China Youthology (青年志) works on brand-youth connection consultancy for marketing, communication, and product design targeting the youth in China market.

Sympathizing the challenges our clients face in the youth market in China that is fast-changing, diversified, complicated, and uniquely ‘remixed’, China Youthology believes that Chinese youth can only be fully understood (and hence satisfied) on the basis of a holistic understanding of the youth as human beings (rather than merely consumers) with full-hearted, long-term, immersive dedication.

China Youthology approaches consumer insights at 1) the historical and ongoing macro context (economic, social, cultural), 2) the major youth communities of music, sports, fashion, gaming, technology, art&literature, social volunteer, etc. and 3) individual level (with integrated understanding of online and offline experience). Methods employed include online and offline qualitative and quantitative.

Our clients include Pepsico International, Nestle, Pernod Ricard, Nokia, Nike, Wrigley, Lining, General Motors, McCann Ericson, and IDEO. See testimonials here.

This blog attempts to update readers on the pulse of Chinese youth - we share with you news, vivid stories of Chinese youth, and our points of view.

Email to us: lisa.li@chinayouthology.com; lisa.eyelle@gmail.com; or anding.zhang@gmail.com

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Chinayouthology; http://twitter.com/zafka

PEOPLE

Lisa Li, Founder & CEO

• Lisa believes good research must lead to impact. She has gain trust and commendation from clients by her determination and capability of understanding client’s business issues and digging for actionable insights. Before founding China Youthology, she worked with TNS
• She has been at the cutting-edge of developing, practicing, and training on ground-breaking research approach. Her paper (co-authored with Lee Ryan) showcasing ethnographic and online interactive youth research approaches was presented in ESOMAR conference (Singapore, May 2008) and nominated as the Best Paper.
• In her intensive involvement in youth projects since 2006, she realized the limitation of conventional research approach in the sector of youth market in China. And she decided to build a specialized team with tremendous dedication and state-of-the-art research approach for youth consumer insights. The team have extensive experience in ethnography, and youth research in particular.
• Lisa obtained qualitative and quantitative theoretical and methodological trainings in her Master degree of Social Psychology in LSE. And Bachelor degree in Management Science at Fudan University (Shanghai).
• Lisa herself has been in the ‘edgy’ youth cohort – she has been the keyboard player of the post-rock band called ‘Prague’ since 1998 (see Douban page in Chinese or MySpace page in English) in which Zafka is guitar and sound effect.

Zafka Zhang, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer

• Zafka leads the research in macro context and digital marketing in Youthology. He is also an expert of youth subcultures in music and art.
• Zafka was the senior front-page editor and columnist of China’s leading business newspaper, 21st CBH (21st Century Business Herald), focusing on in-depth reports in social, political, economic, and Internet topics. He continues to write for online/offline mainstream media (such as 21st CBH, City Pictorial and Urban China) today.
• Zafka has been a pioneering digital space researcher and blogger. He is Advisor for Association of Virtual Worlds (global industry association) and Director of Music Community and Public Relations of Creative Commons China, and he used to head research team in HiPiHi (China’s virtual world platform).
• Zafka is also an acclaimed sound artist and experimental musician in China. His art works have been published/exhibited in China, US, Europe, and Asian, among which eARTS festival 2008 in Shanghai and Guangzhou Triennial 2008
• He obtained two Masters in Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology in Fudan (Shanghai) and SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ. of London).

Helen Yu, Ethnographer, Research Manager

• Helen is a seasoned moderator and ethnographer. She worked with TNS before joining China Youthology.
• She has worked on both qualitative and quantitative projects for various research areas, including lifestyle understanding, ad/concept test, U&A studies, satisfaction studies, etc.
• Helen has extensive experience on youth research. She is particularly interested in Fashion and Music, and she’s the Youthology watcher on Fashion and Music today.
• Helen holds Master Degree in Business Administration from Wuhan University. Being a post 80s herself, she much enjoys her job ‘immersing in and stepping back from the youth cohort to bridge the gap between youth and brands’.
• Helen comes from a Tier 3 city in North East of China, lived and worked in Shanghai, and currently in Beijing.

Summer Xia, Ethnographer, Research Manager

• Summer is a seasoned moderator and ethnographer in TNS before joining Youthology.
• With her ‘preciously weird’ style and personality, it’s always easy for her to get along well with the youth. She has extensive experience on youth research. She is especially interested in Visual Arts, Gaming, Music, and Comic.
• Aside from being a great qualitative researcher, Summer is also passionate in graphic design and video making, and she has impressed clients with her creative capabilities in our ppt/video reports.
• Summer graduated from Zhejiang University with a Bachelor Degree in EE. A native a Hangzhou, lived/worked in Shanghai and currently in Beijing.

Candy Yang, Ethnographer, Community Manager

• Candy got to know the team two years ago as a participant of a youth project. She has then started to obtain training on ethnographic research as a part timer and contribute to youth research projects as a trend spotter in Campus.
• Candy is a sports fan and a charity goer. She has worked as volunteer on different areas including rural development, disabled welfare, children and art.
• Today, she’s the youth watcher on sports, art & literature, as well as social participation.
• Candy graduated from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies with a Bachelor Degree in Literature.
• Her native language is Cantonese.

Ryan Zhang, Creative Production

• Proudly the ‘king of inconvenience’, Ryan enjoys ‘inconvenient’ ways of doing things. For example he spent two years in university to interview the street musicians in Beijing on his own, and he’s currently working on stop motion animation with great enthusiasm.
• Ryan majored in Musicology in China Music Academy from 2002 - 2007. Following his passion in visuals, especially video production, he was self-trained on video editing and creative production after graduation. Just like many other young people in China today, Ryan just wanted to ‘geek-out’ in hobbies and he benefited a lot from the online communities. For example, most recently he got a teacher on ‘Final Cut Studio’ from ‘skill exchange group on Douban.com’.
• Ryan believes the world will be all peace one days; he believes the most powerful ‘culture’ exists in the streets; he believes the greatest generation is today’s youth; and he believes he can find a company without an ‘employee time clock’… And hence he’s a happy and busy guy in China Youthology.