The Nanjinger - May, 2020 by SinoConnexion

Contents 6 Contributors 7 Nanjing Nomads 8 Editorial

THE

www.thenanjinger.com

MAY 2020

Volume#10/Issue#6

#94

9 Poem; Old Fashions 10 Nanjing’s Foreign Fashion Insiders on the Impact of Covid-19 14 Opening a Can of Bats Face-Masked Fusions of Fashion

18 Are All Things Nanjing Fashionabe? Only if they’re Online! 20 Great Nanjingers (2)

Dreamer of Damsals in Red; Cao Xueqin

22 For Art’s Sake

The Ming Tombs You Haven’t Heard of

25 Strainer

Drinking the Yellow Peril

26 Our Space 28 The Gavel

Legal Issues for WeChat Sales of Luxury Products

29 Metro Map

THE

www.thenanjinger.com

May 2020

The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You

s Nanjing cool? We’d like to think so, and we’d bet you agree. In fact, the city has been “à la mode” for a while now, given the nationalist craze for the Republican Period, also known as the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937). But just how can such very physical, tangible qualities be transferred online? See p.18-19.

And hence to face masks. Alert readers shall remember that back in 2013, at the height of air pollution from the construction readying Nanjing for the Youth Olympics, face mask were also then

ubiquitous. This time around, the garment has also influenced the rest of our wardrobe, for better or worse. See p. 14-17. The Spring Collection; the Summer Collection; the... Well, you know. It’s looking as if these are becoming sayings of yesteryear; herein a selection of Nanjing’s foreign outfitters on how our clothing is set for a makeover. See p.10-12. Welcome to “Fashion” from The Nanjinger.

Ed.

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Fas hion s

By M ait iu Bralligan â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;2 0

Old Bell

bottoms, bangs, bangles and Kohl,

Leather and lace, denim jackets, tie dyed t-shirts, Neon sneakers, Grolsch bottle tops, Hoodies, low slung jeans, rolled up jacket sleeves, Big collars, small collars, no collars Shell suits, ski jackets, bandanas, Espadrilles, Docs, boat shoes with no socks, White socks, basketball shoes, Nike air Back combing, beehives, crew cuts, skinheads, But not the mullet. Surely never, never the mullet.

Nanjing’s Foreign Fashion Insiders on the Impact of

Covid-19 By Donyell Marshall

“I’m really into purple velvet right now”, Rosie Colvin said. “Think Willy Wonka, or maybe Prince. That’s my vibe.”

he UK fashion designer was discussing her dream ensemble for when she’d finally be released from quarantine. Currently waiting for permission to return to Nanjing, where she works for an assortment of brands, both international and domestic, Colvin has found herself deprived of the opportunity to express her style to the outside world. “I’ve been planning some freedom outfits,” she said over the phone from her parent’s house in Manchester, England. She wore a pair of refurbished “Michael Jackson tap shoes” to the supermarket the other day, she said. A man with a red beard complimented her in the meat aisle. “He said, ‘Hey, I like your shoes.’ I had my mask on so he couldn’t see that I smiled. But I smiled with my eyes.”

She sighed. “I miss wearing nice clothes,” she said. “I can’t wait to go out to the bar, get dressed up and feel like myself again.” As with everything the novel coronavirus leaves in its wake, a reckoning has been brought upon the fashion industry. Companies across the globe have struggled to cope with supply chain issues and weak demand, leading many to shutter their doors and manufacturing facilities. In some cases, they’ve had no choice but to file for bankruptcy. The pandemic has also led to the postponement or cancellation of a number of fashion weeks, including in Beijing and Shanghai; Shanghai Fashion Week was scheduled to begin on 26 March, while Beijing’s China Fashion Week was slated to run from 25 to 31 March. Yet in China, reasons for optimism remain. As precaution and paranoia increasingly fade out of style, making way for a renewed sense of sartorial fervor, the citizens of Nanjing appear eager to make up for lost time.

