"The hardships of the journey are many, but the rewards of reaching the Western Paradise will be great."

This sentiment, drawn from the quest of Sun Wukong and his companions in the classic Chinese novel "Journey to the West," reflects the trajectory of China's gaming industry.

Much like the mythical pilgrimage of these legendary figures, the industry has embarked on its own odyssey — a quest to conquer not just the Eastern realms of mobile gaming, but to venture forth into the challenging territories of global AAA game development.

This summer sees a trio of highly anticipated Chinese games launch: "Black Myth: Wukong," "Delta Force: Hawk Ops," and "Once Human".

For years, China's gaming landscape was dominated by mobile titles, where commercial success from combining addictive play and lucrative monetization models often overshadowed studios’ artistic recognition.

The summer of 2024 marks a turning point in this journey. Within mere hours of its release "Black Myth: Wukong" boasted over 1.5 million concurrent players on Steam before reaching an astounding 2.1 million concurrent players just 11 hours post-launch. This phenomenal debut not only eclipsed the records of  gaming juggernauts like "Elden Ring" and "Cyberpunk 2077" but also secured "Black Myth: Wukong" the second-highest concurrent player count in Steam's history, trailing only behind "PUBG: Players Unknown Battlegrounds."

While many hot takes end there, local gamers are equally excited about what comes next from China’s gaming studios. "Delta Force: Hawk Ops," developed by Team Jade, has already garnered over 1 million wishlists on Steam, despite not having a set release date.

Released in early July, "Once Human," is a free-to-play post-apocalyptic survival game developed by Starry Studio, a NetEase subsidiary. The game quickly amassed over 230,000 concurrent players on Steam, with demand so high that players faced queues just to enter the game.

By mid-August , it had claimed the top spot in Steam's "Top Sellers" ranking. While critical reception has been mixed, with Metacritic reporting "mixed or average" reviews, IGN awarded the game a "great" rating of 8/10, highlighting its appeal to a broad audience.

The impact of these games extends beyond numbers. Steeped in various themes from Chinese mythology to modern warfare and post-apocalyptic survival, they represent a diverse showcase of China's game development capabilities. With its reported budget exceeding $50 million "Black Myth: Wukong" underscores China's commitment to competing at the highest levels of global game development.

The game's default Chinese language setting and its depiction of important cultural landmarks throughout China have ignited a sense of national pride, with state media heralding its success as "not only a victory for the gaming industry but also an important milestone in the overseas expansion of Chinese culture."  

Beyond the gaming sphere, collaborations with Luckin Coffee saw promotional posters flying off the proverbial shelves. The company's CEO quipped about underestimating the consumption power of gamers, a lighthearted nod to the game's broad appeal and cultural significance.

However, the road to creating these titles has not been without its obstacles. Chinese developers have faced skepticism, technical hurdles, and the challenge of appealing to diverse global tastes. The industry has also navigated complex regulatory waters, with concerns about gaming addiction leading to restrictions on young players. Moreover, the global release of these games has highlighted the delicate balance Chinese developers must strike between creative expression and adherence to domestic content guidelines.

As "Black Myth: Wukong," "Delta Force: Hawk Ops," and "Once Human" make their marks on the global stage, we see a shift. China's gaming industry, once perceived as a follower, now positions itself as an innovator and leader across multiple genres. The journey from mobile dominance to AAA and AA excellence has been long, but like Sun Wukong's pilgrimage, it has transformed the travelers.

As the gaming world turns its gaze eastward, captivated by tales of monkey kings, modern warfare, and post-apocalyptic survival, one thing becomes clear: the journey may be nearing its end, but the adventure is just beginning.

‍

SciBar, short for "Science in a Bar," merges academic discussions with a relaxed bar atmosphere. While the concept of SciBar originated and became popular overseas, it has recently taken off in Shanghai. It blends intellectual engagement with casual socializing, offering young professionals and academics stimulating social experiences. The city's high concentration of universities and young professionals makes it an ideal place for this type of event to thrive.

Why is SciBar Growing?

1. Intellectual Curiosity and Social Capital: These events provide an opportunity for urban professionals and intellectuals to engage with academic topics in a casual setting, allowing them to build social capital and demonstrate their knowledge.

2. Unique Social Experience: SciBars offer a novel way to socialize, combining learning with leisure. This appeals to those seeking more meaningful interactions beyond typical bar activities.

3. Cultural Sophistication: Participating in these events is seen as a marker of sophistication and cultural awareness, especially in cosmopolitan cities like Shanghai.

What Does It Mean for Brands?

Intellectual Positioning: Brands can align themselves with academic or literary themes to appeal to educated, culturally-aware consumers. This is evident in the strategies of brands like Aesop, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu, which are increasingly incorporating literary references into their marketing.

Targeted Marketing: SciBars and similar venues provide access to a specific demographic of educated, urban professionals that many brands seek to reach.

Experience-Based Marketing: Brands can create immersive experiences that blend education, culture, and consumption, appealing to consumers seeking unique and enriching experiences.

