Clean hands and magazine covers

This article and the photographs are by guest contributor David Drakeford.

Yue Lu is a trendy mid-price Beijing restaurant owned by the highly successful 'cynical realist' painter Fang Lijun (方力钧) who is best known for the smiling, smirking, yawning bald guy in most of his paintings. Diners come for the spicy Hunan cuisine and to cement deals and friendships with chatter in various languages. Copies of Southern Metropolis Weekly and Chinese language Time Out are at hand and wall candy is provided by the Fang and his friends in the contemporary art scene including Wang Yin and Feng Zhengjie.

The bathrooms provide another potential trend – mirror advertisement.

Washing your hands dutifully at the basins you come face to face with the front covers of various magazines illuminated and rotated hypnotically just behind the surface of the mirror. The result is staying longer at the basin than you had planned and a mental connection between the publications shown and pleasant feelings of relief and cleanliness.

And the ads rotate

The company behind the novel advertising outlet is Mirror Media (明镜天下).

The magazines advertised are Quo, (新探索) Elle, Elle Deco (家具廊), Car and Driver (名车志), Psychologies (心理明刊) and Marie Clare (佳人). All are published by Hachette Filipacchi Media, the world’s largest magazine publisher, who claim to be the leading foreign player in China (plus the United States, Spain, Italy, and Japan).

Mirror Media seems to be targeting restaurants and bars in the Workers Stadium area with the mirror ads now appearing in bar scene institution The Den and a popular pizza spot called The Kros Nest.

Kro's Nest owner Olaf Kristoffer said they installed the mirrors about three months ago after a company representative pitched them the idea—wisely buying a meal first. They negotiated 5,000 RMB a year to have the mirrors installed and enjoy an added aesthetic benefit.

"We do get comments from people leaving the bathrooms," said Kristoffer. "Both Chinese and foreigners seem to think they look neat."