City Memory – Drawings and Sketches of Wang Shouzhi

Duration: May 6 – June 3, 2012

Opening: May 6, 15:00, 2012

A lecture and a book launch by Prof. Wang Shouzhi will be hosted to accompany the opening.

Venue: Iron Curtain Gallery (F10), Redtory, Guangzhou

Exhibition Director: Alice Wong

Art Director: Ke Peng

Organizer: Redtory Culture & Art Organization

Co-organizer: Scientific Research and Creation Office, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

When we are immersed in the dirts stirred by the massive construction projects in the city, probably it is time for us to trace back to the origine of the dirts, for those may be the beginning of our bloodline. Iron Curtain Gallery is honored to hold an exhibition about the memory of Guangzhou from Prof. Wang Shouzhi, who has made remarkable achievements in design history as well as urban human geography.

It’s already a shared subject among artists to record the city through different media such as photograph, painting and sculpture. This time, Prof. Wang reveals Guangzhou city in his memory to the public with over 40 pieces of sketch, reflecting both old lanes with a history of more than half a century and the star buildings emerged in the new century. Who on earth has shed a shade on the other? Prof. Wang shows his judgment with his memory. The concept of archaeology seems to be obscure during the process of human civilization; however, we can build ourselves a maze in our memories about a city through the passionate pictures by Prof. Wang Shouzhi.

Iron Curtain Gallery will publish a portfolio under the same name to concert the opening. We hope this exhibition itself could become a part of the city’s memory.

PREFACE

/ Wang Shouzhi

City is changing all the time, though, in a person’s memory, it always clings to a certain visage in light of memory. I was born in the center of Guangzhou. I was told that, when I was born, my family were still living with my grandpa’s little brother – my seventh granduncle’s family. It was a house in Xinghua Alley. After I was born, my family directly took me back to our new home at No. 81, Lianxin Road. The house was facing Fuqian Road, where Guangzhou government building was located, as well as the central park. Flame trees tendered the silent road like an umbrella. This is the place where I witnessed the process that Nationalist Party surrendered to the PCP. The city of Guangzhou in my mind is closed related to the Republic of China due to my childhood memory.

The architecture in Guangzhou has always be characteristic, which, I think, must have something to do with Guangzhou’s position as a connection between China and abroad since Tang Dynasty. When most part of China was still building traditional style houses such as quadrangle courtyards, Qilou Buildings have already emerged in Guangzhou. When China was still in a state of seclusion, Guangzhou has already had trade centers such as Thirteen Hongs, suggesting that modern buildings have already entered the city. Guangzhou has been leading on the path of China’s national modernization. At the early phase, it has excellent works such as Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Guangzhou Government Building and Lingnan University, among which Sha Mian appeared as the best planned international leased territory completely isolated with the other territory of China. These buildings are still the best place for understanding the layout and design of European colonial architecture from18 to 19 century. Guangzhou is the earliest to form its axis line, to have central park and busy western style business street such as Changti. What’s more, the development of Guangzhou is not realized by the deconstruction of the old, like some cities do. Instead, it has been following a pattern which allows the coexistence of the old and the new; Xiguan Houses, Dongshan Villa and the traditional modernization along the axis line, thereby, to step forward side by side, suggesting a most reasonable pattern of the development of the modern city. I’m deeply impressed by all of these.

In the recent decades, Guangzhou has been experiencing a grand development with the axis line being driven easter and easter. The urban area expanded, the old districts were rebuilt, even No. 81 in Lianxin Road was demolished and transformed into road linking Fuqian Road and Jiefangbei Road. The vicissitudes have changed everything but memory, which, when being drawn, still has its charm. This is the story of these sketches.

Some people might ask, don’t you like new things? I would answer them that the place in one’s childhood memory is the most intimate thing to him. Perhaps my grandpa preferred Guangzhou in the era of the 1911 Revolution, my father loves Guangzhou in the 1930s most, while what I am showing you here is the city in my generation’s memory.

