By Lisa Li

I read an interesting article on the ‘collective memory about Li Lei and Han Meimei’ on INFZM (Online version of Southern Weekly, a national influential newspaper).

Characters of the old time English textbook (Li Lei and Han Meimei) are used as the theme for Giordano limited edition t-shirts. The local artist (Cai Kai) has his own brand (Lilei&hanmeimei) and products as well, in which the design is more extreme – ‘rebellious’, ‘ridiculous’, ‘fun’. I turned out picked up a couple of youth from different cities asking them about it. Some of them (they were with a few friends) got really ‘high’ trying to remember more and more names and the stories of the characters and, seemingly most excitingly, the parrot. ‘How can I ever forget them? I struggled so much with the English textbook at that time!’

In the recent couple of years, ‘vintage’ emerged as the new ‘cool’ among youth. This has been recognized by the youth brands, especially the local brands like Li Ning (with the Lei Feng limited edition footwear) and M-Zone.

What’s ‘vintage cool’ among youth?
-    80s’ retro is seen more ‘in’ and relevant than the typical ‘oriental fashion’ or ‘Chinese traditional aesthetic’ as understood by the west
-    Elements that every one of the generation recognize and relate to – there were few choices in the market back then; everybody wore the same style of sportswear, used the same metal cup, thermal, etc.
-    the retro elements are often ‘re-produced’ in a fun or rebellious way

What does ‘vintage’ mean to the youth? It may means different things to different people:

-    Fashionable, ‘in’
-    Identity of the ‘young generation’ – the cohort who share and celebrate the same collective memory
-    Uniqueness
-    Free of restrictions. eg: L & H are lovers today, although in the original textbook ‘the writer deliberately kept the distance of L & H in order not to have bad influence on the students.’
-    Identity of ‘thoughtful’, ‘art youth’ （文青） — critical view towards the pretentiousness of today’s fashion, consumerism, money-orientation; 80s represents simplicity, sincerity, trust…

Two years ago, I found little international brands in the China market who really know and resonate with the Chinese unique shared memory. Most of the ‘limited edition’ didn’t really make sense to the local youth because they were merely import of the western memory. This partly explains the growing number of fans of ‘local indies’, or local independent creative brands (such as TheThing, Salt) – youth find these brands understand them, speak their language, and celebrate their memory and growth.

What matters to marketers and product designers?
-    catching the pulse of youth via youth online communities – this is where the L&H stories caught great attention and co-created by the mass
-    role of the community of creative youth (the indie designers/artists and wannabes) – similar memory/experience as the common youth but more sensitive to their feelings and more capable of expressing
-    understanding the underlying meanings of the vintage cool culture and deciding how much and in what way it matches and lifts spirit of the brand

Filed under: Creative culture, Fashion & visual arts, So What?, What's Up?, China youth culture, collective memory, consumer insights, Li Lei & Han Meimei, vintage