Ged Carroll

Category: culture | 文明 | 미디어와 예술 | 人文

Culture was the central point of my reason to start this blog. I thought that there was so much to explore in Asian culture to try and understand the future.

Initially my interest was focused very much on Japan and Hong Kong. It’s ironic that before the Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ initiative there was much more content out there about what was happening in Japan. Great and really missed publications like the Japan Trends blog and Ping magazine.

Hong Kong’s film industry had past its peak in the mid 1990s, but was still doing interesting stuff and the city was a great place to synthesise both eastern and western ideas to make them its own. Hong Kong because its so densely populated has served as a laboratory of sorts for the mobile industry.

Way before there was Uber Eats or Food Panda, Hong Kongers would send their order over WhatsApp before going over to pay for and pick up their food. Even my local McDonalds used to have a WhatsApp number that they gave out to regular customers. All of this worked because Hong Kong was a higher trust society than the UK or China. In many respects in terms of trust, its more like Japan.

Korea quickly became a country of interest as I caught the ‘Korean wave’ or hallyu on its way up. I also have discussed Chinese culture and how it has synthesised other cultures.

More recently, aspect of Chinese culture that I have covered has taken a darker turn due to a number of factors.

  • Taxiwise + other news

    Taxiwise

    Cab Ordering Service ‘Taxiwise’ Has Been Acquired By IKKY, a Likeminded Booking Platform – StartupsHK – it does beg the question, are taxi apps a feature of a larger logistics booking service or a wholly fledged offering in their own right? Taxiwise is a mobile and web taxi booking service for business travelers, foreigners, and expats who do not speak the local language. Which makes me wonder about Taxiwise as by definition it has a really small target audience, many of which are more likely to be using Uber.

    Business

    The Uber Wars Are Shaping Up to Be Even More Heated in Europe – The Atlantic Cities – I wonder whether this could provoke free trade concerns?

    Sony slashes profit forecast – again | RTHK – the Greek tragedy that is Sony rolls on

    Consumer behaviour

    Strategy Briefing: Mobile Cocooning: How Growing Reliance on Smart Devices is Influencing Consumer Behaviour – Euromonitor International – time to dust off my five year old post on the phenomena of cocooning 2.0

    Benjamin Netanyahu’s impassioned rant against smartphone users: ‘You are slaves to your gadgets’ | Washington Post – whilst Mr Netanyahu fails to demonstrate the pragmatism of past Israeli statesmen like Moshe Dayan; you can’t fault him on his criticism of the digital life

    Culture

    BBC News – Why some English words are controversial in China – mirrors the handwringing in other countries like France

    Economics

    Asian export growth may have decoupled from western economy | WantChinaTimes – there is also the question of how real western growth actually is…

    Legal

    How to buy Xiaomi products & identify fake ones? (MI3, Redmi, Power bank) – MIUI General – MIUI Official Community – interesting that Xiaomi having to deal with fake smartphones. Where are the fake Huawei or ZTE handsets? Secondly Xiaomi has some interesting things in place to tell fake and real phones apart. Fake phones are a backhanded complement to the Xiaomi brand

    Media

    Why China is censoring ‘The Big Bang Theory’ but not ‘Game of Thrones’ | Quartz – most likely explanation

    Gerry Conway: The ComiXology Outrage | Comicbook.com – pretty much how I feel about it

    Behind The Music (Video): How Important Are Videos to Both Artists and Brands? – with just 5 seconds, product placements in music videos can create 35%+ brand lift—the same 35-60 second placements.

    Online

    A Eulogy for Twitter – The Atlantic – has Twitter behaviour moved towards more like Chinese consumers on Weibo?

