SummerWelcoming

There is a Chinese saying that Autumn is a season of events, but we can say the same for this year’s Spring and Summer.

For our current issue we collected stories between April - June and we guarantee you're in for an eventful ride, learning about the weird and the wonderful things in this part of the world - from strip dancing at funerals to the most bizarre-looking peeping Tom.

In popular culture, we see an overwhelming release of love-related music and film, as well as an app called Tan Tan, a Chinese Tinder clone. In the last section of the issue, Voices, we asked a local person to share with us his experience with the app - mainly because we're curious about how and why he uses it.

Our feature designers for this issue is a husband and wife creative duo from Thailand and Indone-sia – Wat & Vine. Inspired by the theme of eventful chaos, Wat & Vine used the collage technique to create a dramatic and playful visual composition that captures the essence of the story.

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SNAPSHOT

Amy Feng, also known as the Chinese Lady Gaga, showed up at Shenzhen Fashion Week one night and wow-edeveryone, including the internet and global media.

A little background check revealed Amy as the owner of a multibillion dollar clothing chain company in China, and with that, the internet gave her the nickname "billionaire skinhead sister".

She has appeared a couple of times more after the fashion week, each time revealing more and more of her body, including those large hanging breasts. But hey, we're not here to judge, we're actually still quite shocked, and confused, about her fashion sense...

LADY GAGA

CONFUSED

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A moving and relocation company based in

Nanjing city made headlines online when

they went on the streets to look for workers

that have the criteria below:

• Men who constantly court women

• Supervisors who have been in

gang fights

• Drivers who ran the red light

The company later explained that people

who are good at courting women are great

talkers, people who have been in gang

fights have organizational skills and those

who ran red lights must have already

learned their lessons.

People were confused with these require-

ments but the manager thought this was an

interesting and attractive way to attract new

talents.

STREETSKILLSVALUED

05

Putting on a show at funerals is nothing new in Chinese culture.

During Ghost Festival, where the spirits of the dead roam the land of the living, operas are performed to appease the wandering spirits.

But recently, towns and villages across China picked up a trend of hiring strippers for funerals which at first may seem completely inappropriate but if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. The strippers were hired to wish the deceased a healthy sex life in the afterlife, it also distracts the audience from a moment of grief.

Isn't that genius? Unfortunately the government finds it offensive and have since been cracking down on funeral strippers and asking them to pay fine.

FUNERALSTURN

EROTIC

06

A possessive Chinese boyfriend went an extra mile to overfeed his girlfriend so that she doesnt leave him for other potential suitors.

When the man achieved the aim of fattening her lover, he later proposed to her.

You Pan, 25, and Yan Tai, 20, began dating two years ago. Since then, apart from heavy breakfast, lunch and dinner, You Pan used to offer her snacks at short intervals. He would even wake her up in the middle of the night to give her snacks.

When Yan Tai reached double her normal weight, Pan proposed with a bouquet made of chocolates in front of a strip of their favorite restaurants.

Pan intends to keep feeding his now fiance as long as she’s happy.

JEALOUS GUYMAKES GIRLFRIEND

BINGE-EATSO SHE WON’T

ATTRACTOTHERMEN

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DETECTIVECONAN

TEACHES CHEMISTRY

A Chemistry Professor from Central South University decides he has had enough of students not showing

up to his class.

Borrowing from the Japanese anime "Detective Conan" (which is inspired by Conan Doyle's Sherlock

Holmes), Professor Xu combines the plot of the stories with the teaching of Chemistry.

How it is being taught is unknown but what we're sure of is that the class is now fully booked and students

show up as early as 6am to occupy seats for an 8am course!

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Zhang was recently arrested in Shandong province when the police started getting reports about a suspicious woman with extremely large breasts hanging about in a public bathroom.

Zhang confessed that he dressed up as a woman so he could spy on other women using bathrooms, a hobby he so enjoys.

After making headlines, the internet started publishing images of Zhang in different outfits, which Zhang has admitted this isn’t his first time poking his head in women’s bathrooms.

Thanks to the internet, Zhang officially received thenickname “Shandong huge breasts”.

THE UNSUSPICIOUSPEEPING TOM

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Forget private after-school tutoring, everyone’s taking their children on a “wealth education” tour.

The tour takes families into luxury villas worth 4 million RMB each and lets you imagine, for a moment, that this could be yours… if you work hard enough for it.

Parents who took their children on the tour hope that it could inspire their children to understand what life could be like if they become rich and successful in the future. There is nothing wrong to be ambitious, at all.

WELCOME TOCHINA’SWEALTH

EDUCATION

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DUANG“Duang” is a new phonetic term that became viral almost instantly in early April. It started exploding in popularity across Weibo (Chinese Twitter) receiving over 8million mentions in the first month.

“Duang” first appeared in Jackie Chan’s 2004 advertise-ment for a local shampoo brand Ba Wang to describe the elasticity of his hair after using the shampoo, "...after filming, visual effects are added, the hair – duang! – becomes black, very shiny and very smooth.”

Early this year a parody of the advertisement turned it into a rap song with more interjections of Duang and Jackie talking about the shampoo being filled with chemical toxic.

The word is so new that there is no written character for it, so online users invented the word combining Jackie Chan’s Chinese characters stacked on top of each other to form the word Duang.

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series

The “Tea Bitch” series first began in 2013 with the internet slang “Green Teach Bitch” when a large group of female models and actresses were revealed to be paid escorts for the rich and powerful during China’s annual Luxury Expo. The term is used to describe women who appear as pure and innocent but in reality are ambitious gold-diggers who’d do anything to climb the social ladder.