SOME EXHIBITS

Guangzhou Liberation Monument  60×60 cm

Guangzhou Liberation Monument located at the center of Haizhu Square. It was built to memorize the victory of the CPC army in Guangzhou. The monument, at a height of 11.5 meters, was carved with grantie by Pan He and Liang Mingcheng upon a base as tall as 3.6 meters. The length of each side is 4.3 meters. At the front side, there carves Ye Jianying’s inscription, with “all power belongs to the people” on each side of the base. At the top of the base, there stood a soldier with a rifle in his right hand and a bundle of flowers in his left hand. In 1959, the decennial of the liberation day, Guangzhou government erected the monument in Haizhu Square. It was listed in Yangcheng Eight Scenic Spots in 1962, and declared major site to be protected. Dismantled during the Cultural Revolution, it was rebuilt in July, 1980.

Officical Face of Haizhu Bridge  60×60 cm

Due to various reasons, Guangzhou has walked slowly in urban construction after Liberation. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall was built before Liberation. Therefor, the new face of city was built on Haizhu Bridge and Haizhu Square.Haizhu Bridge has been the only way to connect Pearl Riversides for a long time which was crowded. The goverment expanded the roads of riversides as the cycle tracks. Traveling across the river could enjoy the official scenes of grand Haizhu Aquare, Guangzhou Hotel, Canton Fair Building, and Overseas Chinese Masion around the Liberation Momument.

Source From:  http://www.redtory.com.cn/english/board_content.php?id=97

2012.5.18 -19  (FRI-SAT)  20:00

Ticket: ￥80  (Members 20% off, Student 50% off, 4-9 tickets 10% off, 10 tickets and more 15% off)

Guangdong Modern Dance Company Small Theatre

(No.13 Shui Yin Heng Lu, Guangzhou)

Enquiry & Ticket Booking: 020-8704 9512

GMDC Dancers’ Works

Cicada by Yu Lijun

1/4 by Zeng Liang

X·2 by Xiao Zhiren, Ma Ke & Hu Tengteng

To Dear by Zhao Jianrui

Being  Choreographer: Ma Shouze Dancers: GMDC dancers

In the Illustration Book of Tai Chi, Zhou Dunyi, a famous scholar of the Song Dynasty exclaimed that “The Yin and the Yang match and deliver the multiplicity of the many life forms, and the life forms then progress forever.” Choreographer Ma Shouze acknowledges this insightful thought by creating the dance: Being.

Ma Shouze

A founding member of Guangdong Modern Dance Company

MFA in choreography at the University of Iowa (US).

He was an associate professor in the Department of Dance at Arizona State University. He has been teaching, performing and choreographing in many universities, dance festivals and dance companies in China and the US.

Currently, Ma Shouze is the artistic director of Shouze Arts Center in Beijing and visiting professor of Northeast Normal University in Jilin Province, China.

Event Name:  2012 Expat Show Beijing       

Organizer:  World Events Agency

Location:  Beijing, China

Venue: China World Trade Center

Address: 1 Jian Guomen Wai Avenue, ChaoYang District, Beijing （北京建国门外大街1号）

Date:  April 28th, 29^th, 2012

Event description / details:

The Expat Show Beijing has been successfully held for 4 years. It is an exhibition where you can find everything you need to feel at home. The last Expat Show Beijing has been successfully presented on March 25^th-27^th. 2011. It remains the biggest gathering of the Foreign Community. By visiting the show you will find everything you can imagine for your daily life in Beijing.

The 5^th edition of the Expat Show Beijing will be held from April 28^th-29^th, 2012 in the China World Trade Center.  In order to improve the experience of the attendance, many new activities will be set up during the Expat Show 2012:  The “National Villages” gives you the opportunities to experience different cultures from different countries. A new activity “The International School Tournament” will be launched during Expat Show Beijing. This tournament has 4 sections, “The Chinese Paper Cutting Contest”, “Drawing Contest”, “Talent Show” and “Flea Market”. All these activities will let your children have a wonderful weekend.

