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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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How China’s love of spicy hotpot made one couple $6-billion richer in 2019

China’s insatiable demand for spicy hotpot is placing the founders of a restaurant chain atop one of the world’s fastest-growing fortunes, allowing them to outpace many of the wealthiest families globally.

As of Monday, Zhang Yong, chairman of Haidilao International Holding Ltd., and his wife Shu Ping, had grown US$6 billion richer in 2019, a 79 per cent jump in just over three months.

That pace is the fastest in Asia and globally only topped by Australian mining baron Andrew Forrest, who has doubled his fortune this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.

Haidilao went public in September, and it’s been a lucrative time for China’s largest hotpot chain, popular for the spicy broths in which diners cook their meats and vegetables. The company is pushing to make its restaurants more efficient by creating automated kitchens. Perks like the free manicures it offers waiting customers have kept families coming in. And the brand is expanding overseas with new locations planned in New York and London.

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Last year, revenue surged 60 per cent to 17 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion), and that’s helping to push the stock up more than 75 percent this year. At about $21 billion, the company’s market value is now higher than Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.

“A good set of results has resulted in the stock rallying to new highs,” said Tristan D’Aboville, an analyst at William O’Neil & Co., pointing to increases in sales growth and new restaurants added in the second half of last year.

Another power couple behind Haidilao, co-founder and executive director Shi Yonghong and his wife Li Haiyan, have also grown 79 per cent wealthier this year, based on Monday’s data. Their fortune is now worth US$6.4 billion.

Still, the enthusiasm for Haidilao’s stock has made it increasingly expensive. Recently valued at about 47 times projected earnings for the next 12 months, it’s around four times more expensive than Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

China’s increasingly competitive hotpot market is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of more than 10 percent, with revenue topping 700 billion yuan by 2022, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

Besides small, privately owned restaurants, there are other competing brands like the publicly listed Xiabuxiabu Catering Management China Holdings. Haidilao has a less than 3 per cent share of the Chinese hotpot market, according to its September prospectus.

In an October interview, Haidilao’s chief strategy officer, Zhou Zhaocheng, said the company sees room to grow by offering customers diverse choices, better service and by creating new experiences for them.

So far it has kept Chinese consumers loyal by making their visits more fun. Its outlets provide free board games, shoe-polishing and manicure services for those waiting. Diners can watch a Sichuan Opera show or even a noodle dance where staffers twirl lengthy ribbons of noodle.

In October last year, one of Haidilao’s restaurants began introducing robots to take orders, and deliver raw meat and vegetables to customers to cook in the simmering pots of soups placed at their tables.

Zhang, a former welder at a tractor factory, founded Haidilao with friends in 1994. It went public last year.

He and his wife, both Singaporean citizens, now had a net worth of US$13.6 billion as of Monday. That includes their holdings in Haidilao’s seasonings and sauce arm, Yihai International Holding Ltd., which has seen its shares rise more than 90 per cent this year. The couple holds about 58 per cent of Haidilao.

Now, Haidilao and other Chinese hotpot brands are attempting to expand overseas. Little Sheep, a hotpot chain owned by Yum China Holdings Inc., opened its first overseas branch in Los Angeles in 2003.

“With the rise in Chinese outbound tourism and growing appreciation for China’s hotpot culture, we are excited about accelerating the expansion of Little Sheep globally,” Joey Wat, the chief executive officer of Yum China, said in November.

Little Sheep now has over 60 restaurants worldwide. That gives it a greater overseas presence than Haidilao, which had 36 stores outside China at the end of last year.

“Haidilao was able to cut through the clutter of various Chinese hotpot operators through their exceptional service,” said Jack Chuang, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants. “Whether Western customers will embrace hotpot — it is a big open question.”

–With assistance from Pei Yi Mak.

Bloomberg.com

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ralphmorgan-blog1 · 7 years ago

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China’s Spicy Hotpot Billionaire Is Ready to Take on the World

Zhang Yong, the co-founder and chairman of Haidilao, one of China’s most successful hotpot chains, remembers his first time eating out. As a 19-year-old welder in Jianyang, Sichuan, it was exhilarating to escape the proletarian company cafeteria and dine in an actual restaurant, a rare experience for him at the time.

But the staff was rude and the hotpot didn’t inspire. Then came a twist of fate that would change China’s culinary history: Zhang bolted from his job at a state-owned tractor factory in a dispute over a company apartment for him and his fiancée. In 1994, he opened his first restaurant with just four tables.

Customers eat at a Haidilao Hotpot restaurant in Shanghai.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Today, Zhang runs the nation’s most popular chain of restaurants that serves up boiling soup broth with meat, seafood, vegetables, and noodles. Haidilao has 196 outlets in 60 Chinese cities as well as more in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, and Seoul.

He’s also one of China’s newest billionaires, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, thanks to his 68 percent stake in closely held Sichuan Haidilao Catering and 63 percent stake in Hai Di Lao Holdings along with a 36 percent stake in publicly traded Yihai International, a food distribution and seasoning manufacturer for Haidilao, whose products are also sold in China by Wal-Mart, Carrefour and other retailers. Yang Yingying, a spokeswoman for Haidilao, said Zhang declined to comment on the net worth in an email.

Zhang has no regrets. “That factory never made a profit,” says Zhang dressed casually in an open shirt during an interview in Zhengzhou, Henan, where he was attending a conference for Chinese entrepreneurs. “If I had not started Haidilao, I would have had to find something else, because you have to support yourself, you have to eat.”

Zhang Yong

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Sichuan Spice

Zhang said he plans to keep expanding and aims for as many as 80 more stores this year, with maybe ten of them overseas.” Revenue of Haidilao will likely grow by more than 30 percent to 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) this year, he said, and there are no plans to publicly list the company on domestic or overseas stock exchanges.

Zhang splits his time between China and Singapore, where his wife and son live. He’s done well for a guy who started out earning just 93 yuan ($14) a month in his first factory job. Last year, he bought a high-end property in Singapore for S$27 million ($20 million), according to the Business Times, a financial daily.

Hotpot restaurants have surged in popularity as young Chinese entered the middle class and began eating out together. Haidilao specializes in spicy Sichuan hotpot dishes featuring a spicy broth and choices of meat, seafood, mushrooms, tofu and assorted vegetables.

Sichuan hotpot dishes featuring a spicy broth and choices of meat, seafood, tofu and assorted vegetables.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

At Haidilao, stoves are built into each table to keep your broth boiling. It’s possible to order a hotpot with two compartments set apart by a metal divider designed to match the curvy yin yang symbol. That way one side can be mushroom or chicken-based broth for more delicate palates, while the other is seasoned with whole peppercorns for diners looking for some spice. Hotpots with no divider and all spice are also available.

What really sets Haidilao apart is its customer service. Customers waiting for a table can get their nails done or receive a shoulder massage at no charge. After being seated, every diner is given a moist warm towel and apron to protect their clothes.

Individual plastic baggies are provided for mobile phones and those dining solo are sometimes offered a teddy bear to accompany them. “It was the key that got his first tiny restaurant going. The service was right there from the beginning,” says F. Warren McFarlan, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, who co-authored a 2011 case study on Haidilao.

Customers have their nails done while waiting for a table.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Zhang, like his waiters from a humble background in the hinterlands, knows the challenges migrants face in the big city. Haidilao provides apartments, often with air conditioning and wifi, for its staff. Zhang also provides a monthly subsidy for the parents of senior staff and managers. There’s a disaster fund for when employees’ families face hardships from natural disasters. “It’s not easy being a rural migrant in China,” says Zhang.

Deep Bench

Haidilao tends to promote from within, placing waiters and cleaners on management promotion tracks. The person who runs its U.S. business started as a restaurant doorman. Chief executive officer Yang Xiaoli worked her way up from her first role as a waitress.

Servers carry food through the kitchen.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Managers are evaluated by levels of customer satisfaction and staff morale, rather than primarily on restaurant revenue. “We rarely hire from outside. Just because you have a degree from Harvard or from Peking University, we won’t give you any special favor,” says Zhang, who never finished high school. “When I watch the waiters," he said, "I know they’re thinking about how they want to replace me,” he said with a smile.

