Blue Maruko

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Meng Yue (孟玥)adores all things Japanese, and her foreign name is Maruko. From Beijing, she is attending university in Nanjing. She was with two friends who have the exact same hair color as she does, but her style and feel was a bit sweeter than theirs.

A Sartorial Model for Beijing Men

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Born in Beijing, George headed to the States at 13, but still believes the East is the best. He is back in Beijing to bring his family business to new heights after serving at an investment bank in Hong Kong for around four years. Like many, he prefers Beijing to Hong Kong, believing that the southern city has little of interest happening beyond money-making. The northern capital offers a more diversified lifestyle. We hope that George’s dress sense will be frequently imitated by his fellow Beijing men.

Hong Kong does have one advantage over Beijing for George. It is has more outlets offering fine menswear and accessories. George is fond of the Neapolitan silhouette and construction methods and here he wears a cotton, unlined, Borelli suit and Canali silk knit tie.


Beida Ogilvy Intern

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Majoring in International Relations at mighty Beijing University, third-year Emmie would prefer to be studying something related to media. The main problem, she says, is that international realtions is too politicized a field and one rarely learns anything with real substance. As is the case with so many others who are unhappily wedded to their courses of study, Emmie ended up in International Relations as a result of her Gaokao score. Otherwise, she has no major complaints about life at Beida. She gets along with her three roommates and feels lucky that she doesn’t live with five or even seven.

Her two-month summer internship at the PR company Ogilvy will hopefully set her on a more favorable path, which should allow her to work in foreign companies after graduation. Often, majoring in something like international relations would only lead one to a government job or, at best, work in a state-run company. Emmie points out that foreign companies in China and state-run companies operate in completely different systems. Advancement in the latter depends almost completely on relationships, whereas the situation is somewhat more standardized with the foreigners. Of course, she acknowledges, foreign companies must operate effectively in the guanxi system if they are to succeed in this country and degrees of localization vary a great deal from one company to the next.

Chaoyangmen Subway Station Blues

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I just encountered Adam, a rather remarkable fellow who will be blessing Xicheng district with his gentle but quirky charm for the next two weeks. He is a Wushu practitioner who is, rather amazingly, just back from teaching this Chinese martial art in Shanxi. Fluent in Persian, French and English, this LA-born half-Iranian has become quite good at Chinese after just a month in this country.

The all blue, all linen (besides the gator shoes) ensemble includes a sport coat from Armani and trousers from Comme des Garçons.


Von Furstenberg Dress on Wangfujing

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A Marketing Director at Van Cleef’s & Arpels, Ms. Aude Bousser has worked for fashion brands for quite a few years though she returns to her home in Paris nearly every month. She thinks that opportunities are much more in the Asia market, especially China, both because of the growth and because women are more inclined to make decisions on purchases like jewelry by themselves and then spend their own money. Further, she says that Chinese women with careers tend to be more independent minded than their sisters in the West.

After opening a new shop at Wangfujing, the next big task will be this fall in Hangzhou, where she believes Van Cleef’s & Arpels is less known but the people of the city love to spend on luxury goods.

Her dress is from Diane Von Furstenberg.

A Pleasant Editor

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Also at the Bulgari party, Shanghaiese Lina Deng is Associate Publisher and Editorial Director at Chinese Marie Claire, which must be the most “intelligent” fashion magazine available for women. She has a more appealing demeaner than many of the top editors at other major fashion magazines. She is wearing an Alexander Mcqueen dress and a very unique necklace, though I forget the brand.

Shenzhen Girl up for 东方神起 Concert

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Sometimes I like to just throw in something random. I had to check out what was causing all the traffic around the Worker’s Stadium this past Saturday. It was a concert of a Korean band called “东方神起” (can’t seem to find the English) and the two blocks around the northern entrance to the stadium was filled with young vendors selling cheap souvenirs and other youths laying waste to the area with the packaging of those souvenirs as well as half-consumed junk food.

Up here just to witness it was this young high school student who hopes to be a graphic designer. Her first time in Beijing, she is staying for a week. Visiting with two home friends, she does not have friends or relatives in the capital. She describes Beijing as less developed than her home town, citing the lack of a glass wall between the platform and the tracks on several of the older subway lines. She has not made the half-hour (but special authorization requiring) journey to Hong Kong. So far in Beijing she has visited Xidan and Nanluoguxiang, and much prefers the former.

At Bulgari with Save the Children, Beijing Launch

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To celebrate its 125th anniversary, Italian luxury goods maker Bulgari introduced a limited edition ring to be sold worldwide this year with all funds going to the Rewrite the Future campaign of Save the Children. Bulgari’s very enjoyable Beijing launch and fundraiser party at the Today Art Museum was attended by Stylites veteran Laura Lan, still jetting between Taibei, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing but with a less gripping hair color. Laura is now the Editorial Director for Greater China at Revolution, a premier watch lifestyle magazine.

CCTV-9 Anchor

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This look may be (mercifully?) less startling than the usual eye candy appearing here, but I rarely see traditional Chinese attire looking so nice. It’s mainly the color. London-born James Chau is morning and lunchtime presenter of CCTV-9’s News and World Wide Watch. A contributor to the Evening Standard and the Sunday Mirror, he graduated from Cambridge University and King’s College London. Check his website, blog, and fanclub blog. James said he had heard that I was very “fun”.

Jin Haixin, Adorable

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I didn’t realize this when photographing her but lovely Jin Haixin is a well-known pop singer. She is a Chinese of Korean ethnicity and has been popular since 1999.

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The dress is Donna Karan the glasses vintage.

Compared to other more arrogant celebrities I have encountered, she was very sweet, not becoming irritated by my annoying questions (“where do you perform?” “do you have a band?”). You can sample her tunes on baidu.