You’re attending EARS on Helsinki for the second time in August. What has happened since we saw you the last time?

I am now working with the Helsinki Festival China focus. Inside China focus I am curating a special event with young artists called 25 x 25, standing for 25 hours of various non-stop performances by Chinese artists under the age of 25. That is my main project at the moment but I have also been doing other festivals in China during this past year.

Could you tell us how this collaboration with Helsinki Festival started?

Actually, I met Erik, the artistic director of Helsinki Festival last year during EARS. We talked about the China focus program and both thought there was a need to have different younger Chinese artists presenting what they are doing and thinking. So I curated this project with more than 12 young artists from the fields of  theatre, music, dance, visual arts and media. Some of them are not professional artists but students or they do other things at the same time. They create art in different ways than others, even professional artists in their fields. As they are so young, they have a different perspective of seeing, understanding and presenting the world through their art. They are fresh artists with new ideas. The original creativity is there, you can see the sparkle.

Who are the young artists coming to Helsinki?

Youngest of them is a dancer and choreographer, only 17 years old girl from a small village, now studying in Hong Kong. You can see the raw energy of her body and of what she wants to express.  Even when she’s not sure what she is expressing you can see the urge to move. We also have an actress/director from Beijing doing a monolog about pain. She has interviewed other girls and women from different ages about their experiences

and built a monolog based on those statements. We also have a musician interested in interactive sound art. There is also going to be two artistic groups trying to find different ways to express art; they are part of a project that can be seen as an artwork or a social study but that doesn’t change the content, the love and the interest for powerful insight. These are some of the artists performing at 25 x 25 in August.

Does the new generation and their work differ somehow from what we have seen before?

They don’t have a historical or even professional burden on their shoulders. China is comparably new to the contemporary artistic culture. In many ways the Chinese traditions and western traditions are burden to more professional artists who might be trained to think according to certain traditions. They can feel chained. Young artists don’t care about the traditions from East or West. They are trying to find the creativity from themselves, from their imagination and from their own lives, not from the academy or their teachers. They are more fresh and willing to break free from some of the definitions of different forms of art. From many artists you can not really say she is a dancer or a theater person, they cross boundaries. They have more freedom in their works and in their lives. They are more themselves as individuals and braver to take risks without being afraid of failure. I think they are the future.

What is best about EARS?

Roundtables! Talking is important to everyone; for people in business, art and media. You have to have people talking to each other before anything good can really happen between them. For the relations between Europe and Asia, talking is essential; the world is evolving and changing every day. We need people to meet each other and talk to each other face to face, have them ask questions and that way find real understanding. This form of roundtables brings different people from different countries and industries together to talk, that is the beginning of every possibility.

The post Interview with Cheung Fai appeared first on EARS.

Why is Pasila Studios the best place for EARS on Helsinki?

It’s the hottest platform for creative operations and encounters in the capital area of Finland, located in upcoming urban district, which is planned to be Helsinki’s second city center in 2020.

What are you looking forward to the most about EARS on Helsinki 2015?

I’m waiting to get to talk, meet and innovate with Asia’s creative professionals and that way, build concrete collaborations and business opportunities between East and West. The differences of the European and Asian media fields bring incredible opportunities to build new and interesting things.

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for collaborations between Finnish and Asian media fields?

In education and children. Asia is a continent where investing in youth and children is seen as a very important matter. Finland is a pioneer in equality and education. I think these values form a great foundation for future collaborations.

The post Pasila Studios – Creative hub of Helsinki appeared first on EARS.

Taru, how did you end up in South Korea?

 By accident! When I was in High School I had many penpals from South Korea as I wanted to improve my English skills. Through those connections I developed an interest towards the Korean language which I ended up studying for some years at the University of Helsinki. During my studies, I did an university exchange to South Korea and fell in love with the country immediately: incredibly nice people, beautiful mountains, ocean, sun, and delicious food! After returning to Finland I knew I had to find a way to move to South Korea for a longer period of time. And so I did! I ended up in a popular Korean conversational TV-show as one of the panelists and started to get more job offers from different fields of media.

How is your life in Seoul?

My life in Seoul is very hectic! I have many ongoing projects all the time, such as radio shows, TV programs, translation projects, my own restaurant and everything else you could imagine. In general people in Korea are very active: working long hours is normal and as in Finland, the working ethics are good.

