PSFK Author:
Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai)

We recently caught up with Shumeng Ye to discuss her “Book of Warriors,” a photography book dedicated to Warriors, China’s first hip sneaker.

First, who are you and what is the “Book of Warriors”?

I’m a 25 years old overseas Chinese from Helsinki, Finland, studying computer science and graphic design. “Book of Warriors” is my attempt to tell the world about Warrior sneakers. In order to do so, I released a photography book featuring people who still wear them, each book accompanied by a pair of WB-1 Warriors.

How did you choose the people that you took photos of?

It was more of a question of finding those people than choosing, haha! Basically, I shot every single person wearing Warriors that I came across during the 3 weeks I spent shooting in the Kunming and Chengdu area. One picture is from Beijing last spring, the girl (with Warriors) is the singer of a punk band whose gig I saw at D-22.

When was the first time that you noticed Warrior shoes?

As a teenager I wasn’t interested at all in China and Chinese culture. So when I visited China in 2006 it was my first trip in 12 years. My first encounter with Warrior was at the Shanghai airport as soon as I got off the plane. While waiting for my luggage, I saw a cleaning lady wearing the  beautiful sneakers; they caught my eye immediately.

What about Warrior shoes first attracted you?

Their looks, their long history and the hard-working people who still wear them. For shoes that have such a precious story and that tell so much about China even now, I felt Warrior didn’t get the recognition they deserve. It says a lot when new malls are full of foreign brands or Chinese brands who copy them but Warrior is sold only by street vendors and old-fashioned shops.

How do you explain Warrior shoes to foreigners?

I think in Finland and in Scandinavia in general, retro and nostalgia is a very strong force in fashion. So not much explaining was needed, people understood the idea very well because there are similar local old shoe brands here.

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While New York and London are the current publishing powerhouses serving the US and Western Europe, there are millions of English speakers in developing countries who may be overlooked.  The Telegraph has a profile of Philip Tatham, who is addressing this untapped market and tackling Asia from Singapore.  Tatham established Monsoon Books in 2004 and currently publishes literary and commercial novels, as well as a wide range of non-fiction books.

One of Monsoon’s star authors is Nighel Barley, who has previously published through Penguin, Time Warner and Little, Brown.  Tatham explains why Barley switched to Monsoon:

I think it was because we give him the freedom to write the books he wants to write, whereas the London-based publishers wanted him to write less humorous books. Also we’re better than the big London publishing companies at reaching his target markets in South East Asia.

Telegraph: Expat’s ambition to put Asia on literary map

Lifestyle Pets offers an interesting line of premium pets, including the first scientifically tested hypoallergenic cats and dogs.   The hypoallergenic kittens range from $5,950 for a low-end breed up to $35,000 for a Ashera Exotic Kitten, which blends the bloodlines from African Serval and Asian Leopard Cats.

Along with hypoallergenic pets, Allerca also offers the Titan Family Protector - a fully trained, 2 year old German Shepherd that “provides a frontline deterrent to any criminal or harmful intent.”  The price tag for this dog is $85,000 to $135,000.

[via imthegenius]

Pushing the boundaries of the “music phone” concept, a collaboration between au Design Project and Yamaha have produced a series of innovative phones that act as musical instruments.

In total, the project has resulted in 5 unique prototypes:

Band in My Pocket (above) incorporates multiple instruments including a trumpet and harmonica, which are controlled by fingers and singing or humming.

Trio in Your Hand is designed for easy game play and features an interface for DJ scratching.

Box to Play is a foldable device that includes many musical interfaces including a scratch pad and synthesizer.

Sticks in the Air act as a phone when locked together, but when separated, they become virtual drumsticks with sensors to determine the beat.

Key to Touch is just what it looks like– a digital fingerboard for piano playing that is foldable.

Strings for Fingers is a slide phone that allows you to play stringed instruments.

Check out videos of the mobiles in action on Ping Mag’s Youtube channel. And if you’re in Harajuku, the pieces will be on desplaying at the KDDI Designing Studio until the end of August.

[via CScout Japan]

Boxed wine has always been looked down on as the cheap way to consume the most elegant of alcoholic beverages. However, an opinion article from the New York Times says that this image should change considering the carbon footprint created by trucking around glass bottles.

