Author Archives: timzwb12345

From my last two blog posts, we can see how China uses social media for the government. But this time, we will talk about how China uses entertainment platforms for business organizations to attract more customers to their products.

One of the popular drinking stores in China, MiXueBingCheng, or MiXue Ice Cream and Tea, uses multiple PR strategies to attract customers. One of the most valuable strategies is the store’s mascot, a snowman with a crown. His Chinese name translates to English as Snow King because of the crown.

Picture:

 

The mascot design attracts most of the young generations in China. It specifically targets college students and minor groups (elementary to high school). During the opening, a specific worker will wear a mascot dress to stand outside and get involved with the people who walk on the street. It makes more customers stop by the store and try their products.

 

Followed by the Snow King, their social media campaign is one of the best strategies. They have their own Tik-Tok account, and most of their posts are about Snowking, such as new outfits for Snow King or traveling to different parts of China. It also includes regular new product promotions like those at other drink stores and official notification posts like donations to specific organizations. But the most interesting part is not that it is the branch store’s account. They will send funny comments about another drink store.  For example, around 2023, a netizen posted that the Starbucks drink he ordered had too many ice cubes and that a fly was accidentally inside the drink. Then some branch store account published funny comments under the video like: “Ohh Starbie, what happened? Trynna fed protein to your customers?” “Is your drink directly shipped from the Antarctic?”. The comments quickly spread out and made more netizens pay attention to MiXue.

So, in summary, I believe the most important part of the PR strategies for Chinese businesses is pretty much like others. But they know what their target audiences are and direct their campaigns to them. In the end, I will put Mixue’s advertisement video below. This is also what they play inside the store every single day when I walked in.

 

You might have heard so much news about the government in China; I am sure you have heard many bad sides of it on Western social media those days. Dictator president, no freedom of speech, people are struggling right there, etc. But you know, they are not that bad, and they have an excellent strategy to promote their positivity. Do you know most Chinese government departments like the military, police, and travel promotion of different provinces have their own media account? How do those organizations use social media to get attention from the citizens? And how do those departments use content creation to attract more people outside China?

 

One of the reasons they became popular was that their team was on the backstage. When short videos become viral in China, many organizations register media accounts from short video platforms like Douyin( Chinese TikTok) and start making content to promote themselves. Not just businesses like boba drinking stores or food restaurants like Haidilao. Also, there are government-related accounts like police departments from different provinces of China, the Chinese military, official diplomatic accounts, etc. However, because most media teams are people born after the ’70s and ’80s, their opinions about media differ from those of the 00s generations.  Based on the data research,  almost half of the users on the Chinese internet were born after the 90s, but most of the groups ages are 18-30. To catch up with the current trend, most government departments hired Gen Z to run the media page to grab netizens’ attention.

Here is the chart of the users on Douyin:

For example, one of the traffic police departments in China uses its Douyin account to show the police’s work. The video was originally trynna show how police made the cow who blocked the traffic move, but it is:

 

Outside of China, the most recent Trump traffic policy kept hitting China. They used AI-generated photos and videos to show they were not scared of Trump’s new policy. They post that stuff on Western social media rather than their own media because they trynna use the same way to hit back. Oh, you use X and Facebook? Ok, I am using it against you, too. In China, we borrow the quote from Harry Potter: “ Using magic to beat the magic.”

When most people think about a country’s public relations, they think of pictures, social media campaigns for its president, positive images of the country’s work, etc. But recently, the trade war between China and the USA has gone viral on social media. Most Asian countries’ netizens support China and think it is brave to oppose the USA.

Here is one of the comments from a Taiwan netizen, translated to English: “Let’s go, China; don’t be soft to them!”

 

The article I found from the Washington Post, “ Amid Trump’s trade war, China launches a PR blitz ( and it might win),” is also a classical detail about how China’s thoughtful response to the US for the new tariffs.

The article says China did not directly respond to the US about Trump’s new tariff policy. Instead, they are making responses on Western social media sites like Facebook and X. Even though those social media sites are banned in China. The Chinese diplomats posted memes and historical film clips from China to deliver the message, “Bring it, we are not scared, and we are not the China from 100 years ago”.  The video includes the speech made by Mao Zedong, the Korean War, and the war with Japan. The posts also include AI-generated videos making fun of the Americans working in the factory.

Here are some examples:

In China, official diplomacy and news TikTok accounts are not posting memes; they still use traditional ways, such as a simple color background with letters, just like a message post. Or it is the clip from the diplomats’ speech. So, for official accounts related to the government, most of the content they post will be more professional and polite. Then, some other entertainment account will take the clips from that professional account, make new content, or repost.

But those are typical Chinese-style public relations strategies; instead of directly delivering messages, they know how to use trends to respond to more people’s attention. They know that only spreading inside of China is not enough, so they make accounts on Western social media and let the whole world know their attitude.

The original news article link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/amid-trump-s-trade-war-china-launches-a-pr-blitz-and-it-might-win/ar-AA1D5GsX?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds

Welcome! You definitely know somethings about that huge mysterious eastern country- China. Maybe it’s about the food like hotpot, dumplings, dim-sum. Or the lunar new year culture related to dragon. But have you ever curious about how Chinese people use their own wisdom to influence their generation and outside of the China? How Chinese cultures and people are everywhere in the world at modern time? What strategy do Chinese companies using to attract their customers. What is the social status culture and how does it affecting the generation in China and most of the Asian countries. This blog will be focusing on what is the public relations look like in China. PR in China isn’t just that simple. It is involving in business, media, government, even the family.

Relationships or 关系(Guan Xi) are extremely matter in Chinese culture. When I was younger, I taught by my family that I have to respect to the people who are older or stronger than me. I have to take care of the people who are younger or weak than me. I want to tell people more about my home relationships culture in work, family, love. This is the reason why I start this blog. This is the blog for everyone not just specifically for the public relations professionals( Well it is related to them but still….), it is also for the people maybe who interest about Chinese culture affection. Maybe this blog will be helpful for the business people who is currently involving with the Chinese business organization. Or if you are Chinese, but want to know more about those relationships culture with your background, you also come to the right place!

Hello, and welcome.

My name is Wenbo Zhao, but I usually go by Tim. I am a fourth-year student at the University of Oregon who double majored in Public Relations and Asian Studies, also minoring in Japanese. I studied in an international school in Beijing from grade 2 until my junior year of high school. Then, I transferred to Wisconsin and finished my high school there. 

Why PR?

I used to be a business major, just like other students from China; majoring in business was not what I wanted; it was more like I didn’t know what I was good at. However, after I became involved with student clubs, I became the outreach executive and did some PR work for the clubs. I started to realize that this is something that I enjoy and am good at. One of my graduate friends who also majored in PR told me: “you should major in PR and improve what you are good at.” that is why I am here as an SOJC student. 

Respect for Cultural contents: This blog is for introducing the PR style in China. It might be a huge difference compared to most Western standard PR. You are welcome to comment and ask questions about certain content, but I won’t accept any misinformation, racism, or political bias.

Copyright: If the blog page contents are having conflict with the copyrights from certain creators, please tell me asap.

Accuracy: This blog page might not be 100 percent correct since a student created it. This blog page is not only for my personal interests but also for my academic project. There will be my personal opinion and experiences. Please do not use it as solid academic standard content, such as using it for teaching and defining.