At Haidilao, wages start low, but rise rapidly for top performers. That and generous perks keep turnover lower, an anomaly in China’s high churn service industry, points out Harvard’s McFarlan. By treating employees well, Zhang “inspires a real level of loyalty,” he says.

Successful managers are eligible to open franchises. Wang Bin, a 32-year-old migrant from Shaanxi province who started out cleaning toilets at Haidilao, runs a 24-hour restaurant in Sanlitun, Beijing’s nightlife district, and recently opened his first franchise shop in the coastal town of Weihai, Shandong.

With the customary 2.8 to 5 percent of revenues from the Shandong shop that goes to all franchisees, Wang now earns about 50,000 yuan ($7,281) a month, some five times the average wage of a Beijing restaurant manager, he said. “Haidilao cares about fairness and giving everyone a platform to develop oneself,” said Wang. “I have no plans to ever change companies."

While the charismatic Zhang has successfully overseen the expansion of Haidilao across the country, it is unclear whether his business model will translate overseas. “He’s taking a model working in one context with whole lot of history and social values and trying to transplant it,” says McFarlan.

A baby crib is provided for customers with a small child.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Zhang, however, is determined to take the Haidilao brand global. At his sole U.S. outlet in Los Angeles, Zhang said he’s unhappy that its business relies heavily on ethnic Chinese customers. To try to attract a more varied crowd he says future restaurants in the U.S. will adopt a more night-club-like atmosphere, with pop music and set menus for diners and perhaps even individual hotpots for each diner at the table.

“McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks are all a reflection of American culture,’’ said Zhang. “As the Chinese economy grows and the world starts to put more focus on China, I believe there’s a chance for Chinese restaurants.”

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dvtvn · 7 years ago

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Hành trình từ gã thợ hàn nhà quê đến tỷ phú lẩu cay nổi tiếng nhất Trung Quốc và giá trị của chữ Nhân trong kinh doanh nhà hàng

Ông Zhang Yong là đồng sáng lập kiêm chủ tịch HĐQT của Haidilao - một trong số những chuỗi lẩu nổi tiếng nhất Trung Quốc. Không chỉ thành công ở thị trường 1,3 tỷ dân, Haidilao còn sở hữu nhiều chi nhánh ở Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, và Seoul.

Xuất thân từ một huyện nghèo thuộc tỉnh Tứ Xuyên, Trung Quốc, số phận trớ trêu đã đưa chàng thợ hàn họ Yong thoát khỏi quán ăn tự phục vụ của công ty và lần đầu tiên được đến một nhà hàng lẩu ở độ tuổi 19, rồi để trở thành người đàn ông làm thay đổi lịch sử ẩm thực Trung Hoa.

Sau một lần cãi vã với người vợ sắp cưới, ông Zhang đã bỏ việc tại nhà máy. Năm 1994, ông mở cửa hàng ăn đầu tiên của mình với chỉ 4 chiếc bàn.

Ngày nay, ông Zhang vận hành cả một thương hiệu lẩu đông khách nhất Trung Quốc với 196 nhà hàng phủ sóng khắp 60 thành phố ở trong cũng như ngoài nước.

Ông cũng là một trong số những tỷ phú mới nhất của Trung Quốc bước chân vào bảng xếp hạng tỷ phú toàn cầu của Bloomberg, nhờ có 68% cổ phần trong Sichuan Haidilao Catering, 63% cổ phần trong Hai Di Lao Holdings và 36% cổ phần trong Yihai International - nhà phân phối thực phẩm và nhà máy sản xuất gia vị cho Haidilao.

"Cho dù không có Haidilao, tôi cũng sẽ mở một thứ khác", ông Zhang nói trong buổi phỏng vấn tại ZhengZhou, Henan - nơi ông tham gia một hội nghị cho giới doanh nhân Trung Quốc. "Bởi bạn phải tự cứu bản thân mình, bạn phải ăn".

