What are you curious about?
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| Hello from Tokyo. The Big Story this week focuses on the Greater Bay Area, an 11-city megalopolis comprising China’s manufacturing heartland including nearby Shenzhen, Macao and Zhuhai. According to the story, this region’s collective gross domestic product was 12.6 trillion yuan ($1.97 trillion) in 2021, surpassing South Korea’s. I understand the growing concerns over the future of Hong Kong. Its autonomy has been dramatically eroded under the national security law of 2020. In addition, Hong Kong may become just one of 11 cities of the bay area, interdependent with each other. Will Hong Kong be able to preserve its charm as the Pearl of the Orient and continue to enjoy a cosmopolitan lifestyle and vibrant, free economy? One thing to be clear is, its future is heavily dependent on Beijing’s will. Looking back on the last quarter century, one cannot deny that the close proximity and relations with mainland China have given a unique economic advantage to Hong Kong as a place to do business. In my view, the massive investment in infrastructure will potentially benefit Hong Kong. If Beijing guarantees freer and more open business conditions, Hong Kong will stay competitive as a regional financial hub, along with Singapore or Shanghai. Market Spotlight might be a comforting story for those who believe in a brighter future for Hong Kong with strong economic ties with the mainland. After the abrupt ending of its zero-COVID policy, investors’ sentiment regarding Chinese stocks has become more bullish and some predict that China could deliver the best return of any major stock market in 2023. Business Spotlight is an alarming story for Japan Inc. Thailand and Southeast Asia have been a “home away from home” for many Japanese companies and their managers, including Toyota President Akio Toyoda, but that special relationship is threatened by China. According to the story, China was likely the biggest investor in Thailand for 2022, dethroning Japan for the first time since 1994. As for the automobile industry in particular, Japan is behind China in producing electric vehicles. Japan’s reluctant stance to shift from gasoline or hybrid cars into EVs may be a fatal mistake. Asia Insight is one of the most read articles in the last seven days. It’s a story on India’s wealthiest business district and its neighbor across the river, the Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum. People living in the slum seem skeptical about the redevelopment plan, because relocation of its residents to high-rise apartments could deny the social networks and open spaces needed for their livelihoods. The Dharavi became famous thanks to a 2008 Danny Boyle film, “Slumdog Millionaire.” I can recommend this Oscar-winning masterpiece. As I have never visited the site, I read the story, imagining the scenes described in the film. For lighter weekend reading, I recommend a culture and arts piece from Indonesia. The film “Sri Asih” and Jakarta-born actress Pevita Pearce, who played the female hero, seem very attractive, and I will definitely see it in the near future, to understand that country better. |
| What to watch |
| Mainland China has the Chinese New Year holidays from Jan. 21 to 27. Unfortunately, we are not able to publish much Chinese news next week, but we should watch the news from China carefully anyway, because the economic activity during the holidays will show how much China is recovering from the pandemic. On Jan. 23, the Bank of Japan will release the minutes of its Monetary Policy Meeting in December. How BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda and his board members decided to raise the 10-year bond target rate from 0.25% to 0.5% has to be examined. Nissan, Mitsubishi and Renault will meet on Jan. 26 to discuss the future of their alliance, and the U.S. gross domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2022 will be released the same day. |
| Stay safe and healthy, and have a wonderful weekend |
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FEBRUARY 2023 ISSUE
“Now I Feel I Have A Centre”: Priyanka Chopra Jonas Opens Up About Welcoming Daughter Malti & Her Life With Nick Jonas
From Bollywood to Hollywood, actor, producer and entrepreneur Priyanka Chopra Jonas has always fought to make her mark. Yet nothing could have prepared her for her journey to motherhood, finds Jen Wang. Photographs by Zoe Ghertner. Styling by Law Roach
BY JEN WANG
19 January 2023
Zoe Ghertner
At the end of a winding, two-hundred-metre long driveway, inside a sprawling Los Angeles estate that could be mistaken for a modern mountaintop monastery, with walls upon walls of oversized steel-framed windows to take in the commanding views of the San Fernando Valley below, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is feeling rather penned in. Although there’s plenty of space to spread out across the 23,000 sq ft home she shares with her husband, Nick Jonas, the 40-year-old actor, producer and businesswoman seems happiest this afternoon confined, “crisscross applesauce”, within a baby playpen in the family room, while her 10-month-old, Malti Marie, energised from a second nap, barrel-rolls around her to reach various baubles scattered about the floor.
“Good job! You made it to your toys!” Chopra Jonas cheers. Nicknamed “M” by her famous parents, the baby girl puts a dummy, clipped to her shirt, in her mouth all on her own, which elicits another congratulatory response (“Yes, ma’am!”) from Priyanka, who has taken the past year off from acting to focus on her favourite role to date: being a mother.
It’s a big change of pace. As Bollywood’s most successful crossover star, since a career-launching win at the Miss World beauty pageant in 2000, Priyanka has been, in her own words, “grinding”. Audiences who discovered her eight years ago, when she secured the lead role of Alex Parrish in ABC’s FBI drama Quantico, may not even be aware that she had already appeared in more than 50 films before she arrived in Hollywood. With her production company, Purple Pebble Pictures, she’s launched a dozen film projects and, in 2021, added New York Times bestselling author to her résumé with her memoir, Unfinished.
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This May, she’ll star in romantic comedy Love Again, with Sam Heughan and Céline Dion, playing Mira Ray, a woman who finds new love after losing her fiancé. Chopra Jonas suggests audiences may be surprised by the beloved French Canadian diva’s performance. “She’s so funny in this movie,” she gushes. Then, later this year, there’s the Russo brothers’ thriller series Citadel, in which she’ll play a spy opposite Richard Madden. The show is being touted as the first of its kind, with spinoffs set in other countries and character crossovers galore. Much of her character’s backstory, she says, will be told in the Amazon Prime Video franchise’s Indian offshoot.
She’s always thought big. “It’s been 20 years of hustling and working at breakneck speed. I’ve always been like, ‘What’s the next thing?’” she says, at the start of our interview, while Malti is still napping. With the ease of a confident hostess, she kicks off her woven leather slippers and tucks up her feet on a kidney-shaped white sofa below the soaring ceilings of her living room (a series of mezzanines on the house’s first floor give new meaning to the idea of “open-plan”). “But now I feel I have a centre, a sense of calm, because every decision ends up being about her,” she says, nodding to the coffee table. Among the art books and orchids there, Chopra Jonas has positioned an iPad Mini, connected to a camera in the nursery, directly in her line of sight. “I have, like, seven cameras in her room,” she says. “There’s really nothing more satisfying than seeing her face as soon as her eyes open.”
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Nick wanders in from the kitchen. The 30-year-old recording artist and actor looks boyishly rumpled in a Casablanca track jacket, dad jeans and sneakers. “Can I order you two lunch?” he asks in a quiet voice, listing off a few options. Priyanka lets him pick, which seems slightly uncharacteristic for someone brought up from birth to be a decision-maker. At seven years old, she was sent to an all-girls boarding school in Lucknow, India, for three years and then, at 12, to America, bouncing from Iowa to New York to Indiana to Massachusetts, to live with relatives. “My parents” – mother Madhu and late father Ashok, both physicians in the Indian army – “were such a big part of me being able to have autonomy in my life and choices at a time when other people were like, ‘Really?’” she says, calling her independent upbringing “atypical” for an Indian family.
And yet – dressed in a cosy rust-coloured knit top and trousers, wearing no discernible make-up, chestnut hair in a low ponytail – she admits to feeling guarded about this interview. “Vulnerabilities are difficult for me. You see me all over socials and all over the world, talking about all the things, but if you actually look, I’ve really just scratched the surface,” she says, smoothing the ends of her honey-blonde-streaked hair.
Chopra Jonas surprised her 80 million-plus Instagram followers in January of last year with a simple, picture-less post heralding Malti’s arrival: “We are overjoyed to confirm that we have welcomed a baby via surrogate. We respectfully ask for privacy during this special time as we focus on our family. Thank you so much.” This succinct, somewhat boilerplate disclosure garnered more than three million likes, and a seemingly equal amount of outrage, nasty speculation and misogynistic judgement. The first-time mother was accused, among other things, of “outsourcing” her pregnancy, “renting” a womb out of vanity, and acquiring a “ready-made baby”, which one critic implied meant the global entertainer wouldn’t have the same maternal attachment to as her surrogate. Was she expecting that reaction?
“I’ve developed a tough hide when people talk about me,” she says, naturally a little rattled still. “But it’s so painful when they talk about my daughter. I’m like, ‘Keep her out of it.’ I know what it felt like to hold her little hands when they were trying to find her veins. So no, she’s not going to be gossip.” She pauses. “I’ve been really protective of this chapter of my life with my daughter. Because it’s not about my life only. It’s hers too.”
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Neither Priyanka nor Nick addressed the internet mob directly at the time (never mind that most of the ire was directed, predictably, at Chopra Jonas and not her husband). Their decision to stay quiet was due in large part to a set of much greater difficulties emanating from the circumstances surrounding their child’s birth.
Malti had to be delivered preterm, a full trimester before her due date. Babies born this early are considered “extremely” premature and often incur significant, long-term health issues. “I was in the OR [operating room] when she came out. She was so small, smaller than my hand,” Chopra Jonas recounts, her voice halting as she holds out her palm for scale. “I saw what the intensive-care nurses do. They do God’s work. Nick and I were both standing there as they intubated her. I don’t know how they even found what they needed [in her tiny body] to intubate her.”
For the next three months, the new parents had to shuttle daily to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), first at Rady Children’s Hospital in La Jolla, a few hours south of Los Angeles, and then at Cedars-Sinai in LA. Malti’s birth coincided with the first omicron wave in the US, which meant only Chopra Jonas and her husband were allowed to visit their newborn, despite the fact that both of their extended families had flown in to help. “We spent every single day with her on my chest, on my husband’s chest,” Chopra Jonas says tenderly. “I didn’t know if she would make it or not.”
Despite the turbulence of those early days with Malti, Priyanka’s gaze is steady – her warm, wide-set brown eyes don’t break eye contact – and her smoky voice stays calm when she recounts what happened. She prefers to keep private the specific circumstances that led her and her husband to surrogacy. “I had medical complications,” she explains, so “this was a necessary step, and I’m so grateful I was in a position where I could do this. Our surrogate was so generous, kind, lovely and funny, and she took care of this precious gift for us for six months.”
But for the internet trolls who made a sport of theorising why the couple enlisted a surrogate, Chopra Jonas’s tone takes on an edge. “You don’t know me,” she says. “You don’t know what I’ve been through. And just because I don’t want to make my medical history, or my daughter’s, public doesn’t give you the right to make up whatever the reasons were.”
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At this moment, Nick pokes his head in from the kitchen to announce the food has arrived. The edge softens. “Hi, Babu,” she says, sweetly. “What did you get?” One thing about hanging out with the Jonases is that they won’t allow a guest to go hungry. In the first hour of our meeting they’ve offered me tea, water, a charcuterie plate laden with fruit, nuts and meat, more tea, and, finally, a chicken salad and Mediterranean dip, ordered from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Kitchen. “Gwyneth, take my money,” Chopra Jonas jokes of how often they order from the nearby takeaway spot.