The vast majority (90% +) of American wine is produced on the West Coast, but then shipped to the East Coast where the majority of wine consumers live. This trucking process generates a tremendous amount of carbon-dioxide emissions. It is estimated that switching to lighter boxed wine for the 97% of wines that are made to be consumed within a year would reduce greenhouse gases by roughly 2 million tons or the equivalent of 400,000 cars.

Along with environmental advantages of boxed wine, it is also more economical from a cost per-glass perspective because of volume and preservation. It will be interesting to see if higher-quality wine producers jump on the boxed wine bandwagon and if consumers voice their sustainability demands on the wine producers.

NYT: Drink Outside the Box

MicroMu is a new record label out of Beijing who is trying to change the way musicians, fans and brands engage with music in China.

MicroMu hosts intimate, live sessions at their bi-monthly acoustic nights in Beijing, as well as sporadic studio sessions, all of which are professionally recorded and filmed.

Each recording session is ‘released’ through a stand alone blog post, complete with all metadata, artwork and stream/download options. The content is released for free via the MicroMu blog (Chinese language) without the necessity of registering.

The MicroMu label lives around its blog, releasing the free downloads, along with editorials, artist interviews and advice for aspiring songwriters/producers/label owners. The blog approach is a great way to give context to the music, providing background and meaning to an otherwise amorphous scene.

In terms of funding, MicroMu is exclusively sponsored by a brand interested in promoting the independent music scene with a percentage of the sponsorship revenue paid as royalties to the various MicroMu artists on the roster. Other revenue streams include CDs, merchandise, large scale events, and ringtones.

MicroMu is an in-house project from Beijing-based music consultancy Red T Music, which is run by Ed Peto.

MicroMu

Over the past couple years, Chinese indie designers and DIY brands have become increasingly popular among the nations’ youth, exemplifying the growing creative consciousness of China’s new generation of both producers and consumers.

Youthology, a new blog focused on tracking Chinese youth culture trends and insights, recently reported on Beijing’s indie designer exhibitions and creative bazaars, including “Copy Me” and “iMart.” The post highlights the gaining popularity of indie designers and the types of designs they are incorporating that are making the new youth ‘tick.’

A sampling of some of the trends and pictures taken up by Youthology team:

Designs infused with classical Chinese elements

Environmental protection themes

Limited edition products

Experiential and playful exhibition/shopping

Participation of audience/shoppers

It’s no secret that China is home to some of the worst air quality and biggest rubbish heaps in the world, but is China the only one to blame? An article in UK’s The Sun recently reported the vast amounts of British waste found in Chinese garbage dumps – plastic Tesco bags, UK cigarette lighters and plastic bottles, among other trash. In fact, roughly 3 million tons of UK rubbish end up in China- because it’s cheaper to dump waste there than in British landfill sites. Cargo costs back to China are minuscule since they return in near empty container ships. China Greenpeace Spokesman explains:

China has become a big dumping ground for rubbish from Britain and other countries. A lot of the waste is toxic and sorted by migrant workers who are not protected from its effects.

Many of these migrant workers flock to the region’s garbage “mountains” with hopes of making money as a rubbish dealer – a mere 6,000 RMB a year (about $875 USD). Workers are paid a little more than a dollar per each kilogram of plastic they manage to recycle, yet there is more money to be made from the quality stuff thrown away such as electrical parts and adapters.

So how does this affect the air quality? Many cities in the Pearl River Delta, such as Xing Tan, are lined with cottage industry factories that constantly bellow thick fumes of smoke from melting the recycled plastic. Experts believe sites such as Xing Tan heavily contribute to Beijing’s increasingly poor air quality as winds blow the toxins north some 1,000 miles to the nation’s capital.

The Sun- Hidden Face of Olympic Hosts

Located in Taipei, Frog Café is not your average trendy Asian Café, but a dynamic venue to enjoy coffee, independent photography and design as well as a place to meet fellow biking enthusiasts. The café doubles as a design studio and photography exhibition space for anyone interested in sharing photos from their biking adventures or renting out the place for meetings or individual photography exhibitions. The café’s website posts hundreds of individual photos taken around the world, which can also be downloaded as desktop wallpapers.

[via Asia Scout Network]