PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA
SPORTS Kim leads » P. 9
VOL 33 NO 48 NOVEMBER 22 – NOVEMBER 28, 2014 FREE 32 YEARS YOUR VOICE
More than just a pretty cover...
China’s Black Friday was 11.11
Photo by Kayla Dawson, Chin Music Press Facebook page
Chin Music Press recreates the art of storytelling
Two billion dollars worth of merchandise was sold within one hour
By Jingyu Zhang Northwest Asian Weekly
Rutledge and his wife Yuko Enomoto founded Chin Music Press, a small publishing company, in 2002 while living in Tokyo. Rutledge worked at a copy desk at the Nikkei Weekly and covered events like the Kobe earthquake and served as translator for a journalist covering the Aum Shinrikyo gassing. Enomoto was a financial journalist covering the Asian commodity trade. The two moved Chin Music Press to Seattle, opening their showroom store and
Nov. 11 (11.11) is notable because it is considered the “Singles’ Day Shopping Festival” in China. On Nov. 11, 2014, Alibaba reinforced their recent notoriety by promoting a Singles’ Day Shopping Festival, which is China’s largest 24-hour online shopping promotion. This annual festival went global, as shoppers in some 200 countries and regions went online to select from more than one million products being offered at steep discounts by participating Chinese and international e-tailers. Alibaba’s retails totaled at $1 billion. Alibaba is China’s biggest online commerce company. Its three main sites, Taobao, Tmall, and Alibaba.com, have hundreds of millions of users and hosts millions of merchants and businesses. In addition, Alibaba is the most popular destination for online shopping in China, and is the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market today. Transactions on its online sites totaled $248 billion last year, more than those of eBay and Amazon.com combined. Since 2009, the Chinese Singles Shopping Festival encourages those untethered by a significant other to buy themselves gifts. Initially, 27 merchants on the company’s Tmall site offered discounts to perk up sales during an otherwise slow period. Now, the response has been
{see CHIN cont’d on page 15}
{see BLACK FRIDAY cont’d on page 15}
Post-demo book signing with Shiro
By Tiffany Ran Northwest Asian Weekly Day writer and translator Jay Rubin walked into the office of Chin Music Press when it was establishing itself in Seattle. The space had not yet taken on the identity of the small local publisher that had, for the last decade, worked to change the face of printed books. Chin Music Press founder Bruce Rutledge was in a casual t-shirt still painting the walls. The carpets had just been torn out.
Japan in recession as economy contracts 1.6 pct By Elaine Kurtenbach AP Business Writer
Photo by Fourhalf
TOKYO (AP) — Japan reported Monday that its economy contracted at a real annual rate of 1.6 percent in JulySeptember, in a second straight quarterly decline that returned the country to recession. A 24.1 percent plunge in private residential investment from a year earlier failed to offset a modest recovery in exports and a 1.5 percent increase in household spending. Most economists had forecast that the world’s thirdbiggest economy would expand at about a 2 percent pace. The negative growth figure was much lower than expected and makes it very likely Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will delay implementation of a sales tax hike planned for October, 2015.
The economy contracted 7.1 percent in April-June after the national sales tax was raised to 8 percent from 5 percent. The decline in July-September represented a 0.4 percent decrease from the previous quarter. The release Monday of the preliminary quarterly economic data, normally a routine event, was received with far more attention than usual since Abe is expected to make the dismal GDP reading the basis for calling a general election. “In light of the sharp fall in today’s preliminary estimate, it now looks likely that (Prime Minister) Abe will call off the hike and announce snap elections,” economist Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index dropped 1.4 {see JAPAN IN RECESSION cont’d on page 14}
The Inside Story NAMES People in the news » P. 2
■
A&E Delano Manongs » P. 8
A-POP! Hollywood loses an activist » P. 9
COMMENTARY E-cigs & the API community » P. 11
412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • info@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com