Hi, hope you are well and ready for summer, wherever you are.
Three weeks in London, I still find it refreshing to hear conversation starters about holidays and weekends. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I heard such things in China. My social conversations were always about money, especially in the past two years as people’s everyday lives were affected by layoffs, bonus cuts and business slowdowns. Hence, the mass popularity of the podcast ‘money-making girl’ (搞钱女孩), which achieved 600,000 followers across different platforms within a year.
By the way, I’m going to a summer drinks event cohosted by Trivium China, RealTime Mandarin, Beijing to Britain, The Young China Watchers, and the IoD China Group, I would love to meet if you are there! If you have any venue recommendations for Following the Yuan to host our drinks, please DM or directly reply to this email.
Special thanks for your input on the header image — I chose the most popular one but have incorporated features from other suggestions too.
The latest iteration of white-people food trend: dry-ass lunch 🥪
A British gentleman has popularized "ganba lunch" (干巴午餐, roughly translated as dry-ass lunch) on the Chinese internet, extending the trend of white-people food in China. His typical lunch consists of two slices of whole wheat bread spread with butter, topped with a few lettuce leaves, and occasionally avocado or smoked salmon.
Data intelligence platform New Rank shows that the Douyin account “China-UK family” (中英家庭), where the British man appears, gained 500,000 followers in the past month, surpassing over 90% of similar influencers. Related topics on Douyin have attracted over 600 million views. Grocery retail chain Freshippo has jumped on the trend, labeling its European-style bread under the “Ganba lunch” tag.
Quick take: From white-people food to yogurt bowls, these trends owe their popularity to short video media and meme culture.
Quick-acting domestic businesses like Freshippo capitalize on these trends by branding existing products with fresh meme terms to attract consumers, who then share their purchases online. I’d argue, it could also be an easy win for foreign brands if they can make quick decisions on tagging along.
Versace’s controversial ambassador Cai Xukun ⚜️
Cai Xukun, a singer who disappeared from the public eye in China for about a year due to sexual misconduct allegations, has recently been named the global ambassador of Versace. This surprised his die-hard fans, who were waiting for his comeback. They flocked to Versace’s official Weibo to show off their purchases.
“Cai Xukun and his fans are indeed impressive,” summarizes one comment under relevant news on Weibo. “The fans’ purchase posts under the announcement are endless, with orders costing thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan.”
Quick take: Cai’s allegations, including forced abortion and sex with a minor, are not as severe as those of former Louis Vuitton ambassador Kris Wu, possibly due to loopholes in China’s legal system. For example, China's age of consent is 14, despite years of advocacy to raise it.
Chinese die-hard fans are highly cognizant of what would help their idols: they buy the goods (sometimes with crowdsourced funds) and boost social traffic in any way possible. One of the worst examples, which prompted a government crackdown, involved fans buying bottles of yogurt drink to get votes for their reality show contestants, only to pour it down the drain.
Cai hasn't been officially charged for sexual misconduct. But after his scandal got trending last year, his TV footage and posts were scraped, endorsements were called off, and Beijing Advertising Association issued a now-deleted warning.
Days before the announcement, BBC released a documentary on South Korea’s Burning Sun scandal that involves sex-related crimes by former Big Bang member Seungri. No matter how much Cai boosted sales in the short-term, I think that it’s a bad arrangement.
Tightening regulation for mobile-forward miniseries 📱
After a period of ‘disorderly expansion’ (无序扩张)— parallel to any successes found in the internet era in China — mobile-forward miniseries now face strict regulation.
Starting from June 1, 2024, or this Saturday, all mini online series are required to hold an online drama publishing license or a filing number with their corresponding platform, Xinhua reported.
China's miniseries market reached 37.39 billion yuan (~ US$5.26 billion) in 2023, soaring 268% from a year earlier, and it is predicted to exceed 100 billion yuan by 2027, according to domestic firm iiMedia Research.
Quick take: We are seeing Chinese regulators trailing new internet sectors like livestreaming and miniseries closer and faster.
If, before the tech crackdown in late 2020, the internet sector and its verticals were allowed to ‘disorderly expand’, after the crackdown, regulators are more motivated to tamp down on anything that affects consumer interest, and more importantly, has the potential to affect the stability of the Party.
618 e-commerce war in an economic downturn 🛍️
Taobao and Tmall announced the cancellation of the pre-sale model in early May, which had been in place for around 10 years, followed by its peers. It has different impact on brands VS consumers, for example, small clothing company interviewed by domestic media outlet Jiemian said it was more difficult for them to estimate inventory.
Livestreaming was once the growth driver of e-commerce shopping festivals during Covid. In the post-Covid competition, besides prominent figures like Taobao Live’s Li Jiaqi and Kuaishou’s Xinba, others like Brother Yang and Luo Yonghao on Douyin are trying to stay low-key and let their companies take the lead.
Quick take: Before the economic downturn became the reality around roughly H2 2023, 618 was often seen as a subsidiary of Double 11 shopping festival. But since last year, the promotional environment has intensified, and live-streaming regulations have become stricter, making 618 a benchmark for e-commerce marketing.
In the current landscape, emerging livestreaming platforms like WeChat’s video accounts and Xiaohongshu are gaining more attention. Bilibili is also expected to make significant efforts.
C-beauty hero Perfect Diary’s imperfect sales 💋
As the first company that went public abroad carrying the name for all Chinese beauty (C-beauty), Yatsen Holding (NYSE: YSG) carries a lot of pressure.
With Perfect Diary, Little Ondine and recently acquired Eve Lom and Galénic under its umbrella, Yatsen recently announced its disappointing financial results for Q1 2024. The company’s revenue grew by 1% to 773 million yuan (US$108 million). With negligible growth across the board, sales and marketing expenses jumped to 69.7% of total net revenue from 60% in Q1 2023.
Quick take: Perfect Diary was once the poster child of C-beauty, now it’s barely mentioned by the media unless for its parent company’s continuously underwhelming sales. However, I believe it shouldn’t be the only indicator for the whole C-beauty sector.
The model for C-beauty groups of acquiring and managing new brands is still being tested, and many ambitious Chinese companies, including Judydoll’s parent Joy Group and Florasis, are still making waves both domestically and internationally. The best is yet to come.🔚
How to manage China anxiety | Following the yuan
As a functioning adult diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder later in life, the diagnosis itself was immensely helpful. It allowed me to understand my tendency to ruminate on the past and worry about the future. Over the past year, as I transitioned from a full-time journalist to a consultancy founder, I noticed a similar pattern among overseas bra…
There’s a couple of good options in here for the next RTM newsletter! Cai Xukun’s original scandal was a big one. Surprised he’s back….
Great update as always, thank you Yaling. Interesting that as a Westerner I am considered "white", which is a terrible generalisation and an even worse one that I eat what Chinese people are calling white food. This is a great example of bricolage.