    Yahoo’s Default = A Personalized Experience | Yahoo Global Public Policy – Yahoo! fucks over ‘Do Not Track’; screw the consumer we need the cash

    Foxconn focuses on social with deal to invest up to $9.6m in microblogging service Mig33 – interesting move. Mig33 is a social network that is big in Iraq and Pakistan focusing on culturally sensitive definition of fun and has struggled with the move to Android. I didn’t realise that Mig33 own Alivenotdead which is big in Chinese music circles for fan engagement

    Security

    Hacking China’s online games for profit: an interview with a Chinese hacker | Techinasia

    Infamous Hacker ‘Weev’ Went On CNBC To Explain The Fascinating Hedge Fund He’s About To Launch

    Software

    Meet Vhoto: This new iPhone app scans your videos to find amazing still photographs – GeekWire

    Taiwan

    Japanese strategist says Obama’s power is waning in Asia | WantChinaTimes – Taiwan may not benefit much from US president Barack Obama’s rebalancing strategy in the Asia-Pacific as Obama has less than two years left in office, and that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could be a disaster.

    Telecoms

    UK phones support US drone strikes | Techeye – I am really surprised that the US Department of Defense trusts a telecoms network full of Huawei gear

    Web of no web

    Samsung attempts to preempt Apple’s Healthbook launch with a health-focused event of its own in late May | 9to5Mac – let’s hope it’s better designed and adopted than their current native phone apps

    Wireless

    Share Of iPhone Ownership In The U.S. – Business Insider – Apple seems to have a longer usage of a given handset than other brands

    How Apple crushed Google in the fall of 2015 from my book “The Future History of Technology | Two Thirds Done

  • Morality + other news

    Morality

    One in 10 Brits admits to lying pretty much all the time | Quartz – great PR story. How else do you build an empire over a third of the world by guile and a selective approach to morality? The UK tried to establish a common morality with the Empire as mother and the Anglican church as the compass on morality.

    Any student of empires knows that the catholic church gave tacit approval to terrible things that happened in the Spanish empire and so is no paragon of morality itself.

    Leninism, Stalinism and the Communist Party of China looked to bypass morality all together. If the party said it was good, that was it. China experienced a morality deficit due to the cultural revolution that looked to sweep away history.

    Global Views on Morality | Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project – really nice interactive infographic

    Business

    Why Apple has stopped growing | Quartz – interesting analysis, the last thing I need is a larger iPad or phone though

    China Inc joins the big league in oil and gas services | SCMP – (paywall)

    Consumer behaviour

    How Bad is China’s Moral Crisis? | New Republic – not convinced given that western society tends to view things in black and white and traditional Chinese morals tend to be more nuanced and contextual

    Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens – Gilens & Page – (PDF file)

    Europe’s Eurosceptics more united than many think: poll | Reuters – this is going to go horribly wrong

    Generation Z | Charlie Stross

    A Third of Americans Think Technology Is Going to Ruin Their Lives | Motherboard – and they are probably right

    Jing Daily: 9 key ways Chinese consumer habits are rapidly changing right before our eyes

    Culture

    Read the Obamas’ tribute to Frankie Knuckles | Dazed – great vintage Warehouse set embedded in this post.

    Design

    Lightweight 3D Printed Breathable Cast with Ultrasound Therapy – I so wish I had this when I broke my arm

    High-Efficiency Hiking: What the Heck Is Ultralight? – Core77

    Economics

    The eurozone’s creeping danger | HSBC Global

    First BRICS. Then PIIGs. Now, The Formidable 5 | The Financialist

    A Taxonomy Of The Collaborative Economy –And What Brands Are Doing About It. | Jeremiah Owyang

    Inflation in Europe: The Price is Wrong | INSEAD

    Ideological Segregation Online and Offline | Quarterly Journal of Economics by Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse M. Shapiro (paywall)

    Why more governments should offer their citizens a one-in-a-million chance to win | Quartz – China does a similar thing with restaurant receipts, though some restaurants will offer you a free drink or dessert to get out of giving it

    In America, Spending Cuts Are Driven by the Rich | Mother Jones – no real surprise, given that research showed that they thought taxes were fair and the rich thought that they were excessive

    FMCG

    China Leads the Way in Average Household Spending | Euromonitor International

    Brits consume more MDMA than energy drinks, survey finds | Dazed

    LeBron James Is Lovin’ McDonald’s — in China | Time – tapping into Chinese love of basketball to pimp burgers

