Promouvoir ses produits par le biais de partenariats n’est pas nouveau. Que ce soit via des influenceurs ou entre deux marques, cela a toujours été un bon moyen pour vendre ses produits. Cependant, certaines entreprises souhaitant conquérir le marché chinois se sont tournées vers des partenariats un peu moins communs mais toujours aussi efficaces : les jeux mobiles. Un jeu mobile n’est-il pas le meilleur moyen de faire la publicité de son produit lorsque celui-ci est joué par de nombreuses personnes et permet d’atteindre sa cible rapidement et efficacement ?
Ce dimanche 20 février 2022, la ville de Beijing a éteint la flamme olympique, symbole de la fin de la compétition internationale.
Malgré un contexte non favorable à l’accueil de cette compétition : un boycott diplomatique de plusieurs états en raison du non-respect des droits humains dans le pays, des enjeux environnementaux importants, la crise sanitaire mondiale ; la Chine a réussi à mener au terme son projet.
Pour plus d’informations sur l’organisation et les enjeux de la Chine pour cet évènement, il est possible de consulter l’article Les chinois à l’assaut des sports d’hiver.
Sources :
JO 2022 : le boycott diplomatique des Jeux de Pékin s’annonce très parcellaire
In one of the most digitized country in the world, tradition still prevails. And in China, less and less couple are getting married. In 2020, there was a 12% drop from 2019 in weddings, a rate which has fallen every year since 2013. This is due to a staggering gender imbalance in the Chinese population. Decades of the one-child policy has made a tremendous impact on the society, and Chinese people have slowly eliminated the desire for marriage and children. We have now identified a true marriage crisis in China.
Leftover women
In China, they call single educated women aged over twenty-seven years old, « Sheng-nu ». This literally means ‘leftover women’. The label is now an entire social status in the society. This is due to conservative beliefs that unmarried women past 30 are less desirable and committing a moral transgression. In the media, they are portrayed as lonely, desperate and flawed. This stigma has put tremendous pressure on many women to get married. But women are fighting back this derogatory term. These women don’t protest, they use their economic power to prove their worth and importance in the society. They try to break the stigma that they have a miserable life by highlighting the perks such as their freedom. The financial freedom especially helps them redefine their place in the Chinese society. They use their money to buy themselves things or purchase gifts for their parents. This way they positively transform their image in the eyes of their parents.
Leftover men
There is approximatively 35 million more single men than women. Mainly attributed to China’s one-child policy, in effect from 1979 to 2015, this has created a major gender imbalance over generations. This problem is even more alarming in the country side. Women often move away to marry men with better situation in more metropolitan areas. ‘Leftover men’ or « shengnan » are also called « guang gun ». This literally means bare branches, it refers to men who do not marry and thus do not add ‘branches’ to the family tree. And while leftover women willingly put off marriage to focus on their career, education and enjoy their status, leftover men in China are eager to get married. Chinese men face strong economic pressure as well as traditional family stress. They feel a huge guilt and fear to disappoint their parents by ending their lineage.
The government’s pressure
The government has noticed this marriage crisis and has been continually taking actions to stimulate dating. More recently, they have put in place rather agressive campaigns to remedy the situation of those leftover men and women. The local government of Xiangyin, a rural Hunan county even created a plan to urge women to stay and marry their local bachelor. They specify that leftover men’s situation are a ‘social issue’ that requires ‘urgent attention’.
“Education and guidance should be provided to make women born in rural regions feel passionate about their hometowns and willing to improve the environment they grew up in”
The government promised to simplify the marriage registration process. Through these actions, they hope to popularize a new wave of “modest” dating and marriage in rural China. In addition, over the past few years, campaigns have been surfacing to warn women against the dangers of becoming a leftover women and pressure them into marriage.
