Reading A Book of Paradoxes

China Youth Trends and Business

Implications

By Lisa Li and Zafka Zhang

China Youthology

2009

www.chinayouthology.com
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PREFACE

Can young people feel connected to brands? If so, has anyone figured out where those
connections exist and what they mean? It may be easy to pick up on the latest trends
and find out what’s hot among youth. Just knowing what is popular doesn’t make that
information useful to your brand and your marketing efforts. China Youthology is
devoted to make these connections more tangible to marketers, advertisers, designers
and other innovators who want to connect their products and services to youth in China.

Trend reports have dubious reputations. In the marketing world, trend research is
usually criticized for lacking practical, actionable recommendations to marketing
decisions, ‘only scratching the surface’ or ‘not representative’. We, however, feel
confident talking about changes in young Chinese consumers - and what it means to
brands - due to numerous presentations given to marketing teams of big companies
targeting youth. These companies include Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsico Foods,
Pernod Ricard, and world leading ad agencies such as OgilvyOne, TBWA, McCann
Ericson, and Dentsu. The questions and comments we received have helped us refine
this report. And the positive feedback has encouraged us to write it up a more readable
format, to share and discuss with you.

Who are we talking about?

By youth, we mean 18 to 30 yrs. They are university students and young working
adults.

The trends in this paper are only relevant to the more developed cities in China (Tier 1
and Tier 2 cities). The diversity in China makes it impossible to capture trends across
geography and city tiers.

These 5 trends presented here are strongly manifested among the early adopters and
early majority. At the same time, they are increasingly prominent among the mass
youth.
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What kind of trends?

The trends we are talking about are not what fashion magazines want to feature. They
are not about hunting the latest style and taste, but exploring deep-rooted changes in
values and lifestyles. These changes we discuss here became noticeable in 2008, and we
believe they are going to continue to manifest and grow over the next couple of years.

Different from many consumer trends report, we understand the youth as ‘human
beings’, rather than merely as consumers and shoppers. In order to understand them as
human beings, we believe in a holistic approach that accounts for social changes,
especially in an environment as fast changing and complicated as the China market.

What’s our approach to youth trends?

1. A holistic approach

Different from conventional market research which mainly studies consumers at an

individual level, we see youth existing within three spheres: 1) the historical and
ongoing macro context (economic, social, cultural), 2) youth communities, built on both
collective hobbies (music, sports, fashion, gaming, technology, visual arts, social
participation, etc.) and categories (mobile phones, skincare, sneakers, etc.), and finally
3) an individual level (values, lifestyles, and interaction with products and brands, with
integrated understanding of online and offline experience). More at our website.

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2. The ‘Youth-Category-Brand’ Scaffolding

In order to add the most value to brands and market them more precisely, we don’t
merely examine youth trends, but closely target insights into connections between
brands and young people. We firmly believe business goals best be clearly identified at
the outset, before we decide what kind of insights we need to look for. People have told
us ‘it’s hard to evaluate a youth trend report because there’re no clear research
objectives behind this kind of report.’ Research objectives need to be clearly stated on
the beginning to avoid wasted effort of both parties.

‘Youth insights’ are valuable for marketers only when they are combined with two other
areas of insights: ‘category insights’ and ‘brand insights’. To that point, successful
marketing initiatives in the youth sector need to resonate with youth’s values, lifestyles,
and subcultures (youth insights), sympathize with the way young people understand and
experience categories (category insights), and capture the nuances of youth culture in
every aspect of marketing plans/ executions from messages, channels, to forms, etc.
(brand insights). See our blog post: the tangible brand-youth connection

This paper is mainly about ‘youth insights’. There are some ‘brand insights’ discussed in
the sections of ‘marketing implications’ for each trends. ‘Category insights’, although
included in our presentations to clients, are not discussed in this paper.

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How did we come up with the ‘trends’ discussed in this paper?

We did not conduct a specific ‘project’ for this. We came up with these trends by several
strands of research:

Firstly, the team has been conducting market research projects for youth brands since
2006 (both with China Youthology and previous employers) and through this,
established a solid understanding of Chinese young people.