The term then gave birth to a whole series of tea-inspired internet slangs that, unfortunately stereotype and, in one way or the other, degrade the different type of ‘ambitious’ women in China.

Milk Tea BitchIs the kind of woman who talks ina girlish voice and has extremelysweet looks. She is always kind to everyone around her, but only to attract men who will give her presents that she will kindly accept.

BlackTea BitchIs a promiscuous girl who smokes,drinks, and likes to apply dark eyeliner while wearing low-cut clothes, and aren’t shy to reveal cleavage.

Co�ee BitchHigh-end office ladies who constantly mix English with Chinese, dress according to the latest fashion craze and love to take pictures of them-selves in fancy restaurants or on sunny beaches.

�e Tea Bitch

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Wang Leehom’s Chinese-American singer-songwriter,

motto is “Let’s bring Chinese music and pop culture to the

world”.

Your Love is his fifteenth Mandarin-language album with

thirteen tracks that seamlessly move from classically-

influenced pop ballads like “Heaven and Earth Over-

rturned” to EDM infused songs like his Avicii collaboration

“Lose Myself.” The album’s concept is around, as seen on

his album, “Returning to the origin of love, love what is

lost, and find the courage to love back

”Besides his latest album, expect to see him in the recently

released Hollywood cybercrime film, Blackhat.

WANG LEEHOMYOUR LOVE

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MUSIC

SHINI ALREADY BELIEVED IN IT

Shin had been singing in pubs for around 10 years before becoming a singer. He is noted for his widevocal range and extremely powerful voice which is lacking in Mandopop. Shin is also known for hispowerful screams in most of his rock-inspired music.

His latest album, I Already Believed in it, is a messageto his fans about his philosophy of “Stay weird, staydifferent” – staying true to your own belief without being afraid of being different from the rest.

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MUSIC

The Sun Seems to be RoundWan Xiaoli :

Wan Xiaoli is a folk-rock singer, guitarist, and harmonica player.

His latest album takes on the tone of a child talking to his/her own parent, as you can sense through the title of his latest album.

One of his tracks The End of Summer is 9 minutes long and can be treated as a musical version of a short essay.

If you’re in the mood for some introspection - this is the album for you.

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MUSIC

THE LEFT EAR* spoiler alert

Directed by Alec Su, The Left Ear is a coming of agefilm based on a novel of the same name, and also Su’sdirectorial debut.

The story evolves around Li Er who is 17 years old has difficulty hearing out of her left ear. She gets rejected after confessing her love to a boy, Xu Ge. Instead the boy is in love with Li Bala, a girl who is in fact in love with Zhang Yang. Li Er befriends Li Bala, who dies in an accident.

Throughout the movie, Li Er overcomes her anger towards Zhang Yang, whom she blamed for Li Bala's death.

Reminiscing your high school years? Then this is the onefor you.

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MOVIE

Sylvia Chang, Taiwan-born, Hong Kong-based actress-turned-filmmaker returns with a poignant film about family roots and lost dreams.

The film dwells on its 30-something protagonists as they shift between their mundane lives and their imagined reunions with family members. The film reveals its emotional core when a mother tells her two children a bedtime story abouta mermaid breaking free to see the world.

Well paced throughout the journey of memories andfantasies, the film is light on plot but heavy in emotions.

You might need to be in a certain food for this film.

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MOVIE

CRUEL ROMANCECruel Romance is a 40 episode that is every girl’s fantasy of being in the center of attention between a triad leader, a businessman and a villain.

The series tells the story of Rong Jinxiu, a country girl who travels to Shanghai find out why her entire family was killed. Along the way she meets triad leader Zuo Zhen who is protective of his women. Through a series of accidents and misunderstandings, Rong encounters Xiang Yingdong, a businessman and close friend of Zuo, as well as a Japa-nese villain who tries to finish off Rong and her remaining family.

Ladies, try to control yourself from binge-watching.

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TV-SERIES

WE ARE IN LOVEWe Are In Love is a Chinese adaptation of a Korean reality series. A lot of the ‘Korean-ness’ remains in this version as it is a collaboration between Korea and China, bringing us a multi-national casts from Korea, Mainland

China and Taiwan.

Six single celebrities get paired into three pairs, trying to make it ‘work’ as married couples. A notable pair would be internationally renowned

supermodel Liu Wen and her Korean counterpart Choi Siwon.

If you like contrived drama, while rooting for an off-screen romance, you might just want to give this one a try.

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TV-SHOW

Chinese TinderTAN TAN

After recently raising over 5million USD in Series A funding, it seems the gamification of online dating is officially here in China.

As a literal clone of Tinder, Tan Tan is easy to use and has a good number of active users.

Expect lots of young individuals looking to date, lots of foreigners looking for some fun, and a few married people looking for…

Well, why don’t you swipe right to find out?

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APP

We interviewed Wu De Li, an avid Tan Tan user,about his experience with the app,and here’s what he has to say :

WHY DO USE TAN TAN?To meet new people, because I'm shy and it's hard for me to meet new people in public.

HOW DO USE TAN TAN?To get to know new people, it's convenient for me, because I work a lot and I don't need to go outside to look for new friendship.

HOW MANY SUCCESSFUL MATCHES TO DATE?20 matches up till now.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU SWIPE ON AVERAGE?Around a thousand times!

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO HAPPEN FROM HERE?New friendship, girlfriend and see what the future holds.

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EDITED BY:Charinee Chairasmisak

WRITTEN BY:Kate lu + Carina Huan

DESIGNED BY:Wat + Vine