Singles day
Despite the efforts of the government and the pressure from their peers, women in China are more and more confident about their legitimacy in the society. Women between 24 and 34 have become one of the largest contributors to the country’s growth. Indeed, women are responsible for 41% of China’s GDP, the largest proportion in the world. The Chinese market has noticed this trend and is capitalizing on the upsurge of single hood through the economy. In 2009, e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba invented the « Single’s Day ». This celebration is an anti-valentine’s day, whose goal is to empower single people. The celebration, held on 11/11, became the biggest shopping festival in the world, surpassing by far Black Friday. For women, the economic power is a way to have a voice. They get the chance to spent money on themselves and their loved ones, which transforms and redefines their single hood has something they can be proud of. They promote an image of leftover women as successful, financially independent, morally honorable, and upright citizens.
SK-II #changedestiny campaign
Japanese beauty and skincare company SK-II has started a campaign named #changedestiny in order to empower the ‘leftover’ women to own their power and their place. The movement, based on female empowerment, focuses on particular pressures faced by women in their daily lives. Through a series of videos and articles, they encourage women to fight these stereotypes and overcome the pressures. This year, SK-II has been focusing on athletes and olympians to star in their campaigns. They highlight the stories of six successful female athletes in China, with the first one being Chinese swimmer Liu Xiang. This campaign represents a long running success that keeps reinventing and refreshing itself all the while sending strong messages of empowerment and taking a social stance for women everywhere.
The marriage crisis in China highlights a major social imbalance that remains in the country. Years ago, the gender imbalance promoted the uprising of men through the one-child policy. Now however, women seem to have the upper hand. When the bachelor crisis pushes men in rural area to desperately get married, women enjoy a new found economical power and freedom and do see marriage as a priority. ‘Leftover women’ promote themselves as morally upright, economically independent, successful citizens. ‘Leftover men’ are powerless and under tremendous guilt and pressure. This showcases the contrast between the authority of Chinese tradition and culture against the global power of modernisation. And single women seem to be winning that battle.
The network that everyone talks about, is getting a new haircut. Actually, new implants of hair so to speak. In deed, the famous short-video entertaining company is developping new tools in order to its user to find a job. Directly in competition with LinkedIn, how could this new branche look like? The idea is to create a webpage that you can access through TikTok, where you will find the different offers.
How will you be able to apply? Well, through the very principle of the app : video. You will have to record a “video CV”, which you will eventually be able to display on your TikTok account. The latter will be optional of course, only if you want to promote this new service or not. That being said, you can already find those kind of video on the app : people showing their daily routine, their skills or their job. Either way, this update will surely bring more traffic to the app, a younger audience looking for beginner jobs. Let’s juste hope that TikTok secures the different job posts and ensure to authenticate each recruiter.
The first steps of E-commerce on TikTok
Let’s talk about e-commerce now, a sector roughly installed nowadays. We saw Facebook and Instagram inaugurating their marketplace, which draw the first steps of social media into this sector. The thing is that in Asia, e-commerce is way more developed and number of social media are based on that, like Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). the thing is that TikTok is precisely owned by ByteDance, which is a Chinese company. In that regard, of course you will want to develop an e-commerce branch of the app.
The recent agreement between the application and Shopify explains itself: a business oriented aspect shows its face, bigger than ad targeting. This functionality is being tested right now in UK and Europe, so we will surely find out soon what it is about.
Moreover, advertisements diversification are expanding with new formats, and that is another thing that will bring announcers to the platform. TikTok is already like any other social media app, soon we will find out to what extent company can get money from it.
A business friendly app
We talked about companies, well TikTok is warmly welcoming them. Indeed, the platform launched brand new tools to manage the different posts. One of them is a video editor, a smart software that will help brands to advertise correctly on this social network. It can unlock native content from TikTok, like popular music, typo or colors matching with its environnement. Brands can add custom subtitles, cut scenes and many other things.
The other tool is a platform that helps to create new content, called Business Creative Hub. This free extension, usable by TikTok Business users, offers the current trends, best practices and gives advice about advertising on the app. There is also tab with specific indications for video, with three feeds : Trending Business, Engaging Business and Trending Community, each one translating a special advertising goal. With such range of tools, companies in the Occident will quickly master the art of digital communication just like those in Asia.
