One of the hospital theme party held in Fee Café.

Alice works at a gothic-themed hangout tucked into a quiet street in Shanghai. We were keen to share her impressions of the sub-culture and understand how the cafe helps to build a community.

The Bergstrom Group: What products and services do you offer besides coffee and drinks?

Alice: We also sell Gothic style clothes, do Tarot cards readings, organize themed events, and host a weekly movie night.

TBG: Could you tell us more about the Gothic style clothes? Who are the designers or brands?

Alice: There are more and more original Goth or Gothic Lolita brands, such as 表面咒语(Surfacespell), 第69部门(The 69^th Department), Kred Lanrete, and le Flacon. Some of the brands have 7-9 years of history, they are sold online, some even internationally. The designers and most of the customers are Chinese youth. These indie brands belong to an underground culture, we just provide a platform for them.
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Yuerong (in the middle) and the model with her design on (on the left)

Creating a collection to be sent down the runway, students got a taste of what pursuing a career in fashion would be like. 

In her junior year as a fashion design major, our trendspotter Yuerong was enthusiastic to share her experience with us:

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Jimmy is a 24 year-old Shanghainese who just got married. Marrying at this young age is uncommon in Shanghai – his career is just starting and most of his friends are still single. We asked Jimmy to give us his perspective on sex, marriage and gender dynamics.

TBG: What do you and your wife think of premarital sex?

Jimmy: We actually had sex for the first time one week after we started dating exclusively, but it was not what I had intended to do. I accompanied her one night for her CET4 (College English Test 4). I told myself – and her – that nothing would happen. We talked about our past and then naturally, it happened. We had a serious talk afterward. Because we love each other, we didn’t feel bad or guilty. We agree that sex is one of life’s desserts, but not a necessity.
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When Toni, a member of The Bergstrom Group, found a wallet outside our office, she was determined to help track down the owner. She asked around the neighborhood without any luck so the next step was to notify the police. But instead of looking up the phone number, Toni did what for her was the easiest course of action: she posted the find to her Sina Weibo account. Toni directed her message to police with Weibo accounts in the area confident that she would get quick response.

A few hours after the news had been posted and shared, policeman Wang (a post-80s who was specifically called out with an “@” in the post) noticed the appeal and sent a message to Toni via Weibo. The next day, accompanied by another enthusiastic senior policeman, officer Wang showed up at our offices to retrieve the wallet. As you can see from the image (that we took but officer Wang expertly doctored), the journey from online plea to offline encounter was pretty exciting.

Until the officers left and we realized that they had forgotten to take the wallet with them. Doh!

The story came to a happy ending however as officer Wang managed to find the rightful owner. A local newspaper and TV station were anxious to report the news and joined Toni and officer Wang at the police station when the owner picked up the wallet.

DigiWar, a comic series created by ZENITHknight (a post-80s young Chinese), consist of stories told through sarcastic conversation, featuring personified digital brands. The story lines present news about mobile phones, computers, game machines and, of course, the Internet. We asked  ZENITHkinight to tell us his story.

ZK: There was a funny start. It all began because of a quarrel with someone about which is better – Windows or Mac OS. The debate took place on TGFC forum (a digi-club) but, as everyone knows, if you are too serious on forums, you lose arguments. So I found a way to express my point of view without allowing others to talk back. This is manga. It is not a problem for me since I studied art in school and have been working in animation, comics and game design fields.

ZK: I take into consideration how these brands target their customers, and also use my own understanding. For instance, the character Mac, of course, wears T-shirt and jeans, a very casual look. PC is in a suit and looks heavier and more inflexible. Sony is a fashionable youth with good taste; Sharp is more of a trendy young girl; Samsung wears typical Korean styled loose clothes.
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Finally MIDI Festival debuted in Shanghai! Held outside in Pudong’s Century Park from May 6 to May 8, over 40 foreign and domestic bands gave local music fans a rock carnival busting with music and fashion.

The nostalgia trend that post-80s have embraced was evident in fan fashion: caps from the Cultural Revolution period, tees with “80” printed on them, “Qing Chun (青春meaning youth)” also showed up on t-shirts, sailor’s striped shirts. Some of the hottest accessories made the show including unzipped black masks and the five-stroke armband made famous by recent junior nationalist phenomenon 12 year-old Huang Yibo (see China Daily’s report on him here).
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Li Gang was a total novice when he opened his “In & Out” Lijiang-themed restaurant (a city in Yunnan Province). Before becoming a restauranteur, Li was on the verge of failure working in the catering industry but his luck changed when he experimented with social networking. He started to cooperate with fantong.com (an online restaurant reservation site) and dianping.com (a restaurant review site). He even tried out promotional campaign on Dianping, selecting 10 out of over 9000 user applicants to win a trip to Lijiang including free food and accommodation. At their most impressive, users from Fantong and Dianping accounted for 50% of the restaurant’s total customers.