In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of March 8-12:

Jia Zhangke

Jing Daily Exclusive Interview With Filmmaker Jia Zhangke (Part 1)

Last week, the Jing Daily team had the opportunity to interview Jia Zhangke (Platform, Still Life, 24 City), one of China’s top contemporary filmmakers, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York during its retrospective of Jia’s work. (The event continues through March 20.) Conducted in Mandarin, our 30-minute interview covered a range of important topics in the world of Chinese cinema, and shed light on Jia Zhangke’s opinions about everything from the current state of the official Chinese film system to the importance of nurturing young talent to the key developments in today’s China that inspire him as a filmmaker.

In Part One of our two-part interview, Jia discusses the key developments in film production in China, his personal experiences as a young director in Beijing in the mid-’90s and support of young directors there today, and the difference between being an “underground” director and one who operates within China’s state film system.

Paley

Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey, Richard MacManus Hold Historic Conversation In New York

Last night, the Paley Center for Media in New York City held a historic conversation between the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Twitterco-founder Jack Dorsey, andRichard MacManus, founder and editor in chief of the influential technology blog ReadWriteWeb. The Jing Daily team attended the sold-out event, live-tweeting the entirety of the discussion (viewable at@JingDaily) along with a number of other attendees and participants around the world. Fitting with the night’s theme of the growing ubiquity of social media, tweets about the event — comments, observations and questions for participants — were displayed real-time on a large screen behind the stage.

The conversation between Ai, Dorsey and MacManus, moderated by journalist and author Emily Parker, the Arthur Ross Fellow at the Asia Society’s Center on US-China Relations, touched on many subjects that are of critical importance not only in China or the US but around the world, from the development of “read/write” social media tools like Twitter and Facebook (as well as their domestic counterparts or clones in China) to the role of social media in increasing political transparency and seamlessly connecting individuals from around the world.

Luxury Brands

Luxury Brands Fail Chinese Quality Control Tests: What Fallout Could We See?

As Jing Daily and others often note, one of the greatest strengths that major imported luxury brands have over their domestic or domestically produced counterparts is a perception of superior quality among Chinese consumers. This week, some of the world’s top luxury brands are undoubtedly in damage control mode in China, following the release of a study that indicates the majority of garment samples tested from brands like Hermes, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana failed to meet quality control standards. These samples, which consisted of “a range of attire,” according to China Daily, included t-shirts, sweaters, suits and skirts from a number of department stores and boutiques in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Taizhou.

Bund Museum

One Of China’s First Museums To Reopen With Cai Guo-Qiang Exhibition

Although Beijing gets most of the attention, with most of China’s blue-chip contemporary artists and the country’s top museums, as well as some of the most well-known arts districts (798, Caochangdi) based there, year by year Shanghai is shaking off its reputation as a business — rather than a cultural — center.

Capitalizing on its Jazz Age distinction as the “Paris of the East,” Shanghai’s creative community has made the city a vibrant destination for artists and art lovers alike in recent years. Though Beijing may have the top arts institutions, Shanghai has a more youthful energy (spotlighted on sites like NeoCha and its English-language counterpart NeoCha EDGE) that lends itself well to experimental art and unorthodox venues.

Chongqing

White Collar Workers Mad For Luxury; But Will They Squeeze LV, Gucci Out Of Top-Tier Markets?

A new survey on MSN’s China portal (Chinese), conducted in cooperation with the Chinese online research and consulting firm iResearch, has found that a growing number of white collar workers in top-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou regularly buy luxury products, reflecting the increased buying power and changing consumption patterns of younger consumers. According to the survey, around a third of consumers in top-tier cities purchase luxury goods on a “regular basis,” with Beijingers leading the pack.

BMW Art Cars have been designed by artists like Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jenny Holzer and Roy Lichtenstein

This week, Daniel Kirchert of BMW Brilliance Automotive — BMW’s China joint venture — spoke with a reporter at the Global Times about BMW’s plans for continuing its cultural promotion activities in China (previously on Jing Daily), which last year included three China Culture Journey art exhibitions and a list of the 100 most important figures in Chinese contemporary art.

From the interview:

Global Times: How do sponsored cultural activities benefit BMW’s presence in China?