The ongoing issues of an ambitious network
Although TikTok provides many tools that will help the platform grow, we can observe many drawbacks due to the immense userbase (around 689 million active users). Along with many pedophilia reports, TikTok UK recently dealt with accusation saying that ByteDance was collecting information on children on the platform and selling it to third party entities. If the app itself is making money over the youngest, what to do then? A true problem, as data privacy is an important matter nowadays. A matter that TikTok Italy took in its responsibility, as the local branch took down half a million accounts, as their users didn’t respected the age minimum of 13 years old. We would like to see some more of this policy for the app in other countries. Data issues shouldn’t rely on the local policy, other wise you always end up in an unbalanced situation.
What to retain?
Anyway, TikTok seems to possess all the tools to please both brands and users, but also any deviant behavior. The total success of the app is now resolving in its capacity to implement maximum data security and protection, especially for the youngest users.
A visitor tries out a virtual reality rotation based on 5G technology on display at the Digital Achievements Exhibition at the 4th China Digital Summit in Fuzhou, April 25, 2021.
Last month, on April 25 and 26, the fourth annual Digital China Summit was held in Fuzhou. Capital of the Chinese province of Fujian, located in the southeast of China, not far from Taiwan. This event allowed the signing of more than 520 projects with important investments. The figures are around 319 billion yuan which is equivalent to 44 billion euros. The areas covered are artificial intelligence, 5G, the Internet industry, and blockchain.
The 4th Digital China Summit
This two-day hybrid event was indeed organized in person, but also online, through a dedicated platform. The event was divided into seven sections. With one main forum and twenty sub-forums. During this event, they gave more than 80 press conferences, with an innovation competition and an exhibition. This exhibition represented over fifty major companies like Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, etc. Open to the public until April 29.
The theme of this summit was “Stimulating New Dynamics of Data Factors and Starting a New Journey for Digital China” and about 120,000 visitors were able to attend this event during the second day. The Digital China Summit is organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the Fujian Provincial Government.
A manned autopilot aircraft presented as part of the exhibition of the digital achievements at the 4th China Digital Summit in Fuzhou.
The themes discussed around digital
During this event, we saw many presentations around digital transformation in several sectors: governance, ecology, IT, economy, urban construction, and rural revitalization.
Let’s look back at several of these themes:
First, the “digital society” highlighted achievements in developing convenient and accessible digital services for all, while focusing on improving users’ lives and digital security.
Second, on “digital industry” focused on its presentation on Ultra HD 5G + 4K/8K video and China’s new technology infrastructure.
Third, “digital government” presented innovative practices used by Chinese city administration and departments around data culture for example. They also discussed the integration of e-government services and support for the application of new technologies.
Finally, the “ecology” section focused on the areas of digital yuan, digital transformation, and digital financing for the environment.
We can also add that a “digital space of future concepts” was planned and built in the exhibition square, to fit the theme of this edition. This structure hosts exhibitions on technology and environmental protection, technology and the future, technology and art, and the convenience of digital life. It is also in this space that all the contracts signed during the event have been listed.
We hope that the fifth summit will be as successful as this one! Moreover, if you want to know more about China, I advise you to read this article.
In every culture, there are myths and legends that people are familiar with and are happy to tell to their children. Most countries have their own myths. But unlike ancient Greece, China had no Homer to retell its ancient myths in a well-expressed literary record. Firstly, myths and legends were passed down orally for over a thousand years before being written down in some early books such as the Huainanziand the Book of Mountains and Seas.
Moreover, China has gone through a lot of conflict periods, different religions and many opposing philosophies that appear and interact in many Chinese myths. When we go through some of the well-known Chinese tales, we find no clear distinction between what is real/historical and what is mythical.
Those myths and legends have continued to develop through the generations, creating incredibly rich folklore. Although there are hundreds of these myths, those that reside in Chinese traditions are particularly interesting as they still determine the thoughts and behaviour of citizens today.
In this article, you will discover 5 legends of Chinese mythology, imbued with strong characters and values
1. Pangu – The Creator of the World (盘古)
According to an ancient Chinese myth, the world was created by a God named Pangu. In the first place, the universe was a mass of darkness like a huge egg. Inside the egg was a creature named Pangu who slept soundly for thousands of years. But as he was sleeping, Pangu grew and developed into a giant with a hairy body, two tusks and two horns.
