discussion keeps the world turning this is roundtable you're listening to roundtable with myself huh young I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and you Shan in the studio and it's a bit unfortunate but the flu is ripping through the office and that's why if you listen carefully on this show for the last few
weeks every each one of us have been feeling a little bit under the weather and you can kind of tell from our voices and today you Shan is a true champion for joining the show when she's not feeling well and she's bubble wrapped today yeah and and she's a very community minded person a good teammate
as she's actually wearing the face mask as we are talking through our topics and just want to say kudos to you and thank you for joining us and sharing your wonderful thoughts as usual coming up on today's show food fun and fashion all in one place mixed style dining is changing our experiences by combining
mouthwatering meals with karaoke shopping and more from supermarkets doubling as food courts to interesting crossovers such as hotpot karaoke let's dive into this new way of dining that's lighting up social spots everywhere and need a boost or you need that extra kick in the booty to crush the week
our podcast special our radio show special segment motivational Monday is your ultimate adrenaline shot to kick things off strong our podcast listeners can find us at roundtable China on Apple podcast cell you Joe and the podcast platform of your choice got a question that's keeping you curious from social
issues to tech and everything in between let us take a stab at it email us at roundtable podcast at qq .com emails are fine but voice memos are always better because we all want to hear your voice on our live show and now let's switch gears dining is no longer just eating it's about creating an unforgettable
experience mix mode dining is sweeping through the scene merging food and drinks entertainment and retail into one irresistible package would you enjoy a hotpot meal while belting out your favorite karaoke hit or shop for groceries next to a bustling food court let's explore how this trend is reshaping
how we eat shop and socialize so what exactly is mixed style dining and how is it different from traditional dining well when I was reading about mixed mall dining I noticed this formula here so it applies like this you do something for leisure for fun while eating and drinking so like you said who I
am you can be going shopping and then followed by a big feast afterwards or during your shopping process you can go to the kid KTV and sing and eat hotpot you can go to movie or watch a stage drama or play escape room while eating that's the mixed mod retail here that's quite popular in China according
to home son such a platform that's that's known for providing culinary information that this is just referring to like this overall integration of dining entertainment or other kind of services services all put together that's attracting especially young people nowadays right one thing that is definitely
not good for congestion digestion excuse me is this escape room and eating do you even know what that means no I've been to an escape room yeah have you done an escape room did you enjoy the experience no not at all I found it very loud if the spooky music or any of the screams or whatever can be toned
down a little I can try to endure it like better oh the way I did it was like oh my gosh I had a mine wasn't like a scary horror experience it was just puzzle after puzzle after puzzle after puzzle they are they're all like that in order to escape the room I gave up after like 15 minutes and I just
sat in the corner and waited for the time to expire but I can't imagine eating while you were trying to escape the room particularly in that type of an environment because I'm not sure if they're all the same but the escape room that I was in we were given an hour to get out and you're you're busy in there
trying to figure stuff out so what are you gonna do sit down and I don't know have some noodles well one example here in Shenzhou in South East China is is that well basically this is a horror themed restaurants that's adding the service of escape room experience into part of their say culinary experience
they're providing for customers so basically what they do is they assign you this map and you have to follow the instructions of the ghost like NPCs in order to find your table to dine according to that map and once you're seated the NPCs dressed as zombies or vampires or whatever they're going to spook
you like occasionally to non character players oh yeah well basically be the servers mm -hmm and I suppose they should serve finger food so you don't need to sit down for her noodles actual fingers one of their one of their dishes called devil's eye hear that I don't I don't I mean no offense to this restaurant
I wish them well I wish them success I don't need to be scared while I'm eating something what about the hot pot and karaoke combination then well see now this makes sense to me a little bit singing rooms in in Korea where I live for a long time are super common people go there every weekend it's just
a thing that people love to do and while you're there you can order dishes fruit plates and things like that so I've experienced that that makes sense to me because some you don't have to go with a group of people of course but you often go with a group and it's not your turn to sing every time so it
just gives you something to munch on or sip on while other people are singing this one this one makes sense to me well during the heyday of ktv's in Beijing that was maybe when I was still going to school and I remember when we had class reunions sometimes somebody would pick ktv and they would serve
buffets so oh wow so yeah so you go get some food and drink some beverages of course included in the final bill and well actually there's a flat rate so all good and then saying eat sing eat chat and that sounds nice but with the hot pot what's kind of new here is I suppose like people aren't really
used to sort of being so busy with your hands and eating with having this meal while belting it or clapping for someone who's belting it but I suppose that's not all that surprising there are some other interesting crossovers or mixed style of dining and retail here there's one in Beijing actually it's
called the fearless pirates restaurant and they combine kind of a pirate mystery play with your dinner so the guests the they enjoy their their dishes of course which are themed I'm not sure what exactly you get in terms of food there but it is pirate themed and then the audience the diners interact
with actors during the performance we have this in Canada as well we refer to it as dinner theater and yeah a pirate themed shore Shakespeare themed sure it doesn't matter the performers are also your servers so they'll go from the stage and you know if it's not their turn they'll bring something but they