DDK: BMW has consistently pursued simultaneous development of both enterprise and society as a part of our unified global strategy. In China, BMW strives to combine commercial development with social contribution. Through our series of social contribution activities, people are more aware of the profound meaning of our core value: joy.

GT: What the aims for BMW’s cultural promotion programs?

DDK: BMW’s cultural promotion programs cover protection of cultural heritage, music, painting, carving and film. Promoting cultural exchange, popularizing the arts and improving levels of cultural knowledge are clear indicators of BMW’s long-term commitment to the Chinese market.

GT: What plans does BMW have for promoting new Chinese artists?

DDK: Here, let me give you a hint: As we all know that BMW has a historical tradition of Art Cars all over the world. And as we deepen our cooperation with Chinese artists, I am positive that the first-ever BMW Art Car designed by a Chinese artist will be unveiled in the near future.

Kirchert’s last response is interesting, not only because it shows that BMW’s “cultural outreach” in China is a high priority but because Jing Daily wrote an article last month about the possibility that BMW could commission a Chinese artist for the next art car. As we wrote at that time, only one Asian artist has been chosen for this program since 1975, the Japanese artist Matazo Kayama, and with BMW’s unprecedented popularity in the mainland Chinese market and the growing status of Chinese contemporary artists, it seems the time is ripe for a Chinese Art Car.

The Omega Constellation is currently the #1 high-end watch in China

For decades, the wristwatch has held particular value in China. First, in the first 30 years after the revolution as a sort of “pragmatic luxury,” exemplified by the watches typically given as wedding gifts to young couples and the Shanghai watches seen adorning the wrists of leaders like Mao Zedong and Zhou En’lai, then — since 1979 — as a “true luxury.” As many watchmakers have noted through the years, the first major luxury purchase for many of China’s newly rich is a Swiss watch.

The symbolism of an extravagant Swiss watch has not been lost in the China of the post-Deng Xiaoping economic reforms, during which millions of Chinese have, for the first time, made their fortunes and quickly made their country the world’s second-largest luxury market. Swiss watchmakers have, for their part, been quick to notice this — indeed, the first foreign television commercial ever to air in China (in 1979) was for Swiss Rado wristwatches.

Recently, Jing Daily looked at Switzerland’s conquest of the Chinese high-end wristwatch market, a market it has dominated nearly unchallenged for 30 years. This week, the Financial Times looks at the Swiss watch industry’s prospects for continued growth, speaking to executives like Luigi Macaluso of Swiss watchmakers Girard-Perregaux, who says that he, like many in the industry, have their sights firmly set on China and Asian markets, predicting Swiss watches to remain a “must have” for the country’s newly-minted elite.

From the FT:

“China, Asia is driving demand,” [Macaluso] said at the SIHH watch fair in Geneva, adding that many Chinese customers buy watches when they travel to Europe, the US and Japan.

Bernard Fornas, chief executive of Cartier, agrees. “If you go to Shanghai or Beijing, you see all these very rich young people and they buy. They buy like crazy,” he said at the same trade fair.

As if to underline the increasing importance of China, Swiss watch export figures showed an 87 per cent rise in sales to the country in January, helping the industry to report its first year-on-year rise in demand since 2008.

The figures, released in mid-February, showed particularly strong demand from Hong Kong, China’s special administrative region, and Singapore, while the US, France and Italy continued to fall.

The article points out that companies have already widely exploited the more developed markets of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and are now focusing more intently on reaching wealthy businessmen — the article notes that the typical luxury watch customer in the mainland is a man, for whom an expensive watch is regarded as a status symbol (and for whom the watch is usually purchased by a business associate).

However, critics worry that a primary industry focus on the mainland Chinese market at the potential expense of other markets could backfire:

Despite all the hopes pinned on China as the new El Dorado for luxury watch groups, analysts at HSBC warned in a recent report against over-reliance on the country. They wrote: “For the moment, luxury sales in China seem to be still in the very initial phase of growth.

“But if all efforts are focused on China, as evidenced by the seeming obsession with the country in luxury goods companies’ communications, how quickly will the market mature and what then will be left to fuel future growth?”

