The Midwife, based on Katja Kettu‘s bestseller novel, tells the story about a love affair between a Finnish midwife and a Nazi SS officer, set midst the Lapland War in Finland 1944-45. The Midwife was also shortlisted for the SIFF’s respected Golden Goblet award. The selection of 15 films was made out of a record-breaking 2096 submissions.

The Shanghai International Film Festival, founded in 1993, is China’s only A-category international film festival accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Association (FIAPF). Other festivals in the A-category include for example the festivals of Cannes and Berlin. SIFF is one of Asia’s biggest and the world’s fastest growing international film festival.

SIFF is organized by Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film & TV and Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group. As globalization affects China’s rapidly growing film industry, Shanghai International Film Festival aims to build international platform, and promote the exchange and cooperation between Chinese and foreign film industries.

Photo: Solar Films

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Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Esther Muñoz Grootveld and I’m Dutch but based in Shanghai since a little bit more than three years now. I work in Shanghai as a consultant specialized in design and fashion.

You are the Project and Brand Consulting Manager at design agency COORDINATION ASIA. What kinds of thing you are working with?

At COORDINATION ASIA I’m mostly consulting on space design and branding for museums, retail clients and brands. They either already are in the Chinese market or want to set up a cultural or retail space and need advice on branding, design and communication.

Coordination Asia is basically my day job and besides that I’m a freelance consultant. My freelance work is more focused on fashion because that’s where my background is. I consult designers coming from European countries to the Asian market or other way around.

What do you think are the main qualities of success in the fashion industry?

For now, it’s very important to have a very strong story. I think that before people differentiated themselves either through design or the concept. Of course you have to have high quality materials and design, you have to have a good business plan but also your story needs to be on spot. So when you look at how you set yourself out in the market, you really have to think why is your brand story original and how is it related to your product. And all together, it needs to be authentic. People need to believe your story because there’s so much to choose from, especially in fashion, and especially in Asia.

What makes a great fashion brand for you?

For me a good fashion brand brings timeless products that do not necessarily follow flows of fashion. I like brands and products that you buy and keep for a long time, products that tells a story and are produced in responsibly way.

How would you compare European and Chinese fashion consumers?

I think that European consumers have kind of evolved beyond the story and are really focusing on sustainability, ecological and responsible producing – honest, maybe even like handmade style products. In China, people are still really focusing on the story. In Europe, we have turned our mind-set to a little bit towards honest products but in China it’s more about honest stories. When looking at the fashion products authenticity, honesty and uniqueness are what we have in common. But maybe in Europe, the way the product is produced, that you know it’s real and good is a little bit more important than in China.

You have talked about the new luxury in China. What do you mean by that?

I’ve only been in China for three to four years but in this short time I’ve seen how quickly the market changes. Something like 10 years ago, fashion consumers in China looked towards the west for inspiration. Most people didn’t have means to buy big labels so they were buying cheaper, maybe not that well-designed and well-produced products. Now when the wealth and taste of fashion in China are increasing, people started to think that wearing brands like Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton means expressing that you’re moving up. But slowly I think it’s changing and Chinese fashion consumers are moving towards understanding that they can actually use fashion to express their own unique identity, not just to label themselves as well-offs.

This is where the new luxury comes in. People are looking for products that really express their unique culture identity and that they have evolved taste. They have money to spend but they are picky about where they spend it on. They are looking for unique products that nobody has in the market where you can get everything, copied or non-copied. In China, it’s really challenging to find something unique that nobody else has. The fashion pioneers in China are looking for those products: unique, maybe even China designed, one-off products that they can show to their friends and say “I’m unique cause I’m wearing this”. This is what I called “the new luxury”.

What’s your vision on upcoming trends in the fashion business?

I just met a Finnish designer called Satu Maaranen and I was very impressed by her. One of reasons was that she has a very interesting vision on her role as a designer. She doesn’t necessarily want to start her own brand. She just sees herself as somebody with a vision of fashion and who is interested in textiles and patters. She’s a craftswoman but also a businesswoman. This is interesting because when I was working in the Netherlands and speaking with young fashion designers, I remember that everybody wanted to be a new Versace. They came out from school and wanted to have a store with their name above it. Meaning of being a fashion designer was having your name on a label.

