"Bonjour" From the Mudanjiang Wanda Plaza

These signs with equivalents of "hello" in French, Chinese, Korean, and English appear on a wall bordering a construction site in Mudanjiang.

I will share a bit more about the Mudanjiang Wanda Plaza, particularly its completed sections, later.

Mooncake Delivery in Macau

Today I saw more signs in Macau of the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, including this truck delivering Maxim's mooncakes.

Unlike the mooncakes for dogs and cats I saw advertised elsewhere in Macau, these appeared to be for humans.

Later in the day, I saw a Koi Kei bakery truck with a less traditional design than I have seen before. The truck's design featured mooncakes. Again, they are presumably for humans, but they do have a popular cat theme.

Hello Kitty mooncakes represent a fusion of sorts between Chinese and Japanese cultures. I will soon share another mooncake fusion cooked in a place far away from Macau.

Coming to Macau

Thinking Big Small

Smart car promotion next to Wanda Plaza in Taiyuan

Play, Chainsaws, and Smashing Ukeleles in Taiyuan

In a section of Taiyuan with several newer shopping centers, over a month ago I saw the above advertisement for Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai's (蔡依林) concert featuring music from her most recent album "Play". A concert poster with a fuller image reveals that Tsai is destroying a disco ball.

Source

I am guessing that Tsai didn't really put herself at risk of being cut by flying disco ball shards, no matter what her feelings towards disco balls may be.

Whatever the case, the video for the song "Play" is remarkable. So much happens that I don't even know where to begin. In the 2014 piece "Asia’s Dancing Queen May Have Given Us the Year’s Best Pop Music Video" in Time, Nolan Feeney highlighted some key parts:

Nudity, aerobics-inspired choreography and fantastical colors all play major roles in the Sims-inspired clip. Also, someone gets hit in the face with a ukelele, so there’s that, too.

The scenes with apparent nudity are appropriately blurred, so the video should be safe for work as long as a company doesn't have a strict ukelele-violence policy. The official YouTube version doesn't include English subtitles, but this video does (may need to click "CC" to turn them on):

For those in the U.S. now wishing they could see the Play World Tour live, you missed a big chance. Tsai performed in Atlantic City earlier this year.

Grass-Mud Horse Makes Another Promotional Appearance in Beijing

Today was a special day. I saw a promotion in Beijing with a grass-mud horse.

Or maybe it was an alpaca — hard to say. Whatever the case, this isn't the first time such an animal has been part of a promotion in the Sanlitun area.

Maybe tomorrow I will see a promotion with a river crab.

UV Protection Meets Spaceballs In Taipei

Yesterday at the Xinyi Place shopping area in Taipei, I saw something unusual.

The large shiny helmets, reminiscent of the movie Spaceballs, were hard to miss.

Soon the helmets came off. Yet the activities proceeded as before.

This wasn't a promotion for a Spaceballs sequel. Instead, it was a promotion for lotions with UV protection — a common type of product in a region where many want to keep or make their skin a whiter color — from the Japanese brand Bioré. The young women wearing the helmets offered to apply lotion to the arms of passersby, whether woman, man, or child.

Nothing was available for purchase, but some people had their photos taken with the lotion.

The large helmets appeared to be helpful in attracting attention. Presumably, they represent the lotion's ability to block UV light, which raises a key question I'm not sure Bioré has considered.

How many people would rather buy the helmets?

Assorted Links: School Commute Peril, No Need for Refrigerators, and Deceptive Medical Treatment

1. Photos of how some children in Sichuan province must commute to school remind me of nightmares I have had:

Authorities in south-west China have vowed to come to the aid of an isolated mountain village after photographs emerged showing the petrifying journey its children were forced to make to get to school.

To attend class, backpack-carrying pupils from Atuler village in Sichuan province must take on an 800m rock face, scrambling down rickety ladders and clawing their way over bare rocks as they go.

2. Fortunately, most in China don't have as difficult of a commute. In fact, an especially short commute is one of the reasons why some people like those in a small Shandong town don't use refrigerators:

Aunt worked as a nurse in the local hospital, and as traditionally is the case with state-owned institutions in China, there was an apartment complex specially built for the hospital workers right across the street, which saved her from having to make much of a commute. On most days—so long as she had not worked the night shift—she would go to work in the morning and come back a little before noon, when she would have enough time to prepare lunch. This schedule was more or less the norm in Jiaxiang. Adults had long breaks off work in the middle of the day. And high-school students, who might be in school till 8 or 9 p.m., were given enough time at midday to go home for lunch. The daily schedule of working adults and students thus accommodated schedules that allowed lunch to be cooked and eaten at home, and that, in turn, meant that most food eaten at home would be finished off the same day it was prepared.

3. Sometimes, large pieces of equipment are bought and used for reasons relating to deception:

A salesman at Dongnan Medical soon explained why many of the devices were built to resemble MRI machines. "Private hospitals need to let customers know these are valuable pieces of equipment," he said. "The big devices entice customers in for treatment" . . . .