What kind of cultural differences have you faced as a Finn in South Korea, especially working in media and the cultural field?

In Korea, working in media there are some topics that are absolute tabus. For example, the language that one uses in television is totally different from everyday life. As Korea used to be ruled by Japan many Korean words come from Japanese origin. Those words are banned in media and substituents are created to very commonly used everyday words. I have also understood that being a TV person in Korea is very different from Finland. In South Korea moral codes are really strict: as a reporter you cannot cause a scandal with your personal life and still appear regularly in media. After scandals such as gambling or divorce, people disappear from TV for 5 to 10 years.

What inspires you at the moment?

Different kinds of opportunities. Between Europe and Asia there are plenty of chances to build new collaborations. For example, at the moment I’m helping a new Finnish startup to establish their place in South Korean markets. In addition, I’m translating books and working on different cultural exchange projects. There are a lot of things to get inspiration from. I’d say I’m living a very interesting phase in my life right now.

Taru Salminen will give a keynote speech at EARS on Helsinki, register now to save your seat!

The post Interview with Taru Salminen appeared first on EARS.

Please tell us about your background, what did do before VICE China?

Before VICE China, I worked for Modern Sky Entertainment. I was a label manager and worked with founding. We for example started the company’s music festivals. After working with Modern Sky for six years, which is quite a long time, I started looking for something more culturally large-scaled. I got to know VICE and it felt like a perfect time for me to start a new thing, a media platform to examine youth culture.

How has VICE been received in China?

Very well. The key factor is that the team we have in Beijing consists mostly of local young people. They know what kind of things Chinese young people like so they know what kind of content we should produce. Especially all the local content that we have produced so far has been very popular both locally and internationally. Internationally, it’s very hard to find another media platform that shows this kind of real and versatile content on youth culture in China.

So it’s been really good so far! I don’t think that there’s any other international media company like VICE that has come to China and has been able to build such a huge group of followers in such a short time.

Have VICE faced any challenges in China?

The only challenge for VICE is that China is a huge, complex country. All different parts of China have their own local culture. Young people in all cities and in the countryside all behave differently. So even though China is one country, you’re need to learn about different parts of China. For a media company it means that if you want to tell a story about Chinese youth, you really have to go different places to meet and talk with the local people. You need to see what they look like, what they do and how they react to the rest of the world.

What can you tell about youth culture in China?

The whole of China is changing very fast and it’s same thing with youth culture. In China, we talk a lot about what Chinese young people do and what they are interested in. Right now young people’s consuming power is getting bigger and bigger, they have money to spend on music, fashion and travelling. Nowadays, young Chinese travel around the world.

Do you think that there’s a lot of differences between the VICE followers in China compared to the western world?

Basically for VICE as a digital company there’s only two different nations: one is online and the other is offline. When you get online, you get to talk to the whole world. Young people share the same information. They have a very similar way of thinking and they are into all kinds of interesting things.

Often when people talk about China, they see China as a totally different world. Of course culturally there’s a huge difference between the Western and Eastern culture but I don’t see that much difference in it as a country. The whole country has been open for a long time and especially the level of internationality has changed really fast. In VICE China we’re really excited to show to the rest of the world what Chinese young people are like. I believe that people know quite much about China but they don’t know that much about young Chinese.

Can you briefly tell us about the Creators Project by VICE?

The Creators Project is a media platform for arts and technology. It was founded by VICE and Intel. So far we have featured over 2000 artist all over the world like designers, filmmakers, musicians – all kinds of different people from creative industry. We for example have documentaries for audience to see the stories behind of creation. We also produce daily editorial content to show the most exciting creative scene of the world.

How do you see the development of creative industries in China?

China is a developing country and the creative industries are still in the very beginning. Nowadays you can see more and more local designers going to international markets and Chinese bands touring outside China. Before Chinese people got inspired by Western culture, fashion and design but now they’re trying to find their own identity. They are trying to establish their own stuff, which is a really good thing! The creative industries are in the very beginning but you can see that it will explode soon. Will be exciting to see what the future brings!

The post Interview with Meng Jinhui appeared first on EARS.

Who you are and what do you do?

My name is Ed Peto and I run a company called Outdustry Group based in Beijing. We represent Western rights owners, labels, services and producers for market-entry into China.

Please tell us about your background and how did you end up in China?

