How Zhang Ye identifies brands rich with cultural capital

Zhang Ye is a venture capitalist, classically trained composer, and electronic music producer. Since founding Cyanhill Capital at 32 in 2015, the Beijing-based investor has become known for backing culturally resonant Chinese consumer brands at their earliest stages — while simultaneously releasing music, most recently the single Where Do We Go with Steve Aoki and Rosie Darling. Cyanhill’s portfolio sits at the intersection of consumption and cultural identity. Notable investments include Zhuanzhuan, one of China’s leading secondhand goods marketplaces; Pidan, a design-led cat supplies brand; and Choc Day (每日黑巧), a health-focused chocolate startup. His most recent investment, Playfully, is a sports collectibles platform built around global IP including Lionel Messi and the Argentina national team — a bet that reflects Zhang’s long-standing interest in fandom culture. Messi is among the most popular foreign athletes on Chinese social media. The hashtag “Messi” (梅西) has accumulated 3.3 billion impressions on Xiaohongshu alone. Rather than chasing short-term hype cycles, Zhang backs founders building brands with emotional resonance, aesthetic coherence, and long-term cultural relevance — from consumer hardware startups to next-generation IP ecosystems. Under his artist moniker Zhangye, he has performed internationally and collaborated across music, fashion, and technology, exploring how identity and emotion shape modern culture. Whether producing electronic music, investing in emerging consumer brands, or navigating China’s evolving cultural landscape with portfolio companies, Zhang treats creativity and capital as inseparable. In conversation with Jing Daily, Zhang explains why he believes the next generation of Chinese brands will be defined by the connections they forge with people and culture. Jing Daily: You’ve described China’s evolution from “world’s factory” to “cultural architect” — what does that shift demand of founders building brands there today? Zhang Ye: For a long time, Chinese brands competed mainly through manufacturing efficiency, speed, and supply chain strength. But as China shifts from being the “world’s factory” to becoming more of a “cultural architect,” founders now need to think beyond functionality and focus more on aesthetics, storytelling, emotion, and identity. Today, building a successful brand is about creating cultural resonance and connecting with how people want to express themselves. This generation of Chinese founders has a unique advantage: they understand both world-class manufacturing and rapidly evolving consumer culture. Companies like Even Realities and Lemmo reflect this shift well — built on China’s strong manufacturing ecosystem, but conceived with a global audience and cultural perspective in mind from the very beginning. JD: What does it take for a consumer brand in China to move beyond product and become a cultural IP? ZY: Think of a cultural IP as a higher-order form of branding — one whose value is measured not by sales volume, but by whether it remains memorable over time, gets repeatedly referenced, and spreads organically through people. From that perspective, I’d break it down into four elements. First, a clear and enduring cultural theme at its core. That theme has to be simple enough to be immediately recognizable, but deep enough to support continuous reinterpretation. A cultural IP is not built on products — it’s built on collective desires and emotions that have not yet been fully articulated or satisfied. Second, a recognizable aesthetic system. Culture is built through perception. Whether it’s visual identity, language, sound, spatial design, or even the tactile feel of a product, the consistency of these elements determines whether consumers can instantly recognize and emotionally connect with a brand. Third, the ability to continuously produce content. At its core, an IP is a self-sustaining worldview — one that keeps generating meaningful content over time, whether through film, music, writing, events, or other forms of storytelling. A strong cultural IP must also evolve, changing with the times while maintaining a consistent core identity. Fourth, a highly active participatory ecosystem. A cultural IP is not a one-way broadcast from brand to consumer; it is an ongoing dialogue. The strongest IPs inspire users to create and share organically. JD: How do you spot a “cultural signal” brand before it scales? ZY: Cultural signal-driven brands are rarely powered by heavy advertising or distribution in their early stages. Instead, they grow through aesthetics, lifestyle, values, and emotional connection — and even before they scale, they tend to become symbolic markers for a specific community or identity group. When evaluating these brands, we look closely at whether they have a recognizable aesthetic identity, a clear point of view, and the ability to spread organically through communities rather than through forced exposure. The strongest brands are the ones people naturally want to share, talk about, and use as a form of self-expression. JD: How is the intersection of music, fashion, and technology shaping the next generation of Chinese brands? ZY: The intersection of music, fashion, and technology is reshaping how brands are experienced and remembered. The next generation of Chinese brands may no longer operate like traditional product companies — more like creators of multi-sensory experiences. Music brings emotional connection, fashion allows consumers to express identity, and technology creates new forms of interaction and participation. When these three worlds converge, brands become more than physical products — they become cultural and emotional experiences. Consumers want to feel connected to a brand’s aesthetic, values, and community, not just its functionality. As AI, digital content, and interactive technologies continue to evolve, users are becoming more active participants and co-creators in the brand experience. JD: What mistakes do international brands still make when trying to tap into China’s cultural ecosystem? ZY: Many international brands still approach China through a “global standardization” mindset — even as the market has evolved into something highly localized