The Shanghai Bund Art Museum, formerly the Royal British Asiatic Society, has received a multimillion dollar facelift

Although Beijing gets most of the attention, with most of China’s blue-chip contemporary artists and the country’s top museums, as well as some of the most well-known arts districts (798, Caochangdi) based there, year by year Shanghai is shaking off its reputation as a business — rather than a cultural — center.

Capitalizing on its Jazz Age distinction as the “Paris of the East,” Shanghai’s creative community has made the city a vibrant destination for artists and art lovers alike in recent years. Though Beijing may have the top arts institutions, Shanghai has a more youthful energy (spotlighted on sites like NeoCha and its English-language counterpart NeoCha EDGE) that lends itself well to experimental art and unorthodox venues.

Jing Daily recently wrote about 696 Weihai Street (696 威海路), a former opium depot that has been renovated into a “creative labyrinth” of artists’ studios, and others have profiled buildings like Shanghai’s 1933 in historic Hongkou District, a former abattoir which lay dormant for years before being restored to its former Art Deco glory and transformed into a retail and arts destination.

Now, another 1930s building, located in the British Concession and formerly housing the Royal Asiatic Society, is getting a new lease on life. The only contemporary art museum on the Bund, the Shanghai Bund Art Museum — designed by British architect David Chipperfield — has received a much-needed facelift to the tune of 40 million RMB (US$5.86 million) and will reopen in May with an inaugural exhibition, “Farmer Da Vinci” by top Chinese contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang (previously).

From Artron (translation by Jing Daily team):

At the intersection of the Huangpu and Suzhou rivers, a five-story Art Deco building lies hidden in the area surrounding the British Consulate…it doesn’t really catch the eye, but this was once China’s earliest museums — the former site of the British Royal Asiatic Society. Now, after washing away the layers of paint and giving the museum an entirely new look with red and grey paint, it has regained its original 1932 splendor.

As the Bund’s only contemporary art museum, the Shanghai Bund Art Museum will re-open its doors this May with the exhibition “Farmer Da Vinci” by Cai Guo-qiang. [Cai] previously created the opening and closing fireworks ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics.

The interior of the museum is airy and modern

Cai Guo-qiang’s artwork explores humanity, the relationship between nature and the universe, and the strength and energy of nature. As the creator, planner and artist behind this inaugural exhibition, Cai Guo-qiang will for the first time focus on the creative power and social topic of individual Chinese farmers.

In the historic five-story [Shanghai Bund Art Museum], which was designed by the famous British architect David Chipperfield, the top three floors have been combined into one. With each floor around 200 square meters, all together the exhibition space is around 900 square meters.

The museum’s tickets will cost 15 yuan for adults (US$2.20), 10 yuan (US$1.46) for students.

Current plans for the Shanghai Bund Art Museum involve exhibitions of contemporary artists, an annual curatorial program, international workshops and cultural seminars, guided tours of historic buildings on the Bund and a series of cross-border cultural events.

We’ll keep a close eye on the preparations for the museum’s opening, and will cover the grand opening as well as Cai’s exhibition this May.

Designer Zhang Binqiao

Jing Daily has previously looked at the growing interest (or “re-interest”) in traditional Chinese clothing in China, noting that clubs based around dressing in ancient Han Dynasty style (Hanfu) have popped up in a few cities and home-grown fashion brands like NE-TIGER have sought to fuse western and Chinese design in their recent collections.

This week, METRO looks at a small company in Beijing that eschews the marginalization of the former and the glitz of the latter, creating tradition- and culture-infused designs that have attracted the attention of celebrities, business figures and the media in the Chinese capital.

From METRO (via Sina):

At first glance, Zhang Binqiao’s No1006 Phoenix Gate Boutique looks nothing special, but appearances can be deceptive, as her handcrafted, intricate embroidered silk qipaos and jackets are highly in demand by the city’s rich and famous. Singers and CCTV hostesses such as Zhou Tao can’t seem to get enough of them.

Using high-quality silks and intricate embroidery, Zhang combines her creative spark with classic Chinese imagery – lotuses, cranes, bamboo – in her tang zhuang and qipao designs, all of which are one-offs. “Each piece takes on a life of its own, so it’s impossible to make the same thing twice.”