Naturally, Chopra Jonas has professionalised her gift for feeding people as part owner of Sona, a chic Indian eatery that debuted in 2021 in New York City’s Flatiron District. The fledgling restaurateur points out that I’m drinking tea from a cup – painted with green palm trees – that’s part of Sona Home’s first collection. “I didn’t want paisley as a representation of Indian culture. It’s so stereotypical to me that I go in the opposite direction.” Yet food is also one of the aspects of motherhood she’s been struggling with recently. Malti has just begun eating solids, and even though she is now healthy and thriving, her rocky beginnings have left an indelible mark. “The first time she had a solid morsel,” Chopra Jonas says, “she gagged and I thought I’d killed her.” Having the support of her mother and her in-laws, Kevin Sr and Denise Jonas, has been a balm. “They talk me through a lot of this. Like, ‘They’re gonna gag. It’s normal.’ But because I’m a NICU mommy, the stakes are so high,” she says. “And I have to shed that. I will,” she promises, her take-charge attitude returning.
Malti starts to stir on the iPad monitor. “I’ll go up really quickly, if you don’t mind,” she says. She returns a few minutes later with her baby, who’s wearing all black except for the cream-coloured headband bow on her downy head, and an armful of toys and books. Malti’s face, which has been mostly obscured in the few photographs Chopra Jonas has publicly shared of her, looks a lot like her father’s, but in miniature. “Most people say she looks like Nick,” Chopra Jonas confirms. “I don’t believe it,” she says, with a laugh. With her baby in her arms, Priyanka is a different person – softer, less guarded. She takes me over to the white marble mandir, or temple, on the far side of the living room, which sits across from their towering Christmas tree, shimmering in shades of silver and ruby red. With Shiva at its centre, this mandir is the first place Priyanka and Nick led Malti after bringing her home from the hospital. Saying their prayers with their daughter remains a nightly ritual.
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Aside from the occasional date night and travel – they went to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico for Priyanka’s 40th birthday and Arizona to golf for Nick’s 30th, celebrations they planned for one another – the star couple reconnects through another ritual called “show and tell”, which began on their honeymoon. Although it sounds risqué, the game is more a “getting to know you” exercise. “We did go zero to 60,” Chopra Jonas admits, about their notoriously brief two-month courtship that resulted in a multiday, multi-event wedding in Mumbai and Jodhpur less than seven months later. “We didn’t know each other’s careers before we met. Like, didn’t know them well. So we do a show and tell once in a while and share random things that we’ve done to show the other person what we were like when we were younger,” she reveals.
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Recently returned from a trip to India with Unicef, for which she’s a global ambassador, Priyanka and Nick played the game the night before. They watched YouTube clips of old press interviews Chopra Jonas had done years ago. “There were just so many videos of my savage remarks,” she says, shocked. “I was like, ‘What was I on when I was in my 20s?’” As she details how she and Nick have arranged their travel schedules so that one parent is always at home with Malti while the other is away working, he returns to the living room, holding a mug.
“What are you drinking?” she asks, as Malti swats at the pages of The Little Engine That Could.
“A ginger chai something,” he says, unsure.
“Wow, drinking tea, huh?”
“It’s nice, though. It’s like a gingersnap. Sweet,” he says. As Malti wiggles in her mother’s grip and pushes her book aside for her favourite toy, a Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes, which she waves at Nick, he says softly, “Hi, Malti.” Then he looks at Priyanka and the two lock eyes, and this feeling that, for months, it was the three of them against the world, against the odds, becomes palpable. I ask him how he feels about fatherhood. “Nothing better,” he says. “Overwhelming. The joy, the anxiety, all of the things.” After Nick repairs upstairs for a fitting, Priyanka tells me that he’s the mature one in the relationship, despite his being 10 years her junior.
“He’s a wise man beyond his years,” she says. “I get affirmations from him all the time, to remind me of my value when I forget or when I get insecure. He just sees through the fog for me. He sees the best in people.” After decades spent going from one job to the next without a break, she credits Nick for helping her stay grounded in the moment. “‘Take a second. Take tonight to be excited about this award or be excited about this new deal,’” she says of the encouragement he offers.
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She insists that though she and her husband are temperamentally different people – “I talk a mile a minute and my husband does not” – their values align when it comes to parenting. Priyanka’s mother has been living with them for the past six months to help out. “My mom doesn’t know what’s happening in her own life, except for the baby,” she says. Madhu’s asleep upstairs, recovering from rotator cuff surgery, but soon will be down in time to feed her first grandchild dinner.
Mealtimes are a family affair. “When Malti eats there are, like, seven people around her. There will be my mom and her brother, and then Nick’s brother and their parents.” Family support is what allows Priyanka and Nick time to themselves. “I’m like, ‘Mom, you got her? Great. We’re going off for the weekend.’” (One of the more absurd theories circulated about the couple’s decision to use a surrogate was that their “busy schedules” didn’t allow them time to conceive.)
Malti starts to fuss and emits one lone cry. “She needs to roam,” declares her mother, so it’s off to the playpen. While Chopra Jonas apologises on more than one occasion for having to continue our interview in what is effectively Malti’s fun room, it’s clear that being with her child is her happy place. Her voice gets faster and more animated, toggling between cooing at her baby – “Do you want to walk? Run? What do you want to do?” – and talking about her upcoming projects. A deft ability to move back and forth from mum mode to work mode goes a long way towards explaining why she has worn so many hats in her career. She’s recently begun to regard acting as merely her “day job”.