“I’ve definitely found myself more open to spontaneity”, Trina Tulloch, 29, said of her approach to life after quarantine. “It’s been fun to get ready for nights out. The ritual is a bit refreshed. I’ve rekindled my love of getting ready.” Social distancing, for all intents and purposes, appears firmly behind us in Nanjing, a relic of last season. Gone are the days of confinement and our sedentary existence. Bars and restaurants are open for inhouse dining. Temperature guns are seen less frequently. Once more, we are allowed to roam free. 10

The privilege of leaving our homes, however, demands that we walk about with dignity. “I was living in my pajamas”, lamented Natalie Roman, 24, who has been working from home as an English teacher as a precaution against the spread of Covid-19. “If I had to work, I’d just change my top, since that’s all anyone can see.” Sheltering at home is a thing of the past. No longer existing within the confines of a computer screen, we must account for the entirety of our bodies when getting dressed. The clothes available to us, however, are also primed for a radical rethinking. “I think we’re going to see a lot less choice on our shelves”, Colvin said. “Companies are going to take fewer risks. You might not see as many things that are trend-driven.” Carla Bissell, a fashion merchandiser based in Nanjing, said the impact of the virus won’t necessarily be felt right away. “So much of what’s happening now was decided before the virus arrived, so there’s still a lot of unknowns”, she said. More pressing to the current moment is how consumers will respond to their new reality. While some are eager to spend money after having so many outlets for their disposable income nullified, others who have been furloughed or otherwise seen a dip in their salaries are bound to be more modest in their spending.

And then there’s the question of the garments themselves. Should the look align with the destabilising nature of the current moment, or intentionally offer a brighter outlook in stark relief from the existential anxiety from which we suffer? “Fashion is still a form of escapism. For me, anyway, you still want a bit of an aspirational look to it”, Colvin said. “In times when things are difficult and people are going through a lot, will we feel frivolous dressing in a certain way? Or will we want to express ourselves more after being locked up and not seeing the outside world?” For fashion insiders desperate for guidance on how to weather the storm, the people of China could serve as a valuable testing ground for projecting what their customers want as the global crisis continues on throughout the rest of the world. “What I realised during that time is how much we spend and how deep into consumerism I was,” Roman said. “I try to be more cautious now when shopping. I already have so much, I don’t need to buy more.” For others, shopping for garments on Taobao offered a way to pass the time during quarantine. “Once you try on the clothes and they fit nicely, you can’t wait”, said Tulloch, who purchased jumpers, heels, blouses, jeans and gym clothes, while social distancing in her apartment. “It’s giving yourself something to look forward to.”

Ecommerce has never been more vital for a business to succeed. Consumers have also never been faced with the burden of preserving a company’s survival. While behemoths like Amazon and Taobao offer the luxury of convenience, the spread of Covid-19 has tested the viability of smaller businesses, both in and out of the fashion industry. Tied into the equation is the topic of sustainability; The British Fashion Council confirmed that a new version of London Fashion Week will be completely digital in light of the pandemic and that the event will be gender-neutral, meaning that menswear, womenswear and genderless shows will be merged together.

Even before the onset of Covid-19, the fashion industry was shifting toward sustainability. “We need to do less”, Miuccia Prada said after her Spring 2020 women’s show last September. “There is too much fashion, too much clothes, too much of everything.” Delays in the manufacturing supply chain means the trend-focused fast fashion business will be in peril, as the timeline from design to delivery is no longer sustainable under the current circumstances. But for many within the industry, the yearning for more sustainability can be traced back to before the virus.

Donning her signature black glasses during an interview with the model, Naomi Campbell, Vogue editor ,Anna Wintour, reiterated the need for the industry to slow down. “We need to celebrate the art of fashion and the design of fashion and we need to slow down and enjoy it much more and not always be saying, ‘What’s new? What’s next?’” Wintour said.