Many of her pieces incorporate a technique of smoking, not dying the color onto the silk, giving them rich, earthy hues. Prices non-negotiable, but Zhang said that for loyal customers she can work something out.

A qipao by designer Zhang Binqiao

When asked why she chose to have a shop on Guanghua Road and not in a more glitzy location, Zhang told METRO that she used to have a boutique in Jianwai SOHO, but it closed.

“Now, I prefer the feeling of this place. I can decorate how I like, with my paintings,” she said. “It’s more free, more intimate. Here you can chat, drink tea and coffee, and take your time and just talk as friends.”

New department stores like Lane Crawford in Beijing have increased the number of luxury brands available to potential buyers in Beijing

A new survey on MSN’s China portal (Chinese), conducted in cooperation with the Chinese online research and consulting firm iResearch, has found that a growing number of white collar workers in top-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou regularly buy luxury products, reflecting the increased buying power and changing consumption patterns of younger consumers. According to the survey, around a third of consumers in top-tier cities purchase luxury goods on a “regular basis,” with Beijingers leading the pack. From China Daily:

The MSN China survey showed more than 30 percent of the surveyed white-collar workers in the capital buy premium-brand cosmetics and 20 percent own at least one Louis Vuitton bag.

Liu Shu, chief editor and executive producer of MSN China Portal, said 38 percent of Beijingers are regular customers of luxury products, higher than 37.3 percent in Shanghai and 33 percent in Guangzhou.

She revealed that almost 63 percent of Beijing white-collar workers buy luxury cosmetics, 48 percent purchase luxury bags, 45 percent wear luxury watches, and 40 percent have premium-brand clothing.

The China Daily article goes on to quote a young woman in Beijing, who says she owns a number of Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags, but no longer favors these brands because they’ve become “too common.” More than the figure about white collar workers regularly purchasing luxury brands, this is the aspect of the MSN survey that most intrigues the Jing Daily team.

If, as a growing number of articles on Chinese luxury and fashion blogs write, “big brands” like LV and Gucci are falling out of favor in top-tier cities — which we agree they clearly are — then what brands are stepping in to cater to the younger, more brand-savvy and worldly consumers who have moved on?

Late last year, Tyler Brule, publisher and editor-in-chief of Monocle, said that European luxury brands — by catering to the China market — were at risk of alienating their core (e.g., European) clientele. Although the basis of his argument — that non-Chinese consumers are the key focus of European luxury brands right now — is highly arguable, considering the world’s two largest luxury markets are Japan and China, it does lead us to an interesting thought.

If, as Brule says, adding “a little bit of jingle-jangle to their bags and a few shiny zippers and buckles to their shoes” is the way European luxury brands localize for the Chinese luxury market, and if regular buyers of luxury goods (the aforementioned white collar consumers in top-tier cities) are losing interest in these localized products — because they’re “too common” — then it really is crunch time in China for the world’s top luxury brands.

They’re going to have to figure out what’s most important to them: faster expansion into second- and third-tier cities (where for the majority of the population these products are highly exclusive, and brand awareness is comparatively quite low) at the risk of alienating top-tier customers and “biting the hand that feeds,” or toning down their designs and/or employing a “tiered” system within China. (With top-tier cities getting the newest designs at the same time as Europe, North America and Japan and smaller cities getting cheaper or more obviously localized — in Brule’s sense of the word — products.)

Though it’s hard to tell what the future holds for “common” luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci in China’s top-tier cities, for all we know they could be too busy counting the money they’re raking in from their newest locations to care. Though, as the MSN China survey notes, Beijingers are the most frequent buyers of luxury goods in the country, Beijing’s luxury malls and boutiques are notorious for being mostly empty, functioning more as a showroom than a store. Clearly top-tier buyers are getting these high-priced items somewhere, and that somewhere is usually in Hong Kong or overseas, or online.

So for the world’s largest luxury brands, perhaps refocusing their energy on building footholds in smaller cities — where they’ve got a “captive audience” that rarely travels overseas for shopping excursions (though online shopping is popular throughout China) — takes precedence over coddling Beijing or Shanghai’s antsy, budding sophisticates.