“After 20 years, I’ve reached a place where I’m like, ‘There’s got to be more than this…’ I have my own production house where I can tell other people’s stories, where I’m working with new filmmakers who want to jump off the diving board – and my shoulders are the diving board. I’m getting to create stories with women behind the camera, which I almost never saw when I was growing up.” With a first-look deal with Amazon Studios, and a comedy with Mindy Kaling in the works at Universal Pictures, she wants to continue breaking down racial and ethnic barriers in entertainment.
“Hopefully I’ll open doors for the next generation of girls. Hopefully we’ll see more Indian or South Asian actors in Hollywood. I want to commemorate the success and achievements of South Asians outside of India, in the international sphere, because we deserve that position,” she asserts. “Why shouldn’t we be on the main stage?”
For now, though, the most important audience to Chopra Jonas is right beside her on that playpen floor. And that little girl is signalling, with a look towards the kitchen, that it’s time for dinner, an almost imperceptible cue only her mother observes.
“I want her to be able to look back and be proud of my choices,” Chopra Jonas says, her eyes lighting up as she lifts Malti into her arms. “I want to do right by her.”
The February 2023 issue of British Vogue is on newsstands on Tuesday 24 January.
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Sinalo Ngcaba — A whole new pastel world centered around Black joy
PUBLISHEDJan 9, 2023WORDSYaya ClarkeTAGS
- Art
- …
Thanks to the impact of British colonialism, artist Sinalo Ngcaba remembers her upbringing in the coastal South African city of East London being “very English.” In response, she chose to soak up and celebrate elements of Black culture, all of which she brings together in the energetic worlds she creates with her pastels and paints. She tells writer Yaya Clarke that she hopes to offer some “much-needed escapism” by finding new ways to depict Black joy.
After a deep dive into the Instagram profiles of many of today’s emerging artists you will find a chest full of artworks portraying well known figures. South African artist Sinalo Ngcaba’s genesis is the same, with a series of digital works made in 2020, depicting the likes of George Floyd and Black power figure Kathleen Cleaver. “As an artist it’s my responsibility to talk about what’s happening,” Ngcaba says. And the last two years have changed nothing in the way of concept, but everything in style. With a master stroke she lends her pastels, paints and ink to bolder and broader representations of Black life. “I decided it was better to take an icon’s pose and give it to ordinary people,” she explains.
Raised by her grandmother, who was a nursery manager and freedom fighter during the apartheid, she was exposed to an especial mix of art materials and human rights. “Maybe that’s where I get it from,” she says. After laughing at her home province being often mistaken for the United Kingdom’s capital, she is serious about the effects of British colonialism on her upbringing.
“My childhood was very English without ever going to England,” she reveals, a reality that led her to soak up Black music and art from around the world, and present us with the one she’s built in her practice.
Growing up in the eastern cape city of East London, she describes her hometown as “small”, and her exposure to institutional art even smaller. But that only grew her affection for the small town painter, small town sculptor and small town maker. In the piece “Just Me and My Beach,” a woman with a blue painted face is seen sitting on a chair in a body of water no larger than a splasher pool, oblivious to her surroundings on fire.
Ngcaba describes this as “much-needed escapism” for Black people worldwide. The painted face becomes a growing theme throughout her work, with tribute to the Xhosa people and their use of Letsoku (red soil) for cosmetics, art and symbolism. “I use it [in my work] as a sunscreen, but with more playful colors,” she says.
For Ngcaba, commissions and personal work hold no thematic difference. Recently creating the promotional artworks for Native Sound System’s debut album NATIVEWORLD, she uses Nigeria’s seasons – harmattan, rainy and festive – as a backdrop, further showcasing the painted face as both a literal protection from the elements and metaphorical shielding from the troubles of the outside world.
For Ngcaba, this is all in alignment with her purpose of sewing counter representations of Blackness into art, after years of seeing Black suffering throughout visual media. “I’m building a world of joy outside of our pain,” she says. On the Native album cover, she combines the seasonal themes and connects the figure’s hair to the clouds, toying with our perception of background and foreground, all in the effort to “build a completely new world for the album.”
Like many creatives today, Ngcaba’s beginnings included an internship, a crack at a career in advertising and a soul-destroying corporate job. Much of this work was futile to her artistry, but it was a life jacket, and now she has a growing list of clients including Comedy Central Africa and Nike. Recently illustrating a second poster for Black Market Flea, she’s further built her relationship with the Los Angeles based community (that started with a direct message on Instagram), and their event partner Frequency, leading to commissioned work from the internationally touring day party, Everyday People.
This experience informs Ngcaba’s philosophy of “put your best work out there.” She describes being able to create the “intentional work” in the past year as something that is only possible with sharing and “making work that’s true to you.”
When explaining what it’s like to create “intentional work that aligns,” she opens up about treading the line between passion projects and earlier briefs that warped her artistry and morals. “When I started, a lot of brands would see my style and ask me to apply it to their ideal. I still took the jobs even when our morals didn’t align, because I needed to. But now I’m fortunate enough to only say yes when it’s right.” And when it comes to pricing her work she experiences a dilemma with her audience that may not be as easy to solve: “I price my work quite low, because people who most appreciate my work can’t afford to buy art. I can’t afford to buy art!” she says. Ngcaba describes this as “unfortunate” but sees it as a lesson for emerging artists to consider client-based work and build relationships with those that have a similar mission.