“It’ll be interesting to see if they can streamline the shows and whether that will trickle down the whole chain so there’s less consumption,” Bissell said. “Fashion shows are where people get their inspiration from, and there are so many shows

everywhere that only seem to encourage fast fashion because there are so many styles. If things get streamlined, maybe people will be more considerate about what they buy, both with price and from a sustainability point of view.”

Purple velvet, one could surmise, is a step in the right direction. 12

“We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it” is one of my father’s favourite sayings. “Until the cows freeze over” is another. A blended idiom or cliché is called a malaphor. The combination of two hitherto unrelated concepts makes us smile, and puzzle over how we come to know the things we know. One of the irrefutable ingredients in our weird and wonderful mental schemata is the society in which we live, and one of the most fabulous markers of society and culture is fashion. What we see literally becomes part of who we are. And the bridge burning timeline is certainly

Opening a Can of Bats

By Triona Ryan

relevant in the here and now.

Face Masked Fusions of Fashion

hen I first moved to China in 2013, masks were another whimsical fashion afoot in Asia. They formed part of the initial reports back to friends and family back home. If the proclivity for our host country to sport facial wear to battle smog, SARS and other meddlesome biohazards wasn’t enough to shock Europe, there was always the then common slitpanted babies, outdoor pyjamas and the “passion killer” nylon ankle socks.

addition to daily life in Nanjing in recent years, and the influencers of the up and coming generation no longer sport their outdoor jim-jams, even in the midst of winter. Things change.

“I’ve seen people out with camera lenses that would make Annie Liebovitz swoon. One guy threw himself down on his belly to take picture of the ninjas blowing bubbles from the double buggy last week. It was all I could do not to roll right over him”, I typed.

Hand washing, time spent in solitude and a deep examination of the ego ensued. Sanitisers followed the masks out the store doors. Mysteriously, in the West, toilet paper also vanished. In Asia, we were left scratching our… heads in wonder. These are the times we are living.

Weeks later, the same picture showed up on a wall in Xinjiekou subway station. In Asia, everyone embraced their inner Annie. Amateur photography combined with agile gymnastics to capture lights and angles unseen to the Western eye. Snapping images was very à la mode. The pyjama-clad, slit-panted, slipper-footed photographic contortionists of yonder years, against grey skied backdrops and the masks where what most stuck with me. My children drew pictures of grey skies, green grass. Their eyebrows rose in puzzlement when I asked, “Why not paint the sky blue?”

Indeed, I see it in my own life. Walking through the school foyer that fateful first Monday back, my limbs moved in an odd, triangular way. At first, I couldn’t quite place the discomfort, the tension tingling in my pores. It wasn’t until I sat down on my newly sterilised stool that it hit me like a ton of toilet rolls; the seams of my clothes were too close to my body. The mask on my face was stifling. My muffled outbursts of cognitive fairy dust reduced to “and that is why wemufhabaykoncheddar the importance of the shwafflehufflefrump essential…” We all know those eyes; the “Huh?” eyebrows. Someone said, “They should invent a mask with a clear window so we could see your lips”.

Thanks to the tremendous green push on the part of the government, blue skies have become a pleasant

Covid came. The mask literally disappeared from stores from one day to the next.

Masks were the new black.

151

“You should do it,” I replied, enunciating clearly and slowly. We slowed down. I pre-wrote class notes. We adapted and move forward. In the case of the mask windows, someone has beaten us to the chase. Eric Kim, a student from Portland, Oregon, High School worked within the deaf community. He felt that communication without the facial cues and lip-reading aids would be unfathomable, and so he set to making face masks with a transparent window, using pipe cleaners, vinyl and regular face masks. He has shipped 17 so far and raised over US$2,400 on his GoFundme page which he will donate to the deaf community. Reading this heartened me. Even in the depths of uncertainty, of doubt, of apprehension, the human spirit still reaches out to help. Always look for the helpers, says Mr. Rogers. Parallel to the diverse reactions of the human species to Covid19, fashion too has evolved since January of this year. On a personal level,