Jia Zhangke and actress Zhao Tao take part in a Q&A at MoMA last week. (Jia wore sunglasses due to eye strain caused by long hours editing his new film)

Last week, the Jing Daily team had the opportunity to interview Jia Zhangke (Platform, Still Life, 24 City), one of China’s top contemporary filmmakers, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York during its retrospective of Jia’s work. (The event continues through March 20.) Conducted in Mandarin, our 30-minute interview covered a range of important topics in the world of Chinese cinema, and shed light on Jia Zhangke’s opinions about everything from the current state of the official Chinese film system to the importance of nurturing young talent to the key developments in today’s China that inspire him as a filmmaker.

In Part One of our two-part interview, Jia discusses the key developments in film production in China, his personal experiences as a young director in Beijing in the mid-’90s and support of young directors there today, and the difference between being an “underground” director and one who operates within China’s state film system. Next Wednesday (March 24), we will post Part Two, in which Jia discusses his film production company, XStream, and some of the upcoming projects he is currently involved in — both as a director and producer. The Jing Daily team would like to thank Jia Zhangke and Eva Lam of XStream for their time, and express our gratitude to Jytte Jensen and Meg Blackburn of MoMA for organizing the interview.

JZK: In terms of the industry side, we’re in the midst of the rapid development of the Chinese film industry. Why do I say it’s a period of rapid development? Because in the not-so-distant past, in the 1990s, for a while there a lot of screens simply disappeared, lots of theaters closed down, especially in medium- to small cities. Basically there were no [movie] screens. After 2003, however, development of the movie industry really sped up, particularly in big cities. The number of screens skyrocketed. Last year, I saw a figure that every day 1.7 new screens are opening up [in China]. That’s a pretty big deal. It really is developing quickly.

In terms of output, I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but in 2002 or 2004, the entire Chinese movie industry only pulled in around 1 billion RMB. Last year, it made 6 billion. That’s sixfold growth.

But development in the Chinese film industry has been a bit unbalanced. Up to this point, most movie theatres have been concentrated in China’s large, developed cities – for example, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan. These huge cities make up the bulk of box office receipts. But actually, most of the 1.3 billion people in China are distributed throughout villages and small towns. So on the one hand, it’s unbalanced, but on the other hand I see it as an opportunity for the Chinese film industry, because if in the future more theaters are built in more remote areas, it’s going to be really powerful. This is from a development perspective.

You also asked about the changes I’ve seen in the past five to ten years. Actually, I think the Chinese film industry is still at an early stage, because so far Chinese films really have had to rely on the state-owned studio system. Particularly in terms of film creation and production, this is still primarily controlled by a few large production companies, like the China Film Group or Shanghai Film Group—they’re all state-owned enterprises. There are lots of private film investors, but their productions still include the state-run organizations at some point down the line, so from this perspective we can say that the industry really isn’t that prosperous, free or independent. Currently, the film industry and the old system aren’t that far apart.

JZK: I feel that the younger generation of filmmakers, those who are younger than me, can be split into two different groups. The first is really interested in the film industry. They want to make commercial movies, work within that broad commercial channel, and really cater to the market. Whatever the market wants, that’s what they’ll shoot: comedy, satire – the kinds of films the public is really fond of. That’s good for them, but at the same time these movies are missing a sense of self. They’re just films that pander to the whims of the market.

But this is only one side of the picture. On the other side are young directors who reject the industry outright, reject the market completely. They shoot their films on shoestring budgets and don’t try to reach a broader audience. Actually, I’ve been trying to promote a new concept of filmmaking in China. If you’re that kind of director who’s interested in making commercial films, those films still need some kind of inner spirit and creativity. They still need to say something about society, about people. Quite simply, commercial films still need some sense of quality.

On the other end, independent art still needs an audience. Independent artists have to work hard to help more people understand their films and join in the independent spirit. So I feel that this is a two-sided coin. Both sides are diametrically opposed to one another, but if both can compromise a little, it’ll benefit the whole industry.