One more time the Expat Show will bring you the opportunity to meet many people, find everything you need, entertain your kids and spend a great time. We look forward to seeing you all very soon next in April.

For more information, please click here.

www.expatshowchina.com

Best time and best location- job needs you in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, April 2012!

The 2012 Job Fair for Foreigners in Beijing:Time: 9:00-16:00, April 7th 2012 (Saturday)Place: 2nd Floor, Swissotel Beijing (five star)Address: No. 2 North Chao Yang Men Avenue, Dong Cheng District, Beijing

The 2012 Job Fair for Foreigners in Shanghai:Time: 9:00-16:00, April 14th 2012 (Saturday)

Place: 3rd Floor, Zurich Hall, Swissotel Grand Shanghai (five star)Address: 1 Yu Yuan Road, Jing An District, Shanghai

The 2012Job Fair for Foreigners in Guangzhou:

Time: 9:00-16:00, April 21st 2012(Saturday)Place: Section BC Crystal Ball Room, 2/F, ChinaHotel (Marriott) Guangzhou
 
Address: 122 Liuhua Road (Liuhua Lu) Yuexiu Guangzhou

Hosted by Chinajob, the Job Fair for Foreigners is the SOLE event authorized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China.
 
No matter where you are, the Job Fair always provides opportunities in the best time and best location of China!

And, as we always did, the Fairs are FREE for all expatriate job seekers!

If you are interested, please feel free to register on-line:

Jobfair.chinajob.com

If you have any questions concerned, we are very pleased to help you:

Christina Yang (Beijing)

Telephone No.: +86-10-68468025

Monica Wang (Shanghai)

Telephone No.: +86-021-3250 8110 , +86-021-3250 8130 , +86-010-6894 8899-50246

Grace Zhang or Iris Liang (Guangzhou)

Telephone No.: +86-10-68948899 ext.50307 or +86-10-68948899 ext.50303

Samuel Zhou (Guangzhou Foreign Experts Bureau)

Telephone No.: +86-20-83126157; Fax: +86-20-83126137

The reasons why and the implications of falling foul of Chinese regulations
By Eunice Ku

The State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) is the national governmental organization directly under the State Council that coordinates local Administrations of Industry and Commerce (AICs).

Among the many SAIC and AIC functions and responsibilities, those highly relevant to the foreign investor include:

Overseeing the registration and supervision of enterprises, including punishing businesses without licenses;

Managing IPR registration and protection, including investigating and punishing IPR infringement activities and handling IPR disputes;

Enforcing Anti-Trust Law, including investigating and punishing unfair competition, commercial bribery, smuggling and other illegal economic activities;
Categorizing enterprises by creditability and publicizing basic registration information;

Supervising trade in food commodities; and

Supervising advertising activities.

The “AIC blacklist” is part of an enterprise “credibility supervision information system” shared between AIC bureaus, but not made available to the public.

Specifically, the list categorizes enterprises into four categories (A, B, C, D) based on their creditability. If your name is listed in a key position of a company in categories B to D of this list, this may inhibit or prevent you from participating in a key position in new FIEs in the future.

Furthermore, while the directly relevant AIC policy does not state consequences for individuals beyond the legal representative, it is worth noting that during company establishment, the names of all people in key positions of an enterprise are registered with the AIC. Many people do not even know that their name is on the blacklist before applying to register a new FIE.

Source From: http://www.china-briefing.com/en/

Across the street from a five-story H&M flagship store on Huaihai Road in Shanghai, Wang Yan took a break from shopping to smoke a cigarette and reflect on how Chinese fashion has changed since the clothing chain arrived roughly four years ago.

“First, prices are cheaper,” the 32-year-old Beijing native said. “Second, for these stores, the clothes are more fashionable than before.”

Wang embodied the evolving tastes of the middle-class Chinese consumer. He wore sports brands – a Nike jacket and backpack – that formerly dominated the mid-tier branded clothing market, but in his shopping bag was spring jacket from H&M competitor Zara, a decidedly more fashion-oriented brand.
Wang is one of the many Chinese consumers who can rarely afford luxury products but want more fashionable clothing than is available from sports brands or domestic retailers. As the internet spreads and incomes increase, Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and aspirational in their purchases.

