well as regularly hosting offline activities to encourage creative thinking amongst Chinese youth. Some of their main activities include monthly West Lake Idea Mart (DIY Mart) and weekly Charm Café creative class and exhibition. They also help with organizing China Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo in every October and China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in every May.

Creative class in Charm Cafe

Shu Chang

Shu Chang is co-founder and manager of Chame café. He is 26 years old and studied Finance at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. He used to work for Hunan TV station as a TV host for one year, later he worked at a user generated content website for two years. Since he cannot give up his strong passion for youth cultural as well as design, in September 2009 he decided to start Charm café with the Hangzhou government’s support and investment from his partner. His dream is to promote creative culture and encourage creative thinking by educating Chinese youth and providing a platform for creatives from all around China to share and market their products.

Interview

During our weekend trip to Hangzhou, we sat down with Shu Chang and chatted over a few cups of joe. Here are some highlights from the conversation:

How do you describe the current youth culture in Hangzhou?

There is a phrase called “Hang’ Er Feng” which describes a trend following phenomenon in Hangzhou. A lot of young people are following and copying trends from outside of China, but I think it’s good, we can learn by following and copying, at the end we will discover our own style.
Hangzhou is more conservative than Shanghai in terms of accepting new things since we have a very deep and distinctive culture, but I think right now it’s the time for innovation and development based on our original culture.

What is the future outlook of youth culture in Hangzhou?

I think we will still be in the process of learning and copying within the next 3 to 5 years, but you can see there are more and more creative activities and parties in town amongst local youth. In 5 years, you will see much more youth focused indie brands as well as opinion leaders. Local culture will be the key influence and I think we will have our own and distinctive style by then.

For those of you still new to Weibo, it’s Sina’s Twitter-like, micro-blogging platform that allows Chinese users to type up to 140 characters and disseminate the information onto the interwebs. (The name Weibo or in Chinese, 微博 translates to “micro-blog,” however its pronunciation is the same as 围脖  or “scarf” in English. The “scarf” translation is the “Weibo” of choice for young Chinese netizens.) It is truly an online force to reckon with. It’s usage is blossoming both online and on mobile platforms. It’s also a great way to keep an instant pulse on Chinese netizens and cultural youth topics. Thus, we’ve set our top Chinese voice, Beibei, into the rapid-fire Sina Weibo world to capture hot Weibo topics and to provide an enovate Chinese voice in this youth dominated platform.

With no further ado, we bring you enovate’s Weekly Weibo Roundup.

1. No Land, No Game!

Not getting any attention from the fairer sex? Buy some property! According to a survey titled The Effect of High Price Property on Single Youths in Guangzhou, only 10% of men cared if a girl had property; meanwhile, 67% of female respondents stated they’d only date guys who either had property, or could afford to buy property. Seeing as Guangzhou’s real estate market prices hit record highs throughout 2009, I offer my sincerest condolences to Guangzhou’s millions of bachelors.

Some have taken the hint, like this Shanghai resident whose vanity has earned him 5 minutes of cyber-fame. He has taken to the web to flaunt multiple properties and calling all guys who can’t afford a similar lifestyle losers.

2. A Lifetime in 90 seconds – a successful viral video from John Lewis

John Lewis’s latest commerical (below) is becoming a hit with Chinese netizens. It artfully and seamlessly chronicles the entire life of a woman in 90 seconds. Since being picked up by the Weibo community, it’s been “Weiboed”  well over 2000 times with positive comments such as “very creative” and “very touching.” Since the video’s release, sales have gone up an astounding 40%. Not too shabby, but I suppose that’s what you’d hope for when dropping an estimated £6 million on producing the commercial. We all think this deserves a tip of the hat. Well done John Lewis.

3. Guangzhou’s Communist Youth League Digs at Generational Differences

Seems like Guangzhou has been busy monitoring its youth lately. Real estate and dating aside, another popular Guangzhou survey has been making its rounds on Weibo. Guangzhou’s Communist Youth League released a report detailing generational differences between those born in the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s. We’re not sure how necessary surveys were in coming to these general conclusions, but nevertheless, here are some “key findings” that have received the most attention on Weibo:

70′s Generation: workaholics

80′s Generation: celebrate divorce as regularly as marriage

90′s Generation: first kiss in middle school, but want to keep their “first time” for their wedding night.

4. In case you didn’t know…

And just so you know Weibo users have an affinity for humor and design, I bring you one of the most popular images circulating around Weibo these last couple days. They’re by Brazilian designer / illustrator Sergio Bergocce.

