Latest update January 1st, 2016 3:17 PM
LADY JIAJIA
Zhang Mengning, born in 1990, is better known to Chinese netizen as Ma Jiajia. She opened a sex shop called Powerful upon commencement, whose creative outspoken slogan and imagery immediately put her under the spotlight. She was voted as a pioneer young entrepreneur by THE FOUNDER magazine in 2012. Last year, her penetrating speech about the Internet’s impact on China’s real estate business overwhelmed massive netizen. Invited to be the chief editor of the digital COSMO China, she went on to build an App called HIGH for independent young girls to discuss relationship problems and coming-of-age issues. She also founded Beijing MB Entertainment Ltd. to make funny videos, and is now thinking about making a feature film.
Ma Jiajia is unique due to her sharp eye, cute alter ego, unrivaled PR sense and expressive audacity. The Chinese Film Market had the honor to talk with Lady Jiajia about her take on the Chinese film industry, the Chinese society and her business endeavors.
About the recent Chinese films
JIAN BING MAN and GOODBYE, MR. LOSER have a lot in common: both are based on an already-popular IP; both have multifold forms of puns and jokes; both tells a story of a nobody’s life struggle. They also each includes moments of the young’s collective memory, either of drifting in Beijing, or of songs that were in fashion a decade ago. This device works because regardless the quality of the film, the audiences would be drawn into their own relative memories. It has almost become a formula with an underdog, a great beauty and a rich guy: The beauty went away with the rich guy, leaving the underdog heartbroken, who’d do anything to get rich or famous to win the beautiful girl back.
Despite these films’ success, I think such post-80s mind-set quite old-fashioned, because the roles are so patriarchal, material and sexualized. I am sure the films to be made by directors born in the 1990s would not adopt such values. The younger generation would not need to go to such great lengths to mate. It is a different age now.
Besides, many Chinese films tend to present useless info by using large-scale expensive mise-en-scene. They boast how much money they’ve spent on the VFX and 3D production, but those settings are neither touching nor relatable. Merely posing.
Films made by the post-90s directors shall have a better vision with assorted species. I mean, their films will be more open on themes and storyline, regardless gender or sexual orientation, be it the animals, the nature or other beings. We have a different worldview.
Zeitgeist
A common idea about China’s post-90s generation is that they live in a sub-cultural context full of Japanese anime, comics and games, or underground music, but I think this context is only a slice of a bigger map. For this new younger generation, the opportunity lies in the transition from an industrial society to the Internet Era. Many young men want to do business in the Internet way, but lots of traditional forces will stand in their way, including interference from their parents, who wish them follow the conventional industrial path. Such a conflict is prevalent in both urban and rural areas, no matter you were born on a farm or with a silver spoon.
I hope people will not discourage the younger generation to move forward, but to support them go into the new Era. Most of the young are still at a loss about what to do next, though they are not happy doing the routine things in a traditional way.
China is flat
I think China is undergoing a drastic change – so drastic that it offers the young untold number of opportunities. Young people cannot get more chances in any other country in the world, not even in the United States, even if you are quite excellent.
China is able to offer so many opportunities for the young because there are still lots of uncertainties. Since no one is sure what the future will be, or whether their current approach is correct, they are willing to try new ways and this generates all the countless opportunities. You can feel that the young have been quite respected in recent years and their diverse innovations are encouraged and protected, hence the mushrooming of that many start-ups.
I can also relate to my own experience that when you did something creative, people and media would react to your creativity. Even though some of the voices are not so friendly, those are still feedbacks, showing at least others have noticed your innovation. Whereas in a too stable society, no matter what you do, no body will pay attention to you.
I am creating new online communities
I founded sex shop Powerful because it could make loud media buzz in the society. It was not what we were selling, but how. It is noticed that many new voices first rose because of the media buzz. Now that I have gathered sufficient attention, there is no need to just stick on the sex shop business. In fact, what I did with Powerful was quite sub-cultural – the comics we drew, the puns and harmless practical jokes we made.
I built HIGH because girls can be really insecure and complain often about their partners. In HIGH, we encourage girls to be independent, edgy and unaffected. Girls talk to each other online and go offline becoming friends. It is a community of girls with similar values. I gather them in this digital platform to take root and be there for each other. It now runs with steady traffic and I no longer need to spend much time on it. The users can run this community on their own, once the style and values are established.
So I am now creating a new professional community, sort of China’s LinkedIn for the post-90s. It is noted that LinkedIn has never made it in China, because this is a country with such a different office culture, especially when the post-90s has come up with a set of even more varied criteria: I have such and such skills for this job, but if I don’t like the boss that I am going to work for, or every colleague to work with, or the work environment, I will not take this job. The post-90s has to like the job and all the people involved, or they will not be committed. “My colleagues should be become my friends, or there is no point.” I find this change a big chance.
Digital natives have a wider selection of job choices because they can access information more easily and learn faster; also, the benchmark to decide whether a person is a talent has changed – as long as he or she is an expert in a certain area and can bridge his or her skills with the Internet, he or she shall have more chances to stand out.
The new online community I am creating can help spot more talented people and I would surely support some of them build their own start-ups, to maximize their values.
Lay low in order to talk more freely
The Internet enables lots of provincial people to pretend to be urban, rich or idyllic online and they are often mocked by those who are not pretentious.
To lay low and you’ll give a more accessible impression upon others, because the past hierarchy of the authorities has been dismantled, and self-mockery is the new chic.
The current society appreciates those who can mock themselves, so some smart rich and famous will sometimes sound boorish to appear friendlier and less pretentious. To lay low, and you can enjoy the freedom to criticize others; to stand too tall, you’ll be mocked by others. This is actually the context of the Internet. This is also the essence of the most prevalent humor in China, the northeastern school of humor. Both JIAN BING MAN and GOODBYE, MR. LOSER are disciples of this school.
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