My vision is that as a designer your role is to make creative solutions using your skills. Satu is a very nice example of a new fashion designer who uses her skills as a fashion professional but also looks into interior and art. She’s kind of a hybrid and I think this is where the fashion business is going in the future. Sometimes the design disciplines, especially in fashion, kind of close themselves in their own world. My personal hope is that the fashion circles will open up and start collaborating more with architects, designers, technologists and whatever may come along.

What inspires you most at the moment?

Travelling and talking to different people inspires me most in general. I try to move around all the time and living in a city like Shanghai has a big advance because people come in all the time. What really shapes my vision and inspires me on design and also in life in general is talking to people living in different cities. That just brings new ideas. I would advice everybody to travel and definitely come to China!

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Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Rossana Hu and I am an architect by training and I now work as an architect and a designer in Shanghai.

You have a recent project where you re-branded an old police office. What were the biggest difficulties in the project?

Number one was to convince the client, who actually hired us to do a new building. They wanted to demolish the old building but we saw value in preserving parts of it. So that was the biggest challenge as he is putting in all the money and was expecting a brand new building.

What kinds of spaces inspire you the most?

Generally speaking? It’s hard to pin point exactly but I would say that places that bring out memories inspire me. It’s about the mood and experience or a memory of an experience. I think spaces are not neutral, they always include feelings. The feelings are deep, whether they are good or bad, happy or sad. If they are deep, I like it.

Recently you won the Wallpaper* Designer of the Year 2014 Award. What are your next goals or projects you are working on?

We have a lot of projects that we work on and never see awards as goals. Those things just kind of come. Designers are a lot like performers. They say that a musician is as good as their last performance. If you are a pianist and you fail at a concert, no one will ever want to see you again. I think that’s same with us designers. If you do one bad project, people will forget about all the previous good projects and only remember the very last one. So what I think we try to do is that the next project has to always be better than the previous one.  So always thinking of fresh ideas, always challenging yourself, never taking convictions or traditions as the only way, finding new possibilities and doing things differently.

Here in EARS you talked a lot about re-branding and reusing spaces. What is the value of reusing old buildings?

I think people talk a lot about sustainability. Often that kind of talk has to do with technology, finding new technology, new materials in order to recycle and reuse. But I think one of the easiest ways to sustainability are; number one, make thinks that last. If for example a building is built to be long lasting, you don’t need to rebuild. The second thing is to reuse. It’s very sensible and common sense way of making your environment sustainable. For example if a shopping center ceases to exist as a viable commercial center, then you can see a theater taking over or a church or a school as the building is already there and the structures are already there.  I see that reusing something is a good example of sustainability.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Chenlin Zhao and I’m the Senior Brand Manager of United Live China Entertainment. It’s a company that produces musical theaters in China. We have produced, for example, Chinese versions of the “Mamma Mia!” musical (2011) and “Cats” (2012). In 2013 we were touring with these two musicals around China. We have also two middle-sized and other small productions going on.

What do the Chinese think about musicals?

In Shanghai the musical boom started in 2002. It was the first time when a real world class musical, “Les Miserables”, entered Shanghai. It was very well welcomed and loved by the audience in here. Since then, the Shanghai Grand Theater has done one big musical show every year. We’ve had english versions of “Mamma Mia!”, “Hairspray”, “The High School Musical”, “Cats” and many other shows as well so the audience is really used to musical theater here in Shanghai. The situation is also quite similar in Quanzhou and in Beijing. Generally, most people know the form of musicals but not as well as in these big cities. We have had great success in China especially with “Mamma Mia!” and “Cats” as they have been originally very popular in China.

What kind of changes you do when you bring musicals to China?