“Fast fashion” stores have stepped in to meet this demand, led by Sweden’s H&M and Spain’s Zara. “This is a big new thing that has happened in the China marketing scene,” said Tom Doctoroff, North Asia CEO of marketing firm JWT and author of a forthcoming book on Chinese consumerism, “What Chinese Want.”

The fast-fashion brands have filled a long-standing gap in China between low-end, local brands and the foreign, luxury or sub-luxury brands like Coach, Doctoroff said. “H&M and Zara came around at the same time, effectively setting up a new price tier.”

More brands than a cattle roundup

Clothing brands expanded only gradually after China’s economic opening in 1979. At first, Chinese consumers were not very brand conscious.

Among the first clothing brands to rise to prominence in the 1990s were foreign and domestic sports retailers such as Nike and Li Ning. The association with sports gave these brands easy cache: Li Ning, for example, was founded by the well-known Chinese gymnast of the same name, while Nike built its brand through sponsorships, starting with that of China’s national basketball team.

Some local and Hong Kong brands found early success as well. Metersbonwe and Giordano sounded foreign and emulate foreign styles, although they did not follow foreign trends closely. Metersbonwe, founded in 1995, now has more than 4,500 stores in China.

A luxury boom followed in the 2000s, rapidly introducing new brands. China’s luxury consumption skyrocketed from less than US$800 million in 1998 to an estimated US$12 billion in 2010. Nearly every major luxury clothing brand can now be found in first-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Chinese consumers who could afford luxury brands were quick to take them up as a badge of wealth and status. Seemingly overnight, Chinese consumers became familiar with dozens of brands. That awareness helped pave the way for fast fashion.

“Within a really short time, within one to two years time, everyone seems to know all the luxury brands and they read about it, they talk about it on forums,” said Mariana Kou, a retail analyst at CLSA. “And the same thing applies to mass market brands, the fashion brands [like H&M].”

Super models

By the time Hennes and Mauritz, better known as H&M, entered China, it had honed its business model through decades of expansion in Western markets. Founded in 1947 in Västerås, Sweden, the company expanded to Norway in 1964 and to the UK in 1976. The 1980s and 90s saw H&M reach further into continental Europe, and in the 2000s it launched its first stores in the US.

The company designs most of its clothing in-house following the style of the latest fashion trends. It then outsources its production and buys in large volume to keep costs down before distributing to stores worldwide. H&M prices its products relatively cheaply to appeal to a young market, mostly consumers in their 20s.

H&M introduced this model to Asia in 2007, when it opened its first stores in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The company’s customers also skew young in China; it appeals to Chinese consumers who have just entered the workforce, Kou said.

H&M’s worldwide strategy of occasionally teaming up with luxury designers and celebrities to design co-branded lines has been particularly well-received in China. The Versace for H&M line that launched last year, for example, gives some of the vaunted association of a sought-after luxury brand at a far lower price.

Zara, H&M’s primary competitor in China, opened its first store on the mainland in 2006 and adheres more closely to the definition of fast fashion, bringing the latest runway fashion trends to stores as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Unlike H&M, Zara wholly controls its manufacturing process, so that it can bring runway inspirations to market in as little as two weeks. H&M, by using subcontractors, often has longer lead times of six to 12 months. However, speed costs money, giving Zara a slightly higher price point than H&M.

Other brands are often associated with fast fashion because they have similar strategies and pricing in China, even though they offer less fashion-oriented clothing. Japan’s Uniqlo, for example, concentrates on high-quality, basic clothing at slightly lower prices than H&M.

This tier of clothing is more affordable than luxury brands, but it is not “cheap chic,” as the stores are described in the West. For example, an H&M sweater priced at US$35 in the US retails at roughly US$47 (RMB299) in China, about 36% more. Yet Chinese also have far less to spend than Americans: per capita disposable income in the US for 2011 was more than six times Shanghai’s average of US$5,760.

