08. Hanzhou Gets Creative In Charm Cafe
What it Is:
Charm Café is a youth focused creative centre located in Zhongshan Bei Lu, the creative street of Hangzhou. They provide a platform for Chinese artists and designers to present and sell their artwork. They also regularly host offline activities to encourage creative thinking amongst Chinese youth. Some of their main activities include the monthly West Lake Idea Mart (DIY Mart) and the weekly Charm Café creativity class and exhibition. Every October and May respectively they also help organize China Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo and China International Cartoon and Animation Festival.
Why it's cool:
Shu Chang, a 26 year old finance graduate from Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, is co-founder and manager of Charm Café. In September 2009 he decided to start Charm Café, after having worked for a year as a tv host at Hunan TV and two years at a Web 2.0 company. After working at those places and realizing that he could not give up his strong passion for youth cultural as well as design, it was the next step to take: “I think we will still be in the process of learning and copying within the next 3 to 5 years, but you can see there are more and more creative activities and parties in town amongst local youth. In 5 years, you will see much more youth focused indie brands as well as opinion leaders. Local culture will be the key influence and I think we will have our own and distinctive style by then.”
Science of the time’s Interpretation:
Shu Chang feels that Chinese creative culture is still in a developmental stage. His modesty coupled with a sliver of pride represent the best of China. Most in the former-West still often think that the Chinese are only there to produce and not conceive. Charm Café shows the world the creative ambitions of the up and coming Chinese creative class.
Links to World Trend Report 2010/2011:
The Rise of the Urban Nomads.
Best Books:
1. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.
2. The New Asian Hemisphere by Kishore Mahbubani
3. Brand New China by Jing Wan