Really I just hope these two sides will balance out a little. Those filmmakers who crave commercial validation can still have some originality, and directors who reject the market can at least warm up a little and want more people to see their movies. That’s better than their films just being seen by a couple of people and discussed within a tiny group. In terms of aesthetic differences, I think it’s quite different than when we were studying film, because the new generation of directors live in a really developed age of information. They can share film information and resources effortlessly.

In Beijing, when I was a student, at that time there was a lot of piracy. I used to call [this area selling pirated films] a “street library”—whatever movie you wanted to see, you could [get there]. This is a cultural phenomenon unique to China. Of course we don’t encourage piracy, but it is a reality, and for some of us it’s a valuable resource.

So in terms of this matter, I feel that the new generation of filmmakers will choose to take wildly different directions in their careers. At the same time, one thing I’ve noticed is how important the Internet is to young directors in China. So many of them are using it to show their movies, even shooting films that are basically shot specifically with the intention of putting them online. This is going to be really important for the Chinese film industry, because it’s very important for the industry to integrate itself with new media.

Jia Zhangke discusses the next generation of Chinese filmmakers

JZK: Overall, I think most watch movies online. This is particularly true for people who live in smaller cities or in really remote areas. There are two reasons for this: First, if they want to see the newest films, the most convenient way is to watch them online, because where they live they don’t have any movie theaters. For example, the county where I grew up is pretty big. It has a huge population. But it doesn’t even have one movie theater. So if a film comes out and people there hear about it and want to see it, what other option do they have aside from watching online? So I think the Internet is the main conduit, the fastest way for people to in China to see new movies.

Then there’s DVDs. Actually, I think the people who see movies at theaters are far and away the minority.

Art theaters have had huge difficulties over the past several years, because it’s much easier to see movies online. Before, when there was no Internet or before it was this developed – in the era of the DVD – at least you had to go out to buy DVDs. Art films at that time had a huge audience, mostly comprised of university students. They’d go buy a DVD to watch, or sometimes they’d go to the movie theater. But now pretty much everyone just watches films online.

But the problem is that there’s a lot of piracy online. Like for me—I can sell my movies online officially, but the price is pretty low. So it’s kind of a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. But that’s inseparable from the national condition of China.

To come back to the second reason why most people watch movies online, movie tickets are really expensive in China. For premier films, tickets cost at least 50 RMB (US$7.32) and can go as high as 120 RMB (US$17.58) – that’s almost as expensive as they are in the U.S., or maybe even more. Going to see a movie has become a really expensive activity. So when people decide to go to the theater, they want to get their money’s worth and tend to choose the imported Hollywood blockbuster over anything else.

Generally, the audiences for art films in China have cultivated themselves on DVDs. They tend to think that DVDs or online video is good enough. So I think it’ll take time to change. I’m not pessimistic about it; I just think it’ll take time.

JZK: I’m not that satisfied, because the vast majority of my audience just watches them online. Take Still Life, for example. At the time of its release we took a pretty radical approach. We decided to release it at the same time as [Zhang Yimou’s blockbuster] Curse of the Golden Flower. We didn’t think about commercial interests or the business side of things, we just wanted to call people’s attention to the fact that art films or films that are concerned with the true condition of people’s lives in China exist in a really limited space, because people don’t even realize [that] is a problem in our culture.

When we released the film, I felt like the audience was really small. Still Life only took in something like 1 million RMB at the box office. But afterwards, I found out that the actual number of people who saw Still Life was huge. Most of them had watched it online.

Of course, every director hopes that audiences will choose to see their movies when they’re released in theaters. Because, after all, when the director is making the film, they’re doing it with the big screen in mind, not a DVD. Lighting, sound design, scenery and so forth – like in Still Life or Platform, we had lots of long-range shots and wide vistas, all of which were filmed with the silver screen in mind. I think I just need to be patient, and gradually let people get used to the idea of seeing films like mine at the movie theater.

It’s the kind of thing that you have to put a lot of work into. You can’t just give up on it.

JZK: I never make distinctions among audiences. When I make a film I don’t even think about whether it’s for the Chinese market or the western market. Because in my experience, I think audiences are all pretty much the same. I don’t distinguish between the different types of audiences because I don’t think there’s any real difference. No matter who they are, American, French, Japanese, Korean, it’s all fine with me.