I’m originally from London. I was working in the music industry with labels, artist management and a few other areas. I developed a reasonably good understanding of how the industry worked as a whole and I wanted to take that understanding somewhere where the industry was still to be made, essentially. So, seven years ago I took a bit of a left turn in my life and decided to go and see how the market works in China. It’s been a very odd seven years because a lot of it is sort of been making it up as you go along. The industry in China is just fascinating! As tough as it is, everyday something bizarre or interesting happens – you’ll come across some amazing stories, amazing people and it’s kind of addictive. China just a very interesting place to be at a very interesting time.

Could you tell us a bit more about your company Outdustry?

The company is really a family of five small businesses. One is a producer and composer management business (Engine Music) representing Western producers, mixing and mastering engineers and composers for work on Chinese mainstream-pop, indie albums and more recently, major film soundtracks. The second business, which we actually just set up, is a sync agency (Core Sync) representing Western catalogues pitching for film, TV and web usage. We’re also starting to work as music supervisors for Chinese drama series.

Third business is a kind of a rights management business (OD Rights). We represent Western rights owners for bringing their catalogues into China and finding ways to monetize that through digital, physical and other markets. We’re increasingly looking into areas like performing rights, which is a very interesting area at the moment in China. We’re also acquiring Chinese catalogues for international distribution.

The fourth one is a market intelligence business called China Music Business. We publish articles about how the music industry works in China and are available for market visits, report writing and market introductions. Sort of trading in information and connections essentially. Last but not least, we have a music marketing agency (S/N Agency), primarily focused on building awareness around our clients and driving consumption of their physical and digital releases.

What kind of strategic decisions have you made to succeed in the Chinese market?

I think in general, the Chinese industry as a whole has progressed a lot slower than people would have liked it to and it’s still a very long play. Actually, as a recorded music market, it’s still incredibly small. It’s actually smaller than Switzerland and Thailand. That means companies in China have to be there for the long run. In terms of focusing our business, we made a decision a couple of years ago that while live music in China is incredibly exciting, it’s over-crowded and a hard area to make money in, so we focused on the record side which is even harder but there’s no one else really doing what we do – so we’ve got a good niche for ourselves. It’s strategically a very interesting area to be in but we have to keep in mind that it’s a long strategy.

Besides China, do you do business in other regions in Asia as well?

Because the industry is so small at the moment in China, there is a temptation to start doing business outside of China. However, one of the decisions I’ve made over the last couple of years is that you just got to be the best at what you do within a particular region. I think it could be a mistake to try to spread yourself out too much. China is such a complex place that it requires your full attention. Each region in Asia has its own set of issues or complexities, which require full time attention as well. For us, the most important thing is to be the best at what we do within China.

How do you see the development in the creative industries in China?

Any of the copyright dependent industries have traditionally had a very hard run in China. But there is a recognizable copyright law in China so it’s just a question of enforcing it properly so that the creative industries can start to flourish. It’s just starting to happen now. It’s looking increasingly interesting as the businesses develop and people actually start to see rewards from copyright based goods.

If we look at the film industry in China for example, it’s going through a boom at the moment. Largely because the Chinese government sees it as kind of a soft power issue where they want to start exporting films and they’ve protected that as an industry. We’re hoping that the music industry is going to be the next area of creative goods that actually get that level of protection from the government. It looks very exciting if this will happen. But as with all things in China, these things take longer than you would imagine. We know that the market is going to be very exciting and big in the future. It’s just when that future actually comes, that’s what’s unclear.

The post Interview with Ed Peto appeared first on EARS.

Could you tell us who you are and what do you do?

My name is Xavier Norindr. I have a strong background in working with Japanese artists for the European market. In the past, I have promoted and organized tours for a lot of artists across Europe. Currently, I am the CEO and co-founder of Crosslight Global Entertainment, a creative entertainment agency. We provide a full service catalogue from concepting and management of creative content and events to marketing strategies and business development. Our clients are mainly brands and companies from the entertainment industry.

Bringing Japanese artists to Europe and promoting them has been your passion for a very long time. How did you first get started in the business?