    Gadget

    Nike Fuelband: Simple math, cultural imperative, might’ve killed it – interesting take on Nike’s recent movements with its Fuelband team, of course we won’t know the true score until Nike makes their next moves or telegraphs them through supply chain leaks or tame executive leaks (a la Huawei’s strategic leaking)

    The Wearable Wheel | Visual.ly – interesting but a bastard to read

    Daring Fireball: No One Said Following Is Easy – what John Gruber misses is that Nokia’s Symbian phones also had touch for instance the Nokia E90 Communicator had both a qwerty keyboard and resistive touch screen

    Youku Tudou, Huawei Launch Internet TV STB | Marbridge Consulting – (paywall)

    Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player – FMP-X10 Review – Sony US – I wonder about the kind of broadband and infrastructure required to support a 4K Apple TV style device

    Hong Kong

    Squeeze on international-school locals | SCMP – I don’t understand why schools are so expensive in the first place, and if I had a kid starting them off in school I would want to put them into the local school system to learn Cantonese (paywall)

    Fear and loathing at the cinema: new films reflect modern tensions in Hong Kong | South China Morning Post – (paywall)

    How to

    What is Baidu & How to Advertise on Baidu | Reload Digital

    #OwnTheMoment – handy forward events calendar

    Japan

    I heart cherry blossoms, the rise of Japan’s petit nationalism | The Japan Times – more Japan related content here.

    Luxury

    Louis Vuitton changes the celebrity spokesperson calculation | FT.com – because nothing says affluent luxury like a bunch of old guys in conservatively tailored suits and safe style choices. Especially when YUMMY’s are the new luxury marketing demographic to go after

    Hermès encourages app sharing with two-screen content | Luxury Daily

    Calvin Klein asks users to flash their underwear online | Marketing Interactive – this could go so wrong

    How Luxury Can Move Ahead In China’s Tricky E-Commerce Market | Jing Daily

    Rolex Gets a New CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour – Gear Patrol – these are big shoes to fill, I just hope that Mr Dufour doesn’t decide that luxury equals fashion and starts cycling Rolex models like SKUs at H&M

    This Is How Travelers Are Using Their Smartphones And Tablets — And How The Industry Is Adapting

    How Paul Smith Stands Apart In China’s Ultra-Competitive Retail Market | Jing Daily

    Jing Daily: ‘Brand-tagging’ mobile apps: China’s next selfie sensation

    Media

    Here’s why Apple will bring iTV to China first | Quartz – really? – not so sure. Media is a strategic industry and online video is coming under increasing regulation as the Chinese government tries to ensure the continued relevance of state-run channels

    Marketing

    Digital Intelligence :: What clients want from their agencies: Mobile marketing ‘changing ad relationships’ – really interesting piece of research

    ‘Baby surprise’ tourism promo video could have been done better: STB | Straits Times – video aimed at one market gets slammed elsewhere around the world

    A new way to make brands | Wolff Olins

    Tencent to Launch Self-service WeChat Ad Platform | Marbridge Consulting – (paywall)

    How Advertisers Are Using Snapchat, Kik, Tango, Line, WeChat | Digital – Advertising Age – campaigns on the platform

    FDA Publishes First Piece of Long-Awaited Social Media Guidance: Focus is on Accountability

    The downsizing of brand building | Guardian Professional – PRs should read this article and burn its words into their hearts

    Online

    Users Actually Seem To Like Facebook’s Auto-Play Videos | FastCompany – not that convinced

    Chat Wars | n+1 | Apr. 19, 2014 – interesting reading to compare and contrast with the current OTT messenger race

    WeChat surges past Weibo as China’s top social sharing platform. | Resonance China – not terribly surprising Weibo is so last year

    Philippines

    Analitika to turn Philippines as analytics hub by 2015 | Marketing Interactive – this makes more sense than you would think. The Philippines enjoys and English speaking, well educated workforce with technical skills and a closer familiarity with American and Latin cultures. It has great core network links, being a focus for a number of trans-Pacific cables (unlike India) and is cost effective

