I’m so excited to share with you my first Op-Ed for
@thewirechina
titled “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲”.
In the piece, I discussed
@GGVCapital
and
#hillhouse
and how they go about this. In a nutshell, the funds are pursuing
NYT’s piece on why Chinese woman don’t want to have more children missed the mark: it only focuses on the wishes and wants of the women interviewed, but the reality is that raising children in China is so much more than just financial resources and career aspirations—it’s
EVs are having a moment in China.
I was recently in Shanghai and attended a Nio In event, and here are my thoughts about the EV industry, Chinese EV consumption trends, Nio’s ambition and challenges ahead, and more.
Baidu’s PR department needs some crisis management right about now.
Qu Jing, Baidu’s VP of PR, made controversial and out-of-touch remarks, sparking a public outcry in China. Her insensitive comments included disregard for employees’ family circumstances and threats of
Loved the latest
@PivotPod
, where
@karaswisher
and
@SavannahGuthrie
went deep on the art of the interview. As a reformed PR person and now analyze comms as a writer, these are the golden nuggets
☑️Fairness, precision, accuracy, preparation, and sincerity are key.
@TheresaAFallon
ugh so we are blaming the lack of social and mental health services, the decay of civic values and egregious societal wealth disparities which have all contributed to the drug epidemic in the US … on China now too? K
Excited to share my latest op-ed for
@thechinaproj
about TikTok and its many challenges in the US. Despite TikTok's efforts to become more "American," it faces an uncertain future as it tries to balance Chinese and American interests. A Thread. 1)
A deep dive into TikTok's organizational culture and its relationship with Bytedance. The article in a nutshell: the reliance on ByteDance executives for key business decisions suggests that TikTok is more Chinese at its core. Ultimately, it's about who's calling the shots, and
Ahead of a potential TikTok ban, we spoke to over a dozen current employees to reveal what it's really like working there. Yes, it's more Chinese than you think, and it's less about politics and more about profit. My latest with
@violazhouyi
:
Chinese companies have decided that the best place to make money right now is outside of China.
The phenomenon known as chu hai (出海), which translates to “go global,” has taken hold, marking a kind of second ‘go out’ initiative.
In the latest
@thewirechina
piece, I shared
@KiwiPMI
LA and New York the same. But the intensity of competition differs. In China, grades are the definitive standard, there is nothing else without it. Parents’ sense of pride and achievement also tied closely to grades outcome. In the US and Canada, I feel like we can always say
Good morning😋hot dry noodles + 面窝scallion savory donut. Typical Wuhan carb bomb breakfast. 过早,live the morning. Guys this account is about to become a China food account be warned.
@CaiweiC
This kinda move falls into the narrative that "TikTok" could be mobilized a a political force that could undermine American democracy"? 如果政客们的电话被打爆了,那不就板上钉钉了?
”Seventy-six percent of Americans under 40 years old would consider purchasing a Chinese brand vehicle, according to a new report from research firm AutoPacific that surveyed 800 U.S. respondents. Conversely, Just 26% of Americans over the age of 60 would consider buying a
All of Alibaba's planned IPOs have been shelved.
Alibaba announced today that the $1 billion-plus IPO for its Cainiao logistics arm in Hong Kong has been canceled. This is the second time Alibaba has nixed a high-profile debut for one of its main businesses, casting doubts over
I feel bad for Jesse Einsberg’s PR person who now has to figure out US China geopolitics messaging. One photo and a comment just ended the possibility to go big in China.
This only has happened because CCP is desperate
Tesla has made it onto the procurement list of Jiangsu provincial govt. This only happened after foreign investment into China has fallen for 12 months straight.
This is not CCP has a change of heart. It’s a tactical move trying
@HeYiyong
Yes, very educated and savvy customers. An army of gadget/EV/car influencers are constantly adding to the knowledge base. And Chinese customers want it all—price advantage, premium perks , sleek designs, and energy efficiency.
I don't think our views are too diff: Taiwanese and Chinese foods are not mutually exclusive and can simultaneously exist in regional food cultures everywhere. You are the expert, & I'm just someone who will enjoy a good bowl of 牛肉面 regardless of whether it came from TW or not
Hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever done is raising children. The feeling of uncertainty (“am I doing this right or are they going to need therapy for life?”)and constant juggle of priorities. But as the saying goes, the days are long but the years are short. My kids are my
It’s really sad how many people without kids I meet who have heard that having a baby is absolutely gruelling, endless, exhausting work. Sure, it’s a challenge and a change of pace, but it’s nowhere near as bad as is often suggested. We’ve got to stop being so down on parenthood!