The machine resembled a large, open-style MRI machine, and its sleek white exterior held long English words—"Electrochemical Apparatus," "Infrared Light." On the patient table, a framed certificate stated the machine was made by the USA Wolman Prostate Institute, which later research revealed is a dummy company . . .

"The red light cures prostatitis," the salesman said, beaming proudly and handing me a brochure for the Wolman Prostate Gland Treatment System. The brochure featured a photo of the USA Wolman Prostate Institute's research center, which, thanks to a clearly labeled sign on the building, I quickly discovered was actually a photo of Invesco Field, where the Denver Broncos play football.

In multiple ways, the ending to this disturbing story about medical malfeasance in China is not a happy one.


4. As usual for these "assorted links" posts, I had a forth link to share. But another perspective just came to mind, and I want to consider it more. I have to run now, so I will share the piece later.

Watching Kinmen

Ad Takes On the Idea of "Leftover Women" in China

"Finally, an ad that celebrates single, independent Chinese women." ~ Leta Hong Fincher

In many different regions of China before I have seen marriage markets and have listened to women tell personal stories which are similar to those in the ad Fincher referenced. But I had not before seen a similar response to the use of the term "leftover women". Watch the video (on YouTube):

Let it Styrofoam: A Christmas Club Party with a Frozen Theme in Xiamen

A nativity scene with Olaf wasn't the only mix of Christmas and the movie Frozen I saw a few months ago in Xiamen. I also saw an advertisement for a Frozen-themed Christmas party at the Royal No. 1 Club (皇家壹号).

Using large broken pieces of styrofoam for snow was a special touch.

Sadly, I must report that I didn't go to the party and couldn't find any photos of it after a brief online search. So instead I will share a link to the first set of photos and video I found for another night at the club. They may push the boundary of "safe for work", though China's censors haven't been bothered (a defense HR would surely appreciate). I will share here one hopefully safe-for-work photo from the set which includes a couple of "mobile moments" — not everybody seemed captivated by the live entertainment.

From Paigu.com

Just imagine a similar scene with Frozen characters and crushed styrofoam. Perhaps that will be close to what the Christmas party was like.

Promoting a New Ceramics Center in Xiamen with a Snowman and a Ghost

I previously didn't offer any explanation for a nativity scene in Xiamen which included a snowy Disney character. But, as usual, context matters, so now I will share some.

There were two related displays at the Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street. Neither had a similar Christian theme.

Long story short, they were all part of a promotion for the grand opening of the Shunmei Ceramic Cultural Center.

According to the Shunmei Group's website, the company has passed a "factory audit of Disney". The website currently features some Frozen-themed items.

Olaf's presence in the nativity scene now seems less mysterious — same with the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and even the non-Disney minion's presence in the first photo above.

A Shunmei post in Chinese provides some examples of the items which would be available for purchase at the Shunmei Ceramic Cultural Center. It also has an advertisement for the grand opening which includes part of an iconic scene from the movie Ghost.

This raises obvious questions such as "Where is Olaf?" and "Are they making a ceramic minion?"

This is yet another example where digging deeper raised more questions than it answered. But at least some were answered. Maybe.

Laundry Detergent and Fashion: Women's Day in China

Today is a special day in much of the world, and, as reported by China Change, this year China spared no effort in its preparations:

Just before International Women’s Day on March 8, the Feminist Five activists in China, as well as their defense counsel, have been spoken to and put under pressure by police, according to friends and lawyers of the activists, communicating via social media.

On March 3, Internal Security police, the branch of the Public Security Bureau focused on internal political threats, sought out the defense lawyers of the feminist activists.

In Zhongshan on International Women's Day last year, I didn't see anything of note except a promotion for female lip hair removal. Several days later, I saw a Women's Day sale at the military-themed clothing store War Ground. Similarly, this year in Jieyang the only signs of Women's Day I noticed were sales at some small stores.

Remarkably, two of the Women's Day sales featured laundry detergent and dishwashing liquid.

Perhaps also in the spirit of the holiday, Xinhua News on blocked-in-China Twitter today reported "Nearly 5 million Chinese women received micro-financing worth $38.1 bln in 2015". The tweet also included a photo.

I recognize the location as the Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street in Chongqing. After that, I must admit I have a few questions.

So I will end this piece simply by recommending Julie Makinen's story "How does China mark Women's Day? Hold the feminism, bring on the fashion show".

A Brief Look at Some Movie Posters in Jieyang

Building with the Rongjiang Theater on its upper floors

It has been a while since I shared two movie posters which caught my eye in Shaoguan, Guangdong. So I will mention when I passed by the Rongjiang Theater today in Jieyang, Guangdong, I noticed a poster for Mermaid (美人鱼), a new movie from Hong Kong (a review).

On the poster was a schedule for today's showtimes.