One day, Pangu woke up and felt strangled by the darkness. So, he took a broad axe and broke the egg with all his might. Then the first thing he did was to separate Yin and Yang with his axe, yin becoming the earth and yang the sky. Pangu stood in the middle holding up the sky with his strong arms and stomping down the earth with his strong feet.
Furthermore, after Pangu died, his body turned into the Five Sacred Mountains, his eyes turned to the moon and the sun, his blood changed into the river and sea, and his skin and hair became grass and trees. Overall, Pangu himself made up the universe. Nowadays, Pangu is considered as a great hero by Chinese people and the first-ever born creature of the world.
2. Nuwa – The creator of humans (女娲)
In traditional Chinese mythology, the renaissance is owing to a goddess named Nuwa (the goddess of all mankind). She had a human body and a snake tail. The goddess found the newly created world to be charming, but it was too empty. She wanted the world to be filled with intelligent, laughing creatures like herself. So she took some clay beside the river and moulded a figure in her likeness. Nuwa made a variety of figures. Each was different from the others. Then, she breathed into them, and immediately they sprang to life. These newly-fashioned people kept Nuwa company, and she was no longer lonely.
According to the legend, the four pillars of the sky were destroyed and chaos broke out. In fact, the fires were out of control and the oceans flooded. Animals went wild and started to eat people. Nuwa repaired the damage by cutting off the legs of the Great Tortoise to define them as the four new pillars. After this, peace was restored on Earth.
3. Sun Wukong – The Monkey King (孙悟空)
Among the common Chinese myths and legends, one of the most famous is Sun Wukong legend, or “the king of the monkeys”. Actually, he is the most famous and beloved characters in Chinese mythology. Sun Wukong was a very mischievous monkey, known for causing havoc in paradise with his eagerness to conquer the world.
It was said that he was able to use a cane he had stolen from the dragon king of the East Sea. But Sun Wukong was finally defeated by Buddha who asked him to somersault his palm. He couldn’t get out of half his hands and be imprisoned for 500 years under a magic mountain formed by Gautama Buddha’s palms. He later became a companion of the monk Xuanzang and accompanied him on his adventurous journeys.
Fun fact: Over the years, Sun Wukong has become a pop culture icon and appeared in various places. One of the most famous adaptations is Dragon Ball, with the lead Son Goku being based on the Monkey King.
4. Chang’e – The immortal Goddess of the Moon (嫦娥)
This ancient story came from the legendary time when the Emperor of Jade was on the throne. The Emperor had 10 sons who were transformed into 10 suns. These suns wreaked havoc on the earth and made it impossible for people to survive. Then came a brave archer named “Yi“, who set out to destroy them. He killed nine of the suns but left one behind. Later, Yi was rewarded for his courage with the elixir of life. But one day while he was hunting in the forest, someone tried to break into his house and steal the elixir. Yi’s wife (Chang’e), refused to give it and drank it herself. When she drank the elixir, she became so light that she was taken up to the moon, where she is believed to still live today.
To remember Chang’e, Yi laid the table and spread Chang’s favourite snacks on it. Since then, this practice has become a tradition of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. People will eat Moon cakes, drink wine, and look up at the full silver moon to celebrate their happy life.
Fun fact: The main Chinese Lunar missions are called “Chang’e” in reference to the myth. In addition, Netflix recently made an animated movie called “Over the Moon“, released in October 2020 and in which the story of Chang’e is the main plot.
5. The Jade rabbit (月兔)
The jade rabbit is also known as “the rabbit that lives on the moon“. According to mythology, it is the companion of the moon goddess Chang’e. The story began when a poor old man came to beg for food. At that time, the creatures of the forest (the monkey, the otter, the jackal and the rabbit), gave kindness to those in need and thought that doing a good deed today would be repaid tomorrow.
Thus, to help man, the monkey brought fruit, the jackal brought a jar of milk and the otter collected dead fish from. But the rabbit, who only ate grass, offered himself as an offering to the man. But the man did not kill him and revealed his true identity. He was the God Sakra. Later he drew the image of the rabbit on the moon to honour him.