Now living in Johannesburg, she’s surrounded by a heap of diasporic districts and a booming art scene. A shift that has also taught her that for people like those in her hometown, the only way into the art world—that “pretentious and elitist” world, as she calls it—is to play the game. But Ngcaba has her own game plan and high hopes for the future, hoisted by the internet, Black culture and her ever growing motif.
The Harry & Megan Documentary is Reminding Me Why I was a Communications Major — Have A Little Faith in We
The Netflix Harry & Megan Documentary came out this past week – and after my Crown series fascination over the last few years, I admit it – I was REALLY excited for this release. Its human nature we all want to a look inside… and then there is the other part of human nature: we […]
The Harry & Megan Documentary is Reminding Me Why I was a Communications Major — Have A Little Faith in We
What is your spirit animal?
What the first Lunar New Year after Covid curbs means for luxury
As mainland China confronts Covid uncertainty amid the relaxation of its stringent pandemic curbs and a rise in cases, luxury brands and retailers are taking an empathetic approach to Lunar New Year to connect with consumers.
China’s most important holiday this year falls on 22 January and is all about the rabbit. It will be the first since the lifting of China’s zero-Covid policy, which had been in place since early 2020. Chinese tourists are now able to travel with greater ease, and inbound quarantine rules in China have been scrapped. With Europe facing an energy crisis and the US also cooling due to higher interest rates, brands have an opportunity to boost their popularity and longevity in China, which is set to become the biggest luxury market by the end of 2025, according to consultancy firm Bain & Company.
However, as holiday marketing campaigns ramp up, the challenge is commercialising Lunar New Year beyond simply co-opting ethnic traditions.
Luxury brands have long churned out capsule collections to celebrate Lunar New Year. These often feature limited-edition styles in red or the Chinese zodiac sign of the year to appeal to local consumers, who allocate generous budgets for the occasion of their 本命年 (ben ming nian) – the sign representing one’s birth year. But since 2019’s racial justice protests, companies that profit from ethnic cultures have faced growing pressure to more proactively invest in those communities.
This year, to connect with Chinese consumers in a more authentic way and build cultural credibility, global brands have collaborated with Chinese creatives; developed their partnerships with local ambassadors; and featured childhood characters that evoke positive memories.
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What the first Lunar New Year after Covid curbs means for luxury
As China eases its zero-Covid policy, luxury brands and retailers are gearing up for Lunar New Year with renewed enthusiasm — while keeping cultural credibility top-of-mind.
January 16, 2023
Photo: Maje x Jiayi Li
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As mainland China confronts Covid uncertainty amid the relaxation of its stringent pandemic curbs and a rise in cases, luxury brands and retailers are taking an empathetic approach to Lunar New Year to connect with consumers.
China’s most important holiday this year falls on 22 January and is all about the rabbit. It will be the first since the lifting of China’s zero-Covid policy, which had been in place since early 2020. Chinese tourists are now able to travel with greater ease, and inbound quarantine rules in China have been scrapped. With Europe facing an energy crisis and the US also cooling due to higher interest rates, brands have an opportunity to boost their popularity and longevity in China, which is set to become the biggest luxury market by the end of 2025, according to consultancy firm Bain & Company.
However, as holiday marketing campaigns ramp up, the challenge is commercialising Lunar New Year beyond simply co-opting ethnic traditions.
Luxury brands have long churned out capsule collections to celebrate Lunar New Year. These often feature limited-edition styles in red or the Chinese zodiac sign of the year to appeal to local consumers, who allocate generous budgets for the occasion of their 本命年 (ben ming nian) – the sign representing one’s birth year. But since 2019’s racial justice protests, companies that profit from ethnic cultures have faced growing pressure to more proactively invest in those communities.
This year, to connect with Chinese consumers in a more authentic way and build cultural credibility, global brands have collaborated with Chinese creatives; developed their partnerships with local ambassadors; and featured childhood characters that evoke positive memories.
Riding the ‘national’ trend
Navigating messaging during an important occasion can be a tightrope for brands. Those that are “able to authentically leverage the cultural nuances” will gain “a lot of favour in China”, says Chloe Reuter, founding partner of brandtech group Gusto Collective, which helps luxury brands navigate business in China and Asia. She points to Burberry’s ongoing long-term programme aimed at supporting the local Chinese creative community, including a 10-day pop-up exhibition at TX Huaihai, a Shanghai-based mall popular among younger shoppers, in January 2022.
共同富裕 (gongtong fuyu) or “common prosperity”, a phrase first used decades earlier by Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, was rarely heard until current Chinese president Xi Jinping mentioned it in a speech in 2021. It has since become one of the most important concepts guiding China’s policymaking. At its heart is the goal of making Chinese society more equitable and refocusing corporate China on the domestic market. For foreign brands, it requires careful consideration of “what they are doing to show real authentic commitment and localisation of CSR [corporate social responsibility] in China, for China”, says Reuter.