Secondly, since it’s founding in July of 2008, China Youthology has studied Chinese
youth with systematic and innovative methodologies. We observe, interact, explore and
innovate with youth everyday – both online and offline. Methods employed include
ethnographic research, in-depth interviews, semiotics, etc. We are heavily involved with
the online communities of Chinese youth. We track and observe the major portals, SNS,
BBS, blogs, and microblogs to keep updated about what’s going on. Offline, we not only
talk to youth, but also observe and participate in what they are doing. We go to big
events like Modern Sky Festivals, brand campaigns like Nike’s Lebron event at 798, and
private parties/ activities of the youth.

Thirdly, this paper synthesizes some of the findings from a series of topical research we
conducted, from ‘vintage trends’, Beijing Olympics, Shan Zhai culture, to music festivals,
skateboarding culture, and creative communities (co-researched with Neocha.com, a
leading online creative community) while spearheading ad hoc research projects,
including research on hair and beauty, snack and health, beverage, media habit,
advertisement and digital engagement, etc.

Are we supported by data?

Yes and No. We did not invest in a quantitative survey for this paper. But the trends
discussed here can be validated by publicly available ‘data’, for example, the number of
volunteers for the Sichuan Earthquake and Beijing Olympics, the best-selling books on
Dangdang.com, or the prevalent use of Chinese cultural icons in local creative works…

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A BOOK OF PARADOXES

A glimpse at China’s background

China has undergone vast changes, from economic development, social structure, public
policies, to cultural scenes. All of these changes at macro level have had great impact on
the shaping of values and lifestyles of Chinese youth.

Recently, two factors are especially worth mentioning here: globalization and the
Internet. China has begun to take center stage in the world. The Beijing Olympics is
considered a symbol of this change. The heavy role China’s economy has played in the
world’s economic downturn is another.

On the other hand, China’s netizens on average spend more than 16 hours per week on
the Internet. Compared with western youth, they have easier access to online
movies/music/creative tools free of charge (because of the availability of the pirated
software and entertainment materials). The influence of mass media is still huge, but is
being diluted by the fast growth of social media.

Chinese youth are a book of paradoxes

Chinese youth are a book of paradoxes. They live amongst the fastest changing group
of people in the world, constantly bumping up against local and global changes. They are
bombarded with strong influences from both western and traditional Chinese
culture at every turn, both new and old, hip and ancient, blending new ideas and
traditional culture into the fabric of daily life, thought and output.

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Typical understanding of China’s youth often leads to unsuccessful communication. Often

times, brands seem to be offering what’s cool to youth but fail to hook them because
their products don’t capture the nuances in meaning, and wind up saying nothing. Real
understanding of Chinese youth lies in understanding the paradoxes within the
nuances.

Chinese youth are growing towards greater diversity and complexity. Without over-
simplifying, we feel confident talking about some trends, or important changes.

These trends, or changes, are discussed based on the assumption of Chinese youth (in
developed cities) as self-oriented, fun-seeking, hedonistic consumers who possess a
strong need for self-expression and self-development. What’s discussed in this paper
sometimes seems contradictory to these understanding. It is not to say that the trends
discussed in this paper are going to replace these themes but to emerge, grow, and co-
exist with these themes.

Five trends will be depicted. For each trend, we’ll talk about 1) the background and the
social/economic/cultural triggers, 2) the nuances that lead to a deeper understanding,
and 3) implications for brand marketing (with cases).

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From ‘Little Emperors’ to A ‘Bird Nest
Generation’: Making Small Differences
by Social Participation
Over 1 million youth volunteered for the
2008 Beijing Olympics (read CYW on the
Beijing Olympics: University Volunteers -
The ’Serious Side’ of the Post 80s)… and
after the Sichuan earthquake, the
number of college students queuing up
for blood donations exceeded the
capacity at hospitals.
 
8
7
The media called 2008 the ‘year of
volunteers’. But social participation is
more than volunteering at big events.
From campus bulletin boards to online
communities, and topics ranging from
environmental protection, social justice,
equality, to public safety, it refers to the
expressing of opinions and/or taking
action on public interests for the
betterment of society.
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Background

The young generation grew up with

Chinese economic reform and open-door
policy. As the single child generation,
they have been coined ‘little emperors’
and labeled as selfish, irresponsible, and
rejecting of traditional values. In 2008,
when youth spoke up during the Tibetan
unrest, showed concern during the
Sichuan earthquake, and great pride at
the Beijing Olympics, it caught many
people by surprise. This generation is
now known as the ‘bird nest generation’.
And as a result, many big social events
now provide more opportunities for
young people to participate even further,
and gain more media exposure.