We do Chinese versions of the shows so of course we need to translate the script and also the lyrics. First we need to make sure that the translation is understandable. When translating to Chinese, there are a lot of difficulties especially in keeping the rhymes right so that people can really understand what songs are about. The Chinese language has different tones and they can totally change the meaning of the song. We have put a lot of time and energy in keeping the meanings as they originally are, and also making the lyrics beautiful and understandable for the Chinese audience at the same time. The translation process has many steps. First we translate the lyrics to Chinese, then we’ll have another team to translate it back to English for the English team so that they can check if the changes in the meanings are acceptable for them.

Mamma Mia songs are pop music by ABBA and easier to translate as they are similar to regular pop songs. But for example as “Cats” is based on poems by T. S. Eliot, the translations are more challenging. When doing the translation, we  need to change the certain meanings of words so that people can understand them right. For example in “Cats”, there is a character who is very rich and goes to restaurants and eats a lot of expensive food. We needed to change some of the foods because the original ones wouldn’t have seemed that luxurious for the Chinese.

Are you focused on Western musicals only?

No, we are also doing Chinese productions. They are a bit smaller than shows like “Cats”. The latest one is called “Finding Destiny” and it plays in a small theater in St. Henricks Street. It’s based on a Korean version. It was originally a popular musical in Korea and this is the Chinese version of it. But this time we’ve made quite big changes to the script compared to what we did to “Cats” or “Mamma Mia!” – they are practically the same as in Broadway or West End. “Finding Destiny” is totally adapted for the Chinese audience, they can get into the story very easily.

Also in October 2013 we did a production called “Feast For The Princess” which was 100 % an original show and a Chinese production. But the show is not a real musical, it’s a theater show with a lot of music. This is our first step in doing original Chinese musical theater. We are planning to produce more of them in the future but as we are still learning, we need to take baby steps. Musicals are really complicated to produce.

What kind of standards do you have for the Western scripts?

First of all, the Chinese audience really likes shows that are famous. The audience needs to know the show first and that’s why we chose “Mamma Mia” and “Cats”. If you bring a totally new show, people in Shanghai might get interested in it but in the smaller cities, if people have never heard of the show, they won’t come to see it. For most of our audience, a musical might be the first theater experience. They want their first experience to be enormous, they want more than a good production and they need the show to be famous.

The second thing we need to keep in mind is that the Chinese are really into stories. That means that when we bring the Western shows to China, we want them to have big stories so that they would interest the audience more. We had some difficulties with this in “Cats” as the most people came to see it just because of the song “Memories”. The English version of “Cats” has been in Shanghai for three times and most of the people who came to see the Chinese version had seen the show before. However, when we asked the audience what was the story about, they had no idea. They had bought the tickets, heard the song “Memory” and were happy. Of course the lyrics are quite difficult as the show is based on poems.

The post Interview with Chenlin Zhao appeared first on EARS.

Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Pan Jianfeng and I’m from China. I’m a graphic designer but some people call me an artist.

What kind of projects are you working with at the moment?

We are working with the visual identity for Norway. They want to build a new identity in China. Their previous logo was very serious and formal, and they feel that Chinese people may not be very interested in that. We are now designing a better, friendlier image for them and building a concept where Norway is the gate to the Nordic countries. Another recent project we have been working with is a brochure design for a couple of French companies. These companies have rent a 90 year old building and are turning it to their office. They asked me to design a leaflet, which actually looks kind of like a newspaper, to tell about their business concepts and the history of the building. The whole paper, all the elements in it, will be hand-painted with brush.

What has been the most meaningful project to you so far?

Well this newspaper project is kind of commercial but we are using the brushes to develop a new style, so I like that very much. When talking about independent projects, I would say that all my art projects have been meaningful as they are all about my own observation of the world and my daily life. My art is quite deep in Chinese society, the history and also some contemporary problems that we face.

You have a recent project called True Life, could you tell us what it’s about?