Meituan, Alibaba and JD are powered by migrant workers. I can feel the palpable stress that many of these riders are under when they hand me my morning coffee and e-commerce shopping sprees during busy prime hours. They almost always sprint back to their scooter bikes or let out
Migrant workers are the “beating heart” of modern China.
A billion souls that submitted to a lifetime of hard work so their children/grandchildren could live a different kind of life.
This video captures the pinnacle/essence and emotional manifestation of these hopes & dreams.
TikTok calling on its users to pressure lawmakers is playing into the narrative that the app could be used to mobilize a political force that undermines US national security.
@theinformation
reported that “TikTok’s public relations team distributed to journalists a list of more
As
@shoptemu
rapidly expands in Europe and America, it is doing a PR revamp and shedding its PDD label in its external comms. Temu's official website has recently updated its "About Us" section and no parent company PDD connection: (). 1/5
@xeno_swift
@DanielDumbrill
Stems from insecurity about their own identity. Most likely either grew up in super Asian neighborhood where they feel less savvy than “fobby” kids who had no issue embracing their Asian identity, or in extremely white neighborhoods they needed to reject asia was &overcompensate
In my latest op-ed for
@thechinaproj
, I analyzed Alibaba's recent earnings. Alibaba's restructuring signals a shift toward financial optimization. Question remains: can it restore investor confidence & appease government regulators? Balancing act begins. 1/5
In its first earnings call following a restructuring prompted by regulatory pressures and investor expectations, Alibaba is signaling a shift toward financial optimization. But can it restore investor confidence and keep the government happy?
#alibaba
Sad and infuriated that a governor of a state feels that the current sentiment of the country and endless China bashing afford him the right to essentially call to question a Chinese reporter’s allegiance and loyalty. This is McCarthyism in 2023.
Being a reporter, I never wanted to make myself the story. But this time, I thought there’s more at stake than myself. I think about the community I represent, and who might find the governor’s comment hurtful. A thread:
Was with a former bytedance employee last night when the news broke. She found the news unsurprising at all. She said: “The over-hiring to quickly ramp up expansion effort, then correction through firing when things don’t go as plan has always been the bytedance way.”
SCOOP: TikTok is planning major layoffs this week on its user operations, content and marketing teams. It comes as TikTok is facing heightened scrutiny + the threat of a US ban or forced sale
@evgrieve
@Joy_of_photos
End of an era. For old NYU grads, Starbucks on Astor place and the Kmart by it felt like forever places. St. Marks is also not what it used to be. 🥹
Singapore is the word of the week. For my newest FT Chinese column, I analyzed two questions:
❓ Why are Chinese investors and netizens mad about Chinese entrepreneurs and investors becoming Singaporean citizens?
❓ From a business perspective, what are some of Singapore's
Hanging out in Wuhan’s Jianghan Road district. I’ve never seen so many young cosplayers and it’s just another Saturday, no special cos event. Hanfu/Qipao/student uniforms are out (that was the trend last year I saw) cosplay is in. On the second floor of a centrally located mall,
You know it’s summer in Wuhan when you see it: video exhibit 1. Grilled Chinese eel and frog legs are 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼. Wuhan fries with peppercorn and scallion are the superior fries imo. This Dai Pai Dong BBQ place is pretty epic.
Having the best convo with my millennial taxi driver who was a Douyin seller two yrs ago. A few reasons he left the platform: crazy return rates leading to low margins; high turnover of product, need a “hit” product every couple of days (clothing category) and…
“In Chinese culture, the concept of "face" is the water on which most social interactions- especially those between men--float. Amorphous as it can be, "face" roughly equates to one's public status, the amount of deference others treat you with. It can be "given" through public
Some 此地无银三百两flex from KraneShares on $BABA titled "Alibaba's Restructuring & How it Benefits Shareholders" sent out 48 hrs before earnings. My favorite is the comparison of BABA split to the founding of America/13 colonies. Whoever came up with it deserves a fat bonus.
Had so much fun co-write with
@yaling_jiang
on the latest issue of Following the Yuan. We dived into the political imperative of TikTok-bashing, analyzed a recent academic report from
@IGPAlert
on TikTok's national security challenges, and "girlspained" about
@SenRubioPress
Can't agree more with
@CaiweiC
's point. RED xiaohongshu has evolved into a search engine, webMD, parenting forum/blog, product search, youtube (LOVE watching show recaps on it), and so much more. It's the app I spend the most time on.
To me personally, the vitality of Xiaohongshu communities has little to do with the type of "lifestyle influencing" content it's known for... XHS has evolved into an everything app, a new venue for micro-blogging after Weibo censored itself to death.
In my recent
@ftchina
column, I wrote about
@AlibabaGroup
's recent restructuring. The hope is that decentralization will address long-standing issues, such as operational complexity and inefficiency. I analyzed how it will compete against SHEIN and Temu in overseas markets.
