Jing Daily’s Top Posts for the Week#
In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of July 11-15:
Q&A: Emma Gao Of Chinese Boutique “Micro-Winery”, Silver Heights
Recently referred to as “a hard-working woman who knows how to make wine” by the Chinese writer and critic Chantal Chi, Silver Heights proprietor Emma Gao (高源) is one of a small but dedicated group of winemakers creating artisanal Chinese wine that goes against the country’s reputation for “quantity over quality”. Known as China’s first boutique “micro-winery”, Silver Heights currently produces around 800 cases of wine per year at its roughly five-acre vineyard on the eastern slopes of Mount Helan in China’s northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
There, at the family-run winery, the Bordeaux-educated Gao has spent the last four years producing a selection of reds that she hopes can confidently stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those from California or Australia.
As China Luxury Tax Debate Drags On, Luxury Brands Raise Prices
Over the past several months, the debate about whether China will reduce its notoriously high luxury tax in order to spur more domestic consumption (and increase tax receipts) has reached fever pitch. While some officials have hinted that reductions could be “inevitable“, others have flatly denied that they’re even a possibility. Meanwhile, a chorus of media commentators have argued for and against the tax cuts, with some advocating higher luxury taxes and others saying they should be abolished completely.
As the debate goes on, luxury brands appear to have taken steps to combat tax cuts before they’ve even materialized.
Only In China: Paper Gucci Insert Causes Vogue China Buying Frenzy
This week, one of the more “only in China” stories we’ve noticed is a run on the August issue of Vogue China, owing not to the popularity of its cover model Ming Xi or its actual content, but because of the free Gucci-branded paper folder packaged along with the magazine. While it’s not unusual for magazines to include branded inserts in China, Gucci is the most visible–and unattainable–for the average reader of Vogue China. This has led to a run on the issue, with some enterprising young people buying every issue they can find and putting them up for sale on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao.
Already, the issue is selling for around four times its original price of 20 yuan (US$3) on Taobao, and newsstands around the country have been wiped clean.
Q&A: Charles Wang Of Avant-Garde Beijing Boutique, Dong Liang
In recent years, a new fashion revolution has taken hold in China as a surge of avant-garde boutiques have opened in fashion-conscious cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Harnessing popular digital platforms like Sina Weibo and Douban, some of these small concept stores have managed to attain cult status, in the process becoming tastemakers for China’s new generation of fashion-savvy urbanites.
Beijing’s Dong Liang is no exception. Since its founding in 2009, the boutique has become a must-see destination for chic Beijingers. Situated in the sleepy Wudaoying Hutong, Dong Liang perfectly blends in with its surroundings, easily mistaken for just another banal shop.
Potential Of China’s Luxury Market “Remains Huge”, But Growing Pains Apparent
While optimism about the Chinese luxury market is widespread within the luxury industry, owing mostly to its relative underdevelopment and the massive potential of second- and third-tier cities, serious growing pains are evident and will need to be addressed in time. As Torsten Stocker, of the global strategy consulting firm the Monitor Group, told Jing Daily, key issues currently becoming apparent in mainland China’s luxury market include “recruiting, training and keeping sales and service employees”.
As Stocker noted, although this is a problem across almost all business sectors in China, it’s “particularly difficult in luxury, where large income and lifestyle inequalities mean that sales staff inhabit a very different world from their customers, in a way that is much more pronounced than in Europe or the US.”