Latest news with #Guochao
Cision Canada
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Cision Canada
CGTN "The Pulse of Modernization": Behind the Surge of Innovation in China
BEIJING, June 12, 2025 /CNW/ -- A CGTN documentary exploring stories of innovation across China, "The Pulse of Modernization" is a collection of stories that showcase how both individuals and companies across China are working hard to realize their visions of a brighter future. Every year, icy air currents from Siberia sweep southward, turning Northeast China into a winter wonderland. In the past, these harsh winters were obstacles to development, but today they fuel China's ice and snow economy. The Harbin Ice and Snow World is now a global attraction. Host "Brother Left and Right" cheers on crowds of partygoers reveling between giant ice sculptors. Local ice sculptor Mr. Yueba has begun making smaller ice sculptures that allow visitors to touch and even wear icy artworks. Retired ice hockey player Du Bingyang teaches local kids in Harbin his secrets to success. The Marvel Ski Club has brought Guochao or Chinese-chic to the ski slopes of Northeast China. This unique trend has recently attracted vast crowds of skiers and snowboarders to flock to local ski resorts dressed as their favorite characters from stories like Journey to the West. And in the world of manufacturing, the skis and snowboards hitting these slopes are now increasingly being made by local companies. Their teams are working tirelessly to experiment with both revolutionary materials and design, and hope to take the industry to new heights. And perhaps the most exciting recent development has been the stellar growth of China's low-altitude economy. Down in Shenzhen, Damoda is one of its brightest names. Breaking Guinness World Records with ever-larger drone formations, Damoda continues to set global standards for drone shows both in terms of size and quality. Last but certainly not least, the incredible "Land Aircraft Carrier" Modular Flying Car is vehicle that will make you feel like you have stepped inside a science fiction novel. It is a bold attempt to make flying freer, and looks set to change the way we commute and spend our free time in the near future. The Pulse of Modernization is a search for the spirit of China's modernization, a journey into the heart of a nation turning dreams of the future into a reality.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
CGTN "The Pulse of Modernization": Behind the Surge of Innovation in China
BEIJING, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A CGTN documentary exploring stories of innovation across China, "The Pulse of Modernization" is a collection of stories that showcase how both individuals and companies across China are working hard to realize their visions of a brighter future. Every year, icy air currents from Siberia sweep southward, turning Northeast China into a winter wonderland. In the past, these harsh winters were obstacles to development, but today they fuel China's ice and snow economy. The Harbin Ice and Snow World is now a global attraction. Host "Brother Left and Right" cheers on crowds of partygoers reveling between giant ice sculptors. Local ice sculptor Mr. Yueba has begun making smaller ice sculptures that allow visitors to touch and even wear icy artworks. Retired ice hockey player Du Bingyang teaches local kids in Harbin his secrets to success. The Marvel Ski Club has brought Guochao or Chinese-chic to the ski slopes of Northeast China. This unique trend has recently attracted vast crowds of skiers and snowboarders to flock to local ski resorts dressed as their favorite characters from stories like Journey to the West. And in the world of manufacturing, the skis and snowboards hitting these slopes are now increasingly being made by local companies. Their teams are working tirelessly to experiment with both revolutionary materials and design, and hope to take the industry to new heights. And perhaps the most exciting recent development has been the stellar growth of China's low-altitude economy. Down in Shenzhen, Damoda is one of its brightest names. Breaking Guinness World Records with ever-larger drone formations, Damoda continues to set global standards for drone shows both in terms of size and quality. Last but certainly not least, the incredible "Land Aircraft Carrier" Modular Flying Car is vehicle that will make you feel like you have stepped inside a science fiction novel. It is a bold attempt to make flying freer, and looks set to change the way we commute and spend our free time in the near future. The Pulse of Modernization is a search for the spirit of China's modernization, a journey into the heart of a nation turning dreams of the future into a reality. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE CGTN Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Times