much the same as the seams of my work pants suggested themselves too strongly upon my soul that morning, so too did my shoes oppress, my shirt confine and my sensible socks constrict. Social isolation had stripped my wardrobe bare of buttons, zips, fastners and buckles. Denim was banished in the first wave, anything that needed a reading of the care label in the second. Soon, only the stretchy pants and fleecy pjs were to be found on the once vibrantly stuffed shelves. Hoodies, soft and thick hung where silks and linens used to sway. The skirts were culled. For the men, the most visible stamp of Covid has been the renunciation of hope for a professional hair trim and running the gauntlet with the home trimmers, or worse, at the hands of someone who had “done it loads of times before. Oooops.” If you want to enjoy gems such as “Just let my girlfriend attempt a skin fade and now I look like I’m about to nuke America,” you can check out delightful hashtags like #coronacuts, #don’tdothis, #bigmistake, #thehorror. 16

The flexibility, nay lithe glee, with which my wardrobe morphed into a leisure wear dystopia is similarly reflected across the world, now that lockdowns extend across Europe and The States. There is the horrendous issue of The Roots of Wrath, black and grey valleys running deep beneath rolling hills of blonde and russet browns. Scarves seem to be a way forward; simply bandage them around your head until you can feasibly claim that it’s a balayage. You could also just rock those roots like a total influencer and be the first to sport the new normal; The Way I Am. It may also help shift attention from the new Joe Exotic haircut your loved one is sporting. It may help with the seams. I love scarves. I love roots. The important thing is to reach out to someone else too, see who we can help. Maybe not making miniature miracles out of pipe cleaners, but there is always a way, if we look. Elizabeth Savetsky, an influencer who lives in New York has had to

revamp her blog content to remain relevant during lockdown. To compensate for the lack of creativity social distancing has imposed on her blog, she’s begun to explore a deeper layer of herself, and share it with the world. Recently, she posted a video of herself singing, and old photos and snacks have started to appear in her blog posts reflect a going inwards and an acceptance of another side of an of an influencers life; the tie-died sweater and sweatpants-clad human in the cave, grazing on snacks. Rarely shared, it’s not hard to imagine how heartening it is for kids to see their idols living a pretty similar life to their own right now, fashion be damned. It’s not rocket surgery. Unprecedented times cause unprecedented change. Our armours fall away when we spend time sitting with them. It becomes harder, and in a sense, pointless to keep up old pretences. We can become more aware of our personal narratives, and the whims of fancy that dictate them.

We can relax, at last.

Covid 19. Bringer of Roots, Cutter of Dodgy Skin-Fades, Seams Redeemer.

We have made this can of worms, or bats, and now we must lie in it.

Covid is here. But we are still here too.

It’s really difficult not to think of fashion when you think of a Nanjinger. Everything we know is coloured by something or other; in the case of Nanjing, the fashion that stands out is the Nanjing dialect, “Nankinese”, because it is “La crème de la Nanjinger”. These pinnacles of society do not only speak Nanjing dialect, but also eat Nanjing salted duck, use Jingling gold foil wherever possible (you can drink it, you know) and pray for the Nanjing Massacre victims on 13 December each year. In a city where even the dialect is the height of cool, how did people survive social distancing, self-isolation and the transition to online?