The rise of the SciBar and the broader trend of intellectualizing social spaces reflect a desire for more meaningful social interactions and a blurring of lines between education, entertainment, and consumption in urban Chinese culture. Brands should be cautious about authenticity when engaging with this trend, ensuring their involvement aligns with their core values and resonates genuinely with their target audience.

Following the trend of “citywalk”, there's a new buzzword surfacing on Chinese social media lately - “wildeat”. This trend embodies a longing for a more natural, minimalist, and outdoor-centric lifestyle among Chinese youth, intertwining elements of camping, picnicking, and social media sharing.

🐾 Some are drawn to it for the allure of experiencing the most primal and simplistic dining methods of early human ancestors, while others simplify the preparations for camping or picnics, opting for a more trendy interpretation. Either way, these young individuals are constantly seeking activities that offer them a sense of freedom and relaxation. 🍃 In addition to the ongoing fervor for outdoor activities, tourism across China was notably vibrant over the recent holiday period. Drawing from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s figures, the 5-day May Day holiday saw a total of 295 million domestic tourist trips, which is a 7.6% increase from the previous year. This represents a substantial 28.2% jump when measured against the same period in 2019.

Team trip to Hua Hin, December 2023

We spent time in Seoul this week for a fashion project. Between research and retail observations we held lots of pop-up analysis sessions in Seoul's many coffee shops and listening bars.

In popular style and culture areas like Seongsu-Dong we noticed evolving trends in vintage clothing selections and bakery themes, but the most acutely visible theme was the dialogue between brands' increasing urban media presence and the gentrification of traditional industrial areas.

As an example, a Burberry exhibition straddling several unused buildings and featuring the Norman's Café installation that has been heavily criticised in the UK for 'cosplaying the working class' sits literally a unit away from a metalsmith and repair shops. With this in mind, Burberry's approach does feel deliberately provocative; perhaps riffing on their own conflicted relationship with class (with questionable success). It feels markedly different from other forms of civic branding strategies we see from luxury brands.

Take Louis Vuitton, who are currently partnering with the newly opened Fotografiska in Shanghai. The strategy centres on an extension of their City Guide series and branding transportation like the Suzhou Creek boat stops. Like their events in other cities like Qingdao, the brand 's approach is more civic - choosing to celebrate the places that can bring inhabitants of cities together across a range of cultural destinations, rather than further expose the economic and identity fault lines that divide them.

‍

‍

‍

The film 'In Her Time' by Diane Severin Nguyen posits practice as performance. The artist / actress skips through personal memory and collective history, with rehearsal as a means to confront trauma and the re-enactment of pain an end to expression. The narrative relays a struggle and ultimately a convergence between the private world of her nostalgically lit and soundtracked bedroom and the production of her character in a war movie filmed at Hengdian Film and Television City. Themes of historical narratives, violence, and desire are explored in the repetitive loops of her spoken lines and circular experiences.

‍

‍

“An arcade is a city, a world in miniature.”

Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project

‍

‍

Four advertisements from the early 20th century, Paris. Especially noticeable are the cartooned figures of military prowess, choices of maroon, grey, and off-white, array of carefully picked, carefully set fonts, and classical figures representing war and peace in the backdrop - visual codes that are foreign yet refreshing to the Chinese eye. A portrait of the city's morale and eco-political mental space in between the two world wars - the liminal space of peace, powered by intellectual, artistic engines of development and modernization. Snapped from the two-floored exhibition of Paris Modern: 1915-1945 (Power Station), an exhibit that invites viewers to compare modern Paris with 20th century Shanghai while reflecting on modernistic diversity, how "humanities and the arts" contribute "to a city's historical transformation."

‍

‍

Fishermen on Suzhou Creek. In summers past, children would try to grab a watermelon from the barges bringing produce, according to local residents.

'Traveling in the Dark', an art project conceived by film director, poet, writer, anthropologist, sound composer, literary and art theoretician, Trinh T Minh-ha, specifically designed for Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. It is a visual, sonic, poetic and philosophical experience that explores themes around “reality”, re-representation, and knowledge production. Excerpts from her writings were "exhibited", complementing her experimental film essays shown in makeshift dark rooms. "The unknown, like the fantastic, is never merely out there," she writes. In what way can the dark open up spaces of unsuspected visibilities, of active resistance and of solitary connivances? "It is always already here, there, where one neglects to look with eyes wide shut."

‍

New Man 新人 by 商亮 at Made In Gallery. These large-scale paintings recall the super strength mode of an Anime transformation sequence and for me raise comparisons about current online discourse about hyper masculinity and identity.

At Ed Atkins's exhibition 'Refuse' at Tank Shanghai, a computer simulated and animated "list" or iteration of wastes (like broken furniture, dead fish and shredded paper) falls through forms a heap of rubbish. In an interview, the artist says while the emphasis is the list itself, the intention is also to create "a play of unwanted things returning".

"It is of ultimate importance today to ask how modernity can be overcome from a non-European perspective. One such possibility can be found in reflecting on the varieties of aesthetic and technological experience in order to rearticulate a program after the postmodern"

‍