5. Nike keeps the buzz going

Nike sure does know how to create a buzz. Their classic line, Nike Sportswear, has a RenRen page boasting over 70,000 friends. In order to leverage and engage this massive community, they’ve teamed NikeiD up with RenRen.com to bring a “creative” feature where RenRen users can flex their creative muscles using some Nike high tops as virtual canvases. Weibo users have been quick to show off their designs to the world. Check out other designs on Nike’s RenRen page, here.

Pacific Epoch retail analyst Marie Jiang caught up with Tor Petersen, the CEO and Founder of Eno, a creative lifestyle fashion brand that targets 18-24-year-old Chinese customers with its innovative designs. Petersen is the co-founder of Zou Marketing, China’s premier sports marketing agency, and previously worked at both NIKE (NYSE:NKE) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) doing China manufacturing, operations, marketing, sports marketing and Asia-Pacific branding.

Why did you choose to leave your previous positions, as a professional manager in Nike and Coca-Cola, and go out on your own as an entrepreneur?

When I joined Nike in China in 1990, they were in the process of setting up their business infrastructure and were much smaller than they are today. I enjoyed the process of building the ship and solving problems during the early stages of the business. When I eventually decided to start my own business it just felt like the right thing to do.

“Eno” – the brand is “One” in reverse. Can you tell us more about the origin of the name?

Exactly, eno is “one” spelled backwards. We felt that the word eno could reflect the dual meaning of “one”. “One” can mean one individual (a focus on individualism) or one group (a focus on collectivism). We think this concept accurately reflects the character of Chinese youth today. Chinese youth crave individualism, but can’t live without a group. “One” is so commonly used across sectors as a slogan that the law actually prohibited us from registering it as a trademark; that’s one reason we chose “Eno.”

How do you see Eno’s position in the future?

I believe that casual fashion will be the fastest growing apparel sector in China over the next few years. Nike entered China in 1985, and the sports market began to develop in the early ’90s. Fashion has lagged far behind the sports sector, with brands like H&M, Zara, Vans and others beginning to enter China only in the last few years. Even though new brands like H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Vans, Quiksilver and others have partially filled up the vacancy in the market, China still doesn’t have many youth fashion brands, and both retailers and consumers are demanding that they have access to more choice in this sector. We believe that Eno is well-positioned to expand as the overall casual fashion sector grows as a percent of the apparel market in China.

Do you agree that one of Eno’s main characteristics is originality?

Yes, the Eno brand is characterized by originality. We started the brand to tap into China’s growing music, arts, fashion and extreme sports culture, and keep the brand rooted in these worlds in order to build the brand culture and identity. However, we don’t want to be a niche brand targeting a niche market. We are scaling the brand nationally, and position the brand to be a commercial success, while maintaining our creative base. In the next few years, Eno will mature its current design to target a larger audience, beyond just 18- to 24-year-olds.

Who are your target consumers? What sets them apart?

Our target consumers, China youth, share one common characteristic: individualism. China’s one-child policy has made this group comparatively individualistic and given them their own point of view from which to understand the world. This generation has more access to information through the internet and is more exposed to the outside world than their parents, who suffered to some degree from the Cultural Revolution.

Moreover, the younger consumers are, the more communicative they are with the rest of the world. Generations born in the ’80s, ’90s and especially the ’00s communicate with people around the globe without any prejudice. These are the consumers that Eno seeks to target.
Young Chinese consumers are evolving all the time. How do you catch trends?

We paid special attention to design even in the brand’s initial stages. Other brands start with distribution and only begin to emphasize design once they have a nationwide sales network in place, but I believe that good design is indispensable for a fashion brand preparing to go nationwide.

In order to predict new trends, we first employ a group of young designers, who live in the same culture and have the same tastes as Eno’s target consumers. Second, we look closely at the global trends that impact Chinese fashion. The Chinese fashion market is unique. Styles from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Europe have an overwhelming influence; there are some styles that become outdated in other markets but will remain popular in China, while some fashion styles become popular quite quickly in China, but fade fast. Eno watches global fashion trends closely and determines which trends are most attractive to youth in China.

What characteristic do you value most for your designers?

For an Eno designer, the most important thing is the thought process behind the design. Many designers in China view design as simply completing a task, whereas Eno designers should first learn how to conceptualize their ideas before designing a product.

How many points of sale does Eno have now, and in which cities? What is your expansion plan?