By Wang Yutong

Are All Things Nanjing Fashionable? Only if they’re Online! I bumped into an old friend back on campus last week. They were looking a million dollars. “Hey! Haven’t seen you in a long time. What did the coronavirus do to you that a person like you never came shopping with me before?” “Oh! I didn’t go out, I shopped online. It’s so convenient, I have every brand in the universe at my fingertips and I don’t have to leave my house. Which was good, ‘cos I couldn’t leave my house. Now you’re the one behind the times!” Has even fashion, for this special period of time, become online?

hat’s the definition of fashion? Coming first to mind is definitely clothes, shoes, or maybe those catwalk twig-legged models and Vogue, or one of the growing eclectic delights that is the rich well of blogging fashionistas around the globe. But fashion embraces more; jewellery, make up, movies, languages, sports, media, food. … In fact, it is the trend of popular things over a period of time. The 1950s stands out in my mind, shining with its definition of fashion. During this era in China, the fashion was to wear military uniforms, sing revolutionary songs, kick hacky sacks and roll hoops. On the other hand, in the 50s in America, fitted blouses and jackets with rounded shoulders with small round collars, collocating with narrow pants and capris, were the trend. Rock ’n’ roll was the popular music. Purchasing a TV set was also the fashion of the decade. Today, in these short months, fashion has transited to online. As a student, the shift to a new way of learning in school has changed my lifestyle, distorted my body clock, time management and efforts at concentration. But my transition to online learning has certainly been aided by my savvy pre-knowledge of online shopping.

While schools started online learning, fashion companies started online live streams to sell their products, people found jobs making creative, random, funny videos online to share with people all around the world, and so too lectures were produced online. Now, more than ever before, online life has become a necessary evil. The true meaning of fashion can be found in events of the time. This is the birth of trend. Live streams now lead the current fashion trend, as they directly unite the most powerful group in society today; the fans. Their power makes live streaming popular and trendy; a defining fashion of this period. One day in March, I went to my parents’ clothing company. The empty building clearly showed what the coronavirus had done. However, a small office remained open, lights on, with three people inside live streaming away. My mum explained that this small place saved our company.

Even now, with death lurking behind every mask, and no one to see us in our fancy new clothes but the dog and the family, looking good is an important facet in actually FEELING good. Fashion is not just about types of clothes, shoes and make up; it’s more a way of life, a lifestyle. Real fashion is unique and characteristic; there are lot more possibilities and opportunities there to be dug. It should not just be something that is only about appearance; it’s also a unique lifestyle, a work-life balance and a cultural difference. There are many more things that need exploration, now that you have your shovel out. Everyone has their own interpretation and understanding of fashion. After all, we are all different and fashion is an important factor that makes each and every one of us special.

Herein, this department had organised not only sales throughout the epidemic, but also live streams to keep people’s spirits up. Our customers were more than happy to share their ideas and desires. So really, not only did it save us, it allowed us to innovate and become a truer version of ourselves. 19

Great Nanjingers (2) By Frank Hossack

Dreamer of Damsals in Red; Cao Xueqin Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) was a free-spirited individual with a fondness for the bottle. But he was also a visionary with a keen eye for the human condition, largely the result of his family’s fall from grace in the eyes of the ruling elites. He spent his last decade destitute, all the while writing a novel that he would never see finished, and never see published, one that long after his death would to go on to be one of the four great classics of Chinese literature. Today, the Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum sits on the ruins of the Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Government Office. This was a temporary palace for the emperors during their southern tours, from the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1654 – 1722 CE) to that of Emperor Qianlong (1711 – 1799 CE). It was the largest such structure in the country and was also the birthplace of Cao. This should have paved the way for a life of nobility, but it was to be short lived. Cao’s grandfather, Cao Yin (曹寅), was, as a young boy, friends with the future emperor, Kangxi. His great grandfather was later appointed by the emperor to serve in Nanjing (then Jiangning) as Commissioner of Imperial Textiles, a post that was, upon his death, handed down to Cao Yin. By the time Cao eventually came along, the family was sufficiently powerful and respected to have hosted Kangxi during four of his visits to Nanjing. The young Cao spent his days reading, writing or playing chess with the damsels of his entourage, when he wasn’t painting or writing poetry, that is. It is surmised that he was referring to this kind of idilic life when he came up with the name for his work, “Dream of the Red Chamber” (红楼梦).

