Having released Luan Dun for over 3 years, we think it’s time to make a small change. You will find atthe end of each magazine issue starting from this year, we will be interviewing people or experts based on the main topic or theme captured in each issue, titled ‘Voices’.

For those of you who are new to this, Luan Dun is an on-going culture magazine on the weird and wonderful that are shaping China today.

Our main topic this month is pointed towards the biggest phenomena that is taking over China at the moment – the invasion of the most popular Korean drama in history. Though Korean fanaticism isn’t new, this drama has changed China, literally.

Inspired by the drama itself, our feature designer of the month, Frank Ran, designed this issue around the show’s key theme – alien & outer space.

Flip through the pages to find more about this new trend and obsession.

Enter full screen and start our journey from a galaxy far, far away...

GREETINGS FROM 2014’S FIRST LUAN DUN!

SNIFF IT

Hainan Airlines is the largest privately owned air transport company in China. Trying to defy Chinese airline stigmas-poor service, frequent flights delays, etc-the airlines managed to be one of the 7 airlines to receive a rating of five-star by Skytrax.

Recent pilot scouting program in Shanxi province is proof to their high standards and expectations. Recruitment requirement include an average height between 170 ~180cm, fluency in English, great personality, and most importantly, no body odor. The pictures show recruiters smelling candidates’ armpits during screening process.

Images taken from Ministy or Tofu

_01

_02

Developed by the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, this unmanned aircraft was given a test-ride over Hubei province while spraying chemical catalyst in the air to disperse fog.

Reports stated that the test was successful, and may be used as a safe,low-cost solution to China’s haze. We are uncertain if this solution is considered ‘safe’. However, it is reassuring to know that the nation are taking steps to solve the problem.

HAZARD ON HAZE

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

_03

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

March 5th is the official “Learn from Lei Feng Day” to commemorate Lei Feng, a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army and known for his selflessness, modesty, and devotion to Mao. He is now a cultural icon representing earnestness and service, and “Learn from Lei Feng Day” encourages the nation to do good for the community.

On this day, a journalist riding an electric scooter in Chengdu decided to stage an accident by hitting the front of a car and fall off his bike. He wanted to see if someone would come and help him given it was Lei Feng Day however after 10 minutes of lying on the road with no help, he got up and left the scene, probably very disappointed.

NO GOOD DEEDS

_04 KOREAN DRAMA IS INSANELY POPULAR IN CHINA

The Korean drama “You who came from the star” is about an alien lands 400 years ago in Korea and falls in love. Fast forward to present, he meets his first love’s doppelganger — a haughty starlet, and inevitably falls in love with her too. In China it’s been viewed online through iQiyi over14.5 billion times.

The show has sparked all sorts of trends, namely one for chicken and beer as it’s the heroine’s favorite food combination, here are some interesting stories around the show and chicken&beer.

In Chongqing, a major city in Southwest China, a woman supposedly dumped her boyfriend after he refused to buy her fried chicken in the middle of the night because he wasn’t as romantic as the show’s leading man.

Another story reported that a 50-year-old Chinese woman suffered a heart attack from late night binge-watching and getting too “emotional” over the storyline.

Allegedly, a manager in Fujian, a far eastern province of China, gave his employees the day off just to catch the series finale.

When Chinese officials met in Beijing this week, the show was the hottest topic of discussion. They debated why China hasn’t made a show nearly as popular.

_05

In Chongqing, a statue of Mao is being prepared for a move from it’s current location, a factory abandoned in mid 2012, to the city’s newly built museum.

Meanwhile, in another city, another statue of Mao gets a good clean.

SALUTE TO THE GREAT

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

_06

China is beginning to embrace the fun side of things by dressing up for a cause, and the costumes cannot get any better.

The city of Chongqing held a parade on Foreigner Street to create awareness for the anti-smog campaign in late February, many participants include local as well as expats living in the city.

POLLUTION PARADE

_07

In the wake of current discontent towards air pollution and recent Air Quality Index rising above 500 in Beijing, its unsurprising to see students from Peking University, China’s most prestigious university and also known for its rebellious history, masterminding a ‘silent’ protest against pollution throughout the campus.

MASKED INTELLECTUALS

Image taken from Chinasmack

A batch of puppies born in late February are gaining online traction for it’s resemblance to baby panda’s.

At the moment, it is uncertain whether they are for sale or not.

IDENTITY CRISIS

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

_08

With living costs so high and increasing migrant workers moving around for jobs (mostly in construction) there is only one solution that can solve their problem: living in shipping containers.

Many demolition sites contain containers for rent with rental fee from 6 rmb/day per container, this is around 0.99 usd/day per container.

Yes, you can stack them together to make a 2-story house.

CUPBOARD TRIBES

Image taken from Shanghai Daily

_09

This phrase comes from the hottest Korean Drama “You who came from the star”, it’s the heroine’s favorite food combination, and her most famous line in that show is :”first snow, how couldn’t we have chicken and beer?”

When Shanghai snowed a week after CNY, Korean restaurants throughout the city were packed full of people lining up to buy Chicken and Beer.

Even China’s A-list celebrities bought into the trend. Gao Yuan Yuan, a Chinese actress, posted this photo on her Instagram with the caption: “First snow. Where’s my fried chicken and beer?”

Now if you are using baidu search or wechat to type beer and fried-chicken in Chinese, all the interface will start to snow.

啤酒和炸鸡BEER AND FRIED-CHICKEN

_10

_11

One of the hottest meme at the moment, Bu Ming Jue Li is actually an abbreviation from a longer phrase that says: “I don’t understand, but I think this is very impressive.”

Bu Ming = don’t understandJue Li = think this is very impressive

The meme is used to describe situations that are either phenomenal, dramatic, or exceptional but unable to truly explain itself. For example, the word is being used to describe the missing MH370 flight where it’s the talk of the town but no one really knows what’s really going on.

不明觉厉 BU MING JUE LI

After three year to focus on her marriage and family, Singaporean singer-songwriter Stefanie Sun finally come back with her new single, "Kepler".

According to China Byte, the ballad, named after the brightest Kepler's Supernova that appeared in the Milky Way in 1604, is said to be the singer's dedication to her fans young and old, likening them to stars in the sky that may be far from one another but are able to connect through her music.

The song is also Stefanie's way of thanking her fans for their continuous support, enabling her to continue and make her realise that she was never alone. Stefanie used to have a dynamic and talented girl’s image in the public, now she’s becoming a real woman after she became a mom.

STEFANIE SUN: KEPLER

_12

Image taken from Chinasmack

_13

Joanna Wang, talented singer and songwriter from Taiwan, her father is the famous music producer Wang Zhiping, Joanna released her latest album in March, this is her fifth album, Her album has achieved great success in the past especially the “start from here” and “the adult story book”.

Midnight Cinema is also a cover album, it seems like she wants to show her respect to the classic Hong Kong movie soundtrack such as the soundtrack from “A better tomorrow”,”in the mood for love”

JOANNA WANG: MIDNIGHT CINEMA

BLACK COAL, THIN ICEThriller film written and directed by Diao Yinan, it tells the story of the Ripper case with Lunmei Kwai, Liao Fan, Wang Xuebing three people‘s love story of redemption.

The film won the Golden Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and the film's leading actor Liao Fan also won the Silver Bear for Best Actor. The film received critical praises at the Berlin Film Festival, but audience reaction was more divided.

_14

We Get Married (or Let’s Get Married) is a popular TV series in 2013. Yang Tao (played by Gao Yuanyuan) is a 32 years old left-over woman. And Guo Ran is a 35-year-old man who is fear of marriage. (left-over woman and man in China means the people who’s after 30 years old and still single) They meet and decide to get together. However, it seems things wouldn’t go on such easily. There is still a long way to go.

This TV series’ total play volume on 12 video websites reached 4 billion times, which made a record of Chinese TV series online play of 2013 and early 2014.

LET’S GET MARRIED

_15

A latest love and family TV comedian -[big Husband] discusses age gap relationships in the context of Chinese society.

The fashion magazine editing director, Gu Xiaojun (played by Li Xiaoran) is a beautiful and independent female. She fell in love with a university professor Ouyang Jian (played by Wang Zhiwen),who is 20 years older than her. They decided to get married but true love is never easy. They had to cope with various difficulties to reach happiness.

This TV series achieved the total play volume of over 1.4 billion at online video website, which ensures its first audience rating among various TV series.

BIG HUSBAND_16

WHERE ARE WE GOING, DAD?

“Where Are We Going, Dad?” is a Chinese reality TV show broadcast on Hunan Television. Based on the original South Korean reality show Dad! Where Are We Going?, the first season debuted on 11 October 2013 featuring five fathers and their child as they travel to rural places, they are going through challenges, kind of like the amazing race but between a father and his kid, it’s an exciting and sweet show.

The series has become a massive ratings hit, attracting 75 million viewers per episode to Hunan Television every week. It was adapted into a film, Where Are We Going, Dad?, that was released on 31 January 2014.

Now these kids all become the new ads star, they both endorsed a bunch of brands: Mengniu, Dettol, Chinese travel vertical site Tuniu etc.

_17

NICE is an Instagram-like application. It has more than 800K users and the number of

high quality UGC is around 18K per day. The highlight of this app is their users LOVE TO

SHARE! (SHOW OFF). This is a revolution tool to reform the bonding between brands and

its consumers. It allow you to show off your cool stuff and you are in a community where

everybody embraces the same value and action. You can build your own brand catalog

and find the users/KOLs share the same taste. You also can search the brand/item to find

the references you need before you purchase or put together a look.

NICE _18

VOICES

Penni Fu, Design Ethnographer‘You who came from the star’ enjoys sweeping popularity. This reminds me of the

prominent anthropologist Daniel Miller, who is a big fan of Korean TV drama. He may

debate abstrusely in the academic seminars as if he were the one who comes from the

star and sounds completely alien. While in the meantime, when he talks about his

favorite Korean TV drama ‘Winter Sonata’, his eyes simply light up. Korean TV drama

reveals the human side of us. As human being, we want to be who we are not. The

actress and actor become one’s ‘god’ and ‘goddess’, taking one into the fantasized

lifestyle (like a myth) while still connecting one with the social reality.“

Nicole Fang, big fan of Korean trend"This drama is so popular, I think people in the US are also watching it, not just in

China. It is very different from other Korean drama, no one died from cancer, no

arguments between family members, etc. Alien being the theme is unique and fresh,

the actor having special powers and the actress playing a very silly role, it’s very

exciting and interesting. Most importantly, both leading characters are very good

looking! especially the female character, all her dresses, shoes, bags and cosmetics

are very fabulous, I want to buy the YSL lipstick she used in the show but that color has

already been sold out all over the world. I can also talk about how handsome the male

character is all day long…”

Why is the Korean Drama “You Who Came From The Star” so popular in China?

THANKSAnd, welcome back to Earth!

EDITOR: Kate Lu, Charinee Chairasmisak DESIGNER: Frank Ran W+K Shanghai

Penni Fu, Design Ethnographer‘You who came from the star’ enjoys sweeping popularity. This reminds me of the

prominent anthropologist Daniel Miller, who is a big fan of Korean TV drama. He may

debate abstrusely in the academic seminars as if he were the one who comes from the

star and sounds completely alien. While in the meantime, when he talks about his

favorite Korean TV drama ‘Winter Sonata’, his eyes simply light up. Korean TV drama

reveals the human side of us. As human being, we want to be who we are not. The

actress and actor become one’s ‘god’ and ‘goddess’, taking one into the fantasized

lifestyle (like a myth) while still connecting one with the social reality.“

Nicole Fang, big fan of Korean trend"This drama is so popular, I think people in the US are also watching it, not just in

China. It is very different from other Korean drama, no one died from cancer, no

arguments between family members, etc. Alien being the theme is unique and fresh,

the actor having special powers and the actress playing a very silly role, it’s very

exciting and interesting. Most importantly, both leading characters are very good

looking! especially the female character, all her dresses, shoes, bags and cosmetics

are very fabulous, I want to buy the YSL lipstick she used in the show but that color has

already been sold out all over the world. I can also talk about how handsome the male

character is all day long…”