 The economic development of China has

enabled some young people the ‘luxury’
Youth participate in various forms. Even
of caring about things outside their own
things as seemingly trivial as forwarding
living conditions. The issues of social
emails about food safety, putting red
justice and equality have become
hearts on a MSN nickname, and
relevant and visible to common people.
discussing social issues on BBS are worth
And the Internet has empowered youth
mentioning and noted as a marked
as a tool to express their opinions,
change in attitude and behavior towards
exchange ideas, form communities, and
social causes.
make a difference.
 

The social changes in China will continue

to reshape Chinese people’s life and
mind, especially the youth.

Nuances

1
These nuances spring more from
individual choices than from collective
norms or traditional patriotism.
‘Searching for meaning of life’ and ‘love’
are the key motivation for this new
attitude in social responsibility.
 

9

The single child generation grew up with
abundant attention and care from the
family, and though they are known to be
somewhat spoiled, they can also tend to
be sensitive and simple.
A girl in Fujian province declared on her
blog, her page at Douban.com, and
Neocha.com that she hand makes bags
for people to carry their own chopsticks
instead of using the disposable ones at
restaurants. She wrote in her blog:
‘I was dining at school’s canteen and
suddenly felt the place was delightful
because there were no disposable
chopsticks provided, and I thought I
could do some small things to make more
places delightful.’
2
Small and continuous actions in
daily life (大爱微行)
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9
The concept of contributing through
traditional ‘collective movements’ is out.
Doubt in ‘official charity organizations’
and ‘campaigns’ is prevalent, and many
young people have rolled up their sleeves
and decided to see what they can do on
their own, or with small group of like-
minded people.
Candy visits schools for orphans almost
every weekend. She is not a member of
any NGO. She found other like-minded
people at Douban.com and QQ groups
and decided to go together, and
continuously.
She writes, ‘Every time I go there, I can
bring some happiness to a few kids.’
Marketing implications
1
Corporate Social Responsibility
under scrutiny
CSR is no longer a ‘nice to have’, but a
must-have quality of corporations.
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2 Stop talking, Prove it

Case: After the Sichuan earthquake, a
100 million RMB donation by Wang Lao
Ji, a local beverage company, turned out
to be a very worthy ‘investment’ that
obtained great attention and applause. At
that time many big companies were
criticized for lacking in social
responsibilities.
How does a corporation participate?
Empty slogans are transparent and out
of date. Even donation and charity
campaigns now risk the perception of
trading money’ for media attention.
Young people respect sincere and long-
term efforts. The amount of investment
is really not the sole criteria. Companies
can learn from what the common youth
are doing with their lives every day:
Stop talking, Prove it.

Case: Stop talking,

Prove it: the
communication of
WWF resonates
‘small actions in
daily life’

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Case: Johnson & Johnson TVC

“强生相信在我们的身边，存在着一些巨人，他们以巨大的爱做细小的事，让心灵获得慰籍，
让创伤得到安抚，让人们得到关爱，强生以医疗卫生和个人护理的经验和智慧，与这些巨人并
肩，用爱，推动人与人的关爱。因爱而生，强生。”

‘Johnson & Johnson believes in the giants in common people who take small
actions out of great love…’

3
Get it Louder through Communities

The long-term, down-to-earth efforts

need to be connected with the local
communities through which young
enthusiasts are taking small actions.
Online and offline, companies need to
know where the grassroots communities
are, what kind of support the young
people need, empower them, and work
with them. Only by this means will efforts
become ‘social currency’ for young people
to talk about.

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 From ‘Globalization’ to ‘Post-Globalized
Chinese’: Growing Confidence in Identity

The young generation in China’s

big cities has grown up with
KFC, Coca-Cola, Hollywood
movies, Japanese cartoons and
games … they are very much
westernized. But many have
started to look back to China’s
heritage for inspiration.