It would have never come to be, however, were it not for the despotic nature of Kangxi’s son, the newlyascended Emperor Yongzheng. In his crack down on corruption, the Cao family were removed from office for “mismanagement of funds”, according to “China: Five Thousand Years of History and Civilization”, published by the City University of Hong Kong. Purged to the outskirts of Beijing, Cao lived out his life largely in abject poverty, surviving with the help of friends and by selling off his paintings. Writing the novel probably kept him sane. The precise observation of the social structures and divisions of 18th-century China predicted the collapse of feudalism society, criticising its politics, ethics, cruelty and inhumanity. The long lasting legacy and impact of “Dream of the Red Chamber” is apparent in that there is an entire academic field of study devoted exclusively to the novel; “Redology”. The field suggests that the family depicted in the novel was a fictional or “dream” version of Cao’s own. Located diagonally across from Nanjing’s 1912 on Changjiang Lu, the Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum makes for a fascinating afternoon. Among the permanent exhibitions spread over 8,700 square metres and six floors is one devoted to Cao’s epic work, in which can be experienced settings where many events in the novel happened. For a look at the real thing, however, a high-speed train is required, to see the “Jiaxu manuscript”, dated to 1754 and on display in the Shanghai Museum. That there be not even one manuscript in Nanjing is not only a chronic oversight, but also an irony befitting the life story of its author. 20

明坟墓

FOR ARTS SAKE with Francesca Leiper

ing Xiaoling, the tomb of the Zhu Yuanzhang, first emperor of the Ming dynasty, ranks among Nanjing’s top attractions. Perhaps lesser known however are a smattering of tombs throughout the

city that belong to generals and officials who also played a key role in the establishment of the Ming dynasty, with its capital here, in 1368. Although significantly smaller than the emperor’s mausoleum, each tomb has a certain charm and the rather more peaceful intimate settings make for a worthy visit. 22

he first ones I found were the tombs of brothers Wu Zhen and Wu Liang, just a stone’s throw from Gangzicun station exit 1, on the western slopes of Purple Mountain. Expecting to find some sort of park, New Century Garden (Xinshijie Huayuan) turned out to be a residential complex and as a visitor I had to sign in. It seemed an unlikely location for two 600-year-old tombs, but the guards at the front gate were incredibly friendly and knew exactly where to direct me. There the tombs were, tucked away between housing blocks, nestled among the unruly foliage. Ming generals Wu Zhen and Wu Liang were brothers from Anhui and both influential in Zhu Yuanzhang’s overthrow of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. To be buried on Purple Mountain was a great honour, while the location of their tombs added extra protection to the emperor’s mausoleum on the southern side of the mountain.

As you walk in on your left is a tortoise (or bixi), which would once have had a stone tablet on its back detailing the tomb occupant. The central corridor, known as the spirit way, consists of stone statues in pairs; horses and attendants, rams, lions and officials. The stone animals and figures not only serve to protect the deceased, but each of them carries a symbolic meaning too. Rams for example represent justice, while lions symbolise power and authority.

At the end of the spirit way, in front of where the deceased would have been interred, two officials stand face to face, thickset and grounded, their expression impassive. The abstraction of their facial

features, according to art historian Ann Paludan, was deliberate and expressed an ideal virtue. But for what may lack in facial detail is made up in the intricate carving of their attire. Swirling cloud and flower patterns contrast with sharp geometric chainmail, while the shoulder pads of each official are adorned with a beast’s face. Immediately behind the short spirit way is another collection of stone statues in much the same configuration, except one of the officials is almost comically shrouded in palm trees. The tomb platform is simple and anticlimactic, despite doubts as to whether the brothers were in fact buried here. The stone figures do not differ greatly from those at Ming Xiaoling, but a lack of tourists and sense of secrecy at this site allows for more peaceful contemplation. As Paludan puts it, “They demand

full attention. When you take time, however, and look up at one of them, you become slowly aware that the figure appears to be looking back at you, telling you something. The sculptors have succeeded in imbuing the heavy block of stone with a spiritual quality which is still eloquent nearly six hundred years later”. A short walk southeast of the same metro station takes you to another two tombs, those of Qiu Chen and Chang Yuchun, the latter of which is set against a picturesque bamboo backdrop, while in the north, Li Wenzhong and Xu Da’s tombs are much grander, but currently under renovation and may not be open until later this year. 23

