China Insider

News.

What we're reading, writing, and arguing about — every week.

Marketing

McDonald's Brings Back Wang Leehom 23 Years Later — This Time With Fries

In 2003, Wang Leehom stood in a McDonald's, threw on a pair of headphones, and delivered a Chinese-language hip-hop track that would burrow into a generation's

Jul 102 min read
Food & Beverage

Hema Is Putting Indie Chinese Winemakers on 500 Supermarket Shelves

Walk into any Hema supermarket in China right now and you'll find something unusual in the wine aisle: a bottle with a winemaker's actual face staring back at y

Jul 92 min read
Sports & Wellness

Nearly Half of YONEX's Revenue Now Comes from China — Here's How That Happened

Here's a number that makes you stop: nearly 48% of all YONEX revenue now comes from China.

Jul 93 min read
Retail

ALDI’s plain white ice cream boxes have Chinese shoppers asking if they can use insurance

ALDI China has accidentally turned discount ice cream into one of the summer’s funniest retail stories.

Jul 83 min read
Travel

Ctrip Made Jackie Chan Rip Down a Green Screen — and It's Actually a Brilliant Tourism Pitch

Here's a problem no amount of drone-shot mountain panoramas can fix: when foreign travelers picture China, they're often picturing a movie — cinematic, distant,

Jul 82 min read
Fashion

MINI Just 'Robbed' a Chinese Shoe Brand — and It's the Best Campaign Stunt We've Seen This Summer

Here's a sentence you don't read every day: three MINI Cabriolets just emptied a Shanghai shoe boutique and sped off into the night — and the brand whose store

Jul 73 min read
Food & Beverage

New York’s Molly Tea stores lost the logo and became “? Tea”

New York’s Molly Tea stores did not just change their name.

Jul 77 min read
Fashion

Under Armour Taps Chinese Designer Feng Chen Wang to Lead a Radical New Women's Line

Under Armour just made a move that quietly rewrites the sportswear collaboration playbook — and it did it from Paris.

Jul 72 min read
Marketing

Duolingo Just Put Vocabulary Words on Tissues, and the Internet Can't Decide If It's Brilliant or Unhinged

The green owl has escaped your phone. And it's now watching you wipe your mouth.

Jul 62 min read
Beauty

A Chinese Beauty Brand Threw a Party Where Guests Meditated, Then Danced

Most beauty exhibitions want you to look at things. herbeast's wants you to walk through seven days of your life and come out cleaner on the other side.

Jul 62 min read
Retail

Longchamp Turned Shanghai Into a Real-Life Treasure Hunt

Forget boring store visits — Longchamp just turned Shanghai into one giant treasure hunt, and honestly, it's genius 🗺️ The French luxury brand launched an "expl

Jul 51 min read
Fashion

Songmont's New Jewelry Line Asks You to Wear Your Patience

Songmont (山下有松) has spent the last few years doing something unusual for a Chinese accessories brand: it's been saying no to loud.

Jul 52 min read