“Compared with the local brands, Uniqlo, H&M, Zara are a bit pricey,” said Takahiro Kazahaya, a retail analyst at Deutsche Bank.

First-tiers first

H&M, Zara and Uniqlo all focused on first-tier cities upon entering China. Typically, the companies first rolled out a flagship store in an attention-grabbing location.

“You’ve got to come in big. You’ve got to come in as a brand that is famous, and one way to do that is with a flagship store,” Doctoroff said. “Everybody has these larger stores for stature.”

That often means choosing a location in malls and on shopping streets that are already populated by luxury stores. Because launching ad campaigns is expensive in China and Zara and H&M had few stores until recently, these brands have generally relied less on advertising and more on generating buzz through flagships and events. Once Chinese shoppers are somewhat familiar with the brand, the chains then began to open smaller stores in that city.

The strategy has worked so far. H&M had 82 stores in China as of November last year after nearly doubling its stores on an annual basis. Zara had 91 stores as of October 2011.

It’s more difficult to discern the success of these stores financially, since the companies release little China-specific data.

H&M’s total sales for China were US$539.4 million for fiscal year 2011, up 42% from 2010. Zara’s parent company Inditex Group does not release China-specific sales data, but one analyst estimated that Zara sales were US$515.3 million in China in the fiscal year ending in January 2011. That estimate may be low, since Zara’s average store in China is larger than its average store in a Western markets.

Neither company discloses profits. But Kou of CLSA said their relatively high price points probably make them profitable. In Western markets, these stores generally start turning profits relatively quickly after opening; that likely holds true for the China market as well.

Both companies have consistently named China as one of a few key expansion markets. H&M says that it will open 275 stores worldwide in 2012 with the most being opened in China, the US and UK.

This expansion seems rapid, but it is slower than China’s sportswear and domestic brands, which use franchising to allow for more rapid growth. Giordano, for example, has 448 wholly-owned stores and 700 franchised stores, according to Kazahaya’s estimates. Opening wholly-owned locations takes more time, but it allows H&M and Zara to have more control over details like distribution, product rollouts and inventory. It also ensures consistency in how the brands are presented.

This slower pace means that H&M and Zara are just beginning to expand to lower-tier Chinese cities, a task not without pitfalls. Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou are often comparable to many major Western cities in their consumer demand and retail offerings. The gap is not always easily bridged between them and second-tier cities, where consumers typically earn less and have less exposure to foreign brands.

But these secondary markets can definitely support stores, albeit on a smaller scale, Kou said. Their strong presence in first-tier cities means many shoppers in second-tier city already know the brand.

These second-tier cities will soon become saturated with retail outlets, as first-tier cities have already become. At the moment, H&M has 14 stores in Shanghai and eight in Beijing while most second-tier cities only have one or two locations, according to the company’s website.

The mid-range price tier may be less than a decade old, but it is already growing crowded – as Gap found when it opened its first China store in 2010.
“A few of these players have a little bit of a head start on us. There are of course real estate challenges, where we’re fighting for the best locations,” said Jeff Kirwan, managing director for Gap’s Greater China division. “We certainly see the competitive nature of the landscape in China ramping up quite a bit.”

1.3 billion clothes-horses

The growing wealth and size of China’s middle class seems to ensure H&M and Zara’s success. As incomes rise in China, shoppers will raise their sights to more fashionable clothing, and H&M and Zara have helped light that path to ever-higher aspiration.

Consumers now have a clear trajectory from local brands to Uniqlo, H&M and Zara, on to lower-priced luxury brands like Hugo Boss and Dolce & Gabbana, before topping out at stores like Louis Vuitton and Prada, said Kou of CLSA.

As this retail space gets more crowded in China, stores will have to differentiate themselves, and branding will become even more important, Doctoroff said.

“Fashion brands are badges and you use them to express identity, so the allure of wearing a brand from… the next level up in the premium scale is not an enduring competitive advantage,” Doctoroff said. “You see the same thing happening in luxury. It’s a tangled glop of glitter [in need of differentiation].”

Flagship stores and grand opening parties likely will not be enough to accomplish that, he said, so stores will need to begin formal marketing campaigns in China, something that so far only Gap is doing in the mid-range price tier. The internet, and especially microblog services like Weibo, will only further encourage the pursuit of brands as badges of social success.

“The Chinese are the most brand-friendly people in the world,” Doctoroff said. “They use brands as tools for success in society, as weapons of advancement in the battlefield of life.”

Source From: http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/node/56727

Date：2012.3.24 – 2012.4.13

Venue: Guangdong Times Museum 19fl Exhibition Hall

Organized by: Guangdong Times Museum

Special Thanks to: Times Property

 
China will resort to “market-oriented” measures to tackle its local debt issues, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at a press conference last Wednesday after the closing of the Fifth Session of the Eleventh National People’s Congress. Wen’s remarks have signaled that China may allow more private investors to buy out some of the country’s state-owned assets.
 
When answering a question raised by Reuters on local government debt, Wen said the government attaches great importance to the debt issues and will not allow those issues to adversely affect China’s development. With regards to debt repayment, some of the debts borrowed for high-quality projects can be repaid by the projects’ own profits, and those used on projects for public interest will be repaid by both the central and local governments. China will also consider market-based approaches such as asset disposals, project transfers and equity sales during the debt repayment process.
 
That being said, private investors may have a chance to share a stake in the sectors that are mainly controlled by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) at present. The government seems willing to rethink the roles of state and private capital in industries, as the total amount of local debt runs high and risks in debt repayment grow.
 
Leo Zhang, chairmen of China-based Jumbo Consulting, believes the government should play a smaller part in specific industries.
 
“In industries where you can exit, you exit…Why do we need over 100 SOEs? It’s unnecessary. You should sell them all,” Zhang commented.
 
During the past wave of privatization back in the 1990s, China significantly shrunk the state’s stake in enterprises. However, the government still keeps an iron grip on sectors that it regards as “strategically important,” such as energy and finance.
 
Problems associated with strong state control – which often lacks full consideration to economic efficiency – have gradually risen to the surface. Analysts believe around 20 percent to 30 percent of the over RMB10 trillion in local debts will face a repayment challenge and most of those non-performing loans will be on the books of China’s big banks. While those banks which see weakness on their balance sheets recently started a new round of capital raising, it is again the large SOE-linked buyers who have helped pay most of the bills.
 
Some of the other government-controlled sectors – such as infrastructure development and power generation – are very attractive to both domestic and foreign private investors. As the world’s second largest economy, China’s spending on infrastructure is multiples of what is being spent anywhere else in the world, but private investors’ participation in this sector remains minimal.
 
While the Chinese government has come up with various approaches – such as extending the loans’ maturity period and raising more capital – to avoid a major bank default, faster privatization might be the ultimate measure that helps the country finally get away from a vicious lending and spending cycle.
 
David Roseman, global head of infrastructure, utilities and renewables at Australian investment bank Macquarie Group, offered an example on how more entrepreneurial activity will generate a virtuous cycle. By selling profitable infrastructure to investors, China could free up enough cash to build a toll-free road.
 
However, the goal for further privatization will not be an easy one to achieve. The complicated ownership structures may make it difficult for SOEs at different levels to agree on asset deals, and their growing financial power – a result of expansion at home and abroad – is also making them less willing to conduct restructuring.
 
Source From: http://www.china-briefing.com/en/

Descriptions of China’s economy are often paired with the best of accolades: promising, miraculous and meteoric, to name a few. But observers rarely use the words “fair” and “transparent” to describe the country’s business environment. One need not look far to see why: rampant corruption, preferential policies for state-owned companies, and copious red tape all prevent private enterprises from thriving.
 

