FUNNY BUSINESS
中国幽默面面观
Stand-up comedy offers a rare opportunity for Chinese comics to find success outside the mainstream, free of the institutions of crosstalk or CCTV'S Spring Festival Gala. A profusion of clubs, web shows, and start-ups are eager to monetize this young talent, but some wonder if all this quantity will compromise quality—if the censors don't get there first
In Shenzhen's Dapeng Bay, a group of amateur divers are putting their hobby to good use, cleaning up maritime trash, replanting coral, and raising awareness about a hidden ecological crisis on China's sea floor
Though Broadway hits are slowly catching on, musicals have consistently performed below expectations in China. The domestic industry's next, more daunting step is to create an original musical, which means finding performers and a suitable storytelling style
EAST SIDE STORY
When Midnight Diner, a widely panned Chinese adaptation of the Japanese drama of the same name, premiered in 2017, the characters’ habit of going to a restaurant for instant noodles became a particular target for online mockery.
Those critics had to eat their words, though, after one “instant noodle diner” went viral on video app Douyin the following year, causing foodies from Shenzhen to Huai’an, Anhui, to queue up at similar joints that soon opened around the country. The original restaurant, Xi’an’s Little Noodle Canteen, was lauded for giving the blue-collar meal “the feel of Western food”—with ceramic bowls, added toppings like cheese and seafood, and an 80 RMB price tag.
“Consumption upgrade” is coming to the instant noodle market, according to Master Kang, the biggest Chinese distributor of the wavy treat. Sales of instant noodles in China had been in steady decline from 2013 to 2016, reported marketing research firm Qianzhan, but sales of Master Kang and its rival, Tongyi, sales picked up by as much as 8 percent this year.
Master Kang’s 2018 annual report attributed its success to the company’s “product upgrade”—a “super high-end” line of noodles, with flavors like abalone and prices of 25 RMB a pack, whose release
According to an April report by CNR, authentic Chinese ID cards, many lost or stolen from their original holders, can easily be bought on social-media channels such as Wechat and Tencent QQ for as little as 500 RMB (35 USD). Millions of lost or stolen ID cards are sold annually, China Youth Daily reported in 2015; police in the city of Tianjin registered over 190,000 such losses in 2014 alone.
In October 2017, a Zhengzhou resident surnamed Sun received a lawyer’s letter, warning her of overdue loans in two provinces that someone applied for using an ID card that had been stolen from Sun three years ago. Many others have reported similar stories of their identities being used to borrow money, register companies, or commit crimes. One problem is that older ID cards, issued before 2004, feature a “non-contact” chip and cannot be deregistered even after cardholders report their loss to the police and get a new one.
success also appears closely linked to the recent push for artisanal noodle flavors in the market, as an array of noodles in their original packaging, from Sichuanese dandan to Japanese pork-bone ramen recipes, are displayed in cages on the wall for diners to choose as their base meal before ordering toppings.
And for those still unconvinced of the value of their meal, there’s always the aggressively white interior and lighting. “Typically, instant noodles imply solitude and a lack of nutrition,” customer Wang Zhuolun, who spent over 20 RMB on a bowl of seafood noodles, tells TWOC. “In a chic restaurant, you are immersed in conversation with friends and forget the meaning of instant noodles.”