PSFK Conference Asia Speaker Nick Barham

We’re excited to have Nick Barham, Planning Director for Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai, joining us in Singapore at PSFK Conference Asia to discuss the new middle class in China. We asked him to share a little bit about himself with us.

First, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Planning Director for Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai. We work with brands like Nike, Converse and Nokia, to help them escape the bland celebrity-obsessed shiny perfection that dominates the Chinese advertising landscape. Over the last year, we’ve made documentaries, TV shows, computer game graphics, and put on China’s first rock road trip, so things are pretty lively. I also work with Wieden + Kennedy on its own creative products. Earlier this year we produced the first documentary about Chinese beatboxing. And shortly we’ll be releasing some limited edition watches, made in collaboration with China’s most prestigious watch brand, the Shanghai Watch Company CV.

You’ll be speaking about China and its evolving middle class. In one paragraph, can you explain what the PSFK audience should expect to learn from the discussion?

The title of my talk is Nu, Fu Bai, Ke Zu Tuan: Anxiety, opportunity and extravagance in middle class China. So the first thing that non-Mandarin speakers will learn is what the title means. I will be doing my best to avoid the usual topics that have been in the papers over the last 6 months of Olympic madness. So no Tibet, no pollution, no human rights, no stories about China’s growing economic or military power, its role on the world stage, its status as world factory, etc, etc. I will present China from a more domestic angle, to see how middle class China is changing and some of the characteristics of these changes, to consider the pressures, the good things and the plain over the top-ness of contemporary urban Chinese life. From shiny advertising to the growth of cynicism, to stressed students, to the world of luxury.

5 sites that provide you with inspiration:

www.everyoneforever.com
www.thesun.co.uk
www.tudou.com
www.compfight.com
www.danwei.org

Thanks, Nick!

Wieden + Kennedy Shanghai

Hear more from Nick at PSFK Conference Asia – get your tickets now!