Latest of the weird and wonderful stories and pop culture updates from China.

2. Summer
Welcoming
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.
02

3. SNAPSHOT

4. Amy Feng, also known as the Chinese Lady Gaga, showed
up at Shenzhen Fashion Week one night and wow-ed
everyone, 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
04

5. 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.
STREET
SKILLS
VALUED
05

6. 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.
FUNERALS
TURN
EROTIC
06

7. 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 GUY
MAKES GIRLFRIEND
BINGE-EAT
SO SHE WON’T
ATTRACT
OTHER
MEN
07

8. DETECTIVE
CONAN
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!
08

9. 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 the
nickname “Shandong huge breasts”.
THE UNSUSPICIOUS
PEEPING TOM
09

10. 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 TO
CHINA’S
WEALTH
EDUCATION
10

12. 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.
12

13. 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 Bitch
Is the kind of woman who talks in
a girlish voice and has extremely
sweet 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 Bitch
Is a promiscuous girl who smokes,
drinks, and likes to apply dark
eyeliner while wearing low-cut
clothes, and aren’t shy to
reveal cleavage.
Coffee Bitch
High-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.
The Tea Bitch
13

15. 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 LEEHOM
YOUR LOVE
15
MUSIC

16. SHINI ALREADY BELIEVED IN IT
Shin had been singing in pubs for around 10 years
before becoming a singer. He is noted for his wide
vocal range and extremely powerful voice which is
lacking in Mandopop. Shin is also known for his
powerful screams in most of his rock-inspired music.
His latest album, I Already Believed in it, is a message
to his fans about his philosophy of “Stay weird, stay
different” – staying true to your own belief without
being afraid of being different from the rest.
16
MUSIC

17. The Sun Seems to be Round
Wan 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.
17
MUSIC

18. THE LEFT EAR*spoiler alert
Directed by Alec Su, The Left Ear is a coming of age
film based on a novel of the same name, and also Su’s
directorial 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 one
for you.
18
MOVIE

19. 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.
19
MOVIE

20. CRUEL ROMANCE
Cruel 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.
20
TV-SERIES

21. 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.
21
TV-SHOW

22. Chinese Tinder
TAN 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?
22
APP

23. 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.
23

24. EDITED BY:
Charinee Chairasmisak
WRITTEN BY:
Kate lu + Carina Huan
DESIGNED BY:
Wat + Vine