By Matthew Stedman

Drinking the Yellow Peril It’s not yellow. Let’s get that out of the way first.

he leaves are as green as Act One in Sonic. And the drink; well, green tea makes a pale yellow drink anyway, so there’s no room for differentiation there. It all reminds me of that ad for Canada’s Red Rock cider; “It’s not red and there are no rocks in it”. But, for Westerners like me, there’s perhaps always been a need for “Yellow Tea” to exist. Fascinated by the variety of Camellia Sinensis; from oxidised to unoxidised, with additional parameters like fermentation, baking and firing; I’m in love with the idea that this plant can spawn infinite permutations.

Chameleon Sinensis. Rosé barely takes the complex world of wine to three core hues. And cheese cheats, by requiring extra ingredients to earn its colours (though “blue” is a microbial show stopper to rival any pu’er!) Just looking at that spectrum of tea colours, it seems logical that there should be a yellow nestling in there between green and red. And actually, it’s not only unfresh green teas in musty jars that have yellowish green leaves. This name category deserves to exist. Several varieties, including 毛峰 (Mao Feng), brush close to the yellow boundary. Actually, Mao Feng is what I thought I was buying just before our voluntary quarantine began. I’d asked specifically for that. And this stuff in the tall plastic bag on the floor looked similar enough. When the seller named it “黄牙” (Huang Ya), I assumed it to be a sub-category of Mao Feng - which, of course, comes from 黄山 (Huang Shan), the “Yellow Mountain” range in Anhui.

I’d completely forgotten that there exists a whole “yellow tea” category in China. I didn’t think that, for the first time, I was buying some. I was hoping to score some of that vegetal, pea-soupy Mao Feng flavour. And, luckily, Huang Ya fully delivers in just that way. It’s been great tea for these strange months. It’s soothed me more often than it’s fuelled my lockdown meltdowns. And now I am running out of the stuff, I must go and check up on that seller. Actually, I fear the worst for his small business. I’m ashamed to admit that I am writing this before I have checked on him. Next time I write about this tea in Strainer, I shall mention more details about its origin and taste, instead of flippantly discussing its nomenclature. Yes, I’m tempted to say “Naked Mao Feng” would be my name for this great tea, since it lacks the hairs possessed by many examples of that variety. But calling it that would spoil this “traffic lights of tea” effect. I’m guessing that the Chinese tea world has christened this tea “yellow” for mostly those reasons above, as well as the connection with the revered Yellow Mountains, of course. Could there be an Imperial connection, I wonder? So now we’ve rounded out the traffic lights, is it going to be possible to push the envelope even further? What chance a blue tea? Well, if this yellow tea comes from Yellow Mountain, surely that creates an opportunity for a famous foreign mountain range. Baidu suggests that there is no “蓝山”(Blue Mountain) in China, except a chain of coffee shops. Come on, Australia. Here is your chance to shine in tea!

And, by the way, has anyone heard of a purple mountain existing anywhere in the world? 25

Older at theatBritish School of Nanjing have It was Students quite a week Nanjing International School been part in as some unusual Saturday5 after the taking May holiday students in Grades classes. Covering practical andmorning 6 came back onto campus.the Elsewhere, and collaborative that had learners across theexperiences Primary School all beenenjoyed hard to replicate online, stuâ&#x20AC;? the first NIS Virtual dents made mostNIS of the exâ&#x20AC;? Spiritthe Week, Home tra time with teachers Olympics, andtheir our third PS to boost theseAssembly. essential Virtual skills.