‘Our generation has been

following trends from the States
and Japan since childhood, and
one day I figured why not create
something that is” Chinese
cool”?’ said Tong Yun, designer
and owner of Tyakasha, an
independent brand.

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Background

This growing sense of pride is

mainly caused by the rise of
Chinese economy and the
increasingly important role of China
in the world.

The Beijing Olympics was an

important milestone of China taking
the world’s center stage. And
during the economic downturn,
China again stood at an important
crossroads for the world’s
economy.

The young generation,

empowered by Internet, is
more exposed to various
opinions and beliefs. They
have grown more critical, but
at the same time are more
understanding/ tolerant to
Chinese government, media,
and brands.

Chinese youth used to give higher credit to
western media than local media because they
believed western media are more free and fair.
However during the unrest of Tibet, there were
incidents of questionable media reporting by
the western media.
CNN used pictures of Nepali
policeman beating Nepalese to
mislead readers of police violence
in Tibet.
The Chinese youth all over the
world initiated the ‘anti-CNN’
campaign. They collected biased
reporting online, and also issued
video clips to speak out, among
which ‘China stand up’ the most
famous.

‘Don’t be too CNN’ today means in

Internet language ‘don’t bullshit’.
(Also see our blog post: the
Olympic series - preface)

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Nuances
1 Pride in Chinese identity
Young people have started to be more
interested in traditional culture. Books
about history and Chinese culture are
appearing as best-selling books and at
online stores.
 
Chinese elements are widely embedded
in the works of Chinese artists and
designers. Mass youth enjoy movies like
Kungfu Panda and Mei Langfan.
15 youth magazine
14
2 Pride in generation identity
Young people are always strongly
inclined to differentiate themselves from
older generations. To the Chinese youth,
especially the more edgy ones, ‘Chinese
cool’ is not about the classical icons of
Chinese traditional culture, such as a
Peking Opera Mask, Dragon, or Chinese
red. The hipsters put on style of the 80s
to celebrate the collective memories of
their own. Old and local brands have
become reborn and fashionable.
‘China Discover China’ by <0086>, edgy
 15

2
True Connection through
Marketing implications
Resonance of Collective Memories

1  
Many brands have noticed the new chic
Local brands have started to gain
‘Cool Mind Share’ of ‘Chinese cool’ and embraced
Chinese cultural elements in their
A couple of years ago, ‘local’ meant low products. However fewer have realized
quality, countryside, and not trendy. But the importance of the ‘collective
today local brands become more and memories’ of the young generation.
more accepted as good quality,
trustworthy, and even as cool. Case: fashion brand Giordano crossed
  over to local designers to feature
characters in a vintage English textbook
Case: in design.
traditional
yogurt (right),
Huili sneakers
(below)

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Case: Lining impressed youth with Jiong (Jiong is a popular online word/
icon) sneakers and Play Station sneakers (see the pictures below).

Case: Sneakers (士力架) TVC about a Nintendo game

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3 Localization with Context Awareness

This new pride poses a great challenge to international brands. Localization

must go beyond endorsement of local celebrities. A real connection with
Chinese youth on cool culture or category benefits is needed, and must be
based on true understanding of the local context.
 

Case: Nokia’s viral video ‘Hip hop originated in Chinese village’ received
huge amount of clicks on video sites. My young friends ‘shared’ this video
on Xiaonei. Most of the young people I asked have seen this video… It
captured the popular themes of ‘hip hop’ in a local way.

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From ‘Cool’ to ‘Geeky’: Deep-ization of

Hobbies and Empowerment of
Communities

Today, a typical answer to our ice- Background

breaker, ‘Hey I’m doing research about
what’s in and cool in Chinese youth. Can
we have a chat?’ would be ‘That’s great, The Internet has provided a great space
but I’m not that cool.’ for young people to show themselves.

‘Cool youth’ has been stereotyped as
funky-looking people. But today
substance rather than appearance is
prized. Many young people choose to not
equip themselves with visible cool
symbols, but rather pride themselves
with possessing remarkable
capabilities/knowledge in a great variety
of areas. They are the proud ‘alternative
experts’ (边缘学科专家) on something
about music, art, technology, or
sneakers and skincare, or even
translating subtitles of American sitcoms.
Geeky = Passion + Effort + Talent
Most young people today own their
online ‘space’ in their blogs, SNS, or
avatars. ‘Social currency’ turns from the
visible ones (appearance and style) to
more substantial ones and to a greater
diversity.
Empowered by the Internet, young
people have easily formed tribes/
communities around their interests,
share things they’ve learned, help each
other, and educate themselves. Name as
bizarre as an obsession you can think of,
and you can surely find it on
Douban.com.

