- SharkBites by NextShark
- Posts
- Asia’s Affluent Travelers, Hellbound’s Return, and Heartseed’s Healing Breakthroughs
Asia’s Affluent Travelers, Hellbound’s Return, and Heartseed’s Healing Breakthroughs
Good Morning – November 4, 2024
Your daily update on stories impacting the Asian and Asian American community, along with key insights into business, culture, and trends.
TOP STORIES
Report reveals wealthy Asians’ travel preferences
A new study from travel technology company Expedia reveals that despite rising inflation in Asia, the region’s growing mass-affluent travelers are prioritizing luxury experiences and long-haul trips. The study, conducted in partnership with Atomik Research, surveyed 4,000 respondents across China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
Allocating the budget: According to the study, 81% of Asian travelers view travel as a key priority, with many cutting back on other discretionary expenses to maintain their travel budgets. Asian travelers plan to allocate 23% of their income to travel in the coming 12 months, favoring destinations like Japan, the U.S. and France.
Premium experiences preferred: The researchers found that these travelers prefer premium experiences, with 52% opting for 4- or 5-star hotels and nearly 40% planning private tours amid the rising inflation across the region. They also seek personalized and luxury experiences, with 44% looking for airline upgrades and 42% prioritizing accommodation enhancements.
Customers pay to get viciously mocked at this Japanese maid cafe
A pop-up cafe at the Shibuya Parco shopping mall in Tokyo, features waitresses dressed in maid outfits who interact with diners by calling them “pigs” and making snarky remarks about their appearance. Open for a limited time from Sept. 14 to Sept. 23, Bato Cafe Omokenashi — or "The Abuse Cafe" — also offers a regular, insult-free service for customers who prefer a more regular experience.
How it started: Bato Cafe Omokenashi derives its name from “bato,” which means “abuse,” and “omokenashi,” a wordplay on “omotenashi” which means “hospitality.” Created by popular Japanese YouTube channel Nobrock TV, the cafe is inspired by the channel’s “Abuse Series,” where guests are mocked by women and includes a segment in which comedians compete to keep a straight face during the abuse. Mirichamu, a recurring actress from the YouTube series, will also appear at the cafe as a guest manager on Friday and Monday.
What people are saying: One Japanese X user expressed hope for the cafe to become a hit, noting that “the attitude [of the waitresses] toward customers is on another level.” Another shared their motivation to visit, writing, “The system is crap so I definitely don't want to go, but the huge bowl of rice with meat on it that came out midway through looked pretty tasty so I wanted to try it.” Meanwhile, others pointed out that the business is no different from a tsundere cafe, where customers are also treated poorly by the waitresses.
BUSINESS AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Heartseed’s revolutionary heart treatment nears commercial availability
Heartseed, a Tokyo-based biotech company, is spearheading efforts to find an alternative to heart transplants for patients with damaged hearts. CEO Dr. Keiichi Fukuda has devised a cardiac regenerative therapy that can regrow heart tissues damaged by heart attacks and blockages using specially engineered heart muscle cells created from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Discovered by Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, iPSCs are reprogrammed cells with the ability to differentiate into various types of specialized cells in the body. So far, six people have received therapy in Heartseed’s clinical trials, which entered its final stage in August. At a Tokyo press conference on July 30, Fukuda noted that it will take “at least about two and a half years” before the therapy is commercially available. Speaking to CNN, Fukuda said he hopes Heartseed’s treatment would be used in “every hospital in the world.”
ENTERTAINMENT HIGHLIGHTS
Netflix’s ‘Hellbound’ cast talks about Season 2
Despite Hellbound's intense, existential themes and unflinching portrayal of a world on the brink, the series’ cast and crew, led by director Yeon Sang-ho, managed to keep the atmosphere light-hearted and fun behind the scenes. “He’s a chatty person. He has a lot of things to talk about,” Kim Shin-rock, who plays the resurrected Park Jungja, tells NextShark. The K-drama thriller “Hellbound,” based on the webtoon of the same title, set the stage for a world in turmoil, where people receive supernatural decrees condemning them to Hell. These “hellbound” judgments triggered public displays of fear, panic and moral questioning, with terrifying executions broadcasted globally. As the second season unfolds, viewers are treated to a deepened exploration of faith, justice and societal control — with Kim Hyun-joo, Kim Sung-cheol and Kim Shin-rock embodying characters who face more profound moral challenges and staggering confrontations between salvation and damnation.
QUICK HITS
Here’s what George Takei had to say about Trump in “Star Trek” terms: George Takei, best known for his role as Lt. Sulu in “Star Trek,” took a shot at Donald Trump’s bid for president in a 2016 interview. At the time, Takei spoke with Time to express concerns about Trump’s purported lack of vision for space exploration, saying, “Trump wants to cut ourselves off from the rest of the planet, build walls, ban others of certain faiths. He will not have the vision to go out there [in space].” Reflecting on Trump’s apparent xenophobia, Takei in the same interview revealed that he had invited Trump to watch his Broadway musical “Allegiance,” which was inspired by his personal experiences while being incarcerated with thousands of other Japanese Americans in World War II.
Partially blind 92-year-old Chinese woman gets near perfect scores in rifle shooting: A 92-year-old Chinese woman who lost her sight in one eye is putting a lot of youngsters to shame by receiving nearly perfect scores in rifle shooting. The nonagenarian, identified as Li Guifang from Zhejiang province, reportedly participated in a live-fire shooting event in Kazakhstan during a family trip overseas. Li played for two rounds, scoring 87 rings out of 100 with 10 shots on her first try and a jaw-dropping 97 rings with 10 bullets on her second attempt, surprising even the Kazakhstan shooting coach. It turns out Li’s shooting skills came from her time in the People’s Liberation Army, notably during the Korean War. Serving as a communications soldier, Li was among the fighters China had sent to aid North Korea against the U.S. and its allies in the war.
DYK?
In 2022, the highest-earning Chinese American households earned over 19 times more than the lowest-earning households, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. This disparity has steadily increased since 1980, when the highest earners made 8.3 times more than the lowest. Interestingly, while Chinese Americans are among the highest earners at the top of the income ladder, they are also among the lowest earners at the bottom.