stay to your table but they stay in character the whole time it's really quite it's really quite fun and in terms of cost in Canada you pay more than you would for your typical dining out experience but it's not like a trip into outer space with Richard Branson at your side I mean the the cost for something
like a combination of a set meal and then also a 90 -minute show incorporating pirate themes is well according to this fearless pirates some commercials and promotions I got it that they want to sell the price well the higher the prices the closer you are to the stage which is just like how it's run
in a regular theater which isn't idea that I love so much because when you go to the theater even a cough will be condemned and now you can eat imagine that yeah so this restaurant charges like for one person ticket and it's the cheapest ticket is a hundred and ninety two yuan or 26 US dollars roughly
and the most expensive one is eight hundred and eighty eight yuan we're a hundred and twenty two US dollars it's pretty expensive yeah there are other restaurants in other cities that combine movie screenings with hot pot as well which is kind of a fun idea you can sit with your hot pot and watch a film
and that's that's pretty cool I think but that's not groundbreaking okay come up with your special theme the theme okay great what about let's say there are okay this is what you know just ask any fashionista in China about the latest buzz on the ground and chances are they'll give you the same response
another luxury brand opens a cafe restaurant and then that's like something that's been okay also not groundbreaking but in recent years I think that's become a trend yeah high end fashion stores yeah opening coffee corners in their shops and I guess the idea there is to bring in more foot traffic and help
to boost sales because perhaps if someone is walking by and maybe they wouldn't have come into the shop when they see that there's a coffee corner in there they go in to grab a coffee maybe look around a little bit and maybe buy something while they're maybe that's part of the popularity maybe that's
part of it but I think it's more about building and extending the brand experience because with a lot of the designer houses and also what was really surprised in a way kind of surprising was during the weekend I was taking a stroll down the Huama area and then the Guama area which happens to be where a lot
of the luxury brands they would open their shops there and then like you know getting anything regular from those places even you know with some jewelers you know like who would think that jewelers would open cafes selling coffee versus selling diamonds what are you thinking about but it's important
to extend to a broader audience and also I think it's about building the brand so maybe you are maybe I don't have the money to buy your diamond ring but I have the money to buy your overly priced cup of coffee which is fashioned in a really beautiful yeah and niche way yeah and then that's all good
for a brand building and maybe after I save up after 10 years I might consider you that jeweler or brand to get my wedding ring or something like that remember when we talked about the psychology and marketing about the different strategies that are employed and one of the strategies was I forget what the term
was but it was something along the lines of reciprocation so when a company does something for you then it makes you want to do something for them maybe that's at play a little bit there if they provide that kind of service for you make maybe it makes you feel a little bit warmer to come back to their
shop at some point in the future it's also you know it's very low effort I think for for shops to try to do this integrate that type of thing it's low investment I think a lot of the time with potentially big rewards well I just simply appreciate the fact that some of them are really trying to break
them the say the norms and trying to create new social attractions and eye -catching products or say collaborations for the for the young consumers these days because we're talking about this trend in China and the main targeting audience is people that's from say Gen Z and millennials and who just want
more interactive socials and emotional experiences while they're just having fun you know I'm eating everybody eats every single day but what else can I do when I'm eating that's something that these brands are considering these days I mean it has to match though if it doesn't make sense you use the example
of a high -end jewelry store if you go into a high -end jewelry store and you're looking at beautiful diamonds that cost thousands and thousands of dollars and the shop assistant says would you like some hot pot that would make sense right so it has to it has to match the theme of what's good or the context
of what's going on inside at least that's just my opinion that's a great point strategic positioning and recently one one major tea beverage brand in this country has just teamed up or has just paid for licensing of Yayou Kusama which is this you know one of the most iconic Japanese artists who is still
alive and she has famously collaborated with Louis Vuitton twice in the last two decades and both making you know major news in the fashion world so the lady that does the pumpkin so everybody will know and then so basically you know for that tea brand it's like you know now you've elevated to luxury
status and artistic status which is really cool and that company has recently well in the last couple of years partnered up with with one of the electric car brands as well so it's really interesting to see you know these Chinese brands are really being creative in collaborating with different partners
to sort of give their image a new look and also really creating Instagrammable moments for like you said Yushan younger consumers to be interested in the brand and to share on social media as such so what do you see as you know what's it in for the businesses the consumers and us talking about it I
guess well I think from a consumers point of view like Yushan said younger people or maybe just people in general these days we expect more from our experience so rather than just going and having something to eat we want some sort of interactive thing from time to time something that's more emotional
something that's more social social and just less transactional perhaps where you know I'll pay for this and you give me that and then that's the end of things I think that's the the advantage for both the customer and from the business point of view I mean it's kind of supported on a bigger level a bigger
scale as well because I was reading that here at least in China there's this National Development and Reform Commission and also the Ministry of Commerce and four other departments that's jointly issuing this series of measures for creating new consumption scenes to encourage such multi -industry integration so this is basically
a policy that's encouraging more diverse businesses to cross industry -wise merging together as one yeah and it can be a big collaboration but it doesn't have to be right that can be it can be your business model right Chuck E.
Cheese I'm sure you've probably never heard of that but that's a famous chain that back in the 1970s in America they incorporated pizza and video games arcade games so it's it was one of the most successful business models at least for a period of time because kids booked their birthday parties there
of course pizza and video games and then who doesn't what kid doesn't want to have some pizza with their video games those two things just go together so well so sometimes like I said it doesn't have to be a massive collaboration it can be your business model yeah and as a little bit of a germ freak
since COVID I'm thinking about how greasy would those handles be on the arcade game consoles?
yeah super sticky I would think so mixing different types of retail and having this immersive experience seems to be the way to go a drink is no longer just a drink a meal is not just a meal anymore and it's a master class in modern branding coming up next Motivational Monday Motivational Mondays!
Yushan, what do you have for us?
I have my self -love calendar at hand right now I don't know why I didn't use this as my motivational Monday quotes previously but apparently this calendar is featured with daily quote every single day and for this Monday it reads I can often pick and choose my battles my wise inner warrior knows which ones
are worth the fight so basically as I began the week I'll remember that not always but many times I can pick and choose my battles let me choose wisely to keep my stress levels lower yeah that's great advice for any age group from anywhere in the world some things are worth getting upset over and some
things are not worth getting upset over some things you just gotta let it go you know it's something that reckons with the martial art that I'm practicing right now is this thick martial art called Arnie's and in like many other martial art when they teach you how to like attack the basic core of that attack
movement is for you to know how to self -defense it's the same thing you can learn how to say I'm using new tool or apply a new skill but choose wisely where you're using that skill and where you're pouring that energy into so choose your say battle quote -unquote wisely and save save up your energy and don't
get like nerve -wracked down easily by just random tasks that's a really good piece of advice thank you Steve what do you have for us well I thought since we were talking about space travel today I would find something related somehow this is a random quote from the Internet I don't even know who said
this it was one of those kind of memes and not a meme but one of those posters like motivational posters you see on some random website but I thought this was kind of nice here's the quote you know that expression in English the sky is the limit okay never say the sky is the limit when there are already
footprints on the moon so what that means to me is we set limits for ourselves right saying oh I can achieve that but beyond that I probably can't do that there was a time in history when people would think going to the moon was absolutely impossible so they did it anyway so if you have things in your
life where you feel like I probably can't accomplish that thing whatever it is well just remember that there are footprints on the moon you can do it yeah and this reminds me of a slightly not that related but a little bit related quote of always aim at the star shoot for the stars or something like
that yeah you might land on the moon oh yeah right right right so those that could explain the footprints yes thank you so much Steve kicking off the week I like to share a song with you that's do a leap is levitating it's like adding a little extra bounce to your step and this song isn't just catchy
but it's pure positive energy sometimes the simplest things can brighten a day and I want to remind you that even on the busiest Monday joy is just a beat away and think about it when was the last time you just let loose and felt light today's the perfect day to feel that little lift the lyrics remind
us of one thing attitude is everything Mondays are often met with groans but what if we saw them as a fresh start a day to shake off the past week stresses and float around I mean float toward new opportunities levitating is the anthem of letting go of all that extra weight we carry whether it's stress
doubt or fear or gravity as we're talking we were talking about in today's first topic and letting ourselves to be open to what's next so what if today instead of dreading what's on the to -do list we start by finding one thing that lifts us up whether it's nailing that PowerPoint presentation finally
picking up a cup of designer house coffee that's referring to the second topic today and you've got the power to to keep going and to keep the positive spark going with today's song that I'd like to share with you we are here to remind you that we've got the power to make this week amazing and sometimes
all it takes is a little fun and music to get you there let's keep reaching for the stars this Monday here's to leap us levitating to power up your Monday yes and that brings us to the end of today's show thank you so much Steve Hatherly and you Shen for joining the discussion thank you for tuning in I'm
high young we'll see you next time