Brands are showing their support by collaborating with Chinese creatives for Lunar New Year in 2023. Danish fashion label Ganni partnered with Chinese multidisciplinary artist Lv Wenting on a limited-edition gift box design, and also is running a campaign with the help of casting director Simone Drost, featuring members of its Chinese community based in Copenhagen. Demi-fine jewellery brand Missoma teamed up with Beijing-based creator Savi on a limited-edition three-piece drop featuring red chalcedony gemstones and moon-cut beads — in reference to 玉兔 (yutu) or “the jade rabbit”, a mythical figure that lives on the moon. French contemporary brand Maje collaborated with Chinese illustrator Jiayi Li on a capsule collection inspired by notable films such as Havoc in Heaven and A Deer of Nine Colours from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
“Collaborations with Chinese creatives help luxury brands show their commitment to the local market as well as surf the 国朝 (guochao) or ‘national’ trend and capture young Chinese Gen Z”, who are increasingly interested in the integration of Chinese culture and style with brands and products, says Antonello Germano, luxury market analyst at China research and management firm Daxue Consulting. These partnerships could provide a way in for global luxury brands in the face of growing competition, adds Panos Dimitropoulos, Kantar’s cultural intelligence and future foresight lead based in Shanghai. “Local luxury brands are becoming better in terms of quality and design, so this could be a [challenge] for foreign brands.”
Leaning into the familiar
Overlapping with guochao is nostalgia marketing, which taps into customers’ childhoods and can influence both marketing and product creation. Gucci, Loewe and Balenciaga have previously focused on Japanese anime characters including Doraemon, Totoro and Hello Kitty. This year, British brand Mulberry has a capsule collection featuring the animated bunny character Miffy; French house Givenchy has a new collaboration with Disney’s Lucky Rabbit Oswald; and Moncler has limited-edition pieces featuring the cartoon Roger Rabbit.
The approach resonates with younger consumers who have been exposed to more foreign cultural influences, such as popular culture and cartoons, than previous generations. Young Chinese shoppers also “seek relief” from daily life and comforting emotions of the past provide a form of escapism, says Daxue Consulting’s Germano.
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What the first Lunar New Year after Covid curbs means for luxury
As China eases its zero-Covid policy, luxury brands and retailers are gearing up for Lunar New Year with renewed enthusiasm — while keeping cultural credibility top-of-mind.
January 16, 2023
Photo: Maje x Jiayi Li
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As mainland China confronts Covid uncertainty amid the relaxation of its stringent pandemic curbs and a rise in cases, luxury brands and retailers are taking an empathetic approach to Lunar New Year to connect with consumers.
China’s most important holiday this year falls on 22 January and is all about the rabbit. It will be the first since the lifting of China’s zero-Covid policy, which had been in place since early 2020. Chinese tourists are now able to travel with greater ease, and inbound quarantine rules in China have been scrapped. With Europe facing an energy crisis and the US also cooling due to higher interest rates, brands have an opportunity to boost their popularity and longevity in China, which is set to become the biggest luxury market by the end of 2025, according to consultancy firm Bain & Company.
However, as holiday marketing campaigns ramp up, the challenge is commercialising Lunar New Year beyond simply co-opting ethnic traditions.
Luxury brands have long churned out capsule collections to celebrate Lunar New Year. These often feature limited-edition styles in red or the Chinese zodiac sign of the year to appeal to local consumers, who allocate generous budgets for the occasion of their 本命年 (ben ming nian) – the sign representing one’s birth year. But since 2019’s racial justice protests, companies that profit from ethnic cultures have faced growing pressure to more proactively invest in those communities.
This year, to connect with Chinese consumers in a more authentic way and build cultural credibility, global brands have collaborated with Chinese creatives; developed their partnerships with local ambassadors; and featured childhood characters that evoke positive memories.
Riding the ‘national’ trend
Navigating messaging during an important occasion can be a tightrope for brands. Those that are “able to authentically leverage the cultural nuances” will gain “a lot of favour in China”, says Chloe Reuter, founding partner of brandtech group Gusto Collective, which helps luxury brands navigate business in China and Asia. She points to Burberry’s ongoing long-term programme aimed at supporting the local Chinese creative community, including a 10-day pop-up exhibition at TX Huaihai, a Shanghai-based mall popular among younger shoppers, in January 2022.
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共同富裕 (gongtong fuyu) or “common prosperity”, a phrase first used decades earlier by Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, was rarely heard until current Chinese president Xi Jinping mentioned it in a speech in 2021. It has since become one of the most important concepts guiding China’s policymaking. At its heart is the goal of making Chinese society more equitable and refocusing corporate China on the domestic market. For foreign brands, it requires careful consideration of “what they are doing to show real authentic commitment and localisation of CSR [corporate social responsibility] in China, for China”, says Reuter.
Brands are showing their support by collaborating with Chinese creatives for Lunar New Year in 2023. Danish fashion label Ganni partnered with Chinese multidisciplinary artist Lv Wenting on a limited-edition gift box design, and also is running a campaign with the help of casting director Simone Drost, featuring members of its Chinese community based in Copenhagen. Demi-fine jewellery brand Missoma teamed up with Beijing-based creator Savi on a limited-edition three-piece drop featuring red chalcedony gemstones and moon-cut beads — in reference to 玉兔 (yutu) or “the jade rabbit”, a mythical figure that lives on the moon. French contemporary brand Maje collaborated with Chinese illustrator Jiayi Li on a capsule collection inspired by notable films such as Havoc in Heaven and A Deer of Nine Colours from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
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“Collaborations with Chinese creatives help luxury brands show their commitment to the local market as well as surf the 国朝 (guochao) or ‘national’ trend and capture young Chinese Gen Z”, who are increasingly interested in the integration of Chinese culture and style with brands and products, says Antonello Germano, luxury market analyst at China research and management firm Daxue Consulting. These partnerships could provide a way in for global luxury brands in the face of growing competition, adds Panos Dimitropoulos, Kantar’s cultural intelligence and future foresight lead based in Shanghai. “Local luxury brands are becoming better in terms of quality and design, so this could be a [challenge] for foreign brands.”