Notably, two of the three movies are in Cantonese, a common dialect in Guangdong. Most people in Jieyang speak the local Chaoshan dialect, which is very different, in their daily life. But the few people I have asked told me they are able to understand Cantonese, if not speak it. The third movie is in Putonghua, a standardized form of Mandarin and China's official language.

Nearby were other movie posters. One pair represented future and past movies with a space theme.



Like the Midnight Whispers movie poster I saw months ago, the Star Wars poster includes an error. This one made me think of The Shining (spoiler alert: relevant movie excerpt). Perhaps the error wouldn't have occurred had they used the Chinese poster, though that version raised other questions.

I had intended to see if there was anything interesting to say about the Space Panda movie. But an online search first led me to a potentially seizure-inducing video about the Space Panda video game. I am guessing it is of no relation to the Chinese movie, but it has left me feeling like its best to stop here regardless.

The Name for an Unusual Building in Shenzhen

Yesterday's post included a photo of a building in Shenzhen with an unusual design.

I didn't worry about identifying the building when I took the photo two weeks ago. I expected it would be easy to figure out later online. But the best I could do last night in a short amount of time was find the building on Baidu Map's street view where it is covered by scaffolding. No name appeared for the building, and an image search of the photo proved fruitless.

While at the nearby Dongmen Pedestrian Street area today, I unexpectedly caught a glimpse of the building down an alley. Feeling inspired, I decided to identify it the old fashioned way and made my way to a passageway where I could cross Shennan East Road underground while perusing the items sold by various hawkers. Upon arriving at the building, I considered what appeared to be a bovine-inspired sculpture next to the building's main entrance.

I walked into the main lobby, and a security guard soon approached. Perhaps he was from the nearby Shenzhen Security Service Company.

The seemingly nervous security guard answered a few questions before he stopped to salute an older man walking by. The man had a puzzled expression when he looked at me. Probably to nobody's surprise, we both refrained from any saluting.

After leaving the building, I pondered a nearby Land Rover advertisement with a snow covered scene.

Although Shenzhen has experienced unusually cold weather recently, snowy roads are rarely a worry. It snowed in Guangzhou, not far away to the north, yesterday for the first time in 50 years (added note: parts of Shenzhen reportedly saw snow as well).

Anyway, the building under question holds the Ruihe R & D Center and is creatively named the Ruihe Building (瑞和大厦). According to Reuters:

SHENZHEN RUIHE CONSTRUCTION DECORATION CO., LTD. is principally engaged in the design and construction of building decoration projects. The Company provides decoration and construction services for shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, curtain, subways, finance, office buildings and theaters, among others. The Company operates its businesses in domestic markets.

And now one loose end is tied up.

Two Contemporary Shenzhen Styles

Two photos from the city which borders Hong Kong — Shenzhen:

On Shennan East Road

Portion of an advertisement inside Lilian Sun Plaza, Dongmen

Future Seen Higher at Future Dancehall in Hong Kong

As a result of a good friend's wedding, I spent the New Year holiday in Hong Kong. I won't be here long, so I expect to only do a few HK-themed posts before returning to other topics. In that spirit and on the lighter side, here's some advertising I saw today in Hong Kong:

For a clearer view, here's an online version of the advertisement which caught my eye:

There's just so much going on I don't know where to begin. So I won't. Like the scene of lightsabers during New Year's in Hong Kong, I will leave it to readers to ponder what may have inspired it or find any meaning. If you're interested in digging deeper, the associated event page on Facebook (the source for the 2nd image) is probably a decent place to start. It helped me answer a few of my questions. It also led to new ones. That's often how these things go.

'Tis the Season for Star Wars in China

Signs of Christmas are easy to find in China this time of the year, and in the past I have shared holiday scenes from Putian, Quanzhou, Wuhan, Zhangzhou, and Hong Kong. But none of them included TIE fighters or Imperial Stormtroopers. The idea of mixing Christmas with Star Wars will make some people cringe with memories of the fascinatingly terrible 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. But at the IAPM shopping center in Shanghai the two have been combined in a more harmonious manner to promote the upcoming release of Disney's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Some people will still cringe due to the further commercialization of Christmas, but in China most people attach little or no religious meaning to the holiday and the government has more concerns about the potential "religionization" of Christmas.

Below are scenes at the shopping center from this past weekend, including Friday when several of the Star Wars displays were still roped off. Christmas trees with light sabers, starfighters, female models wearing Star Wars themed clothing, armed Star Wars figures, and an unarmed Santa Claus (unless you count his bell) all make appearances. Many of the photos capture the variety of people who interacted with the displays or the modern design of the shopping center itself. IAPM couldn't be more different from the simple outdoor market which existed at the same location less than 10 years ago and sold fakes imitating some of the luxury brands now available at posh stores there. The shopping center, its visitors, and Disney's new hopes in China are all signs of how much the country has changed since the first Star Wars movie opened 38 years ago in a land far, far away. . . .