Eno currently has more than 40 points of sale in China, including cities such as: Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Harbin, Shenyang and Changchun. We are focused on expanding our presence into second and third tier cities via a franchise/retail operator model. We expect to open 50 new franchise stores in 2010, and plan to have more than 600 stores across China by 2013.

Which cities have the fastest growth? Eno doesn’t have many locations in southern China. Do you have plans to enter markets like Guangzhou?

We’ve found that our northern district is growing the fastest, while eastern China ranks second. For this reason, our team has created specific designs that cater to northern people’s figures and tastes. As for the south, markets like Guangzhou are hypercompetitive and heavily influenced by Hong Kong. Eno plans to first focus on high growth areas in China such as the North region, East region and certain fast growing cities in the West such as Chengdu and Chongqing, and then focus on entering the south region with the support of a strong presence throughout China.

What are the biggest challenges to Eno’s development?

The most challenging thing for Eno has been establishing our distribution network. As China’s retail market is largely single brand led, there are not many multi-brand retailers for our products. In order to scale the brand, we have had to build a single brand franchise network, which requires a full range of products to fill out a store, a unique and well-executed retail format and product that is tailored to the local market. Entering the China market is difficult for any brand, but as a start up with limited resources, building a distribution channel can take time, as the market is highly fragmented and regionalized. Although building our distribution network was a challenge when we started the company, now that our retail format is established and we have built a strong sales team, the single brand retail format will allow us to rapidly scale the brand across China.

中国的酒肯定有历史，可是中国酒的设计现在还在历史中迷失我想：这里面有附庸风雅的成分；有官僚礼品的原因；有不敢离开固有历史的僵化；有市场眼光的低 下；有保守求稳的设计思维；有不求上进的懒惰… … 看看日本的设计，让我们那么多光辉的岁月转化成真正令人敬佩的力量才是正经事.

Chinese wine certainly has a long history, but the design of Chinese wines has been lost in this history. I think the reasons are: the need to be elegant; that wine is a sort of bureaucratic gift for officials; the fear of moving away from a rigid history; a low perception of the alcohol market; conservative design thinking and uninspired, lazy design.

We should take a look at the design of Japanese wines. What we should do is turn our glorious years of history into a truly admirable design.

Yup. Harbin beer, a smooth lager, is China’s oldest brew. It beat out Tsingtao by three years! A quick surview of enoVate’s Chinese staff suggests that this tidbit is common knowledge in the Middle Kingdom. Regardless, this beer is worth learning about.

Harbin Brewery was founded in 1900 by Russians in the northeastern city of Harbin to supply beer to Russians working on the Trans-Manchurian Railway Project. Later, a group of Chinese and Czech’s took it over. During WW2, the brewery again reverted back to Russian hands when Soviets took it over. Eventually, in 1950, the brewery was taken over by the Chinese State.

Earlier this decade, after a prolonged battle with SAB Miller, Anheuser-Busch (now ABinBEV) finally bought the company and now controls it outright.

Despite its long history, Harbin beer isn’t, in fact, a major player on the China domestic scene. It is not in the top 10 of beers in China and so doesn’t control even 1.5 percent of the beer market. Even in Shanghai, it can be hard to find a bottle of Harbin.

But ABinBev is looking to change that. The company hopes to reach 187 different markets in the Mainland this year (most outside of the North, it’s traditional power market) and 200 by 2010, up from 157 markets in 2008. The beer is now available in the US and many other markets and, as new reports flowing out of the company affirm, they are looking to make a national Chinese brand to compete with Tsingtao.

Good luck Harbin beer!

这些酒标是开放前普遍存在的，我们看到的是历史，虽然不是很酷，也不是很优雅，可是这里面分明有着国人的精神：多样化的自信，这句话可能比较可笑，一个封闭的国家怎么可能多样化？可以的，虽然比较狭隘，你看这些酒的原料，有葡萄，大米，高粱，谷子，但更有猕猴桃、桂花、樱桃、桂圆、苹果、橘子这些我们现在都少见的口味，这是一种多元，再就是设计样式也是多样的，字体和图形元素丰富，表达的也很准确，至少当时的设计师对自己的设计是很自信的，可以看的出来。

我们已经进步了，已经成长了，然而，在快速拔高的同时，我们的设计是不是也在沦为含混不清的定位？是不是也在混沌中迷茫着，这些酒标在提醒着我们，也许，好跟不好一直在伴时间轮番轰炸我们的认知，当时认为好的，改革开放后觉得好土，现在迷茫了，又觉得里面有很多不错和经典的… … 我怀念那种些自信涌动的过往。