Leaning into the familiar
Overlapping with guochao is nostalgia marketing, which taps into customers’ childhoods and can influence both marketing and product creation. Gucci, Loewe and Balenciaga have previously focused on Japanese anime characters including Doraemon, Totoro and Hello Kitty. This year, British brand Mulberry has a capsule collection featuring the animated bunny character Miffy; French house Givenchy has a new collaboration with Disney’s Lucky Rabbit Oswald; and Moncler has limited-edition pieces featuring the cartoon Roger Rabbit.
The approach resonates with younger consumers who have been exposed to more foreign cultural influences, such as popular culture and cartoons, than previous generations. Young Chinese shoppers also “seek relief” from daily life and comforting emotions of the past provide a form of escapism, says Daxue Consulting’s Germano.
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Prada and Valentino are among the luxury brands that, in recent years, have appointed regional ambassadors, which they’re leaning into for Lunar New Year. Prada’s campaign this year features singer Cai Xukun, the face of the brand in China since 2019. Valentino’s campaign stars its ambassadors, the actresses Sun Li and Sun Yan. Supermodel Liu Wen continues to star in Tory Burch’s campaigns and collections as the US brand’s longtime ambassador.
“While the concept of Chinese brand ambassadors is not new, they’re now being used on a global stage,” says Gusto Collective’s Reuter. “The Chinese diaspora is very significant around the world.” Chinese celebrities and talent also have vast reach across their local network, helping brands reach a new demographic, adds Kantar’s Dimitropoulos. “Beyond their visual appeal and communication as a spokesperson, they are also active on social media, live streams and other KOL platforms.”
Partnering with Chinese talent comes at a cost, however. Pricing tends to be higher than Western celebrities, and the country’s strict regulations and ongoing crackdown on the entertainment industry means that such partnerships are a risky bet for luxury brands, says Reuter.
Catering to local customers
Some brands and retailers are steering clear of rabbit-themed marketing in favour of celebrating local traditions, while acknowledging the current climate.
Before the pandemic, the majority of luxury spending by mainland Chinese shoppers did not happen at home due to comparatively higher local prices. Instead, the bulk of sales took place in European cities such as Milan and Paris, and more regional Asian cities including Seoul. During Covid, some big brands continued investing in local Chinese infrastructure, opening new flagship stores and hosting large fashion shows to reach consumers unable to go abroad. Hong Kong’s position as a luxury shopping destination was hit after the city maintained some of the world’s strictest border rules. In mainland China, boutiques in second and third tier cities have gained new relevance, particularly in places like Chengdu and Hangzhou. One particular hotspot has been Hainan, which the government has been developing as a duty-free shopping hub.
It’ll take some time before Chinese consumers reengage with the world as international flights remain limited and expensive, says Dimitropoulos. “That hasn’t opened up completely. I think it will take a couple of months for the situation to start to return to previous conditions.” Instead, domestic retail is expected to boom this Lunar New Year. “[The holiday] is like Chinese Christmas so the majority of local consumers will go home and spend time with family,” he says.
READ MORE
China is reopening. Can it return to form as luxury’s growth engine?
Analysts are looking ahead with caution as China reopens its borders to travel, with customers expected to still shop locally.
BY JUNJIE WANG
Mainland China and Hong Kong-based luxury retail company Lane Crawford is already seeing an uptick in store visitors, according to president Blondie Tsang. “Foot traffic has doubled in the past month and sales are well up on the same time last year,” she says. Mainland Chinese customers have started returning to Hong Kong and are “showing strong interest in the Spring/Summer 2023 fashion arrivals, sales of which are up considerably on the same time last year”.
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That’s reassuring, Tsang adds, as SS23 marks the retailer’s biggest investment in merchandise for the past three years. Lane Crawford is seeing similar encouraging results in Shanghai and Chengdu, although there are no expectations for a “huge rebound or revenge shopping” during the holiday, she says. “Recovery in the market will be gradual. While we’re seeing an uplift, travel is the priority for our customers; to reunite with their families over the holiday, and relax and immerse themselves in different experiences where they feel safe, such as travelling to Thailand or Japan.”
Activations outside of China
Since 2020, Chinese multi-brand retailer Labelhood has celebrated Lunar New Year by offering family portrait shoots at its boutiques, which often draw hundreds of visitors. This year, Labelhood is exporting its tradition and hosting its family portrait activation at luxury London department store Harrods. “Over the last three years we have remained very close to our Chinese customers by participating in events such as Shanghai Fashion Week and through the Harrods Tea Rooms in Shanghai, and from this we know that returning to London is something many people have been eagerly waiting for,” says Harrods managing director Michael Ward.
In the US, luxury department store-chain Neiman Marcus will host a Lunar New Year holiday parade, while its Houston Galleria branch will feature a special storefront greeting. Limited-edition Lunar New Year beauty products will also be sold across its store network. “While we await the normalisation of open borders, our Chinese customers have a continued strong appetite to engage with luxury goods,” says Stefanie Tsen Ward, senior vice president and head of retail.
China’s consumer confidence index and investment index have shown a significant increase since December 2022, according to data tracked by Daxue Consulting. “It illustrates that local consumers’ prospects of their future and financial situation are getting more optimistic and therefore they are more eager to purchase and invest,” says Germano.
However, a low key approach might be luxury’s safest bet. For 2023, Germano predicts a rise of “inconspicuous luxury” due to the economic downturn caused by Covid and the common prosperity campaign. “Entry-level consumers represented the group that suffered the most during constant lockdowns in China. High spenders will probably drive the market for the first half of 2023, thereby favouring ultra-luxury brands that tend to be more discreet and do not display big logos.”