Also, this kind of fake news, which got 1.8m impressions, that reached far and wide and formed false and negative impression, would probably also have gotten you some "tea time."
I mean, he’s probably doing it for the lolz and the ad revenue share but publications and journalists who amplify his embarrassingly bad BS takes should really have a better fact checking process
Reading
@theinformation
's excellent reporting on the internal corporate politics between Shouzi Chew and V Pappas. 1 thing stood out: the inevitable overlapping of resources, reporting lines, & responsibilities because Bytedance is all in on e-commerce, Douyin and Tiktok alike
The touchy subject of real estate prices in China: I’ve noticed that instead of talking about how much prices have risen as it’s the case in pre-Covid years, the new bragging right is how stable one’s apartment value has maintained compared to price drops across other districts/
Interestingly, new exec will be reporting to Bytedance e-commerce chief, not Shouzi Chew. TikTok is in the thick of the cycle: hire American execs from big Corp, struggle with culture fit, then some version of amicable conscious decoupling and big payout day🤷♂️🤷♀️.
Exclusive: TikTok has hired two retail veterans who worked at Amazon and Meta Platforms to oversee ambitious ecommerce push.
Current U.S. ecommerce general manager, Sandie Hawkins, is leaving the company.
By
@erinkwoo
@BoredElonMusk
@sama
Does is really though? Apologizes but also says he wasn’t aware? Is the backlash really about equity or more culture/management? Why does the team need a month or so, and how long would it have taken without the bad PR?
@MoatlessCapital
@liqian_ren
@KaiserKuo
Posting a Wechat apology is precisely how Baidu attempts to separate itself from this incident. The apology tries to convey that it was a rogue move from an individual who acted on her own behalf. It has to be a personal apology because it was her personal decision to make these
🚀 Alibaba's latest earnings call in a nutshell: nothing new, more buybacks.
I'm most interested in the international business, Alibaba International Commerce Group (AIDC). Some quick stats:
📈 AIDC's revenue: 44% YoY growth
📦 Orders: 24% increase
🛍️ International Commerce:
“How should American policy approach a future in which more technology inventions are likely to come from China?” that is the ultimate question. & thank you
@ShiraOvide
for the mention. <3
Temu is going to the Super Bowl again. Wonder what the slogan will be this year. Here's the Op-Ed I wrote last year on Temu's splurge for
@FTChinese
and translated for
@ZichenWanghere
's Pekingnology
Aggressive poaching, reckless hiring, overworking employees, opaque pricing at the expense of suppliers--all to power the unsustainable pace of growth. A great piece that captures almost ALL the tricks in the Chinese playbooks aired out like dirty laundry for the world to see.
Shein and Temu have slapped lawsuits on each other in U.S. courts. They are fighting for suppliers and workers and are demanding long hours in China. My latest on their rivalry - via
@WSJ
Literally had a Chinese investor/entrepreneur inquire about my PR service and be like: "Can you set up meetings with TJMaxx executives and beverage companies CEOs because I want to learn about their trade secrets (*and possibly acquire them). Me: 🙃I can't... and will not.
I hate that PR pros are depicted in movies almost exclusively as ditzy and privileged young women who don’t take work seriously.
PR =
Grueling hours. Non-stop attention to the news cycle. Competing for the attention of a shrinking pool of reporters.
PR is hard.
Tencent’s “top American” leaves. When the job title is “Chief Exploration Officer” and Chinese tech companies are cutting excess all around, this comes as no surprise. But the job “to bridge the cultural and language gap” is more important than ever, though often overlooked.
I’ve been mostly using Amap instead of Didi on this China trip because to me it’s a Google map+ Uber all in one app and I didn’t brother sorting out my Didi account. It’s been really easy and fast to call rides in Wuhan and Beijing. Last night, however, it took a good 20 min to
China observation: people young and old are into fishing now. Saw it by Liangmahe when I was in Beijing and now in Wuhan on a Tuesday afternoon by a random lake in Wuchang.
"China" was mentioned 7 times on Meta's Q3 2023 earnings call, all related to Chinese companies' increasing ad spend on $Meta to reach customers overseas
The best way to track China's economy might end up being through a company it banned
Irony is rich
The fact that 烧饼油条牛肉面 did not originate from TW takes nothing away from the authenticity that is Taiwanese cuisine. 台湾牛肉面is its own unique dish, but to categorically say that 牛肉面 and 烧饼 are Taiwanese without qualifying them as the TW versions are pushing it.
However, according to , the April 1st version of the page still mentioned PDD Holdings Inc. as Temu's parent company, which operates Pinduoduo in China. Meanwhile, Pinduoduo Holdings has also removed content related to Temu from its "About Us" section. 4/5