Fun fact: The first lunar robot sent by China thanks to the chang’e 3 mission in December, 2013 is called “The jade rabbit” due to this legend.
In order to limit global warming to 1.5°c by the end of the century lots of countries have pledged to a carbon neutral plan. After Europe announcing its objective to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, it is China’s turn to announce its objective to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. How will China be able to achieve its green transition ?
China wants to be carbon neutral by 2060
On September 22, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced China’s plan for carbon neutrality by 2060. This means that by this time, China’s carbon emission would be zero. This is a huge challenge for this country which is currently the world biggest polluting country. Therefore, reaching carbon neutrality within 40 years will ask China to make big efforts.
China preoccupation about environmental concerns is a quite recent phenomenon. As a developing country, China has for a long time said that they should not share the burden of the global warming. The current level of carbon emissions in the country is the result of its decades of very fast industrialization.
It is time to go green for China, one of the biggest polluting country in the world
To understand what China’s impact on the global warming is, here are three figures about the pollution in the country.
What is China’s Roadmap for achieving its green transition ?
In order to reach carbon neutrality, China has revealed a roadmap of the objectives they have to achieve before 2060.
The first step of the roadmap started this year, in 2020. China has planned to raise the share of green energy to at least 15%. This is an objective that they achieved successfully.
Then, the next step will be in ten years. Xi Jinping told that China aims to reach its peak of carbon emission in 2030. In comparison, Europe hopes to reach this peak five year before China in 2025.
Finally, the last step will be in 2050. Before reaching carbon neutrality in 2060, the strategy for 2050 is to make the green energy count for more than half of the total energy consumption.
However, if China has announced its objective for the next 40 years, the details of the concrete actions that they will implement to achieve these objectives have not been revealed yet. We will have to wait a little longer to know what China really plans to do in order to reach carbon neutrality.
Renewable energies the future of a green China ?
Reach carbon neutrality by 2060 is a very ambitious goal for the country. To do so, China will have to make huge changes in its economy.
Carbon emissions are still increasing over the year. In order to reach its objective, China will have to reverse the tendence. This means increasing its production of renewable energy and reducing coal energy production. Currently, coal is the main source of energy in China with 58% of the electricity coming from coal plants. The main challenge for China will be to change its energy production to more renewable energies.
Daxue consulting. Renewable energy in China: Finding the path to carbon neutrality by 2060 on December 2020.
China has already started its green transition by a mass investment in renewable energy. Indeed, in 2019, the country was the biggest investor in renewable energy in the world with an 87 billion US dollars investment to develop wind and solar energy in the country.
In conclusion, it is great to see China getting involved in the fight against global warming. Now, we will have to wait and see if the country really pursue its commitment and respects its deadlines.
En 60ans, la Chine a traversée beaucoup d'évolution. On peut aujourd'hui différencier les générations en fonction du contexte historique vécus : révolution culturelle, industrielle, ouverture au monde, la grande consommation et la digitalisation.
En seulement 60 ans, la Chine est passée d’un pays fermé en une des plus grandes puissances mondiales. Avec cette croissance rapide, on peut aujourd’hui différencier chaque génération, leur comportement en fonction du contexte historique vécu : révolution culturelle, industrielle, ouverture au monde, la grande consommation et la digitalisation.
Dans cet article, je vous explique l’impact de l’histoire sur le comportement des consommateurs chinois actuels.
THE LOST GENERATION
Quand sont-ils nés?
Avant 1960
Dans quel contexte historique?
Les personnes de la “lost generation” ont connu beaucoup de difficultés.
Après la guerre contre le Japon, Mao Zedong arrive au pouvoir en 1949. Il proclame la fondation de la république populaire de Chine et expulse le parti nationaliste qui se réfugie à Taïwan.
Pendant près de 10 ans, Mao Zedong bouleverse l’économie de Chine en basculant vers une économie industrielle. Le marché de l’agriculture s’écroule, ce qui entraîne une malnutrition dans tout le pays et des millions de morts.
C’est dans les année 60, que la Chine vit sa « révolution culturelle.»