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Nuances
1  
‘Common’ people as Geeks
Lee could not be a more ‘common’ office
worker in a Tier 2 city. However, because
of her own experience of seeing Chinese
Traditional Medicine doctors and her
interest in this area, she has become a
geek. She shares her own experiences,
reviews hospitals and doctors, and
answers questions other people of similar
health problems have on the Internet.
She has became a popular and
authoritative ‘geek’ in her community.
 Geeks are different from ‘trendsetters’
(as understood conventionally). Many
geeks are ‘common’ in most aspects but
just ‘trendsetting’ in specific areas.
Digging a bit deeper into the
habits/hobbies of young people around
you, you may find them geeky about
sound art, pets, charity,
discounts/promotions, nightlife,
photography, food, skincare, so on and
so forth. (I just randomly picked some
friends in my mind to list the examples
above.)
√ spheres of self-
Songshuhui.net – online group of science
and tech geeks sharing knowledge to
youth in a fun and easy way
3
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2 The New Self-Expression
Chinese young generation has been
characterized by their strong need and
courage in ‘self-expression’ (as opposed
to the long tradition of modest
attitudes). On the Internet, Chinese
youth are probably the most ‘skilled’
group in photo beautification and photo
sharing (for example the ‘PK’ of beauties
on 360quan.com, a SNS on which ‘self-
expression’ is the key motivation of
users); Off the Internet, the popularity of
‘Super Girls’ and ‘Happy Boys’ singing
contest (similar to ‘American Idols’), and
the fandom of Liu Xiang (world’s hurdler
champion) for his boldness and
confidence (with his famous quote ‘I
came to win’).
‘New geek’ does not mean that ‘look at
me’ is no longer relevant. Chinese youth
are keen as always to show themselves.
It is just a new form of ‘look at me’. It is
very rewarding to be appreciated as
‘geeks’, or unique in a talented way.
Books I read,
movies and music
I love, places/
activities I go to
become new
expression
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Marketing implications Case: There’s a natural association of

Questions for the brands to consider are:
How do I make young people geeky
about my brand/ product? How shall I
connect with the geeks? And ultimately
how can I connect with the mass through
the geeks?
1
Marketers need to understand 2
types of Geeks
1) Category geeks: Geeks in categories
or category-relevant lifestyles (sneakers,
skincare, mobile phones, café, nightlife,
etc.)
Apple with geeks. In China, many young
consumers love Apple products because
of their fashionable style and creative
industrial design. However ask a geek
and he’ll firstly claim ‘Apple makes the
greatest products’. Then he/she may go
on to tell you how stable Macintosh
system is, how iPhone enables people to
use mobile phones creatively and
differently, how the large number of
genius/ geeks out there have created
great software and applications that make
the products increasingly easier and fun
to use. (see pictures below)
Relevant link: Why do they camp in
Apple’s store: brand fandom

2) Cultural geeks: Geeks in passion

areas (music, art, technology, sports,
etc.)
 

2 ‘Great products’ Engross

Category Geeks

Real category geeks are obsessive in

hunting down the ultimate truth about
products. They are riveted by great
products, innovations, explorative and
personalized experience, and co-
creation. In short, geeks are attracted
by brands who are themselves ‘geeky’
in the product functions, technologies,
ingredients, etc.

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3 Build Blood Connections by However, Converse did the ‘first in

Engaging and Empowering Cultural Geeks
Use of/ immersion with the cool youth
cultures is a typical way of engaging
young consumers. Many campaigns are
designed around street culture, sports,
fashion, or music. To what extent geeks
of the subcultures can be attracted and
mobilized is crucial to the success of the
campaigns. Great campaigns should
China’: first to sign underground bands
as spokespersons: PK 14 is a band of
over 10 years’ history and Queen Sea
Big Shark a young and stylish band.
The two bands have large and different
fan base. It was the first ‘hitting the
road tour’ that carried the spirit of a
road trip in the classical sense, and
resonated with geeks.

