News.
What we're reading, writing, and arguing about — every week.
Food & BeverageHaidilao Just Turned a Childhood Browser Game Into a Hotpot Party — and 500,000 Free Ice Creams
July 10 marked the start of a nationwide team-up that, on paper, sounds like a cultural Rorschach test: Haidilao (海底捞), China's infamously service-obsessed hotp
Food & BeverageFeng Zikai's Watermelons Are Now a Coffee Drink — And It Works
Lucky Cup Coffee (幸运咖) just did something smarter than your average summer collab: they went and put Feng Zikai's watermelons into a cup.
Food & BeverageLuckin’s Minions Takeover: How a Summer Collab Became a Two-Month Treasure Hunt
Luckin Coffee has a summer playbook, and it goes something like this: find an IP with sky-high recognition, roll out drinks and merch in waves, and let the coll
Food & BeverageKFC is giving away whole watermelons with fried chicken in China
China has officially entered Sanfu — the hottest stretch of the year — and KFC is celebrating it in the most Chinese way possible: by giving away whole watermel
Food & BeverageKFC China Just Turned Its Viral Chicken Feather Duster Into a Fan — and It's Already Gone
Last summer, KFC China asked a question no one was asking: what if we made a feather duster out of chicken feathers and sold it as merch?
BeautyTo Summer 's New 'Bare' Body Care Line Started as a Nude Painting — Now It's About Cotton Seeds
Five years ago, Chinese fragrance brand To Summer (观夏) launched a perfume called "裸" (Bare/Nude), inspired by Chang Yu's painting Nude Woman .
RetailA mall in Shenzhen just turned flip-flop kicking into a full-on championship
A mall in Shenzhen just turned flip-flop kicking into a full-on championship A shopping mall in Shenzhen has taken one of southern China’s most ordinary pieces
AIThe new AI phone StepX Neo wants to tap through apps for you
The new AI phone StepX Neo wants to tap through apps for you Most “AI phones” still work like regular smartphones with a chatbot added somewhere in the software
Food & BeverageBubble Tea Gets a Storybook Makeover: CHAGEE Taps an 80-Year-Old Illustrator for Its Summer Drop
CHAGEE (霸王茶姬) just made a summer play that has nothing to do with celebrity endorsements or viral dance challenges — and everything to do with an 80-year-old pi
BeautyBeast's 15th Birthday Is a Mirror Maze Filled With Watermelons and Hidden Perfume
Fifteen years ago, Beast (野兽派) was just a flower shop on Weibo — no storefront, no catalog, just an account that took orders through DMs and wrote a story for e
Food & BeverageManner Coffee's Latest Collab Turns a Korean Fashion Brand Into Summer's Chillest Cup
MANNER's collaboration cadence is relentless — but their latest drop with Korean designer brand Rest & Recreation suggests they've figured out something smarter
MarketingHELLY HANSEN's Summer Collab Rides a Chinese Pun About 'Howling' Into the Wild
Norwegian outdoor brand HELLY HANSEN just made its first move into the designer-toy space — and the hinge point is a single Chinese character: 嗷 (áo).