    Bad news for Samsung: 85% of people in Philippines willing to buy homegrown smartphone brands | Techinasia – good news for prospective tier 2 manufacturers in Shenzhen who would be doing the badge engineering work on to reference design for Filipino brands

    Retailing

    Lidl beats Tesco to 10m Facebook fans | BrandRepublic – oh the shame! Seriously Facebook is probably more relevant for Lidl customers

    15 ways for companies to increase customer lifetime value | eConsultancy – good marketing data points

    PWC: 14% Chinese Shopping Online Everyday | China Internet Watch

    Tesco hit by further sales decline as it turns to digital Clubcard and social network | Brand Republic – why would you want to join Tesco’s social network?

    Thousands of Chinese spent their “best years” making Nike shoes and now have no pensions | Quartz

    Direct selling companies see phenomenal growth in China | WantChinaTimes – Nu Skin apparently grew 10-fold in a year, it also looks like a potential car crash

    Security

    Behind the Machine’s Back: How Social Media Users Avoid Getting Turned Into Big Data | The Atlantic

    Japan’s indigenous stealth fighter to fly this year amid arms race worries | South China Morning Post – many of the technological advances that Japan had shared with its ally on the FSX later appeared on US aircraft – US defence complex ripped off Japanese technology (paywall)

    Software

    AppleSeed– Apple’s new public beta programme

    Personal and Professional Productivity: The Next Frontier for Mobile Apps | Flurry

    Samsung Galaxy sofware features not good enough for users, study says | BGR

    Amazon partners with Samsung to launch custom Kindle e-Book service for Galaxy devices – looks like Flipboard didn’t get the deal it wanted…

    Technology

    Big Data is the new Artificial Intelligence | I, Cringely – interesting and disturbing all at the same time

    Add ultracapacitors to the list of devices that could benefit from grapheme | GigaOM

    Telecoms

    The state of the internet is under attack (but it’s also faster) | GigaOM – interesting Akamai data

    China Mobile’s profit falls as competition bites | TotalTelecom – including the likes of WeChat

    Web of no web

    Does Google Glass Have An Optics Problem? And Does Google Care? | Forbes – dog by any other name is still a dog

    Emperor of the Glassholes Finally Feels Shame | ValleyWag – the cool has completely gone if Scoble won’t even wear his in public

    Among Venture Capital’s Largest Exits, Consumer Tech Dominates | CB Insights

    This Bank Ad Hilariously Mocks Google Glass | TIME.com – Google Glass is now the comedy equivalent of the Mother-in-Law

  • The Raid 2

    Coming back to the UK reminded me of how much Hong Kong is a cinema-centric culture despite the technology, mobile devices and amazing restaurants. Going to the cinema there was literally half the price of London, which means that I am much more critical of the entertainment shown. The first film I have seen that was actually worth it’s ticket price since I have got back is The Raid 2.

    The Raid put the Indonesian martial arts scene on the map with a highly kinetic film that owed much of its visual intensity to computer games. You can see shades of vintage Bruce Lee films and the ‘gun fu’ popularised by John Woo in these films. Whilst there might be a Hong Kong influence, the Indonesian martial artists definitely carve out their own path. 

    The Raid 2 follows on just hours from the first film; but is an entirely different beast.  It is much more polished. The plot is even better developed. The acting has improved. But if you love the original film  you will still have plenty to keep you happy in The Raid 2. They have added to the original formula, rather than having taken anything away. As you can see from the trailer, there is still lashings of Indonesian-style kinetic action in the second film.

    But the film’s pace ebbs and flows in order to tell a more detailed story this time around, which feels very much like an early John Woo, pre-Hollywood. There is a nod to Quentin Tarantino with some of the gimmicky characters such as the Hammer Girl character. The plot is a similar structure to A Fistful Of Dollars. Our hero goes under cover to gain the trust of an organised crime family and ends up between two factions within the one criminal organisation bent on gaining power.