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.

  • Grateful Dead wall of sound + more

    The Grateful Dead Wall of Sound. An amazing documentary about the sound system that The Grateful Dead used to tour with.

    Grateful Dead at the Warfield 10/09/1980
    Grateful Dead at the Warfield 10/09/1980 by Chris Stone

    The scale of it is very impressive. Having listened to Grateful Dead bootleg recordings, the sound system is also extremely impressive for the high fidelity sound that came from it.

    Fantastic case study from TBWA\Chiat\Day for Adidas. Billie Jean King your shoes. The background was that Billie Jean King played her iconic game against Bobby Riggs in a pair of blue Adidas shoes back in 1973.

    To celebrate this win, Adidas would spray paint whatever trainers you had to look like King’s. There is also a connotation of ‘ownership’ in the graffiti world by overspraying someone else’s work. That makes this campaign work on a number of levels, in particular when you see a Nike Air Force 1 ‘Kinged’.

    The North Face Japan put out this great video that shows how to make a wallet from cardboard packaging. It is interesting the way it strays straight into Patagonia territory and taps into the spare time that people would have self-isolating. It keeps a brand aligned to the great outdoors engaging prospective customers indoors.

    RZA goes in-depth on the Wu-Tang Clan’s love of vintage Hong Kong wishu films and how the influenced their music. It also works as a great tour of all the classics in Hong Kong cinema. I am surprised that this hasn’t been done earlier.

    Great vintage recording of Kraftwerk. What I like about it is how the simple instruments that Kraftwerk had fabricated and played allow the mix to ‘breathe’. There is clear space allowing each instrument to be heard. This was partly due to the simplicity of the technology. It was also influenced by a wider movement in Germany to define how the country should define itself moving forwards. Kraftwerk looked at a modernism as a way to redefine what it meant to be German. The music is somewhat influenced by the Bauhaus school of design.

  • Stussy soundtrack & other things

    Stussy soundtrack to work to. Stüssy and music have always been a blend. Shawn Stüssy has talked about the soundtrack to his work. Soon after Stussy customers in punk, hip hop and beyond provided a Stussy soundtrack of sorts.

    Stussy stay at home

    The International Stüssy Tribe made up of people who Shawn Stüssy had met as the business grew included Mike Jones of The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite and Alex ‘Baby’ Turnbull of 23Skidoo and Ronin Records. There was also Nigo and Hiroshi Fujiwara in Japan. At the time Fujiwara-san was famous for the Major Force record label. There was even at least one International Stüssy Tribe record.

    1st Vinyl Tribal Gathering of The International Stüssy Tribe
    From my record collection. I suspect that this was done by Alex and John Turnbull of Ronin Records. At least two of their artists at the time (Force & KZEE) feature on the vinyl, and it was pressed in at the same plant that their records were. Lastly, Alex was a member of Shawn Stüssy’s International Stüssy Tribe.

    Now Stüssy has been the soundtrack breaking up a seemingly endless cycle of Zoom calls. You can find all of them here. My personal favourite is Stones Throw records stalwart DāM FUNK.

    Really interesting product design. Russian designers have reached back into technological history to use vacuum tubes (valves) rather than digital or solid state (transistor) electronics that Bob Moog would have used to build his first instruments. You can find out more at APPARATUS Tube Synthesizer by Eternal Engine EMI 

    Interesting presentation on how behavioural science (nudge theory) is used for patient engagement. It is obvious that these techniques could be adapted across product and service design.

    International Jazz Day saw an amazing array of talent performing online.

    A great video about the Barbican complex that was shot in 1969.It is a London that is both familiar and alien to me. The city is now dominated by office tower blocks. The buildings for the Barbican complex of old and new building cheek by jowl. There is some beautiful B-roll shot at different times of the day across the Barbican area. That alone would make this interesting, even before it gets into the history.

  • Princes music + more

    I have been listening to this mix of Princes music. Prince had a diverse song book and the mix covers Princes music catalogue in some depth. It gives a great sampling of the talent we lost when Prince died

    YouTube has a cornucopia of content including this great documentary on house music interviewing a succession of insiders to tell the story of how house music became a global phenomena.

    Spoon + Tamago had an article about how public baths in Japan were providing online videos for the locked-down customers. Whilst one might not be able to enjoy a good soak, they can enjoy at least some of the ambience. It rather reminded me of the slow TV programming that Norwegian channel NRK, (if you get a chance to watch them, they are remarkably soothing). More on Japanese related topics here.

