The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
The Chinese actor and singer, who found recent fame starring in the wildly popular television series, Word of Honor, has been widely criticised after photos of him in front of the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo surfaced on Weibo earlier this month.
The shrine is a popular tourist destination, but as the final resting place of Japanese war veterans including prominent war criminals from World War II, it’s a particularly sensitive place for China, a country in which many Japanese atrocities were committed during the Second Sino-Japanese War before and during the wider World War II period (in China, the conflict is known as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression).
In spite of a quickly issued letter of apology from Zhang, 25 brands, including Lanvin, Pandora and Japanese jeweller, Tasaki, have moved to distance themselves from the young actor, terminating contracts and removing references to Zhang from brand social media accounts, The South China Morning Post reported.
Social media platforms, including Weibo and Douyin removed Zhang’s official accounts, while streaming platforms NetEase Cloud Music and QQMusic announced they have taken down his songs, according to a Global Times report.
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Mainland shoppers have flocked to local tourism hubs like Macau and Hainan over Chinese New Year and are expected to visit Asian destinations like Thailand and Singapore before returning in droves to European fashion capitals later this year.
Beijing’s Covid-19 policy shift will give the sector a boost in 2023 but a surge in infections and sluggish economic growth could dampen the recovery after an uplift from Chinese New Year.
This week, China rolled back some strict zero-Covid measures, opening a road to recovery for luxury and retail. But the journey is likely to be long and bumpy, experts warn.
Despite disappointing Singles Day sales results, harsh Zero Covid restrictions and supply chain woes, international beauty conglomerates continue to see China as a growth engine.