China's fashion revolution: the rise of luxury clothing in the east
Guochao is probably not a word that trips off your tongue. It translates, roughly, as 'China chic' and is a growing trend in a country whose increasing economic growth can make or break brands from around the world. The speed of its growth is making international luxury brands if not worried, then alert. Much has been made of the slowing of the Chinese economy. But the acceleration of a sense of cultural potency, and of guochao, is also important — especially when Chinese luxury consumption is estimated to account for 35 to 40 per cent of the global spend by 2030. As Jing Zhang, of the Asian luxury consultant Atlas Altar, observes: 'Western luxury is having to engage with Chinese culture on a deeper level to create an emotional connection with their consumers. It's not enough to throw a dragon onto something any more.' Yet what remains striking, when I talk to Chinese luxury customers, is the degree to which their sartorial mainstays, the brands with which they fill their wardrobes, are still largely western. Take the two tweed-and-chain-clad women I chatted to at Chanel's recent show in Hangzhou, a city that's a locus for China-centred businesses such as Alibaba. They told me of lives, and wardrobes, that slalomed from London to Houston, Paris to Rome, as well as the primary cities across their homeland. It was tiring — fabulously tiring, admittedly — just hearing about their hardcore travel and shopping schedules, both of which seemed to encompass an awful lot of Chanel. They were a self-selecting pair, of course, given they were at the brand's Métiers d'Art show in the first place. But their international outlook, and wardrobe, is echoed by other wealthy Chinese I meet. That the French house chose Hangzhou in the first place is symptomatic of the balancing act that western luxury brands must now engage in. The same went for the collection itself, a beauteous riff combining the Rue Cambon and all things Chinese, from bird and blossom-strewn tweeds to fan-pleated silks. 'Imagination is part of creativity,' said Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel's president of fashion. 'We use imagination to keep a connection with our friends in China, at a time when business [there] is a bit more difficult.' The show served as a reminder that Chinese artisanship was once seen as the quintessence of luxury. Even the specific location was significant: Hangzhou's West Lake is depicted on one of the 19th-century lacquered Coromandel screens Coco Chanel collected. When luxury brands started to emerge in contemporary China in the 1990s they were all western. Luxury and westernness therefore became synonymous — as did modernity, even when it was the history of brands such as Hermès that was a key part of their appeal. China's illustrious artisanal traditions had been erased in previous decades. The country had lost its past. And it was by way of another culture's past that it felt best able to imagine — and to dress — its future. As Zhang, who is British-Chinese and has worked on and off in China for years, explains: 'There was this idea that European history and artisanship was acceptable, and that ours wasn't. Or that we didn't even have any. People thought it was passé to reference Chinese heritage in fashion. They just wanted to be modern. It's totally different now. Luxury customers are embracing their own sartorial heritage.' Zhang sees a split between those in their fifties and above, who 'are influenced by the kind of luxury worship that shaped China in the 1990s', and those who are younger by a couple of decades or more. The wealthy Gen Z women she knows in Shanghai still love their Dior, their Balenciaga, their Loewe, but will mix them up with the tough-edged sexiness of Mark Gong, the luxe streetwear of Feng Chen Wang and the quirky hyperfemininity of Shushu Tong. Another trio of Chinese brands — Ms Min, Uma Wang and Icicle — are hooking older customers as well as younger ones with their gorgeous and occasionally explicitly Chinese-inflected modernism. • I'm a fashion editor. This is Asia's best city for shopping Just as the international houses are having to learn to dance to a slightly different rhythm, so homegrown luxury brands are navigating a market that is split between those who are ready for what they are producing, and those who aren't quite … yet. 'We are just so used to looking to the west,' says Bertrand Mak, whose Hong Kong-based operation Sauvereign produces precious-looking shoes and bags. 'When some Chinese customers find out where we are from they are immediately intrigued, but for others there is a fear of the unknown.' What makes him cautiously optimistic, he continues, is that 'this is a time when people are seeking out differentiation. That, for us, is the crack that lets the light in.'