The True Life Project was a part of the Design Shanghai 2013 exhibition. It was a collaboration project by me, a Finnish architect Teemu Kurkela and my other friend Martta Louekari. The three of us had a nice Finnish summer holiday in Helsinki. Previously I had been asked to make something for the Design Shanghai exhibition and we started to think together what could we do for the exhibition. We were living on an island in a beautiful place called Villa Oivala. We were watching this beautiful landscape and wondering what our true life was. This way we came up with this concept, True Life. We see that as designers, we can help Chinese for example to look at their own life from a different angle. China has high speed development but many problems at the same time. That made us ask a question: what is true life, in China or somewhere else? It’s a question mark basically.

What was the output of True Life for Design Shanghai?

Together with Teemu, we built a pavilion, a house a bit like a summer cottage. People could lie down there. Then we invited our friends to bring their salute or idea of true life to the pavilion. We had ten different boxes and each of them had 0ne to display their vision of true life. Boxes were innovatively visioned and one box, for example, represented clean air. We received good media exposure and feedback from Chinese audience and this has led to longer projects. I’m going to Helsinki in July 2014 to do a True Life residency. You could say art basically is my tool in life, I use it to find some answers.

How do you see true life is different in China compared to Finland for example?

We come  from different cultural backgrounds, so it’s very different. Even in China, in different cities for example in Shanghai or in Guangzhou, people have quite different lives. We have our current life and everybody is always looking to make their lives a bit better. We call this true life and it’s very different for different people.

What is true life to you?

I deal with typography so for me a good typography or good calligraphy is very important. Also porcelain ceramic which carries more meaning, could be a true inspiration or true understanding about life to me.

What does typography mean to you?

First of all, for me typography is very much associated with Chinese calligraphy. If you are a good graphic designer you must have good skills in typography, and in my point of view, if you are a good typographer you must know what’s good calligraphy. It might sound a bit complicated but you must remember that Chinese language started from calligraphy. Before computers, say 100 years ago, all Chinese people had to use a brush to write characters, and to use the brush you must know calligraphy first.

Later, people had pens and pencils and they slowly started to forget calligraphy. But in order to see the beauty in the Chinese characters you have to know what is good calligraphy. So I cannot talk about typography separately, I have to talk about calligraphy – I have to associate my calligraphy design with my typography design. In order to know calligraphy you don’t need to be a master but you have to know the history and techniques, the basic structure of characters. Each character has it own meaning in the Chinese language, they are not like A B C D… Each character is a picture itself. So for me, typography is a basic skill when being a graphic designer but it’s not simply just that. Typography is a modern version or form of calligraphy.

Do Chinese people appreciate traditional calligraphy?

Chinesese people still appreciate old traditional calligraphy very much. A lot of people are complaining about the computer fonts as they are quite limited. They are very functional and easy but they don’t have the beauty and the sensitivity of the brush. So when you compare classic pieces, old calligraphy for example, you can see that they have been created by different tools.

You’ve done a lot of cooperation with the Finns. How did this happen?

It’s by accident, just like my artwork. I never have any plans, I always go with the wind. I think I’m a quite easy-going person. I follow my own feelings. When I meet new people and feel that they are good people, I start to keep in touch with them. Then we might create something together.

With the Finns it started by accident in 2009 when Finland had the Snowball conference in Shanghai. The organizer asked me to give a lecture. After the lecture, I took part in this program by Invitation to Helsinki and spent one month in Suomenlinna. It was pretty cold, minus 27 degrees, but I liked it. Compared to Shanghai, it was extremely peaceful and quiet and I was very much enjoying that. I know a lot of Chinese people who would have felt that it was too quiet, they always need many things around. I feel tired in Shanghai. I have had too many projects here during the last ten to twelve years. I feel good physically and mentally in Finland. I met a lot of people especially during the Shanghai Expo and I have worked with many friends from Finland. We have done great projects and received many awards. Everything is telling me that it’s a good direction. I have also learned a lot from all my Finnish friends.

What are you looking forward in EARS on Helsinki?

EARS being a part of Helsinki Design Week is interesting to me as I have never participated in any design weeks. I’m very curious. I’m going to talk about my new book “What Can We Do” at EARS on Helsinki. The book is not only about my design, projects or design thinking. It’s more about rising questions and daily problems in China. I see that as we are living on the same earth, the problems are the same in other places as well, so in Helsinki I would like to talk about these topics with the audience and others participating.