1) Be about a ‘cool culture’ that has a

big community – or a large number of
geeks,
2) Fit the taste of geeks (which is
slightly higher than mass culture and
aspirational to mass culture),
3) Engage geeks to co-create content
that is cool to and connected with
mass youth,
4) Empower geeks (to realize their
dreams), and
5) Communicate with geeks IN THEIR
community

In order to be able to meet the above 5

criteria, brands need to obtain a real
understanding of the communities and
geeks, respect and empower geeks
rather than merely consider them as The bands lived on the bus for the
commercial media. majority of their time during tour, played
shows with the local bands they met
Case: Converse Love Noise Tour: 2 along the way, and local graffiti artists
bands. 1 bus. 5 cities. 5000km (see more come to paint the bus body.
information about the campaign here) Documentaries were taken to spread the
tour on the Internet.
‘Indie music’ is a subculture with a
sophisticated community and large
number of geeks in China.

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Douban is the community for ‘artistic

youth’. About 40% of users are
university students; most of the rest are
university graduates. A community with
the most concentrated discussion/
information about books, music, and
movies, etc. On its musicians’ page, over
1,000 underground bands, musicians
have their bios and personal spaces.

Neocha.com and Mogo.com: more

targeted on music and creative culture,
Converse also chose to align itself with
Neocha (a vertical online creative
community) and Mogo (China’s
The right online communities were independent music and art online TV
chosen to spread the message. Douban site).
MiniSite: although far from the biggest
online community in China, Douban,
with over 2 million registered users,
was clearly the most suitable for
Converse.
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From ‘Fun-Seeking’ to ‘Creativity-
Seeking’: Remarkonomy
‘Entertainment’ has long been a key to
connect bored youth with fun-seeking
activities. However, today’s youth are
able to find entertainment easier than
ever. It is harder than ever to attract
their attention. It takes great ‘creativity’
to be remarkable.
Background
1
Economic transformation,
government support and the education
Over the past 4-5 years, the most
developed cities in China, such as
Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Suzhou,
Nanjing, Hangzhou, Changsha,
Guangzhou, etc., have been looking to
‘transform’ themselves to ‘new
economy’, i.e. from manufacturing to
non-manufacturing.
24
23
Learning from the success of creative
industries in UK, the local Chinese
governments have decided to build
hardware and software infrastructures to
boost such industries’. In their 11th 5-
year plan, ‘creative industry’ is listed as
the pillar industry to ‘upgrade the
economic structure’. (According to
Wikipedia, ‘creative industry‘ usually
includes the following; Advertising,
Architecture, Arts and Antique markets,
Crafts, design, Designer Fashion, Film,
Interactive Software (particularly gaming
software), Music, Television and Radio,
Performing Arts, Publishing and Software.
As a result, in many cities, we’ve started
to see ‘creative industry zones’ where
practitioners of creative industries find
preferential packages on loft rentals,
taxes, loans, etc.

Meanwhile, despite of political concerns,
the local governments has not only
allowed, but encouraged
festivals/conferences/exhibitions covering
fashion, animation, art, design, music,
etc., for example, Modern Sky Festival,
International Machinima Festival, and
eArts Festival.
Poster for Modern Sky Festival 2008
(above); Shanghai eArts Festival 2008
(below)
25
24
To meet the great demand for creative
talent, more ‘creative-related’
educational programs have emerged.
According to a recent report, today over
1200 education providers (in which 400
are universities) accommodate more
than 100 thousand students majoring
animation, graphic design, game design
2 The Internet has spurred the
creative culture
Creative capabilities: with cracked
software widely available on the
Internet, Chinese youth have mastered
content-creating tools such as Photoshop
(for visual), CoolEditor (now Audition, for
music/sound), and 3DMax (for 3D
modeling).
Sharing and spreading of creatives:
the most up-to-date and state-of-the-art
creatives in the world (software, e-books,
music, films, designs, etc.) are only one
mouse-click away from the Chinese youth
who are equipped with the p2p file
sharing software such as Emule, BT, and
Xunlei.com. BBS (forums) and today SNS
facilitate youth to form online
communities around their interests.
Chasing and sharing cool are becoming
easier than ever.
3 Change of Values and Growth of
Demand
Unlike the past, parents today react
much more positively should their kid
decide to choose a career in creative
industry. In addition, the growing need
for identity in global society has
motivated the youth to create ‘China
cool’.
 25