Mao Zedong dénonce l’intellectuel. Il envoie des adolescents scolarisés travailler dans les champs. Beaucoup de ces jeunes aspirés à de grandes études, ont fini par travailler dans les campagnes pendant des années, où un grand nombre s’est suicidé.
Les écoles étaient fermées car les professeurs étaient emprisonnés, humiliés et frappés. Les transports étaient presque arrêtés. Seuls les jeunes, étant une force majeure de la Chine, étaient « invités » à rejoindre les red gards. Leurs trajets et nourritures étaient offerts jusqu’à Pékin, là où, Mao Zedong était «adoré».
Ces jeunes ont grandi avec la conviction qu’ils doivent loyauté envers l’état et les institutions.
Quel impact sur leurs comportements?
Cette génération est bouleversée par l’histoire. Beaucoup d’entre eux ne sont pas éduqués, dû à la fermeture des écoles et sont aussi “brainwasher” par les discours de Mao.
Cette génération a vécu dans la pauvreté. Ils préfèrent sauvegarder ses biens, son argents. Ces personnes aiment connaître une réelle utilité à un produit avant de l’acheter.
Ils ne parlent pas anglais, et n’ont pas confiance aux étrangers.
Comment les atteindre?
Il faut arriver à leur donner confiance. Ces personnes, ayant été privées d’éducation, ont une soif d’apprendre. Ils passent beaucoup de temps à s’instruire notamment à travers la lecture.
Donner leur des informations qu’ils n’ont pas.
LA GENERATION X
Quand sont-ils nés?
Entre 1961 et 1980
Dans quel contexte historique?
Les personnes de la génération X, sont nées pendant la révolution culturelle de Chine. Les personnes nées dans les années 60 ont aussi souffert de cette révolution, et ont été privées d’éducation.
Après la mort de Mao en 1976, Deng Xiaoping arrive au pouvoir en 1978, lance des réformes économiques et ouvre les portes de la Chine au monde extérieur.
Deng Xiaoping développe des zones économiques spéciales. Il choisit plusieurs villes ouvertes pour les pays étrangers, ces villes sont industrialisées et dites de test pour développer entièrement l’ouverture de la chine au monde. Pendant son règne, le gouvernement ne cesse d’accepter et interdire l’entreprenariat. Beaucoup de Chinois décident de monter leurs business, et la corrupution des business avec l’état ne cesse d’augmenter.
Malgré une corruption importante, l’économie de la Chine poursuit sa progression, et le mode de vie des Chinois s’améliore en parrallèle.
Quel impact sur leurs comportements?
Cette génération a aussi une soif de savoir, et une ouverture d’esprit plus importante que la lost generation. Effectivement, la génération X a pu rapidement, après l’ouverture de la chine, voyager et étudier à l’étranger, et donc apprendre l’anglais.
Ils ont vécu la pauvreté et la consommation. A partir d’une économie chinoise en hausse, cette génération n’hésite pas à dépenser, et principalement dans le secteur du luxe.
Comment les atteindre?
La génération X aime les entreprises étrangères, ce sont les patrons actuels, comme Jack Ma, fondateur d’Alibaba.
Comme la lost generation, ils veulent savoir pourquoi et comment: Quelle est la composition du produit et pourquoi l’utiliser.
➡ Dans les prochains jours, je vous parlerai des générations Z et millénials impactées sur la grande consommation et nées pendant la digitalisation.
My first experience as a speaker during a conference…
After a lot of oral presentations at EFAP, last week I had the opportunity to speak « for real » in front of a professional audience.
A huge thanks to my manager in the Junior Consulting Project: Adeline Follea (consultant in digital marketing), who propose to me to participate and trust me as a speaker for this conference about Oenotourism.
During the « Salon International de l’Agriculture » with three others experts of wine and spirits: @Vincent Cuillier (Owner of Champagne Cuillier), @Cécile Israel (Brand ambassador in China) and @Jean-Michel Bonnichon (Owner of Chateau La Renommée) we talked about the development of wine tourism by talking about key points such as digital marketing and Chinese consumers. (Obviously, it was not in Chinese but in French – I am still improving my Chinese thanks to Nolwenn’s article)
This event takes place on the scene of the digital farm: an association that aims to promote innovation and digital technology for efficient, sustainable and socially responsible agriculture.