I have also written many articles about my experiences in Finland and about my interpretations of sauna for example. For me sauna is similar to Chinese meditation. It’s nice to share my knowledge with my friends in Finland. Also meeting new people and discovering new projects is always great.

What inspires you right now?

People.

The post Interview with Pan Jianfeng appeared first on EARS.

Hey, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Sylvia Xu, the head of Pro Helvetia Shanghai. My job is to promote Swiss contemporary art and culture in China, Hong Kong and Macao. We are a facilitator and a bridge between Chinese and Swiss art institutions and artists.

How has the cooperation developed?

I see that we are now known in the arts sector in China compared to the time say six years ago. Back then people had no idea what Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia was. What we have learned a lot about is that who is a good partner and who is not. Now we can give Swiss artists valuable advice on what to do when they come to China.

How does Chinese audience take the Swiss art?

At the beginning, in 2008, the Swiss government initiated this culture program with us. At that time there was no Pro Helvetia Shanghai office. We just implemented the program for about 2-3 years during the Olympics and the World Expo. At that time the Swiss government did a research and discovered that when Chinese people were asked to tell about Switzerland, they associated it with chocolate, watches, high quality and rich people. Nobody was talking about Swiss arts or culture. Now, after six years, we haven’t really been focusing on PR to the public as we have Chinese partners to do that. Now we are much more well-known along the institutions and they know who we are and where we are when they want to have some collaboration projects. I think that at the moment people are more and more looking into design and architecture projects. And that is a sector which Switzerland is quite known for. That’s why in 2010-2014 we are focusing a lot on these projects. In terms of music, the interests is more in jazz and electronic music.

Could you tell us about a recent project?

In September we had a big solo exhibition of Pipilotti Rist. She is the most well known living Swiss artist in China. The host of the exhibition was Times Museum in Guangzhou and actually ProHelvetia gave only a small amount of funding, most of it came from the Chinese partner. This was quite successful as even tough we support projects, we only support the international costs. That means we are not only looking for a venue partner, we are looking for partners who are willing to contribute in the venue, the management and the money. So this was a good project, in which the partner did almost everything. We had very good media coverage. Another project similar to this one we will have next year in Rockbund Museum with another well known Swiss artist called Ugo Rondinone. In both of these examples the interest comes from the Chinese partners, we are not trying to promote and push the artists to them.

Another successful project we are working with at the moment is the Young Swiss Design Kaleidoscope exhibition. It has attracted a lot of attention in the design field. We’ve had both ups and downs with the project as we had some issues with transportation and promotion but altogether it was a great learning experience and now we know what to look out for when organizing exhibitions. Through this project we collected a lot of good contacts and achieved a broader network. This enables us to do even bigger events next year.

What kinds of challenges do you face in China?

The challenge is that for some European countries, Switzerland for example, many musicians or artists are not known in China. For others, like Brits, it’s easier as their music is much more well-known. What we do is we invite museum directors and curators to Switzerland to festivals, studio visits and director meetings so that they would know more about Swiss art scene. The idea is that they would know which artists to bring to China as they know what the market needs. We have done this quite successfully but it’s still quite challenging. For music, theater and dance, one of the biggest challenge is that most of the festivals can’t give financial support. We expect partners to take part in covering the costs, even with a small amount of money. Still, there is a lot to do. Compared to the time four-five years ago, we are more recognized now within the festivals. We also choose the festivals we work with. In China another challenge is that everything is changing quickly and that is why we can’t plan much ahead. There might be a new festival this year but the following year it’s gone, the festival dates are changing all the time etc. so there are some challenges. Flexibility is one of the most important features when working in China.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Lennard Hulsbos. I work for a company called Aquarius. Essentially what we do is everything in the digital sphere, from online or mobile games to social media strategies and content creation. I’m what they call a strategist. Meaning that I do a lot of research and I come up with conceptual framework for our work.

You’re here in EARS on Shanghai to talk about the physical world and the digital world and how they come together. What is your topic about?