On a flea market in Shanghai Feng Guo Box – a creative bazaar

1 Everyday life trifles

China sees not only a growing supply of
creative products/contents but also a
huge number of creativity-seekers in the
young generation.
Music festivals, art exhibitions, book
stores, live shows are crowded with
youth. Consumption of culture has
become part of their lifestyle. Youth has
found that products/contents from indie
designers/creators enable them to claim
their uniqueness, and have helped the
thriving of many indie designer flea-
markets in China.
‘Bedroom Bossa Band’ by Lullatone, Japan

Nuances 2 Non-consumerism, organic:

Not every ‘unexpected’ or ‘never used

before’ or ‘fun’ idea is considered
‘creative’ by youth. They tend to find
relevance in themes that have to do with
their dreams, fears, passion points, and
constraints in life. According to a report
about creative youth (which will be co-
issued by China Youthology and
Neocha.com soon), these relevant
themes include:
26
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3 Kidult

Tyakasha, independent brand, Shanghai ‘Chinese Central Marshal Arts Academy’,

human animation work by students in
Chinese Central Arts Academy, 2008
4 Handmade

6 Fragility, vulnerability

Hand made transportation card cover by

little-a

5
Inconvenience

‘Tears’ by little-a, Beijing

Traditional ink and wash painting

animation seen as ‘cool’ 27
 27

7 Techy 10 Collective memory

Graphic by DOGCO3

8 Social conscience

Animation works by Ray (raydesign.cn)

Indie brand ‘More is Less’ using recycled
materials for products

9 11 Hitting the road

Chinese chic

(Picture by Lowa)
Painting by Overturn
 28

12 Sarcasm and spoofing Marketing implications

1 ‘Designy’ everything

Creative communication and packaging

have become more important than ever
in almost all categories.

Case: Limi’s creative packaging for

mass-market skincare products

Chinese ‘back dorm boys’

13 Sensuality

Graphic by (擦主席)

14 Violence Case: Nongfu Spring C100 attracted

young consumers with unique bottle

From ‘Cult Youth’, local independent

animation publication
29
 2 Crowdsourcing to meet the long tail
needs

Today, there are many indie musicians,

indie designers, indie manga artists,
indie writers, indie curators, indie label
owners who work/ present their works at
independent studios, booths at flee
market, websites and online shops…
They are great resource for crowd
sourcing of creative jobs.

They are closely connected with the local

youth but more sensitive to their feelings
and more capable of expressing them.
They naturally possess the ‘insights’
about the young consumers.

Case: local street fashion brands

TheThing and ENO both mobilize the
independent designers to provide great
variety of creatives to the local young
consumers.

30

From ‘Indulgence’ to ‘Sustainability’:
Pains of Modernity and Risk
Awareness
While the young generation has been
trying to (and successfully) break many
boundaries in their life to live with more
indulgence, it also has grown hand-in-
hand with increasing awareness, or
trend, for moderation and sustainability.
China’s youth are more aware of the risk
in their life and in the society. This was
firstly manifested as the attention to the
body and health, and naturally bled into
behavior and attitudes towards
consumption, especially under the global
economic downturn.
31
30
Books about health and traditional
medication became the best-selling
books among youth, especially those
over 25.
More and more youth share health-
related articles on Xiaonei.com (which is
the Chinese version of Facebook). And
more young girls now go to bed before
11pm for a ‘beauty rest’ (美容觉) (to
make up for when they may have to stay
up late at for KTV or clubbing
occasionally). Numerous groups have
formed around ‘organic living’, ‘Lohas’,
and ‘saving money’ on online
communities such as Douban.com.
 31

www.bujingqi.com: a website emerged in/for economic downturn

Background

While the youth enjoy the ‘fruits’ of

modern life, they’ve also started to feel
the ‘pains of modernity’ at the same
time: the polluted environment, the
growing incidence of diseases in younger
age, the severe issues of food safety, and
now the economic crisis. They have
realized and experienced the many risks
in the society and in their life, and they
aspire a life and world that is more
sustainable.