These wine labels were commonplace before China’s opening up. What we’re seeing is history. It’s not cool or elegant but it clearly has the spirit of our countrymen: the confidence of diversity. This phrase is quite funny, how can a closed country have diversity? Despite being slightly narrow, it can. Just look at the ingredients of these wines, there’s grape, rice, sorghum, millet, and even more rarely seen these days are Chinese gooseberry, sweet-smelling osmanthus, cherry, longan, apple and tangerine flavours. This multifaceted nature is also in the diversified types of design. The abundance of the type and image elements are expressed very precisely, at the very least we can see the confidence the designers had in their designs.

We’ve advanced and matured, but despite this, in a time of high speed and high stakes, can it be that our designs have been reduced to an indistinct and unclear level? Are we just gazing on through the chaos? Perhaps what these wine labels remind us is that good and bad are always there to shape our cognition through thick and thin. These wine labels for example, back then I thought they were good but after the opening up I felt they were uncouth. In today’s haze, I once again feel they are well done and classic…I cherish these turbulent ups and downs of self-confidence.

Our focus is bringing a core group of people from our collective networks together who have a shared interest in solving problems and rethinking tech, business and sustainability. We come from different sectors, cultures and countries. We’re angels, entrepreneurs, photographers, media, artists, writers, professionals and executives. We all have our passions and our interests. At our best, we define ourselves more by the ideas we share and the impact we want to make rather than the business cards we carry.

Confirmed guests and speakers include:

Invitation is intentionally limited to 200 participants to ensure the quality of the networking over the 4 days so please follow the below link and register for your pass asap.

http://rethinkhawaii.eventbrite.com

If you enter enovate in the promo code, you can get 35% off the ticket price – yahoo!

We will post more on the upcoming conference, and will be part of a China group braving the weather to go to Hawaii for the conference. If you are interested in joining us, please email renee@enovatechina.com, as we hear there may be some travel deals in the works.

More to come……..

One day, as I drank coke, I suddenly thought of 非常可乐(Future cola, a local soft drink brand). Then I was thinking about how they lost their market share in tier one and tier two cities. Originally, these markets were saturated with Future Cola advertisements, a strategy that made many of us believe that a local brand might finally able to stand out in this industry. But what happened?

Another local fast food brand “德克士” (Dicos) was about to breakthrough but was soon almost squeezed to death by KFC and McDonald’s. In the end, they were able to win market share only in tier three and tier four cities.

However there are still some Chinese brands like “真功夫”（real kung fu） and “老娘舅” （Lao Niangjiu）that are finding their way to success. These brand wars don’t just occur in the food and soft drink industries. Let’s look at some other brand and their stores in China.

NIKE and ADIDAS, two brands that now combined control at least half of China’s sportswear and trendy shoes markets. Yet they have both expended an immense amount of time and resources to wrest this share.

You can find that colors of their shoes are not the same as what they sell overseas. A lot of Chinese people complain colors and design are different here, but you have to admit that they sell pretty good, the reason is simple , trends at abroad do not comply with Chinese market. Therefore, most of people work for their china design team are locals, I believe this is also happened in other countries.

China, as one of the biggest export bases in the world and its the population and consumption trends provide an always enticing market for all foreign brands. Millions each year are spent on manpower and resources to research the China market and its consumers. In general, China’s mindsets are different than their western counterparts, so much of this research is a good idea. And China is a complex place with huge differences in geographies, wage levels and spending habits. Shanghai is China’s poster child city of wealth and cosmopolitan flair so many brands enter the market first there and then move to other locales.

Generation differences are especially difficult to address in China’s market. It’s a hard work for brands to win the hearts of young consumers! Like the Italian brand Diesel. Diesel is a far from a luxury brand abroad, but it quickly became a top brand in Hong Kong and mainland. Actually I really admire the company or agency that helped them improve their brand image. This company helped Diesel appear on the first ten pages of magazines next to brands like LV and Boss and some of the world’s most expensive brands. This work has directly helped elevate the brand’s image. Such tactics may not work for every brand. There are some foreign brands that have failed in china because they went the wrong direction with the brands.

Therefore, in China, the brands will be like an old Chinese saying: 近朱者赤近墨者黑（one takes the color of one’s companions). Trends in foreign countries is like China’s national policy: sustainable development. But in any case they should sit in the right seat .