If you look at the conversion of the physical world into the digital world, what you see today is that we all are using mobile devices that are connected to the internet, the internet of things. Today’s world requires both consumers and brands to constantly be there. If you turn off your phone, all of a sudden you get angry text messages and phone calls from other people asking “where the f* were you?” when you turn your phone on again. Well, I was here but I just wasn’t connected. And for brands, it’s even more a topic I would argue. When companies, brands or festivals are thinking about how to engage with their target audience, I believe that the most important thing is relevance. We have a world that is extremely cluttered in terms of information that is available, the opinions that are available, but what matters is to decide what do you want to be as a brand and how you can express that. And this is what I talked about here in EARS on Shanghai.

How do you see the development until now and from now on?

We are pushed into a very personal communication space. Communication is no longer from one to many or many to one. It’s everyone to everyone – constantly. This means that as a brand you can no longer deal with generalisms. You have to have a specific point of view and engage with larger topics from society. The topics could be environment, elderly care, family, as it was in it’s old fashioned concept which is no longer happening that much. And let this be in the West or in Asia, it doesn’t really matter. Understanding your consumer, what they want and what they are looking for, is fundamental. This will change everything.

What I have seen around me is that we are no longer organized around centralized ideas. We will have our ideas and these ideas will travel. You and I might not agree on this same topic but someone here in China might and we could connect, despite that you and I are a lot closer to each other geographically, historically and culturally. This is a very interesting thing because when the nations are forced to change, the education, to a certain point, has to change as well.

Are there differences between the Western and Asian consumers?

I find it difficult to give a general answer to be honest. If we are talking about a “Chinese consumer” if such an archetype exists, the main difference is the usage of mobile technology. The integration of mobile lifestyle is a lot deeper here. It has way bigger extendece compared to the West for brands and companies. If you look at WeChat for instance, it’s a very interesting technology. It uses elements from other services but mixes them in quite an unique way. And what’s going to happen with these kinds of things is natural evolution: people are going to get tired and they will jump on one thing and not jump on another. Xiaomi, which is currently the challenger in the mobile phone industry in China, sold 150 000 telephones in ten minutes. It’s crazy! We don’t know this kind of stuff back home in Europe and this makes it very interesting.

A lot of people come here thinking like this is a communist country. I would argue, China is one of the most free country I’ve ever been. And this is compeletely related to me being from Holland. But the point is that as an individual, I get to move around here. I get to say what ever I want, which is something that less and less, at least in my personal point of view, appreciate in the Netherlands. There I’m told: why do you always make things so difficult, why do you think about these things? Well because they are important, privacy issues are important! In China, you find yourself in the middle of a very different debate. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of different elements in this dynamic that you have to try to understand and try to be open about.  Coming here with answers is arrogant. Coming with questions is healthy for everyone. Where ever you are going in this world, going with question is always better than with answers.

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Hey, who are you and what do you do?

You can call me Lap, my name is Kwong Wai-lap. I’m now based in Kuang Chao, a city in Southern China. For eight years I’ve been running a modern dance festival there which is one of the biggest in China. Before that, I spent a couple of years as the program and marketing director of Macao Culture Center. I have also worked at the program department of Hong Kong Arts Festival. In 2006 some friends and I set up Fringe Shanghai in Shanghai City. For the past four years, I’ve been concentrated more in the international cooperation and development projects.

What kinds of projects you have done lately?

There is no subsidy system in China. It is difficult for Chinese artists to get financial support to concentrate on creation and developing themselves. I can see that my role has changed from a festival presenter after realizing that there is a big need for someone who can find the platform or the opportunity for the Chinese artists to move on without being bored by the bureaucracy. For example I’m now working with a project in Yokohama with artists from Nanning, Guangxi province in China. They had meetings in Japan and in China and in February they presented a new work in TPAM Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting. This is one of the projects I’m working with right now. I’ve been working with other festivals in Korea and Japan and hopefully we could create an exchange platform for young artists.

How many Asian countries support international cooperation in the arts field?

