China Trend Watch

Since I get the pleasure of traveling to China almost every year, I’m acting as the on-the-ground correspondent reporting on trends I see as an ABC foreigner based in NYC.

These are the notables from a September spent in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chongqing, Nanjing, and Xian.

Supershoes, running vests, and all kinds of sunglasses your girlfriend would hate. In cities across China, I’m seeing an explosion of running subculture driven by the sport’s global expansion.

Saturday morning coffee means runners coming in with their full fits which I don’t ever recall seeing before. That’s the power of pushing exercise as social capital.

Heard through the grapevine that they might be adding Shanghai, Sydney or Cape Town to the six majors so I only see this trend continuing to grow in the next few years.

Also, they gotta bring over some of these Speed 4 colorways over to the states…

If you have followed my IG stories before, you know I love this shoe. But there are levels to this.

Regardless of generation, people will not let this shoe die. I swear it’s been in rotation for at least 3 years now. The chunkier the better. Jibbitz or die.

The staying power of this shoe is like what I’ve seen from the Boston Clog in the states. At this point, I’m more impressed by the resilience.

Every restaurant or public space now has these canvas folding chairs for seating. I mean it makes complete sense to me from a function perspective to fold them up after closing up.

I see this as the Snow Peak-ification of China, but probably for Taobao friendly prices.

At least in big cities, it’s starting to feel like these outnumber the OG plastic stools. I have a feeling the youth are going to miss and romanticize that past someday soon though so see the red plastic returning back on the forecast.

Gone are the 08 Olympics era UV full face visor. Face covers are getting creative.

I saw a couple of these which are giving me Sleep No More Fremen energy.

I’m literally unc status in China now so nostalgia makes me miss the visors, but I’m gassed to see where this trend goes next year.

Shoutout my mom who ate with this.

I reported on this last year. I’m seeing more and more uptick in people with ink. Nowhere near the stigma held in Japan, but always fascinating for me to see young people find ways to express their individuality in a country known for and trying to push collectivism.

Honestly love seeing a lot of color work over purely black and white which looks good on that paper whitened skin.

China’s been investing in a lot of domestic tourism since covid and this year, I felt a noticeable increase in the amount of international tourists back to China.

This is purely anecdotal, butI heard way less English being spoken on the streets and much more Hindi, Arabic, German, and French.

At the same time, more of my non Chinese friends have been planning trips there and the Chinese apps have more English translations capabilities than years past.

After what I can only imagine as the wild fever dream of the pandemic, Chinese youths are taking to the streets.

Friday nights mean hordes of dudes with the same perm and girls with the same crops posted up on the street corner. That’s what it means to be young and dumb and it gives me joy to see.

Urban development is starting to cater to this generation as well. Shanghai just opened up the TX Huaihai mall which is emblazoned as a “Youth Energy Center.” Took a visit and every floor has some Pioneer decks for DJ pop-ups, cybersigilism jewelry, and not so vintage vintage clothing. When I went it was absolutely dead but it was 4pm on a Tuesday. Interested to see if these types of concepts make their way stateside as well.

Fun fact, the Chinese Sportswear company Anta owns Amer Sports Group and Amer owns Salomon and Arcteryx. So some of your favorite gorp brands are Chinese and have been Chinese.

Last year, my mom was trying to take me to the new Arctery’x store in Jing’an. Expensive goretex shells just make sense for those wanting to stunt there.

This year, the XT-6 has won over the hearts and minds of the people. From what I can tell, the marketing is copy+paste with the storytelling blending the worlds of aspirational nature lovers and urbanists.

Chrome. We need more of it. Also throw in as many fake plants as we can.

I have no idea why I have this feeling like Seoul has done this first. Chat, please confirm in the comments.

Been noticing this Space Odyssey look like Zendaya’s Gynoid suit exploded an arboretum. I can’t get a read on this look if it’s optimistic or grim like the grow room inside Snowpiercer. All I can say, is I got bored of it after the second spot. Hoping this one blows over.

Hold and do not sell. I thought girlies renting Hanfus at tourist destinations was peak last year, but this year it’s at an all time high.

Cosplay and high effort subculture fits has been growing hard amongst teens and walking through a pedestrian street on a Friday feels like you might be in Harajuku. Lolita has been having it’s own type of moment in mainland China and I feel like every night I saw someone dressed up as a Genshin Impact character.

Every tourist area is packed more than ever with photographers, costume renters, and studios for these types of photo shoots. I’m not on the side of Xiaohongshu that gets to ever see the results of this type of content, but I’m glad to see people having fun with their own heritage and unafraid of being seen.

Honorable mention

Shoutout to this display. They get it.