In recent years, the term “China Chic”     1     (know) among fashion enthusiasts nationwide. The     2     (promote) of cultural confidence is the driving force for its formation. A Chinese university is working with a top brand     3     (support) designers in this area.

Tapestry, a fashion group, with Donghua University launched a training program,     4     aimed to promote “China Chic” abroad. They participated in the 4th China International Import Expo in Shanghai in November 2021 with a special collection of an     5     (entire) new brand. Led by Shan Chaoran from Donghua University, the collection     6     (include) bags, clothes and shoes.

Shan said China Chic was their theme. Among their designs, there lay     7     green woven cow leather bag     8     (reflect) garden elements and the tenon (榫) structure of architecture in China. “Our understanding of ‘China Chic’ is     9     young people like,” Shan said.

“China Chic’’, involving the use of traditional patterns, is not a wind like trend, a flash in the pan,     10     a way to highlight the hot issues among young people, a positive culture in China.

China is quickly becoming the fashion capital. Thanks to young consumers and social media, China is no longer looking to the West for fashion ideas,    1     is developing its own style. There is even     2     unique name for it: China-Chic.

China-Chic is the result of young people's renewed interest in Chinese culture and things that are guochao— brands and products     3     have a traditional Chinese flavor. According to Nielsen, a company which follows consumer trends, 68 percent of young Chinese say they prefer buying "Made in China" products     4     foreign made products. The trend     5    (gain) popularity over the past couple of years,     6    (particular) among those in their late teens and early 20s.

Nostalgia(怀旧) is part of this trend, with products such as White Rabbit candy and Bee Flower haircare products     7    (become) popular among the young, but newer products such as Perfect Diary and PeaceBird are now outselling foreign brands. Last year, domestic brands even increased     8    (sale) by 2 percent.

Market researcher Elijah Whaley says, "Foreign brands used to have an advantage in the Chinese market by representing a Western lifestyle that     9    (assume) to be superior. But Chinese consumers are now more confident in     10    (they) domestically crafted China style." The underlying message here: it's cool to be Chinese.

Play the financial markets: it’s not rocket science

Back in the 1950s, economists developed Nobel Prize-winning theories for how best to invest money in financial markets. And     1     (do) it, they drew on the theory of probability. The result was Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT),     2     shows how to create a mix of stocks, bonds and other assets (股票、证券和其他资产) to get the best possible return for the     3     (low) risk. By feeding in past performance data for each asset, the formulas of MPT reveal the relative proportions of each     4     (need) to achieve this best performance.

To pull off this miracle, MPT involves some fearsome equations that only rocket scientists might     5     (expect) to solve. But—like any attempt to model reality with mathematics—MPT makes assumptions, and the bad news is     6     they’re not very realistic. A wealth of data now suggests that MPT simply cannot capture the real complexity of markets,     7     (make) its conclusions not that trustworthy.

Even Harry Markowitz, the US economist who won the economics Nobel Prize in 1990 for developing MPT,     8     (admit) he ignored his own theory and simply split his investments equally between stocks and bonds.

The lesson of the laws of chance this time is: don’t get too clever. When it comes to investment, history suggests most of us may do best     9     simply dividing our money among so-called index trackers that just follow entire sectors of the market—and then forget about them     10     we retire. After all, caution is the best policy.

Du Wei, co-founder of Zeblaze, a company     1     a variety of smartwatches are made in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, sent a new batch of these products to the warehouses (仓库) before Spring Festiyal.

“We prepared 10,000 watches in advance for Chinese New Year. To my surprise, all of them sold out via online marketplaces during the weeklong holiday, and our sales increased     2     more than 200 percent year-on-year,” Du said, adding that most of the company’s customers come from Europe, North America, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Increasing sales were also reported by Chinese home appliance giant Midea Group for itsfloor cleaning robots, with orders     3     (receive) more often this year from Spain, France and Russia through AliExpress, Alibaba Group’s business-to-customer platform.

Like Zeblaze and Midea, tens of thousands of vendors (供应商) based in China now sell their products     4     (global) through cross-border e-commerce platforms. Meanwhile, more Chinese     5     (brand) are gaining popularity among overseas consumers, which experts said is an affirmation (肯定) of the country’s manufacturing and supply chain capabilities.

Cui Lili, director of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics’ Institute of E-commerce, said the popularity in overseas markets of products made in China shows these cost-effective commodities have gained wide     6     (recognize) and raised brand reputationabroad in recent years. “In the past Chinese consumers usually     7     (tend) to buy imported and foreign-branded products, but nowadays, China’s major online shopping festivals have become more international,     8     (have) a greater influence on overseas shoppers who are increasingly willing to buy Chinese brands via cross-border e-commerce platforms,” Cui said. Faced with emerging opportunities, Cui said Chinese companies should make full use of cross-border e-commerce platforms to quickly grasp demands from overseas markets, learn more about closely     9     (relevance) laws, regulations and quality standards in these countries, and adjust supply chains to make products that meet local requirements.

Amazon Global Selling, which helps Chinese merchants sell their products abroad, said that     10     nation’s vendors are paying more attention to building brands and expanding their presence in overseas markets, given the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce.