https://www.scmp.com/rss/501276/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Victoria and Jessica open and try the most popular snacks that are trending on Taobao.  Taobao is China’s Amazon. You can buy everything from groceries to electronics, and even hire someone to argue for you. Last year, we challenged our Taobao Queen, Victoria, to use her Taobao skills to help get us through the holiday season. This year, we’re tapping into her skills yet again to help us thrive, not just survive, through another year of staying at home.   (Taobao is a product of Alibaba,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/taobao-finds-under-30-trending-chinese-snacks/article/3136048?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/taobao-finds-under-30-trending-chinese-snacks/article/3136048?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Jun 2021 06:34:48 +0000 Victoria and Jessica try a fad that has taken the Chinese internet by storm: self-heating instant food!    Taobao is China’s Amazon. You can buy everything from groceries to electronics, and even hire someone to argue for you. Last year, we challenged our Taobao Queen, Victoria, to use her Taobao skills to help get us through the holiday season. This year, we’re tapping into her skills yet again to help us thrive, not just survive, through another year of staying at home.   (Taobao is a product... https://www.scmp.com/culture/taobao-finds-under-30-self-heating-instant-food/article/3136039?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/taobao-finds-under-30-self-heating-instant-food/article/3136039?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Jun 2021 06:09:22 +0000 Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon. With over a billion products, it is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. The listings are eclectic—one can buy groceries, electronics, tchotchkes, and even hire someone to argue for you. In our series Taobao Unboxing, we go hunting for the best deals under $30 on the Chinese platform. In this episode, we searched for the best stress relievers on Taobao. (Taobao is a product of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, the parent company of... https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-best-stress-relievers-under-30/article/3115594?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-best-stress-relievers-under-30/article/3115594?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Dec 2020 00:05:14 +0000 Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon. With over a billion products, it is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. The listings are eclectic—one can buy groceries, electronics, tchotchkes, and even hire someone to argue for you. In our series Taobao Unboxing, we go hunting for the best deals under $30 on the Chinese platform. In this episode, we searched for the best life hacks on Taobao. (Taobao is a product of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, the parent company of... https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-best-life-hacks-under-30/article/3114909?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-best-life-hacks-under-30/article/3114909?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:05:11 +0000 Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon. With over a billion products, it is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. The listings are eclectic—one can buy groceries, electronics, tchotchkes, and even hire someone to argue for you. In our series Taobao Unboxing, we go hunting for the best deals under $30 on the Chinese platform. In this episode, we searched for the quirkiest holiday gifts on Taobao. (Taobao is a product of Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, the parent company of... https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-quirkiest-holiday-gifts-under-30/article/3114897?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-quirkiest-holiday-gifts-under-30/article/3114897?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Dec 2020 04:06:21 +0000 Taobao is China’s answer to Amazon. With over a billion products, it is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces. The listings are eclectic—one can buy groceries, electronics, tchotchkes, and even hire someone to argue for you. In this new series, Taobao Unboxing, we go hunting for the best deals under $30 on the Chinese platform. In our first episode, we tried to recreate a yakitori bar at home using only products bought on Taobao. (Taobao is a product of Alibaba, which owns the South... https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-we-recreated-yakitori-bar-home/article/3114495?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/taobao-unboxing-we-recreated-yakitori-bar-home/article/3114495?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:00:11 +0000 Livestreaming finally stepped into the spotlight this year during China’s Singles’ Day, the world’s largest shopping festival that takes place annually on Nov. 11. Consumers have increasingly turned to these live broadcasts to see demonstrations of products after the Covid-19 pandemic limited their ability to shop in person. On one channel during the festival, a knife salesman filmed himself forging cutlery in what looked to be an old blacksmith workshop. On another channel, a young woman... https://www.scmp.com/culture/giant-pancakes-and-men-bunk-beds-quirkiest-singles-day-livestreams/article/3109571?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/giant-pancakes-and-men-bunk-beds-quirkiest-singles-day-livestreams/article/3109571?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Nov 2020 10:30:19 +0000 A humble noodle dish from southwestern China became the country’s national dish during the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to a spike in demand for instant food. Luosifen, or snail noodles, is a specialty of Liuzhou, a city in the mountainous region of Guangxi. Typically served as an inexpensive street snack at hole-in-the-wall shops, the noodles first became known outside the region when it was featured in a 2012 show called A Bite of China. But they really gained popularity during the Covid-19... https://www.scmp.com/food/luosifen-smelly-noodles-became-chinas-biggest-food-fad/article/3108576?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/luosifen-smelly-noodles-became-chinas-biggest-food-fad/article/3108576?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:05:16 +0000 On Tuesday night, over 150 million people—that’s more than a tenth of China’s population—tuned into the shopping app Taobao Live to watch a man sell lipstick for seven hours. But it wasn’t just lipstick. There was also face cream, clothes, and a giveaway involving Hermes bags and the soon-to-be-released iPhone 12. The event was a promotion for Singles’ Day, which has eclipsed Black Friday as the world’s biggest shopping holiday. What is Singles’ Day?     Held on Nov. 11, Singles’ Day is... https://www.scmp.com/culture/150-million-people-china-watched-man-sell-stuff-7-hours/article/3106678?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/150-million-people-china-watched-man-sell-stuff-7-hours/article/3106678?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:00:10 +0000 For years, Chinese consumers who wanted luxury goods at affordable prices could count on daigou 代购, professional shoppers who buy sought-after products overseas and resell them in China. A La Mer face cream, for example, might cost 2,680 yuan ($390) in retail stores in China, but only 1,600 yuan if one enlists the services of a daigou, according to a report from equity broker Bernstein. “Over the past decade, this gray channel has provided Chinese consumers with valuable access to global brands... https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-daigou-chinas-professional-shoppers-get-luxury-goods-cheap/article/3104674?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-daigou-chinas-professional-shoppers-get-luxury-goods-cheap/article/3104674?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Oct 2020 07:13:28 +0000 In the realm of fusion food, there are things that people think should not go together, like pineapple and pizza—or durian and pizza. Enter Lay’s milk tea-flavored potato chips. The new concoctions were released in China last week...and immediately sold out everywhere. Desperate posts on Chinese social media complained of store shelves bare of the new Lay’s flavors as soon as doors opened. “Never imagined they would be sold out after 10 am,” wrote one person on the social media site Weibo. The... https://www.scmp.com/food/lays-now-has-milk-tea-potato-chips-china/article/3102823?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/lays-now-has-milk-tea-potato-chips-china/article/3102823?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Sep 2020 04:17:59 +0000 It’s 9 pm in Beijing, and fitness blogger Liu Shaodong is glued to his phone in his cramped 200-square-foot studio apartment. He’s watching a live feed of a farmer hawk cured beef in Heilongjiang Province, over 800 miles away. With one click, Liu adds 200 grams of salted topside to his shopping cart. Seconds later, the farmer is weighing the order right before Liu’s eyes. The fitness blogger is not alone. Thousands of others are also tuned into the stream on Taobao Live, a Chinese app that... https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-rural-influencer/article/3096519?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-rural-influencer/article/3096519?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:55:39 +0000 For over five years, Xian Qiwen has been carving out dried insects and turning them into elaborate mechanical pieces. Known as branchmonkey on Chinese social media, Xian is part of a growing online community of steampunk enthusiasts in China. They share images of their otherworldly creations and exchange advice on how to build them. (Read more: Meet the artist who makes wearable bamboo cats) Xian’s sculptures exaggerate the features of the critters he modifies. His scorpion, for example, has a... https://www.scmp.com/culture/steampunk-insects-engineer-china/article/3085443?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/steampunk-insects-engineer-china/article/3085443?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 May 2020 08:04:28 +0000 When Amy Cui opened one of China’s first online shops for plus-size clothing 11 years ago, the word didn’t even exist. “There was no such thing as ‘plus-size fashion,” says Cui, who also goes by Tang Tang. “You could only buy ‘mom clothes’ or ‘fat people clothes.’ And the only colors you could find were black, gray, blue, and white. It was unbearable for young women.” Walking though her maze of a warehouse is a reminder of how far she—and society—have come. Her store boasts 1.1 million... https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-plus-size-clothing-body-positivity/article/3020519?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/china-plus-size-clothing-body-positivity/article/3020519?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jul 2019 11:28:53 +0000 It’s reasonable to suspect that a show like Stranger Things would have trouble connecting with viewers in China. It’s chock full of Western pop culture references from the ‘80s, ripped from cinema, old-school arcade games and other elements of pre-internet life -- like riding around town in a trucker hat with your friends on bikes. It’s the perfect nostalgia kick for anyone who can remember 1980s America. Needless to say, Stranger Things is not a mega hit in China like it is in the US. Even so,... https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/stranger-things-shirt-hit-china/article/3017363?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/stranger-things-shirt-hit-china/article/3017363?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jul 2019 10:59:29 +0000 This article originally appeared on ABACUS It’s reasonable to suspect that a show like Stranger Things would have trouble connecting with viewers in China. It’s chock full of Western pop culture references from the ‘80s, ripped from cinema, old-school arcade games and other elements of pre-internet life -- like riding around town in a trucker hat with your friends on bikes. It’s the perfect nostalgia kick for anyone who can remember 1980s America. Needless to say, Stranger Things is not a mega... https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029462/stranger-things-shirt-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029462/stranger-things-shirt-hit-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jul 2019 10:59:29 +0000 This article originally appeared on ABACUS It’s hard to beat the speed of China’s enterprising online sellers. Yesterday, one of China’s most famous tech tycoons, Baidu’s Robin Li, was doused with water by an unknown man while speaking on stage in Beijing. Some guy just stormed the stage at Baidu's AI conference & poured water all over Robin Li's head. pic.twitter.com/JKTTLjjJXM — 💯Fergus Ryan (@fryan) July 3, 2019 Within hours, the incident became a trending search term on Weibo. And almost... https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029459/heres-why-you-can-buy-t-shirt-featuring-baidus-ceo-soaked-water?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029459/heres-why-you-can-buy-t-shirt-featuring-baidus-ceo-soaked-water?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:11:18 +0000 It’s hard to beat the speed of China’s enterprising online sellers. Yesterday, one of China’s most famous tech tycoons, Baidu’s Robin Li, was doused with water by an unknown man while speaking on stage in Beijing. Some guy just stormed the stage at Baidu's AI conference & poured water all over Robin Li's head. pic.twitter.com/JKTTLjjJXM — 💯Fergus Ryan (@fryan) July 3, 2019 Within hours, the incident became a trending search term on Weibo. And almost just as quickly, it spawned a host of memes... https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/heres-why-you-can-buy-t-shirt-featuring-baidus-ceo-soaked-water/article/3017280?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/heres-why-you-can-buy-t-shirt-featuring-baidus-ceo-soaked-water/article/3017280?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:11:18 +0000 Fashion trends tend to fall victim to overanalysis. Especially in China, where the hottest thing can become passé almost overnight, it’s easy to read too deeply into any particular trend. But when it comes to the suit, one might want to reconsider. In the Chinese fashion world, suits for women have become especially vogue in the past year, and they continue to be popular, both on the streets and in the office. Television may have contributed to that. One of the most-watched Chinese shows this... https://www.scmp.com/culture/why-are-more-chinese-women-wearing-suits/article/3015375?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/why-are-more-chinese-women-wearing-suits/article/3015375?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Jun 2019 09:18:13 +0000 Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a hit in China. The live-action movie starring Ryan Reynolds as the voice of a furry Pikachu has scored more than $48 million in the Chinese box office so far, according to box office tracker Ent Group. With the success has come a flood of Pikachu knockoff toys from sellers who are more than eager to cash in on the Pokémon’s iconic image. Internet users in China have been unearthing the worst Pikachu merch they can find and publishing them on Weibo, China’s Twitter,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/detective-pikachu-knockoffs-china/article/3010363?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/detective-pikachu-knockoffs-china/article/3010363?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2019 12:08:56 +0000 Feeling blue? In China, you can pay someone to cheer you up. Online chat groups called kuakua 夸夸, or praise, groups have been gaining popularity among university students and other young adults in the past month. “The person I like doesn’t like me back. Need praise,” read one message on a kuakua group in WeChat, China’s biggest messaging app. The request was shortly followed by messages from people who either related with the situation or simply wrote encouraging words in an attempt to comfort... https://www.scmp.com/culture/praise-demand-why-kids-china-are-paying-self-affirmation/article/3003689?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/praise-demand-why-kids-china-are-paying-self-affirmation/article/3003689?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Mar 2019 09:57:20 +0000 “Don’t you hate the Su’s family father and two sons? I hate them too. Come on, vent out a bit!” This might sound, well, incredibly abusive. But the groups are private and the people aren’t real -- they’re characters in a popular Chinese soap opera. Still, the anger directed at them is real, and it’s sparked a cottage industry of online chat groups where people join together to hurl insults at the fictional characters that frustrate them the most. Users can pay a small membership fee (US$0.15) on... https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/people-are-paying-scold-fictional-characters-online-groups-china/article/3002885?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/people-are-paying-scold-fictional-characters-online-groups-china/article/3002885?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Mar 2019 13:53:55 +0000 This article originally appeared on ABACUS “Don’t you hate the Su’s family father and two sons? I hate them too. Come on, vent out a bit!” This might sound, well, incredibly abusive. But the groups are private and the people aren’t real -- they’re characters in a popular Chinese soap opera. Still, the anger directed at them is real, and it’s sparked a cottage industry of online chat groups where people join together to hurl insults at the fictional characters that frustrate them the most. Users... https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029236/people-are-paying-scold-fictional-characters-online-groups-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/abacus/culture/article/3029236/people-are-paying-scold-fictional-characters-online-groups-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Mar 2019 13:53:55 +0000 In today’s social media environment, there is no greater capital than a follow. More “likes” mean more engagement, and more engagement—for some people, such as influencers—can mean more money and ad revenue. The hunger for eyeballs has birthed a whole industry of so-called click farms, where people are hired to watch videos, like posts, and follow pages—often on multiple devices and through fake accounts. I never tire of looking at videos of Chinese click farms. It's just so surreal to see... https://www.scmp.com/culture/i-bought-fake-twitter-followers-chinas-amazon/article/3001901?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/i-bought-fake-twitter-followers-chinas-amazon/article/3001901?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Mar 2019 09:49:14 +0000 It seems like anything can be made popular these days as long as it has Peppa Pig’s name or likeness on it. A common household tool used to start fires in rural areas has become a hot item in China because of its resemblance to the beloved British cartoon character. The tool, called an air blower, has been selling for way more than it should on e-commerce websites after it appeared in a viral trailer for a Peppa Pig movie set to come out in China next month. The video itself is quite touching.... https://www.scmp.com/culture/viral-peppa-pig-video-drives-price-household-appliance-china/article/3000587?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/viral-peppa-pig-video-drives-price-household-appliance-china/article/3000587?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Jan 2019 11:16:15 +0000 Plowing fields, feeding animals, and pulling weeds—now you can add live-streaming to the list of tasks farmers have to do in China. Ever since Taobao, China’s Amazon, introduced a live-streaming app in 2016, about 100,000 farmers have used it to promote their products, according to Alibaba, which owns Taobao. (Alibaba is also the owner of the South China Morning Post, of which Goldthread is a part.) One farmer reportedly sold 2 million pounds of oranges in two weeks through live streams. The... https://www.scmp.com/culture/live-streaming-helping-chinese-farmers-sell-their-goods-online/article/3000415?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/live-streaming-helping-chinese-farmers-sell-their-goods-online/article/3000415?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Jan 2019 15:42:48 +0000 For 500 years, the Forbidden City in Beijing was the seat of power in imperial China. Today, it is home to the Palace Museum, a tourist magnet that houses some of the country’s most treasured relics from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It’s also become a fashion icon, thanks to a range of museum-branded beauty products that have been a massive hit with young Chinese. More than 100,000 lipsticks developed by the Palace Museum sold out within a week of their launch last month. A traditional paper... https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-forbidden-city-marketing-itself-instagram-generation/article/3000396?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-forbidden-city-marketing-itself-instagram-generation/article/3000396?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:37:23 +0000 This article originally appeared on ABACUS With the shopping season right at our door, Abacus is spending its days rummaging through Chinese ecommerce platforms to bring you the gadgets you didn’t know you wanted. Some of these gizmos are in fact genius, some are cute, some are useless, and some are just downright weird. Check out the oddest things we could find on Taobao below! (Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba -- which also owns Taobao.) 1. This... https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3029063/eleven-weird-gadgets-china-you-need-christmas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3029063/eleven-weird-gadgets-china-you-need-christmas?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Dec 2018 12:00:00 +0000 With the shopping season right at our door, Abacus is spending its days rummaging through Chinese ecommerce platforms to bring you the gadgets you didn’t know you wanted. Some of these gizmos are in fact genius, some are cute, some are useless, and some are just downright weird. Check out the oddest things we could find on Taobao below! (Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba -- which also owns Taobao.) 1. This glove equipped with Bluetooth Sometimes you... https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/eleven-weird-gadgets-china-you-need-christmas/article/3000318?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/digital-life/eleven-weird-gadgets-china-you-need-christmas/article/3000318?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Dec 2018 12:00:00 +0000 In 2010, a young woman in Chengdu was attacked by a group of college students because she was wearing traditional Chinese robes. The students thought her dress was a Japanese kimono, forced her to take it off, and burned it in public. “I realized people didn’t know what hanfu [traditional Chinese clothing] was,” says Zhang Qinglin, a college student in Chengdu who started wearing the dress after hearing the story. “I wanted people to know more about these clothes and our history.” In the past 15... https://www.scmp.com/culture/its-not-just-costume-chinese-people-who-ditched-jeans-ancient-robes/article/3000310?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/its-not-just-costume-chinese-people-who-ditched-jeans-ancient-robes/article/3000310?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Dec 2018 09:56:42 +0000 In the past few years, traditional Chinese clothing, or hanfu (漢服), has had something of a revival, with many young people wearing it as cosplay and some diehard fans making it their everyday attire. One college student made headlines last year for dressing in it for more than 300 days. But the style has also been wrapped up in issues of race and nationality. Before the Qing Dynasty, the majority of Chinese people, who are ethnically Han, typically wore long robes with wide sleeves and crossed... https://www.scmp.com/culture/style-clothing-nearly-disappeared-after-ming-dynasty-now-its-making-comeback/article/3000231?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/style-clothing-nearly-disappeared-after-ming-dynasty-now-its-making-comeback/article/3000231?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Nov 2018 14:03:52 +0000 Hope the cell signal in the afterlife is good because your dead relatives will need it for their iPhones. Every year, millions of Chinese people burn replicas of paper money during Qingming, the tomb-sweeping festival, believing the money will reach their ancestors in the heavens. It’s not all they burn. Paper models of real-life items such as clothes and cars, as well as luxury items like brand-name bags and Apple products, are also incinerated. The belief is that people still enjoy the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/iphone-meant-your-dead-relatives/article/3000173?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/iphone-meant-your-dead-relatives/article/3000173?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:11:31 +0000