Of course, this isn’t to say that the cultures aren’t different, that the histories aren’t different. Audiences come from different places and have different backgrounds. They all have differences. But when I go to see a foreign film, an American film for example, it’s not like there are major obstacles for me to understand it. Because I feel that people are, essentially, all alike.

Before, I think people always emphasized cultural differences, cultural gaps. But actually I think film is the easiest thing for different cultures to accept. So I never feel like I shoot films for a Chinese audience, and at the same time I don’t shoot them with a foreign audience in mind. Especially as a Chinese director, I think you have to have faith that the films you shoot can shed light on issues that are universal, not totally esoteric. Because if you’re only dealing with specific emotions, it’s going to be hard for many people to understand. Universal emotions are the most important.

Everyone, no matter who they are, has difficulties with issues of life and death. So why do films always rehash these issues? Because if we see a Japanese movie, we can understand how Japanese people cope with these difficulties. Or we can see how Americans deal with these problems, or the Chinese point of view. We can see the different ways that different cultures resolve their problems, the attitude with which they deal with things. But through it all, these problems and the difficulties of being human are all the same.

So as a filmmaker, I never make a distinction among audiences. I never separate audiences.

Demand for diamonds has grown rapidly in mainland China, as wealthy individuals look to diversify their assets and younger buyers purchase western-style engagement rings

Last year, China became the world’s second-largest diamond market, behind only the US, and recently De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, predicted that China could surpass the US to become the largest within the next decade.

As always, figures that quantify, rather than qualify, what’s happening in the world’s most populous country should be taken with a grain of salt, but with so much surplus capacity and room to grow in smaller (again, not by quantity but in context) cities throughout China, the world’s jewelry producers see the country as a gold mine — or a diamond mine — that should bring them sustainable growth for the medium- to long-term.

Of these jewelry companies, France’s Van Cleef & Arpels is the latest to announce their China expansion plans for 2010. According to ChinaKnowledge, the company is actively targeting emerging markets like mainland China and the Middle East this year, and plans to double their number of Chinese stores from four to eight. These four Chinese locations make up the largest proportion of the seven stores Van Cleef & Arpels is set to open over the course of the year.

China is “priority number one,” and the company has boosted its presence online in China, [CEO Stanislas de Quercize] said.

Speaking to Reuters, Quercize said that Van Cleef & Arpels plans to reach out to Chinese consumers via social media — something we’ve seen a growing number of luxury brands doing in the last couple of years. However, Quercize’s plans to leverage Facebook and Twitter for the purpose might not prove as effective as he thinks — both services are blocked in China.

We’d recommend he gives Kaixin and Zuosa a shot instead, if China truly is “priority number one.”

The concept of Chinese brands moving beyond the country’s borders and sharing rack space with major European or American clothing or footwear brands might still sound like a remote possibility, but of some ambitious companies have their way, you might see some Chinese companies in stores before you know it — selling products that eschew the stereotypical cheap, low-quality nature of many “Made in China” products for high quality and innovative, culture- and history-infused design.

China’s new brands — and some of its old brands, like Hong Kong’s Chow Tai Fook (est’d. 1929 in Guangzhou) — naturally have some work to do if they’re to convince potential overseas buyers of their quality. (Although after this week’s news, it may be a little easier for some of them to do that at home.) Others, however, like Warrior (hui li) sneakers, have already made inroads among fans of retro style in Europe and North America.

In case you missed them the first time around, here are a selection of Jing Daily articles about some of China’s up-and-coming domestic brands. Whether they’re aiming for the luxury segment or shooting for retro style (fugu) lovers at home and abroad, these companies are among the best and brightest hopes for Chinese brands to shed their (often unwarranted) reputation for cheap construction and materials.

China Fertile Ground For Domestic Luxury Brands

Qeelin

While foreign luxury brands still reign supreme in the China market, there are indications that things are starting to change, gradually, as home-grown Chinese brands start to make more of an impact in the domestic market. While these new brands lack the pedigree and history of top European brands, the cultural understanding and insight afforded these brands by their domestic upbringing gives them a head start in the China market. As many foreign luxury execs have already noticed, though in the Chinese luxury market, foreign still “equals” luxury, in 10-20 years the game is certain to have changed and been reshaped by emerging Chinese luxury brands.

Shanghai Watch Looks To Join Ranks Of Elite Brands

Shanghai Jellymon Watch

Although most of the world’s top watchmakers remain cozily ensconced within the borders of Switzerland, as with most luxury industries “the Chinese are coming”…in this case, to reinvent a brand better known for gracing the wrists of Mao Zedong and Zhou En’lai than Donald Trump or Warren Buffett. (Though the latter might be more open to it than we might assume.)

This brand, Shanghai Watch (上海手表厂), started producing watches in the mid-1950s, amid a flurry of activity in the Shanghai wristwatch industry, and quickly established itself as the country’s top watchmaker.

Warren Buffett Gives Little-Known Chinese Clothier A Global Boost

Trands

Warren Buffett’s interest in China as an investment destination is well known, and his words of praise for (or investments in) the occasional Chinese company seems to have the effect of boosting that company’s visibility abroad virtually overnight. His company’s $230 million investment in Chinese electric and hybrid automaker BYD has elevated what was only a few years ago a fledgling battery maker into a brand which is set to enter the US market as early as next year.

So for little-known (even in China) Chinese menswear designer Trands, Buffett’s endorsement of his newest Chinese-brand-of-the-moment is definitely exciting news — especially because their stocks have risen 70% since the release of a video in which Buffett extols the brand’s qualities.

JNBY Set To Open First Permanent Retail Location In New York City

JNBY

This fall, Chinese fashion house JNBY (”Just Naturally Be Yourself”) opened a temporary pop-up store in New York’s Soho district, showcasing the brand’s unique mixture of Chinese and western design.

Although JNBY first ventured outside of mainland China back in 2000, with the opening of its Tokyo location, and has opened retail outlets in Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia, and Canada (with plans to expand to France and Taiwan soon), JNBY’s Soho pop-up store was the first time the brand had been available in New York.

Hermès To Back New Brand In China: Will It Turn Off Chinese Luxury Buyers?

Shang Xia

Women’s Wear Daily reported last week that French luxury house Hermes plans to support the launch of a new luxury handbag brand, Shang Xia, in China this coming spring. According to reports confirmed by French newspaper La Tribune, Hermes’ involvement in the launch of Shang Xia wil mark the first time Hermes has built a brand from the ground up, and the company’s products will be designed, manufactured and sold entirely in China.

All of this seems to make sense, since China is now the world’s second-largest luxury market and the world’s most populous country. But is this concept doomed to fail?

Will Li Ning Make A Splash In The US Market?

Li Ning

Li Ning, the sportswear brand founded by one of China’s most famous athletes, has set out to become one of the world’s top five sports brands within the next decade. Although the brand’s dream of joining the upper echelon of global sports brands may seem like a pipe dream to many observers, the rapid growth of Li Ning since 1990 has astonished others. Currently, the brand operates over 6,000 stores in mainland China, with plans to build 3,000 more within the next four years, and takes in nearly a billion dollars each year from their China operations alone.

As Li Ning’s status as China’s top sportswear brand has been cemented in the last few years — with a particular boost in the aftermath of the Beijing Olympics, when Li Ning stock jumped more than 3% after the company’s founder lit the Olympic torch — the company has set its eyes on expanding into lucrative global markets, particularly the United States.

Qeelin

Articles on China’s jewelry industry often focus only on the country’s booming demand for gold and platinum (althoughwe too are guilty of that) or diamonds and other precious stones. But what many observers of China’s jewelry market rarely notice is the country’s growing demand for traditional Chinese materials like jade. Jade, coveted in China for thousands of years, and its much rarer cousin jadeite, are making a comeback among women of China’s “me generation” in top tier cities who are looking to differentiate their style and set them apart from less discriminating conspicuous consumers.

Ai Weiwei

Be sure to check out Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on Christiane Amanpour’s program on CNN, airing today at 4:00 PM EST (GMT-5). He’ll definitely have a lot to say about his artwork and his participation in last night’s event at the Paley Center in New York City.

UPDATE: CNN has posted the video online: