Just as TikTok, the promotion activity may be the sales of personal care products, high-quality foodstuffs like bird’s nest, accessories and other fashion items for Chinese customers. By emulating the behaviour and aspirations of successful Chinese influencers, foreign businesses can enjoy similar levels of marketing success in the China market.
Chinese influencers frequently use hotel lobbies of recognisable Western five-star hotels as the venue of their video shoots. There are many five-star luxury hotels in Singapore and aspiring influencers can use them the same way as their Chinese competitors.
A five-star hotel’s high tea experience is perhaps the best example of the way influencers promote a high-class image for their followers. High tea promotes both sophistication and wealth with an elegant lifestyle.
Some high tea offerings hark back to the traditional English high tea with delicate cucumber sandwiches and scones. However, Chinese influencers favour the more modern iterations of high tea. With beautifully arranged cakes, fine China tableware and grand Western hotel interiors, high tea creates the perfect backdrop for influencers to take photos. These are carefully posed and polished photos because visually pleasing content attracts more engagement from Chinese social media users.
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Chinese friends on WeChat routinely post photos of beautiful flowers and idyllic snatches of nature. These backgrounds are an essential part of the Chinese influencers’ arsenal. Aspiring Singaporean influencers can watch which hotels serving high tea are favoured by Chinese influencers when visiting Singapore. Look for those professional poses with high-end Huawei tri-fold phones rather than just happy snaps with an Oppo phone.
The high tea experience is different to the teahouse experience in China. Traditional Chinese tea culture is about tasting quality tea in an appropriately relaxing and soothing ambience. For influencers, the high tea experience has little to do with the quality of the tea. It is about the overall experience of leisurely sipping tea in a refined environment, chatting and enjoying the lively ambience for hours.
Having high tea is evidence of the cosmopolitan lifestyle led by the well-travelled. Making this connection works for the Chinese social media influencer and it can also work for Singaporean influencers who want to reach the same market as Chinese influencers. Participation in the high tea “ceremony” positions you as part of this cultured scene and adds lustre to the products you are providing.
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Technical outlook of the Shanghai market
The Shanghai index uptrend overcame minor resistance near 3,388 and is now testing the long-term historical resistance level near 3,435. Since September 2004, the market has punched above this resistance level three times and then fallen back. There is a high probability this pattern will be repeated.
The key difference to watch is how the pullback develops. If it finds support near 3,435, there is a strong probability the uptrend will continue. The initial upside target is the previous breakout high near 3,675. The technical target is near 3,700. This is calculated using the width of trading band and projecting the value upwards.
Even a fall below 3,435 is a trend continuation signal if the index can also rebound from the value of the uptrend line. This is currently around 3,380 and near to the resistance level.
The market may also consolidate around these support and resistance features and then continue in the uptrend.
The essential trigger point is the value of the uptrend line. A sustained fall below this levels confirms that the uptrend that started in January has failed. The other potential moves are part of a new uptrend behaviour as long as the Index remains above the uptrend line.
Currently, the index remains above the lower edge of the long-term group of averages in the Guppy Multiple Moving Average (GMMA) indicator.
The long-term GMMA has also maintained a steady degree of separation with a slow expansion. Increasingly wider separation suggests that the trend support is gaining strength and will be more able to absorb any index retreat.
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There are two key factors traders are watching. The first is a sustained close below the value of the uptrend line. The second is a sustained close below the value of the lower edge of the long-term GMMA, currently near 3,336.
The steady separation between the two groups of averages in the GMMA indicator continue to suggest the trend is sustainable.
The second factor is the ability of the index to move above temporary resistance near 3,388 and head towards historical resistance near 3,435.The support and resistance features on the chart coupled with trend line analysis provide the structure of the market and help the trader to set index objectives.
This remains a bullish breakout environment.
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for mainland Chinese media for two decades. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as “The Chart Man”. He is a former national board member of the Australia China Business Counci
