Last weekend Shenzhen opened its first Fringe festival centered around Coastal City in Nanshan (where I live) loosely based on the original from Edinburgh. Two weeks of events are planned and proceedings kicked off with a colourful parade with various community groups taking part along Shenzhen Bay Avenue.
The words “culture” and “Shenzhen” are rarely heard together in the same sentence, such is the nature of a young city of immigrants who have come to make their fortune. This isn’t to say there is no culture in Shenzhen but it can be hard to find. One place trying to invigorate Shenzhen’s art scene is OCT-LOFT in Nanshan district where old factory buildings have been renovated into a modern art and cultural center (somewhat similar to Beijing’s 798 district).
While Facebook and Twitter might rule in the US and Europe it’s a whole different game in Asia. If you follow Thomas Crampton (Asia-Pacific director of 360 Digital Influence for Ogilvy) then you’ll know he’s often posting insightful presentations about Social Media in Asia. I’ve been bookmarking them for a while and thought I’d share a few of the better ones here with the key takeaways (and other miscellanea).
I’ve given a couple of presentations recently at work about understanding the cultural differences between East (US / Europe) and West (China / East Asia) which I thought I’d share today. The first is aimed at Chinese to understand Western Culture (with lots of nice pics) while the second is aimed at Westerners to understand Chinese Culture (more wordy): Understanding Western Culture Yes, that’s a picture of my sister in Africa killing a goat for dinner towards the end – a perfect example of dealing with uncomfortable situations (in this case quite an extreme one)! The presentation itself had lots of talking over the top – if you download the file you can see my notes with more information about the content. It would…
Since coming back from China last year I’ve been thinking a lot about the development going on there and the opportunities for outsourcing. This led me to do quite a lot of research but I found it frustrating that there didn’t seem to be a single good overview of the key facts, trends and opportunities in China in an easily digestible and up-to-date form. Having trawled through goodness knows how many white papers and blogs I decided to write one myself and hopefully provide a starting point for others going down the same path. The presentation covers the following (with a few nice pictures for good measure): Key Facts about China Geography – Tier 1 & 2 Cities Political Situation Cultural Differences (West vs…