Following the Yuan

Following the Yuan

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China Solved AI Adoption. What's Still Missing? 🔎 | Following the Yuan
Chinese consumers may be among the most AI-receptive in the world — yet consumer-facing AI has never quite cracked the paywall in China. Is this just a…
 • Yaling Jiang and Yijun Liu 刘奕君
#78: Advocacy for two-day weekend gets censored, Former Gucci creative director joins Icicle, Lee to change China operator | Following the…
Selling nap slots becomes a new revenue stream for some Chinese cinemas, as they collectively lost roughly 125 million audience members over the last…
 • Rongrong Zhuge and Yaling Jiang
44:09
On box office hit Dear You: How Chinese dialects found a new voice | Following the Yuan × Middle Earth
As Dear You opens in US and Canadian theaters on Sept 4, listen to our discussion on the cultural backdrop behind why dialect suddenly sells.
 • Yaling Jiang
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Consumer news digest 📆

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#78: Advocacy for two-day weekend gets censored, Former Gucci creative director joins Icicle, Lee to change China operator | Following the…
Selling nap slots becomes a new revenue stream for some Chinese cinemas, as they collectively lost roughly 125 million audience members over the last…
 • Rongrong Zhuge and Yaling Jiang
#78: Retail investors fight over Unitree stock, Abercrombie & Fitch seeks buyers for China business, Alo Yoga opens Tmall store | Following…
Retail investors fight over Unitree stock, pushing allotment rate to all-time low on Nasdaq-like STAR market as Meituan and HSG bag big wins.
 • Rongrong Zhuge and Yaling Jiang
#77: Molly Tea's LV fine backfires, Shein nears HK IPO, Luckin and Duolingo's babies, Chef Fei to enter the U.S. | Following the Yuan
LV's courtroom victory over Molly Tea has turned into a PR defeat, as Chinese consumers and state media question who owns traditional Chinese patterns.
 • Following the Yuan

Deep dives 🤔

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“We are just keeping the business running for China Tobacco’s sake”: when state monopoly meets consumption downgrade
A Chinese tobacco shop owner offers a rare window into China’s state tobacco monopoly as oversupply and shrinking demand reshape the industry.
 • Following the Yuan
What one talks about when one talks about chuhai | Following the Yuan
While there’s an overlap between export and chuhai, the latter is much more complex, involving not just sales but also investment, manufacturing…
 • Yaling Jiang
It's never been so easy to be a spy 📸 | Following the Yuan
The business behind #Maskpark, China’s largest known digital sex crime ring — and why it might harm the country’s plummeting birth rate and continue to…
 • Yaling Jiang

China explainer 📙

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Following the Yuan
Following the Yuan
Get on-the-ground 'color' in China beyond the earnings calls and market reports.
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