This Little Light of Mine 6 May, 2020

Older Students at the British School of Nanjing have been taking part in some unusual Saturday morning classes. Covering the practical and collaborative experiences that had been hard to replicate online, students made the most of the extra time with their teachers to boost these essential skills.

Saturday Morning 25 April, 2020

Legal notes from The Nanjinger in association with:

D’Andrea & Partners Law Firm

Legal Issues for WeChat Sales of Luxury Brands

ncreasingly, luxury brands choose to sell their products through WeChat mini programs, which makes it easier to provide controllable online shopping services, so can they avoid the difficulties associated with finding and loading official websites.

1. A mini program platform. Tencent relies on its copyright, patent and other intellectual property rights to provide businesses with the mini program platform and related technical services, so users can develop mini programs for brand marketing and other purposes.

Since 2016, luxury brands such as Christian Dior, Givenchy, Burberry and Channel have taken the lead in WeChat sales and have achieved interesting results. At the same time, the model of using WeChat mini program for sales means certain problems tend to arise, namely how to determine the boundaries of legal liability for platform operators and how to define the mini programs’ ownership and intellectual property.

2. Initiate and direct social media flow. At present, mini programs have multiple portals, such as sharing with friends and in groups, search, QR code scanning, etc., all of which can bring an influx of users.

Unlike regular apps, users do not need to download and install WeChat mini programs in order to use them. According to Article 2.3 of the “WeChat Mini Programs Platform Service Terms” (hereinafter “The Terms”, developers shall conduct initial development, such as design, internal testing, editing and maintenance of registered mini programs. Taking Dior as an example, "Dior Official Mall" is an e-commerce mini program, developed and coded by Christian Dior. After entering the mini program, it will be displayed in the WeChat interface as a product customisation and purchase interface. We tend to understand mini programs as a "web app" from a simple point of view. Users only need to search the name of the mini program in WeChat to find and use the mini program. The brand relies on the WeChat mini program platform to develop, operate and manage mini programs. As for service content, according to Article 1.2 of The Terms, "This service refers to the technical services provided by Tencent to users in accordance with this term, including remote interface call, front-end framework development, service connection channel, data encryption transmission and related Internet application technology, etc.”. According to Article 6.2 of The Terms, "Tencent only provides you with app services or relevant neutral technical support services under this term". Therefore, we believe that Tencent's mini programs products currently provide the following services:

3. Payment. All online transactions can be supported by WeChat payment. The ownership and intellectual property rights of the mini programs are relatively clear. According to Article 1.3 of The Terms and Article 6.1 of the “WeChat Public Platform Service Agreement”, the mini program belongs to the WeChat public account, and the ownership of the WeChat public account belongs to Tencent. Users may only utilise a right of use for the WeChat public account, while such may not be donated, borrowed, leased, transferred or sold. Therefore, mini programs registered and developed by brands belong to Tencent, while the brands only have the right of use. According to Article 5 of the The Terms, the intellectual property rights of the services provided by Tencent (including but not limited to web pages, words, pictures, audio, video, charts, etc.) and the copyright, patent and other intellectual property rights of the software on which Tencent relies shall belong to Tencent; the intellectual property rights of the content generated by the user in the process of developing the mini program belong to the user or the relevant right holders. Therefore, for the mini programs developed and the intellectual property invested by the brand, such items shall still be owned by the brand. However, when it comes to e-commerce, WeChat’s rules, credit evaluation system, third-party complaint and dispute handling system have not been improved. The relatively low registration threshold and audit standard of WeChat mini programs will most likely face many problems moving forward.

DISCLAIMER This article is intended solely for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Although the information in this article was obtained from reliable official sources, no guarantee is made with regard to its accuracy and completeness. For more information please visit dandreapartners.com or WeChat: dandreapartners

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