Yet out of this unequal playing field, e-commerce giant Alibaba and web portal Sina have created two of the fairest and most transparent business platforms in China. Alibaba allows individuals and companies to sell goods on its Taobao platform, giving vendors a set of standards and leaving everything else to their discretion. Weibo is similarly a free-for-all of Chinese expression, with the notable exception of controversial political topics.
 

Both Taobao and Weibo have exploded since their founding and have maintained commanding leads in their respective fields. Taobao sales were US$58.7 billion (RMB370 billion) in 2010 while Tmall, a site aimed at more developed brands spun off of Taobao in 2008, currently has about 55,000 vendors. And in the two years since Sina Weibo’s founding, the Twitter-like service has racked up 250 million users.
 

“If you ask people, ‘Why you want to shop online?’ I think many people will say that it gives transparency of pricing… people look for convenience, people like more information,” said Phil Wei, China CEO of Export Now, a startup that allows US-based companies to list products on Tmall. “One thing [Alibaba founder] Jack Ma did is offer freedom to all these consumers and all these business units.”
 
The free market

The freedom to compete is giving rise to third-party service providers that could become some of the most dynamic companies in the Chinese economy. As has been the case with US tech giants Twitter and Ebay, Taobao and Weibo have both spawned an eco-system of third-party companies that provide related services, making the platforms practically an economy unto themselves.
 

The type of third-party service providers surrounding the two platforms reflects the different aims of Taobao and Weibo. “Taobao is doing business transaction[s] while Weibo is media spreading information,” said Deco You, a Beijing-based analyst at iResearch, an online market research company. This discrepancy results in very different growth rates, said You. “The number of Taobao-related companies will increase much faster than those Weibo-related ones.”
 

In addition to opportunities to sell goods, Taobao and Tmall offer business opportunities for subcontractors that provide services to vendors, such as store design, customer service, logistics and marketing.
 

As a media platform, Weibo naturally lends itself to marketing companies, which began to emerge about a year after Weibo’s founding. Yang Xin, founder of marketing firm Weichuanbo, said he knows of at least 10 start-up companies that also specialize in Weibo, not to mention traditional marketing firms which have entered the arena.
 

Despite these differences, doing business centered on either Taobao or Weibo is remarkably similar. The short lead times and relatively limited barriers to entry have resulted in fierce competition among many similar companies.
 

Many of these third-party companies are quick to copy each other’s successes, a common tactic in China where enforcement of intellectual property rights is not as strong as in the West. But instead of knock-offs, the competition seems to foster flexibility. Weichuanbo has upgraded its software platform three times in attempt to stay ahead of copycats, Yang said.
 

The companies also compete for the best online “real estate” on Weibo and Taobao. Taobao and Tmall sell ad spaces to the right of search results, although search results themselves are organic and depend on sales and consumer ratings. Weibo marketing companies commonly pay influential users to promote their products. Weichuanbo compensates about 200,000 users for their help, and Yang hopes that number will someday grow to 2-3 million.
 

The instant feedback of web analytics also means that companies know immediately if they are falling behind the competition. If a user doesn’t like an attempt at viral marketing on Weibo, they are likely to say so or ignore it altogether. Shoppers on Taobao are just as quick to pass judgment.
 

“Online, if a client comes to your store, if they stay longer than five seconds your store is not bad,” said Wei of Export Now. “That means the chances they become frequent visitors will be significantly higher. But if [they stay] less than five seconds, they probably will not come back again.”
 

Taobao- and Weibo-related companies also compete for unbridled optimism. Weichuanbo aims to have more than 300% in annual revenue growth within the next two years. Export Now expects to have some 300 US manufacturers selling through its service and US$1.59-3.18 million (RMB10-20 million) in revenue by the end of the year, up from virtually nothing at the present.

“The market will keep growing and the trend will continue in the next five to 10 years, and the expansion brings about more opportunities for third-party companies,” said Dong Xu, an analyst at research firm Analysys International.
 