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Everything The Duke & Duchess Of Sussex Revealed About Their Romance In Harry & Meghan
Harry originally requested to meet Meghan after spotting her on a friend’s Instagram
“Meghan and I met over Instagram,” he tells director Liz Garbus at the beginning of the series. “I was scrolling through my feed, and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them, it was like a Snapchat… with doggy ears and – that was the first thing. I was like, ‘Who is that?’” Meghan, in turn, stalked Harry on Instagram after their mutual friend mentioned his interest, finding herself taken with his environmental shots and the “time he was spending in Africa”. Shortly afterwards, the two began to correspond via text, organising their first date at Soho House on 76 Dean Street.
Harry turned up late to their first date
“I couldn’t understand why he would be late!” Meghan says, laughing. “But he kept texting. He was like, ‘I’m in traffic. I’m so sorry. I’m in traffic. I’m so sorry.’… Then I didn’t know him, so I was like, ‘Oh, is this what he does? Got it.’ And I was just not interested in that.” For his part, Harry was actually “panicking. I was freaking out. I was, like, sweating” – ultimately showing up “a hot, sweaty, red ball of mess”. “You genuinely were, like, so embarrassed!” Meghan adds.
The pair attempted to stay under the radar for as long as possible
“When I got to meet M, I was terrified of her being driven away by the media – the same media that had driven so many other people away from me,” Harry confides, using his nickname for Meghan. “I knew that the only way that this could possibly work is by keeping it quiet for as long as possible.” When, several months into their relationship, communications secretary Jason Knauf informed Harry and Meghan that the news of their romance had been leaked to a tabloid, they decided to spend their last night of freedom at a Halloween party, with Harry wearing a bandana and goggles. “[We just thought], pull the pin on the fun grenade!” he remembers.
While Meghan instituted a “two-week rule” during the early days of their relationship – meaning they would never go more than a fortnight without seeing each other – much of their courtship happened over the phone
“At the beginning, our relationship was this guarded little… guarded treasure,” Meghan explains. “It was long-distance from the beginning. Everything was just texts and FaceTimes, and we just talked for hours, and it just felt exciting, which is so weird because it wasn’t exciting in the way that I think people would assume that it would be. It was just relaxed and easy. We just got to know each other. Truly, like any other couple, we were figuring out, like, what do you like to eat? What do you like to cook? What kind of movies do you like?”
The couple had their third date in Botswana
In the summer of 2016, Harry was heading to southern Africa to do conservation work, and Meghan had a break from filming Suits. “He said, do you want to come to Botswana?” Meghan says – an offer she promptly accepted, although not without some doubts. “I’m getting on a plane and I’m going to the middle of the bush? What? What am I doing? What if we don’t like each other, and then we’re stuck in the middle of the bush in a tent?” For Harry’s part, he was “astonished” that she agreed to“living in a tent [with him] for five days” having only met him twice before. “You put a lot of faith and a lot of trust in me on that trip,” he praises her.
Harry credits Meghan with sharing many of the same qualities as Diana, Princess of Wales
“So much of what Meghan is and how she is, is so similar to my mum,” he reflects. “She has the same compassion, she has the same empathy, she has the same confidence. She has this warmth about her. I accept that there will be people around the world who fundamentally disagree with what I’ve done and how I’ve done it, but I knew that I had to do everything I could to protect my family. Especially after what happened to my mum. I didn’t want history to repeat itself.”
The pair bonded over being children of divorce
“I think most kids who are the product of divorced parents have a lot in common, no matter what your background is,” Harry notes at one point. “Being pulled from one place to another, or maybe your parents are competitive, or you’re in one place longer than you want to be or another place less than you want to be… There’s all sorts of pieces to that.” Meghan, meanwhile, recites a poem she wrote aged 12 about spending weeks with her mother and weekends with her father, culminating in, “Life would be easier if there were two of me.”
The royal family adored Meghan during their initial meetings, but people in Harry’s circle had doubts about the longevity of the relationship
“I remember my family first meeting her and being incredibly impressed,” Harry says with a grin. “Some of them didn’t quite know what to do with themselves… They were surprised that a ginger could land such a beautiful woman – and such an intelligent woman – but the fact that I was dating an American actress is probably what clouded their judgement more than anything else at the beginning. Oh, she’s an American actress. This won’t last.” Meghan adds: “The actress thing was the biggest problem, funnily enough. There was a big idea of what that looks like from the UK standpoint.”
Harry proposed in the grounds of Kensington Palace
“I wanted to do it earlier,” he reflects. “Because I had to ask permission from my grandmother, I couldn’t do it outside of the UK. I did pop a bottle of champagne while she was roasting a chicken and that kind of slightly gave the game away. She was like, ‘You don’t drink champagne. What’s the occasion?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know. Just had it laying around here, whatever.’” He then led Meghan outside into the gardens of Kensington Palace, where he had laid out electric candles on a blanket, for the proposal. “It wasn’t that I knew she’d say yes, but she’d already moved Guy [her dog] over, so I had Guy as a hostage,” Harry quips. “Of course I got down on one knee. Of course I did.”
Their engagement party had an unusual theme
In the fortnight between Harry proposing and the formal announcement of their engagement, the couple hosted a private party “with everyone dressed in animal onesies”. Harry and Meghan wore matching penguin outfits – “because penguins mate for life”. One famous confidante who shared a testament to their lasting compatibility in the documentary? Serena Williams. “I’m looking at it through the lens of my friend, not as a Princess – they, as a couple, are so tight and rely on each other so much and are each other’s best, best, best friends. I was just super excited.”
SBL GRUP 