    A quick film on the Hyman Archive of magazines. Reputedly the world’s largest collection of magazines according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is more important as a source of cultural insight over time. I do feel that something is lost in the digitising of the archive. Vogue Italia or Japan isn’t only about the pictures but the overall heft and feeling that you have holding the magazine. Digitisation only gets you so far.

    A good presentation to listen to on emerging marketing trends. It calls BS on crypto. I’d have been a bit more skeptical on digital and marketing effectiveness. Terence Kawaja and Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer provides some great data points to back up their opinions on emerging marketing trends. It is refreshing to hear them shred crypto. Their approach to trends is very sensible. I always think about Robert X Cringely’s discussion of trends in terms of surfing. That if you go too early you fail to catch the wave.

  • Economics of YouTube + more

    lifeintaiwan have gone into the economics of YouTube by looking at their own channel in this video. It makes fascinating viewing and provides more questions than answers about the value of ‘influencer’ fees being paid in travel, beauty and FMCG sectors. It will provide additional grist on the economics of YouTube moving forwards

    Photochromeleon: Creating Color-Changing Objects – YouTube – I thought that this was projection mapping but it seems to be just variable light wavelengths. Really interesting applications from activations to packaging design

    The nth room sex scandal is a mix of dark web fears played out within a private Telegram channel. Some great explanations and vox pops interviews in Korea by Asian Boss. This scandal falls on the back of other sexual exploitation scandals in the Korean media, notably around the Burning Sun club in Seoul. It is also interesting how Telegram had been perceived as a super-safe channel for delivery of services, rather than building a dark web site. More Korea related posts here.

    Asian Boss vox pop interviews with the Korean public on the nth room sex abuse scandal

    Mark Ritson talks about marketing in the midst of a recession. If you do nothing else this week, get a CMO you know to watch it. The big thing to take away is the concept of eSOV. Although Ritson doesn’t mention this explicitly, this is the foundation of Proctor & Gamble’s success during the Great Depression.

    The history of Marriott carpet camouflage. Uniform History do some interesting design story videos and their April’s Fools videos tap into odd but true stories. Apparently this camouflage was for cosplay conventions in the US. The video then goes into a tangled mess of intellectual property, fair use, parody and cultural appropriation of a carpet. The thing has taken a life of its own. When Marriott refreshed its carpet choice the old ones were dumpster dived or bought up by cosplayers so that they could continue the convention tradition that had build up over a few years.

  • TSMC to SMIC + more things

    Huawei is gradually shifting chip production from TSMC to SMIC  – this is China decoupling from western supply chains. TSMC to SMIC also has the additional benefit of damaging Taiwan’s leverage on China. More on Huawei here.

    Plastic surveillance: Payment cards and the history of transactional data, 1888 to present – Josh Lauer, 2020 – interesting but hardly surprising conclusions from data-mining

    ‘Furious and scared’: Long before COVID-19, these families knew Canada’s long-term-care system was broken | The Star – issues with Chinese government-owned companies and a complete lack of accountability

    HNA in chaos as internal divisions erupt in public | Financial TimesOne investor who sought to buy a large real estate portfolio from HNA in late 2018 said that the deal fell through because it was no longer clear who was in control of the assets – this is interesting when you start about thinking allegations of all Chinese businesses (like Huawei) essentially being state-directed businesses. Especially when you consider it in the context

    Inside Icebucket: the ‘largest’ CTV ad fraud scheme to date | Advertising | Campaign AsiaWhite Ops has uncovered what they report to be the largest-ever connected TV fraud operation in history, affecting more than 300 publishers and millions of dollars in ad spend.

    Local TV Is Back (With an Assist From Coronavirus?) | The National Interest – yet broadcast TV isn’t in mix when experts talk about advertising at the present time

    What really happens to the clothes you donate | Macleans – interesting complex supply chain for fibres and nothing. Also interesting how grading of garments stayed within the Asian diaspora formerly based in the British colonies of East Africa

    Sorry Huawei, the P40 Pro without Google apps is just too broken to live with – probably one of the best rundowns on how the lack of access to Google mobile services is handicapping Huawei handsets

    China’s top chipmaker says it can match Samsung on memory tech – Nikkei Asian Review – how much of it is stolen technology?

    Contingency planning: where should brands be moving their ad spend? – GlobalWebIndex – an interesting read but needs the additional lens of channel effectiveness as well

    Cam Girls, Coronavirus and Sex Online Now – The New York Times – it will be interesting to see if it continues on post crisis