Actually not many. The most active country doing Asian arts exchange must be Singapore because the government actually has money for that and many foundations. Apart from Singapore I can’t think of any country or institution that would be very active. We used to have a Ford Foundation but they have finished their funding already in Asia. It’s very difficult after a lot of money comes from the private sector or by donation. Recently there was a festival in Lidiao in China that was supported by a private company. This is more and more a trend now to use private money to support arts and culture. The bad thing is that they don’t usually have a board of directors. So when the big boss suddenly realizes that he doesn’t have a good year in business, all the art activities will stop. Somebody has to help Chinese artists to find a sustainable source of financial support. I think that is very important.

Do you have any solution to this in mind?

There is no solution. In Asia it’s still very much person to person relationships. Meaning we don’t have a lot of “write an application” kind of grant thing. It’s more about finding the right person who wants to be a patrons of the arts. And then gradually develop that kind of a relationship into an arts foundation. That would be the best solution I think.

How has the field changed during the time of your career?

In the past 20 years it has changed a lot, and the change came very fast! One of the most important changes is that now young artists can set up their own companies in China. They can run legal organizations. This is why there are a lot more younger groups in China. But the problem is that there is no infrastructure for them to develop their work. So a lot of the groups only work together for a couple of years and then quit. I don’t know what would happen next, that’s why I try to change my role to find more sustainable resources for the development. Who knows, maybe the government changes their policies next year, you never know.

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Hey who are you and what do you do?

My name is Jasmine and I’m founder of ZH Communication based in Shanghai. Our agency does advertising, PR and events. We also do culture related projects such as promoting a French animation film festival in Shanghai and present D&AD in China. In general, we help international brands and organizations to understand the Chinese consumers and tell them what Chinese people really think.

Could you tell about the recent projects that you have been involved?

We just finished a project for Johnnie Walker. Johnnie Walker Blue is an international brand and we did a campaign with them. We filmed the Chinese versions of their “Game changers” videos, which was a part of their international campaign. So we used their voice and their stories to inspire more young people in China to do a “game change” of their own.

What are the biggest differences between the Chinese and Western consumers?

I think there is not that big difference if they’re the 90’s generation. The internet has changed our lives completely and roughly at the same time. If you look at the young people today from China or any place else, they all use iPhone, iPad and are sharing the same information online. However the culture still makes them extremely different. The Chinese have the Chinese way of appreciating the nature, obviously we haven’t done so great recently, but I think it’s coming back as we all the old Chinese traditions and heritage. So today there isn’t that much difference between the Chinese and Western consumers but in the future, in 10 years time, there will be a big difference.

How do you see that the brands have developed under the time you’ve been working in the industry?

I’ve been in this industry for 15 years. Before there was very old Western kind of advertising model in China. It appeared in how the products were shown and how the marketing people enhanced the benefits. Nowadays people are no longer looking for the same benefits from the product than before. Instead you play a lot more with feelings and emotions. The consumers have started to appreciate the Chinese way of living and the Chinese culture a lot more than before. I think it’s better for the Chinese to have a strong believe in our own heritage rather than saluting the Western culture.

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Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Archie Hamilton and I work at a company called Split Works. Split Works is kind of a hybrid model company, we promote bands first and foremost, but we also do brand consultancy. Basically we work with a lot of brands to help them reach their audience through entertainment. We also have Asian booking agencies booking acts through 12 countries in Asia and then we also have a little publishing arm, so we have Chinese web communities to talk about music in China. We started the company eight and a half years ago and we’ve been working ever since. We have both Western and Chinese artists, approximately 70 % Western and 30 % Chinese.

How has the situation in China changed since you started Split Works?

We were one of the first professional companies to be promoters in China. When we started there were no venues, no festivals, no touring, no local bands, nothing. But now we can see elements of saturation – we are in a point where we have too many promoters, too many venues and too many tours but not enough audience and that’s the problem. We need to focus on building a base of local music fans before we can start throwing a western style of business model at them.

What kind of music do people like the most in China?