As a matter of fact, it was a passion more than a business to me. I was first introduced to Japanese music through video games and mangas. I also had a band with my brother in high school and we used to do covers of Japanese bands like X Japan or Luna Sea. That’s when I started to discover more and more artists. After that, I organized some parties in France in bars and clubs where people could gather and listen to Japanese music. I felt the need to turn my passion into a business just after I brought my first Japanese band to France for a concert in 2004. After this concert I started to work on a business plan to bring more Japanese artists abroad.

Could you tell us about your company Crosslight Entertainment?

We started the company in 2012. The firm was co-founded by Stéphane Hervé, the Creative Director and Artist, and myself. We wanted to gather our skills and networks in order to provide support for companies, artists and brands for their development in foreign markets. It’s important today to think globally. Our main areas of expertise are the concepting and production of content and events, business development and marketing. At CGE we also believe in the importance of content in a marketing strategy. A strong and right content can lead to success but to produce the right kind of content, you need the right talents. At CGE we have broad international networks of talents in various areas: music, photography, video, events and marketing. We’ll find the right team for the market you target.

What kind of projects are you now working with at Crosslight Entertainment?

Right now we are talking with a few management companies in Japan and Korea in order to develop their artists in Europe. There’s talk about showcases in Europe, PR, collaboration with local brands and/or local artists, photoshoots, recording etc. We also have requests from French artists to help them with exporting to Asia. Besides that, we are talking with companies from the gaming industry in order to do some exciting and innovative events.

With offices in France, Germany, Japan and recently, US, it seems that a lot is going on and the demand is high. What kind of aspirations do you have for the future?

I think it’s very important to be located all around the globe, to work with international profiles. There is demand because many companies, brands, artists want to reach global markets. My aspiration is to lead my clients and partners to success in their development in foreign markets.

As a pioneer of exporting Asian artists to Europe, are you seeing changes when compared the current situation to where it was a few years ago?

I have noticed a lot of changes regarding exporting in the music industry. Export has become an important and strategic topic for many artists and records companies. I’ve seen that especially with Japanese artists. A few years ago not so many record companies and managements in Japan were interested or were thinking about exporting their music. Now, everyone is looking to bring their music abroad. Companies and artists need to have a local partner to succeed and that’s one of the reasons why CGE was founded.

What kind of audiences for Asian music are there in Europe?

There are different kinds of audiences in Europe for Asian artists. It really depends on what genre of music we are talking about. Many Japanese bands we have worked with told us that European and Japanese audience are different. They pointed out that the European audience are more “crazy” and sometimes “wild”.

Where is the biggest demand for Asian bands in Europe?

I think it really depends on the genre of music. What I am sure of is that there is demand everywhere in Europe. From my point of view, the oldest markets for Asian artists are France, UK and Germany.

What do you think is the outlook like for Asian music exporting altogether?

I think the future of Asian artists is very promising both in Europe and worldwide. Since I am working with Asian artists I see the audiences and fans growing and the number of concerts and appearances of Asian artists in music festivals increasing. It will go on for sure!

You are coming to speak to the EARS on Helsinki event this September. What are you most looking forward to from the event?

I am looking forward to connect with nice people.

The post Interview with Xavier Norindr appeared first on EARS.

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Rob Schwartz, Tokyo bureau chief of Billboard Magazine. I’m also a music and film producer based in Tokyo producing content for the international market, which means mainly film in English language. Our production company is called Fusion For Peace Productions.

Please tell about your background, how did you end up in Japan?

I’ve always had an abiding interest in Japanese culture. I went to Japan straight out of university, studied the language and built a career there.

What is the presence of Billboard like in Japan?

Billboard Japan is a joint venture between Billboard Magazine and a Japanese company called Hanshin. They create content in Japanese language and own a couple of venues under the name Billboard Live in Tokyo and in Osaka.

However, I work for Billboard Magazine which is based in New York City and covers the world music business, world music industry in English. I’ve worked with Billboard Magazine for about six years now.

What current trends are you seeing in the music industry in Asia?

The music industry in Asia is certainly expanding by leaps and bounds. It’s very hard to talk about Asia in general after it’s so diverse and every territory is quite different. However, there are certain territories where the music industry is obviously expanding. Korea is the obvious one and K-pop has had huge success exporting its music to different territories around the world. Big Bang, one of the most popular bands out of Korea did a world tour last year including 60 concerts in 15 to 18 countries. It was unprecedented for a Korean band to have such an expansive world tour so there’s no doubt that music industry in Korea is expanding.

On the other hand, Japan didn’t have such a good year in 2013 and their revenue declined. Recorded music revenue has been declining all across the world, maybe less in Japan than in other territories but it declined still.

Are you seeing growth in the touring of international bands in Asia?

There’s far more international bands, for example European, American, Australian touring in China than there ever has been. China with its gigantic population, its growing economy and its music industry is really interesting to a lot of bands and projects. It’s no longer this mysterious, forbidden land and many high-powered international acts are now going into China. Touring in Malaysia and in Southeast Asia is also popular. In that sense, the touring industry is really expanding in a lot of territories in Asia. The Rolling Stones just played in Shanghai last March, Bruno Mars played in Shanghai in April so major world stars are moving through China, it’s now on the circuit.

We just talked here at All That Matters with Robb Spritzer, the director of Live Nation that in China they’re now developing what we call the second-tier cities. These cities have populations like 15-20 million people and they call that a second-tier city in China! There is a huge opportunity to tour in those cities when you have so many people.

Do you think the current trend will continue to grow?

If  you follow the current trend, I think live touring altogether will continue to develop. Live Nation and AEG are the two biggest touring companies and they’re seriously concentrating on Asia. I think the growth in China, Southeast Asia and Korea, is going to continue for a long time.

What kind of challenges are there, culturally speaking, with the expanding touring industry?

Each country is an individual and certain countries are going to have a more of a hard time growing than others. Indonesia is a classic example. There are a lot of national sensitivities because it’s a Muslim country so certain kinds of artists are just not going to be able to tour there. Lady Gaga’s show in Indonesia was cancelled two years ago and other artists like that who have a very outward sexuality and are not willing to compromise that, will not be able to tour in Indonesia, probably not in Malaysia either. Those are both huge countries with lots of people so not to be able to tour in Indonesia is actually a significant thing.

What do the Asian consumers want from a live experience?

In one way I’m tempted to say much the same thing as what the European or American consumer wants; a great show, excitement, not only a great performance but great visuals and everything. I think that’s part of it. Perhaps the Asian consumer may want more value for their money meaning either a lower ticket price or if they pay a high ticket price, maybe get some recorded music or a t-shirt or something along with it. In the West, meaning Europe and the United States, we’re used to paying high ticket prices. For a big name band, you expect to pay 100-150 dollars, at least in the US. That’s not the case in Asian markets. So one, it’s hard for people to pay those kinds of prices and two, if they are paying high prices, they probably expect a lot.

The post Interview with Rob Schwartz appeared first on EARS.

Hey, who are you and what do you do?

My name is Bojan. I’m one of the co-founders of EXIT Festival but I do a lot of other stuff as well.

What is EXIT?

It’s a festival that started in 1998-1999 as a part of a student movement in Serbia and later built up to be a pretty nice festival.

How did you come to find the festival?

We wanted to do something when we were studying at the university. At that time if you were living in that part of the world you were exposed to a lot of bad stuff from nationalism to wars and conflicts. It was very hard to find a purpose for life and we were very rebellious. We wanted to make a project that would be a new idea, a new vision of this region that would promote things that weren’t not politically acceptable at that time: peace, multiculturalism, things like that.

It took us about seven years from the first concert that we ever organized to organizing a concert with Red Hot Chili Peppers. So seven years from the basement to 80 000 people open field concert. For us that RHCP concert was the point where everything in the music industry was demystified.

How has EXIT influenced the local area?

We definitely introduced the idea of a festival to our region. I don’t think we influenced enough, because the political situation in the region is still pretty bad. It’s also tied to aesthetics and the understanding of values in the society. So I don’t think we’ve done enough. You can also ask what it would be like without EXIT. And I think it definitely inspired one generation of people. It focused a lot of optimism and enthusiasm and spread good vibes around. So yeah, it did okay more or less [laughing].

What other things are you doing besides EXIT?

At the moment I’m trying to set up a new business for one part of the team that left the EXIT management with me. I was the General Manager of EXIT for about 14 years and I left last year and some of the boys and girls left with me also. It’s not still clear to me what it is that we are going to do actually. But I think we are good at making concepts, which is very important for any kind of a creative business. Not only music, its applicable to most of the things you do in the creative industry. There are two things, you can ether consult with other people in good concepts and how to build them or build the concepts yourself. These are the two paths we are looking at, at the moment. We are consulting and helping other promoters and for example consulting one city in Croatia in how to develop their creative industry.

