Most recent post in Public Relations

Li Ning lights China's Olympic flame

LiNingTorch.jpg
Chinese retailer Li Ning (李宁) is the biggest winner of the 2008 Beijing Olympics so far, after its founder and chairman – whose name the company bears - lit the cauldron at the final act of last night’s opening ceremony.

Li was a fantastic choice, and one that embodies China at this point in time. A young man from Guangxi, one of China’s less affluent provinces, and a member of the Zhuang, one of China’s ethnic minorities, Li joined the country’s first-ever Olympic team and came back from the 1984 Games with 6 medals. In 1990, as China was struggling with economic downturn and international boycotts, he went on to start a retail business bearing his name.

Today, Li Ning is a publicly traded company and China’s largest sports retailer. The company is not an official sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics – it was probably not big enough when sponsors were considered – but was largely affiliated with the games all along.

Li Ning is also peculiarly Chinese in another way: Its logo is a V-like stroke, suspiciously similar to Nike’s “Swoosh”, and is accompanied by the slogan “Anything is possible”, which is reminiscent of Adidas’s “Impossible is nothing” (we're still not sure which one came first. Let us know in the comments) .

Adidas, which paid tens of millions to become one of the major sponsors of the Beijing Olympics, learned last night that in China, anything is indeed possible. Watching their main Chinese competitor featured in the grand finale of the most watched event in History, I am sure the German brand’s managers were not too happy. At least Li Ning was wearing the official Beijing 2008 Adidas outfit while lighting the torch. We're not sure about the shoes though.

It was a fitting finish for an opening ceremony that may have not been to everyone’s liking, but carried one strong message from beginning to end: We are China, we’ve been around for ages, and we do things our way.

 
More posts in Public Relations
Buffalo BMW protest
China Businesscast: Olympics Marketing Part 4
Bad PR week for Western brands, or just turbulence?
Nokia embroiled in "Typo-gate"
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ New Years Past: Other Spring Festivals by Geremie R. Barmé (2007.02): Sang Ye interviews two people about their experiences during Great Leap Forward-era Spring Festivals. Translated and annotated by Geremie R. Barmé.
+ Trend-spotting in online fiction (2007.06): An interview with Daniel Dan Fei (丹飞), publisher of Notes on Graverobbing (盗墓笔记), Rear Palace (后宫), and Those Ming Dynasty Things (明朝那些事).
+ China's 50 Most Beautiful People (2005.03): The Beijing News borrows a picture of Maggie Cheung from Cosmo for the cover of today's Entertainment insert, "50 Most Beautiful People in China". Ms. Cheung takes the top spot, with Takeshi Kaneshiro, Little S, Zhang Ziyi, and Liu Ye rounding out the top five in this exercise that is a conscious imitation of People magazine's yearly rundown.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30