This experience was really interesting for me. Even if I loooove to speak, and unfortunately I lost « felicitations » several times, on my high school reports for chatting…. To speak in public is always a difficult exercise.
So after this fascinating experience, I have 3 tips for your next public speaking :
« Becoming a great speaker is an art, not a science.»
1. Manage your stress
I know that is easier to say than to do. Even the most seasoned speakers can get nervous prior to presenting. Remember that you are there to provide them with valuable information and if the audience members leave with one or two new items, you have made it worth their while. At first, I had to present myself, which is for me the hardest part. After my little personal presentation, I noticed that with the stress I was speaking very fast. Which for the second speaking I tried to do my best to take my time and speak more slowly.
2. Memorize concepts, not content.
You may think that the best way to give a flawless speech is to memorize the content word-for-word. But trying that can create a lot of problems for speakers especially if there is interaction. Moreover, if your mind goes blank at any point during the presentation, you will lose your place and potentially create an awkward silence. Or worse, start to panic.
Instead of memorizing the content, focus on the concepts. Do this by creating bullet points of the content, stories, data and key takeaways that you want to get across in each part of your presentation. Then, speak naturally about them.
3. Chat up with the other members before the presentation.
Meeting with the people you are going to be speaking with before you give your speech has several benefits for me it allows you to know which speaker will be more comfortable with the questions asking by the moderator.
The Chinese New Year is over. This year we celebrated the year of the rat in China! To live an amazing experience and to remember it I decided to discover the district of Yunnan in the south of China, very famous for its rice fields.
The travel
First of all, you have to know that if your trip starts from Shanghai, the travel is very long. Indeed, you have to take a flight to Kunming for 4 hours, then a train to Jianshui for 2 hours (Train tickets are now available online!) and if you are lucky you can take a bus for Yuanyang (approximately 5 hours) from Jianshui Bus station. During the Chinese New Year period buses are rare so you can take a taxi (approximatively 3 hours). At our arrival in Jianshui, there were no buses available. By the way, the road is amazing and landscapes are very natural.
The hotel
My sister visited me during this period. We decided to stay at Green Hostel and Sunny Guest House homestay. The hotel was situated just near the rice fields and we had a beautiful view.
View from the hotel
The host is very welcoming. We ate with his family and other visitors for the Chinese New Year. Food was so good! After that, we saw a lot of fireworks from the terrace of the house. We experienced the Chinese New Year as locals and I really appreciated it. The next morning, we saw mums who were trying to give red pockets to their children. It was really funny because the children did not want to accept the gift. Plus, if you like animals, this hostel is made for you. They were a lot of puppies and kittens.
The village
They were no tourists during this period. People in the village were very welcoming and I was very surprised because some of them talked to us in English (which is very rare in China!). Our host teaches some English classes to the children of the village. They were very proud to tell us « Happy new year! ». We met a lot of chickens, gooses, water buffalos on the streets…
The famous rice fields
One tip if you want to visit this area classified as a Unesco world heritage site: download the app Mapsme. You have a lot of viewpoints in it and it will help you find your way around. Some of the viewpoints were accessible by walk from our hostel. That was very nice. Others are further away but you can go by shuttle or hitchhiking. Locals are used to bring some people to the points of view for cheap. A lot of information about the construction of the rice fields is available in the villages to learn more about the history of this area. For example, I learned that it is the Hani population who created these rice fields about 1300 years ago…!
Unfortunately, due to the coronavirus, some of points of view were closed… but this did not prevent us from enjoying the beauty of the landscapes and celebrating the Chinese New Year in a local way!
If you want more advice about this amazing local Chinese experience, please feel free to comment this article!
On September 22, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced China’s plan for carbon neutrality by 2060. This means that by this time, China’s carbon emission would be zero. This is a huge challenge for this country which is currently the world biggest polluting country. Therefore, reaching carbon neutrality within 40 years will ask China to make big efforts.
The first step of the roadmap started this year, in 2020. China has planned to raise the share of green energy to at least 15%. This is an objective that they achieved successfully.
