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 December 13-17:
PricewaterhouseCoopers Report: China Ripe For Online Retail “Explosion”
This week, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released its 2011 Outlook for the Retail and Consumer Products Sector in Asia report, highlighting some of the top trends we should see in the food and general retail, fashion and apparel, online retailing, consumer goods, luxury brands, and consumer goods and electronics sectors in the coming year. While some of the report’s findings — such as the expected growth in fashion demand by consumers’ “increasing appreciation for fashion” — are unsurprising, others, such as the projection that online retailing may be “on the brink of staggering growth in China,” are more compelling. As one would expect, China, as the world’s second-largest economy and the fastest-growing consumer market, features heavily in this report, with PricewaterhouseCoopers bullish about the country’s nascent online marketplace and red-hot luxury market.
Baijiu Enters The Land Of Lafite As Rare 1958 Maotai Sells For $220,000
It seems that Chinese collectors aren’t only driving the prices for Chateau Lafite or Chateau Cheval Blanc to new heights, they’re also on the hunt for rare tipples from a bit closer to home. This week, a bottle of 1958 Maotai baijiu sold for 1.45 million yuan (US$218,510) at auction in Hangzhou, setting a new record for the traditional Chinese spirit.
Baijiu is big business in China, with the country consuming some $27 billion worth of the clear liquor per year and consumption rising 20% a year for the last five years, according to the Wall Street Journal. But despite the popularity of high-end baijiu — which can often run into the tens of thousands of dollars per bottle — among China’s elite, it’s rare to see the same exuberance for a bottle at auction that we’d expect to see at a grape wine auction.
Hong Kong Retailer Joyce Celebrates 40 Years, Former Exec Goes Digital
Joyce Boutique has been enjoying a lot of attention lately from its 40th anniversary celebration, which will be marked by the release of limited-edition products, including the Anna Sui butterfly USB drive, a Ruinart Champagne bottle designed by artist Yue Minjun, and a major retrospective exhibition featuring rare documents, archival video footage and pieces from various fashion houses. This week, Dazed Digital posted a brief interview with Joyce Boutiques CEO Andrew Keith on the celebrations. The 50 looks were in the retrospective were selected by the designers from the year Joyce first introduced their collection to Hong Kong. Aside from the garments, the exhibition also shows interactive media tables, an interview series with designers, as well as a book supporting the exhibition.
Porsche To Debut Limited Edition 911 At Guangzhou Auto Show
Alongside such high-profile debuts like the Renault Latitude and the Baojun 630 at the upcoming Guangzhou Auto Show (December 21-27), Porsche is set to send a delegation of its limited-edition 911 “Edition Style” series. Limited to a run of 188 vehicles, and expected to cost around US$225,000 (1.5 million yuan), the 911 Edition Style series features a limited-edition dashboard plaque and customized treadplate. However, unlike other recent limited-edition models like the Bentley Continental China, which Jing Daily profiled last spring, Porsche doesn’t appear to be planning any further modifications to the 911 Edition Style model specifically for the China market. (Though the fact that they’re producing only 188 of them seems like a subtle nod to China, where the number eight is considered auspicious.)
Over the last year, we’ve kept a close eye on the wallet-emptying effect that lots from the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1735-1796) have had on Chinese collectors at auctions around the world. From the jade name-chop that sold for US$12.3 million in Hong Kong last spring to the vases that sold for $31 million (over an estimate of $6 million) and a jaw-dropping $85 million (over a high estimate of $2 million) in October and November, prices for rare works from sought-after historical eras have become, in the words of Zhang Liguo, an expert from the China Academy of Art, “totally crazy.”
Seeing this “crazy” trend out to the end of the year, this week a Qing dynasty vase — ostensibly from the Qianlong era — sold in San Francisco to a Chinese telephone bidder for a whopping $7.5 million.