Yet growth in the Weibo community may not be sustainable. The government-led research center China Internet Network Information Center issued a report last month stating that new signups for Weibo began to slow in the second half of 2011. Weibo users nearly quadrupled from the end of 2010 to 250 million. With only 500 million internet users in China, however, continuing at that pace will be impossible.
 

Although user growth will slow, there is still much money to be made. Spending on internet marketing is projected to grow to US$12.5 billion (RMB79.1 billion) in 2012, up from an estimated US$8.1 billion in 2011 and US$5.2 billion in 2010, according to iResearch.
 

Marketing revenue in China is likely to continue growing quickly, said You of iResearch. Advertisers have only recently begun to shift online, attracted by ad space that is often more targeted and cost-effective than traditional print and TV advertising.
 

Marketing and analytics companies can strive to grab more of that revenue by improving on underdeveloped technology and becoming more efficient, said You. Foreign companies with better technology and efficient operations could also enter the market, though they will still be limited by cultural barriers.
 

Taobao and Weibo could also begin providing additional marketing services themselves. Taobao launched an internet marketing division in April 2010 called the Taobao Alliance, which quickly grew to have US$238 million (RMB1.5 billion) in revenue, according to iResearch.
 

This potential for new entrants means the market for third-party services is likely to remain highly competitive. Many companies that fail to keep up with the pace of innovation will undoubtedly be pushed out of business or be acquired by more successful competitors. But those that do innovate and survive will probably be among the most dynamic companies in China’s internet sector, regardless of the platform.
 

As Wang Weili of Taobao marketing firm Shenzhen Fangwei E-Commerce puts it: “There might be other websites driving our business in the future. But where there are clients is where we will be.”
 

Source From: http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/node/56435

A mesmerising combination of mime, acting, shadow puppetry, film snippets and silent-movie-style piano accompaniment.

When：4 to 5 April 2012 7.30 p.m.

Venue：Guangzhou Opera House

About the show

Trust no one. Suspect even your own shadow.

Welcome to the Bayou Mansions; a stinking sprawling tenement block feared and loathed.  When Agnes Eaves and her daughter arrive late one night, does it signal hope in this hopeless place, or has the real horror only just begun?

Seamlessly synchronising live music, performance and stunning animation, this is the wickedly twisted new tale from multiple award-winning 1927.

Like a giant novel burst into life, 1927 invites you on a theatrical journey of startling originality.

Creative and Production Credits
• Created by 1927
• Directed & Written by Suzanne Andrade
• Film, Animation and Design by Paul Barritt
• Music by Lillian Henley
• Costume by Sarah Munro & Esme Appleton
• Performed by Suzanne Andrade, Esme Appleton and Lillian Henley
• Voice of the Caretaker: Jamie Adams
• Producer: Joanna Crowley

About 1927

1927 is a London-based performance company that specialises in combining performance and live music with animation and film to create magical filmic theatre.  1927 was founded in 2005 by writer, performer and director Suzanne Andrade and animator and iIllustrator Paul Barritt.  They were joined soon after by performer and costume designer Esme Appleton and performer, composer and musician Lillian Henley.

1927 cut their teeth on the London cabaret scene,  performing at cabaret venues, spoken word nights and comedy clubs, and supporting major cabaret acts and bands.
During 2011, the show The Animals Took to the Streets was presented as part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It toured to Nigeria, Perth Festival Australia, Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival ( Edinburgh), Theatre de la Ville (Paris), Latitude Festival, Holt Festival, Dublin Festival, Belfast Festival, Cornwall Film Festival, Bristol Old Vic and Nu:Write Festival Croatia, culminating in a month-long season at the National Theatre, London.

Beyond China, 1927’s tour will take them to UAE, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, USA, Russia, South America, India and Europe.

They are currently collaborating with the Komische Opera in Berlin to develop a large-scale new production of The Magic Flute to premiere in November 2012 and is already developing a new production for 2014.  1927 is an Associate Company of the Young Vic Theatre.

1927’s website

www.19-27.co.uk

Website for Guangzhou Opera House

www.gzdjy.org

Article source from: http://www.uknow.org.cn/en/events/67.html