and fast-moving. The most common mistake is treating Chinese culture as a visual aesthetic rather than engaging with the deeper context behind it. The second major challenge is organizational. China’s content ecosystem is highly participatory, driven by creators, communities, and platforms like Xiaohongshu and short-form video. Brands can no longer rely on one-way storytelling or messaging controlled entirely from headquarters. Building real cultural resonance requires local decision-making power, faster responsiveness, and a genuine understanding of how trust, identity, and community shape consumer behavior. JD: Tell us about Playfully’s partnership with Messi — how did it come about, and what is the long-term goal? ZY: We invested in a sports collectibles company called Playfully, which secured exclusive licensing rights for Messi and the Argentina national team in China. At its core, Playfully is not just building a trading card business — it is creating a new form of consumer experience centered around sports IP, collectible culture, and emotional connection with younger audiences. Sports cards were once seen as niche collectibles. Today they are becoming a cultural medium that connects sports, social interaction, content, and identity. People are no longer collecting just cards — they are collecting memories, emotions, and cultural symbols. Messi has long transcended being merely a football star. He represents something broader — long-term discipline, passion, consistency, and a kind of cross-generational cultural influence. What we care about is not simply a licensing deal or a commercial collaboration, but how a global sports IP can build lasting cultural resonance in the market. Long term, Playfully wants to build a youth culture ecosystem around global IP — one that includes not just products, but content, communities, offline experiences, and collectible systems. JD: How much do foreign celebrity collaborations still matter in China? ZY: International celebrity collaborations still matter in China, but the underlying logic has changed dramatically. In the past, Chinese consumers placed a premium on anything perceived as “international.” Today they are far more sophisticated and culturally confident — people no longer buy into something simply because it involves a foreign celebrity. What matters now is what that person actually represents, and whether there is a genuine connection between the individual and the brand. That’s why the value of international celebrities now comes less from star power and more from the cultural persona they embody. Playfully’s collaboration with Messi is a case in point. His value goes far beyond football — he represents long-term discipline, consistency, passion, and a kind of cross-generational influence. For younger consumers, collecting a Messi card is not simply about owning a sports collectible; it’s about holding onto an emotion, a memory, a cultural moment. The same logic applies in music. Whether it’s my collaborations as Zhangye with artists like Steve Aoki and Libianca, or projects like China EDM, what matters is not simply working with international artists — it’s how those collaborations help Chinese creators enter the global cultural conversation on their own terms. The most meaningful collaborations are no longer about borrowed exposure. They’re about whether both sides can build entirely new forms of expression together. This generation of Chinese brands, musicians, and creators is moving away from leveraging international influence and toward shaping global culture itself. JD: What does each discipline teach you about the other — investing and music production? ZY: Investing has sharpened my sensitivity to early signals. In both disciplines, you are making decisions before there is a clear answer — whether it’s a founder, a category, a melody, or a sound. You have to judge whether something has life in it before the market fully understands it. That judgment comes from intuition, timing, and long-term exposure, not just data. Music has shaped how I invest in equal measure. Composition teaches you to think in terms of rhythm, structure, tension, and aesthetic judgment — when to enter, when to hold back, and when something simply feels right. JD: You restructured Qingshan — Cyanhill Capital’s Chinese name — into a US dollar fund at a time when most capital was moving inward. How does that positioning shape the kinds of Chinese brands you believe can travel globally ZY: Restructuring into a US dollars fund allowed us to think longer-term and evaluate brands through a global lens. Rather than asking only whether a company can succeed within China’s unique market structure, we look at whether its products, aesthetics, and brand identity can resonate across cultures. We're especially interested in what we call “native global brands” — companies built with a global mindset from day one, rather than trying to localize after succeeding domestically. Chinese brands today need more than strong manufacturing or efficient supply chains to compete globally. They need storytelling, design, cultural fluency, and the ability to build genuine emotional connections with consumers. Companies like Even Realities and Lemmo reflect this well — built on China’s manufacturing strengths, but approaching product design, user experience, and brand identity with a global perspective from the outset. JD: What’s ahead for you in 2026 — on both the investment and music fronts? ZY: On the investment side, Cyanhill Capital will continue focusing on early-stage consumer investing in 2026. On the music side, the priority is China EDM Vol.2 — China’s first all-female electronic dance music compilation. Through an all-female producer lineup, the project aims to amplify the voices of Chinese female electronic music producers while exploring how Chinese electronic music can develop its own creative language and identity. Alongside that, I will continue releasing music under Zhangye, including international collaborations with artists such as Libianca and Skylar Grey.

How Zhang Ye identifies brands rich with cultural capital

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How Zhang Ye identifies brands rich with cultural capital

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