They like Chinese pop mostly. Everything else is kind of grouped in smaller categories. The Chinese ear likes softer and more relaxed music, folk for example. Also music that doesn’t include the language or where the language isn’t that important,  for example post-rock, post-punk. Electronic music is also getting more and more popular. But as the language is such a big issue, anything that is language specific and international is hard to sell.

Do you work in other countries in Asia besides China?

We work as a promoter in China but we have an agency where we run tours through the rest of the continent. We work with local promoters in each of the other countries. So we don’t do promoting in other countries.

Could to tells us about the recent projects that you have been involved?

We have a big arts festival which is six years old. It happens in March every year. Last year we did about 150 events in 2 weeks across two cities and worked with all sorts of artists and non-music such as spoken word, fine and contemporary art and all kind of staff. We also did a tour for Godspeed You! Black Emperor, that was pretty amazing. It’s a Canadian post-rock band, one of the most politically vital bands for the past 20 years. We also did a big Chinese folk festival for Guinness in November. We have a three year deal with Guinness to push collaboration with Chinese folk music. We also did a big campaign for Adidas, Tuborg and Wolkswagen lately.

You mentioned about the difficulties to get enough audience to concerts and events. Do you have any answer to that?

I think it’s all about the pricing. We price all of our concerts as cheaply as we can. Often we do it by making no money for our business. We invest all of our time in to the projects, which is why we need to work with the brands – they make up the losses we make with music. If 99,99 % of people have never been to a live event of any kind in China, we need to get them in first at the ground floor. We need to give them something that’s priced to a level that doesn’t stop them from taking a risk.

One of the reasons why some big shows that come here do so badly in terms of numbers is because their prize is too high generally. An average big show costs one hundred dollars, in here that is a quarter of the month’s salary to an average 22-25 year old. It’s typical international business that companies bring their business model, prices and formats rather than localizing. What we try to do is the complete opposite, we are building up from grassroots level, that’s what we have to do. We have to get people in the door first to experience what live music is all about before we can start selling them high class tickets to bigger shows.

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My name is Cheung Fai. I’m the Associate Artistic Director for Franco Dragone Entertainment Group.

You are in EARS on Shanghai to talk about making the connection. What is your topic about?

I’m trying to give insight and tell about my experiences on how to connect with new audiences. I’m working with performing arts, theater, music and dance and I think that the existing audience in the field is too narrow. If you keep on connecting with the existing audience only it’s not enough. More people should see your work. We need to expand the audience base. We have to find the ways to get new people into the theater. It’s very difficult but I think it could be done.

What, do you think, is the most important target audience for theater?

Young people. I think it’s very important to get really young generations especially into theater. Particularly when they are aged between 20 to 25 they are open to new things. Most of them are students, so they have free time, some money and they want to do something new. If they start going to the theater at that age it may become a habit and they may do it for the rest of their life. If they don’t go to theater at that age, after they graduate and get a job, they are busy and might never go to see theater. I think that it’s very critical that we get in touch with them early.

How do you get the new audience in to theater?

There are many tricks actually. I think theater people could learn a lot from business people. Performing arts used to be very artistic and was seen that it had nothing to do with business, management or marketing. But the times have changed. If you are selling tickets, it’s a business. Nowadays also in the performing arts field you have to think about your market and your marketing strategy, pricing and promotion. We need a lot of innovation in marketing for theater. You have to find your target audience and find the way to promote to them. You need to shape your product for your target audience in the way that it’s attractive to them but so that you can still keep your artistic vision in it. Unlike writing a poem in your house or doing a painting by yourself, theater is something that belongs to the community. When you are on stage, you have a group of people in front of you and you have to speak to them.

I think we need more innovations to the marketing of performing arts in order to connect with new audiences, particularly in China. In other big cities, like in New York, a good portion of the population are theater goers. They go to cinema, they go to see a dance performance. They might do it once a week or once a month, but it’s a part of their life. But in China there is a very low percentage of the population who are theater goers. We really need to expand this percentage and that’s why we need to connect with the new audience. In business terms that’s the blue ocean, within those people we see that new market. The hardest part is to get the first new customers come.

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