‘Sanlu, choice of a step mom’ (Melamine

milk crisis)
4

Nuances
1
‘New old life’ – Healing the Pains of
Modernity
Echoing to the underlying driver for ‘new
Chinese’, the trend of ‘new life’ is also to
do with the aspiration of ‘the good old
days’. From food and beverage, to
clothes and personal care, naturalness
becomes a much-desired feature. To
young consumers, naturalness means not
only safe and healthy, but also truthful
and joy – free from the pretentiousness
and stress.
City Pictorial featured ‘non-material
beautiful life’
33
32
2 It’s all about balancing
‘New life’ does not completely alienate
indulgence. There’s the constant struggle
between the desire of moderation and
indulgence, health and extravagance,
anti-consumerism and consumerism.
When a student becomes thriftier in many
categories, he is still ready to spend a
cow on his hobbies.
Marketing implications
1 Knowledge marketing
The trend of sustainability has been seen
in the developed markets for years.
However what’s different (and more
challenging) in the China market is the
presumption of guilt of corporations.
When news (true and false ones) about
product safety/ quality breaks, they
spread dramatically and usually
devastate the brands.
 33

Aside from reacting to the crisis

responsively (by various ways of
conventional crisis PR), companies still
need to learn better ways to constantly
communicate with their customers to
ease the tension and concerns caused
by asymmetry of information.

Case: Lai Yi Fen, a local snack company,

opens farms of ingredients to customers
who want to visit

Case: Oishi potato chips using mountain

tea oil – an ingredient that is perceived
to be healthier

2 Sustainable products

Safe is not good enough. The increasing

needs for environmental friendly,
natural, and healthy products has
become inevitable. Concerns about
health issues have become big barrier
for many brands in the categories of
food, skincare, home furnishing, and
others. And it marks the precursor for Case: MUJI, as well as MUJI style,
innovation towards higher sustainability become new chic
for many brands.

34
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IN A NUTSHELL

To sum up, youth marketing in China needs to adapt to the following changes:

Key changes in youth Implications to brands

New Citizen Increasing sense of social Enterprise citizenship (CSR)

welfare under scrutiny

Social participation as an Stop talking and dumping money,

individual choice in searching prove that you care
for meaning of life
Get it louder through community
Taking everyday actions to
make small differences

New Chinese Pride in Chinese identity
Nostalgic for collective
memories about the good old
days
Local brands start to gain cool
mind share
Chinese cool the new chic
Resonance in collective memories
of this generation

Localization with context

awareness

New Geek Deep-ization of hobbies Great products are the ultimate

winner
Communitized learning
Build ‘blood connection’ by
Common and geeky engaging and empowering the
geeks
Being geeky the new-self-
expression

New Remarkonomy Designy for all

Entertainment
Growing taste for creativity Crowdsourcing for the long tail

Creativity with relevance

New Life Awareness of risks and pains of Proactive management of

modernity knowledge

Sustainability is the new luxury Innovation towards sustainability

35
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In a nutshell…

1. Stop telling the youth you are great… do something remarkable enough to
become the social currency that youth need to identify themselves and build
relationships with others in their communities.
2. In order to know what’s remarkable and what’s valued as social currency, you
need to understand the nuances of the changing values and lifestyles, as well
as understand how your own category is experienced by youth.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to the following thought-leaders for the great thoughts/ inspirations on

youth trends, innovative research, and study on social changes

http://www.mobileyouth.org
http://www.kumeugirl.com
http://www.trendbuero.de

Thanks to people who have contributed to the paper with their questions and
ideas on youth trends and youth marketing: Our friends and/or clients at Pepsico
Foods, Nestle, Pernod Ricard, Johnson & Johnson, Nokia, Li Ning, TBWA, McCann
Ericson, JWT, BBDO, Dentsu, IDEO, Trendburo, Modern Weekly, Urban China,
0086, Douban.com, Xiaonei.com, Neocha.com, 360quan.com, Sohu.com, and
many others that are not listed.

Thanks to Angie Wu Chin for proof reading.

Most grateful for the young, talented, and passionate ethnographers Summer Xia,
Helen Yu, and Candy Yang.