You just also found a new festival called MAD in Belgrade that was organized for the first time this May. How did you come up with the idea?

Basically we wanted to create a new festival project with an original approach to all of the aspects – from communication to the program and production. People behind MAD festival were a core of EXIT festival’s creative, production and strategic brain for more than 13 years. so we came up with some pretty good solutions.

Are you planning to organize the festival again next year?

Yes, many. Not just this one.

The post Interview with Bojan Boskovic appeared first on EARS.

My name is Ed Bennett. I’m from New York and I run Bennett Media Studio which is a multimedia production studio and a live performance space.

You have a long history in the industry, could you tell about your career?

Well, I began my life as a musician, ended up studying architecture and from there digital design. I combined all these digital arts together and ended up running a music video channel called VH1. That became a really large enterprise from three people to one thousand people in the period of five years. After it got so big and successful business, it lost its creative connections so I left the big company and started being small again. That’s what I like to do, going back to my creative roots.

How has the music industry developed your personal career?

It has become so different. It used to be just music. Then came the television and all sorts of things. Music is now everywhere. Music is the connection point of our lives, it touches everything we feel, we touch. It’s on our cellphones, it’s in our subways, it’s on our TV-screens  – so on every electronic device we have. Second thing about music that is interesting is that it’s a human invention that is all over the world. And as the history of people has grown, the history of music has grown as well and it has become something you can’t get rid of. It’s like the air we breathe. It’s pervasive, it’s everywhere. Music is so important to us that we take it for granted. In some ways music is the soundtrack to our lives. Everybody has a song that they think of when they feel some strong emotion in their lives. So to me, music is an extension to the brain.

We are now in EARS on Shanghai, in China. You are also very interested in the country – why?

I’ve been involved in some projects here in China and also some K-pop projects in Korea. K-pop itself is a fascinating subject. In China I feel like Marco Polo in a way – I’m exploring an entire new civilization and culture and it’s fascinating to me. There is so much activity and potential here and I find that now that they have gone through this huge cultural struggle, where they went from tradition to communism to common economics and now there is this all new found freedom in China. That freedom is giving rise to the explosion of all this creativity and ideas and this freedom is a little bit the head of inventions. They need help and advice on inventions. That’s why I think you find so many Westerners here. We come from very mature economies and cultures and when we come here, we all feel that we are very needed, wanted and loved here  – so what’s wrong with that? That’s wonderful.

What should the West learn from the Chinese?

There are many things that we can learn from the Chinese. When you compare the 3000 year old culture to say American culture that is 300 years old – the Chinese were doing things a long before we even existed. The thing we could learn from them is that there is so much wisdom in the Chinese culture, so much patience. What they go through is something we can only imagine. Their philosophy of life, they see things differently than we in America do.  We are always looking for something and they appreciate the value of nothing. It’s almost like a zen equation, the Asian culture is very much that way. If you take some of the Chinese poets, Lu Zhi, Du Fu, they all value nothingness over somethingness. I think Western artists could learn from this because every artist deals with the condition of nothingness before any creation. If you are a writer, you have a blank piece of paper. You have to create something. If you are a filmmaker – you have nothing. You have to come up with an idea and create something. You are a song writer, take your guitar out and just start with nothing and you build it. That’s the beauty of understanding and valuing that part of their consciousness and what is important to them.

How would you see the future of the cooperation between Asia and the West?

The cooperation is going to be very intense over the next 20 to 30 years. It’s going to be intensive to the point that is almost unimaginable. When you think about something that has to be created, every good invention is made from something we now don’t know. You can’t predict the future – it just happens. The whole premise of good design is that you create something that didn’t exist before. I see that the Chinese are going to transit into inventors and creators, which is their tradition – they have invented all kinds of things in the past. When they move back into this creative space with the size of their population – it’s mind-numbing. If you think about Finland for example, that’s a country of five million people and look what they’ve invented – Nokia, the architecture etc. A small country invented all this. Now can you imagine China turn into a creative culture just like Finland. They don’t have just five million people – they have three hundred Finlands, 1,5 billion people. What would happen if the Chinese just started to adapt some of these techinques – what could they invent. It’s mind-numbing to think about the potential that they have.

The post Interview with Ed Bennett 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?

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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