These hutongs are making her feel brand new.  And being somebody in the China City is almost as good as being somebody in the World City.  Sylvia is just in from Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, and is planning to live here permanently perhaps working in a magazine.

Duan Yanling is Editor-in-Chief of design magazine Case da Abitare and Atcasa.cn, an online design channel in collaboration with sina.com. She was also hosted CCTV 9 (English) program Travelogue.  She graduated from Stockholm University and completed advanced study at Pace University in NYC.

Yanling believes that taste comes from one’s knowledge and cultivation. On Chinese people’s taste in fashion, she feels that many traditions in style and beauty are long lost. At present, most people are still trying to copy stereotype fashion elements of other culture/countries. She thinks that it will take some more time for Chinese people to find their own unique style. For shopping, she hopes to see a local design concept store something like Paris’ Colette or perhaps this new shop in Antwerp called ra.

段妍玲是《居Case da Abitare》和新浪ATCASA设计频道主编，旅游卫视全球创意发现节目《创意生活》的设计行策划、撰稿兼主持，原CCTV9《旅游指南》英语节目主持人。她毕业于斯德哥尔摩大学，后在纽约佩斯大学深造国际广告研究生课程。

妍玲认为品味来自知识与修养。对于当前中国人在时装方面的品味，她觉得中国传统美学系统在现实中已经完全失传了。在中国，很多人还只是模仿外来时尚风格的一些流行元素，要找到自己的独特风格尚需一些时间。在购物方面，她期待一个有生活味而又有品质感的设计时尚概念店的出现。

I had been meaning to put this one up for a while.  Li Mengxia (李孟夏) is one of the most well-known and admired figures on the Beijing magazine publishing scene.  He has worked in numerous capacities as a creative director, art director, and editor.  I don’t have time for fact checking right now, so I won’t mention each of his various positions.  He has been associated with Modern Media (现代传播) for quite a few years.  One of his position was heading up the City Life section of Modern Weekly (《周末画报》城市版), to which I contribute a weekly column based on this blog.

Quite an interesting detail on his wool tie, which was purchased at Lane Crawford.  The peacock feather type ornament on his lapel was what all VIPs received at the event that night.

What a rebellious outfit!  I was pleased to encounter charming but irreverent Shanghaier Ding Ying (丁颖）the other day, after not seeing her for almost two years.  She was the first editor from a major publication to profile me, not so long after Stylites started.  Over a year after my profile appeared in the City Life section of Modern Weekly, Ding Ying suggested to her colleague Chen Pu that I might write a weekly column for them.  I am especially proud of this, the only column that I write in Chinese.

After seven years at Modern Weekly, she is moving on next month to be features editor at a big fashion magazine.  Maybe she will be the next Chinese female editor compared to Anna Wintour.

Funny that when googling, the first pic of her is with someone else who has been on Stylites.

Zhao Qiang, an editor, at Metropolis Magazine (大都市), came by my place a few weeks ago to interview me.  The resulting profile is in the current issue of this magazine for urban professional men that is part of the Modern Media Group.  Ms. Zhao also worked  for the ill-fated Chinese edition of Rolling Stone.

Beyond the great publicity, she also gave me four bottles of Ketel One.  She doesn’t drink it but acquired several cases somehow.

Love this, mainly because they seem like a chic version of the notorious nylon pop socks, favored by so many in this city – though the wearers seem to become older and older as the youth become generally hipper.  The hated skin-colored pop socks are also often paired with strappy footwear, typically of the plastic variety.

They were sighted on this editor (I am not allowed to mention the names and publications of others in the magazine business) at the opening party for Beijing’s first Dita shop at Huamao.  Most of the glasses on sale are made in Japan as part of collaboration between Dita and the venerable brand Masunaga.  Read more on Dita at High Snobiety.

Here’s Jeffrey Ying again – this time showing his appreciation for some of China’s most famous brands.  I’m sure most of you know that it is no accident that he is wearing a custom Mao Suit and smoking Chung Hwa, the favorite cigarette brand of the Chairman.  Jeffrey also only smokes this premium, but extremely heavy, brand.  Mao was apparently not a particularly big drinker and Zhou Enlai was known for being able to put down more shots than his boss.

The dress is from a Spanish designer but seems so Chinese.  She is a magazine editor.

Mickey is a senior fashion editor at the Chinese edition of a well-known magazine that is part of a still better-known American publishing group.  I met her at the Hermès fall trunk show held at the Presidential Suite of The Opposite House.  Much of the collection was aviation inspired.

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.

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.

This young editor attending the opening party for Bilancioni in Beijing is really on the summer trends.  He’s got the double collar, the slim madras tie, and the shrunken sport coat with shorts – nice smile too.

An editor for 1626, which has covered this blog before, wearing a vintage dress.

Another young magazine editor.

The look is taut and professional but langorous, graceful but meticulous.  I like the peaked lapel sport coat with sleeves rolled up on this editor at a very well-known fashion magazine.

I’m surprisingly fond of this fashion magazine editor’s look.  The hat and rolled up trouser legs are rather trendy, but the see-through sweater and pink belt peeping out show some real verve.  I also like the spectacles.

Tomasz appears again on Stylites.  I would recommend you chat with him in person next time you see him.

The Chinese version of Japan’s LEON magazine is now available throughout the country under the title Nanren Fengshang (男人风尚).  Ni Ya (倪亚) is Style Director for LEON, which he says will offer a functional approach aimed at teaching men how to dress their best while expressing personal style.  This approach to fashion magazines is characteristically Japanese, in contrast to the abstract, slightly vague, representation of style that appears in Western fashion publications.  Most men’s publications targeting Chinese men have adopted the latter approach.

Ni believes the main difference between Chinese and foreign fashion labels is that the former are more geared towards mass taste, while foreign labels focus on specific demographics.  China Fashion Week was not an attraction.  He explains that the labels present lack unique voices.  His favourite fashion label is Phillip Lim.

Photo: Anne Li

From Heilongjiang Province, Niu Mingyu (牛明昱), 27, has been described by French friends as China’s Françoise Sagan. His life is far more adventurous and debaucherous than hers was, he says.   In addition to novellas, he writes regularly about beauty, culture, and lifestyle for Trends’ L’Officiel, Rayli, New Weekly, and a range of other publications.  Last month, he wrote eighty-thousand characters.

Mr. Niu also works full-time as an editor at China Cosmetics (中国美容时尚画报), a recently founded bimonthly magazine that is an offshoot of ten year old China Beauty (中国美容时尚报) magazine and claims a circulation of 170,000.  These are part of the media group founded by one Zhang Xiaomei, who is also a CPPCC National Committee member and keeps a blog.

His jacket is from Croquis, the male line that is part of Hangzhou-based JNBY, one of China’s most successful brands that was formed completely locally.

Outside of the Beijing Center for the Arts in Qianmen’s Legation Quarter (read more at the IHT), I met Lu Wei (陆薇）, the “Responsible Editor” at Art Value, a new art magazine established in cooperation with the Art Research Analysis Center of Central Academy of Fine Art.  We had both just seen the opening of avant-garde artist Gu Dexin works that included a three story high transparent pillar filled with thousands of pig hearts, which, incidentally, had leaked small amounts of blood on the basement of the gallery.

So what is the value of Chinese art these days?  Brian Wallace of Red Gate Gallery tells NPR that values have dropped by over fifty percent, on average.  It could be a great time to stock up.  Chinese art might be going back to being for its own sake.