a still from our film, a Chinese student’s family photo in Dutch national costume

The West has been fascinated by China but what does China think of the West? Increased affluence and relaxed Chinese and international travel restrictions has opened up the West to millions of Chinese so how does this new exposure to occidental values affect the Chinese who study, holiday and work in the West? What impressions of the West do people return with and how does it reflect on life back at home? Is life that different? And if it is different, is better or worse? We talk to students in Delft about their experiences, watch the film here.

Protesters converged on the City of London today as the G20 met.

What is the dress code for a demonstration?

First of all, don’t look like the sort of people the demonstrators are protesting against. Police have been advising city workers who usually wear suits to dress down for the day.

But what many bankers think is casual dress is very different from the younger, more counter-cultural crowd filling up the streets today. It’s pretty easy to guess who’s management and who’s not. (Different degrees of blending in illustrated above).

This is a classic example of how a generally understood term (casual dress) is interpreted in very culturally specific ways. Obvious? But how often are other, extremely wide terms such as ‘aspirational’, ‘cool’ or ‘desireable’ get used as a matter of course in briefs without properly clarifying what that actually means for the intended audience? Understanding the aesthetics and cultural reference points of your audience is key and getting orientated takes a rich, visual medium like film as well as culturally sensitive interpretation and recording. Missing this information means you strike the wrong note with your audience, like wearing a rugby shirt with clean shoes amongst trainers and hoodies.

work based snowman, Spitalfields, London

The recent heavy snows in the South East of England has triggered a classic set of culturally specific set of behaviours;

Schools shut.
Most people stay at home and those who do turn up leave early.
Snowmen are built and snowball fights break out amongst workers who do turn up
In essence, its treated like a genial national disaster. This is bemusing to anyone used to heavy winter snow, especially as this can be triggered by the lightest of snow fall.
Although there’s some practical justification for this behaviour (as a country unused to snow we don’t have basic equipment to tackle it) there’s something about it all that makes me think this is is more about cultural remission - the conventionalised relaxation of social rules - than weather. Like other times of cultural remission such as festivals and holidays, playfulness is expected, formalities are dispensed with and the natural order of things subverted. I think snow offers a chance to break the routine and stuffiness and enjoy the short period of anarchy it brings.
Of course, like English snow, this isn’t sustainable so this doesn’t really go beyond a day, after that we revert to our other weather behaviours such as moaning.
Snow and home videos from the BBC here.
Typical newspaper wailing and bemoaning here.

Just before Christmas a local school ran an environmental day for school children in my local park.
traditions As part of the activities children tied wishes onto a ‘wishing tree’, borrowing from Japanese tradition.

Below are some of the wishes and they offer an insight into being a child in the local area. It’s also cute, touching and a little sad.
Ethnographers call this the ‘data in the margins’ - unexpected revelations and emotional nuance that reframes information and offers new avenues. This is just the sort of richness our films offer to clients, helping them get beyond the trite and the obvious.

Chinese New Year Celebrations, Liverpool (Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

Liverpool’s Chinese community dates from the 19th century, so celebrations here aren’t anything new. The Guardian has a photo record of Chinese New Year celebrations around the world here but it’s not only a record of the festival it’s also a record of the Chinese diaspora and communities they have founded across the globe.

If you haven’t already seen it, please have a look at our CNY video card, shot during the festival in rural China last year.

Gong Xi Fa Chai!