Chân dung ông Zhang Yong - chủ tịch HĐQT Haidilao

Ông Zhang dự kiến sẽ tiếp tục mở rộng và đặt mục tiêu sẽ mở thêm 80 cửa hàng mới trong năm nay với khoảng 10 cửa hàng ở nước ngoài. "Doanh thu của Haidilao sẽ tăng trưởng khoảng hơn 30% lên 10 tỷ NDT (1,5 tỷ USD) trong năm nay" và "Tôi không có kế hoạch đưa công ty ra công chúng, kể cả trong nước và nước ngoài", ông Zhang nói.

Hiện nay vợ và con trai ông Zhang đều đang sống ở Singapore, ông thường xuyên đi lại giữa Singapore và Trung Quốc để lo việc kinh doanh của công ty. Từ một chàng thanh niên mỗi tháng nhận được 93 tệ (14 USD) từ nhà máy, ông đã trở thành ông chủ hãng lẩu giàu có nhất Trung Quốc. Năm ngoái, tờ Business Times cho biết ông đã mua một căn hộ cao cấp ở Singapore với giá 20 triệu USD.

Nồi lẩu tứ xuyên cùng với đồ ăn kèm tại Haidilao

Trong bối cảnh tầng lớp trung lưu của Trung Quốc đang bùng nổ với tốc độ mạnh mẽ chưa từng có trong lịch sử, nhà hàng lẩu ngày càng trở nên phổ biến và được giới trẻ yêu thích. Haidilao đặc biệt tập trung vào hương vị lẩu cay Tứ Xuyên ăn kèm với thịt, hải sản, nấm, đậu phụ và rau hỗn hợp.

Dịch vụ khách hàng là điểm nhấn quan trọng nhất ở Haidilao. Khách hàng đợi ăn lẩu được sử dụng dịch vụ nail hoặc massage vai miễn phí. Sau khi ngồi vào bàn, mỗi vị khách đều được cung cấp một chiếc khăn ấm, tạp dề và túi nhựa để đựng điện thoại.

Ngoài ra khách hàng nữ đến đây còn được tặng hoa hoặc gấu bông. "Dịch vụ khách hàng tốt là bí quyết làm nên thương hiệu Haidilao và nó đã tồn tại ở đây từ những ngày đầu tiên", F.Warren McFarlan - chuyên gia danh dự tại trường kinh doanh Harvard - đồng tác giả nghiên cứu Haidalao năm 2011 cho biết.

Khách đến ăn lẩu tại Haidilao thường rất đông và có khi phải chờ đến vài tiếng. Trong thời gian đó, khách hàng có thể sử dụng dịch vụ nail và massage vai miễn phí tại đây.

Không chỉ có dịch vụ khách hàng tốt, ông Zhang hiểu khó khăn mà nhân viên trong công ty phải đối mặt khi rời quê hướng đến sống và làm việc ở thành phố lớn. Haidalao cung cấp cho nhân viên chỗ ở thường có cả wifi và điều hòa. Bố mẹ của các nhân viên cấp cao và quản lý được hưởng một khoản tiền trợ cấp hàng tháng. Haidilao cũng có một quỹ thiên tai được lập nên cho các gia đình khó khăn do ảnh hưởng của thảm họa thiên nhiên. "Rời quê hương để đến làm việc tại các thành phố lớn ở Trung Quốc thật không dễ dàng", ông Zhang nói.

Nhân viên vận chuyển thực phẩm tại Haidilao. Nếu làm việc chăm chỉ, anh ấy rất có thể sẽ trở thành quản lý của nhà hàng trong tương lai.

Ở Haidilao có văn hóa tuyển dụng quản lý từ chính những người phục vụ, nhân viên lau dọn trong công ty. Người hiện nay đang vận hành chuỗi nhà hàng lẩu tại Mỹ từng xuất thân là một nhân viên gác cổng của nhà hàng. Giám đốc điều hành Yang Xiaoli bắt đầu sự nghiệp tại Haidilao với vai trò là một nhân viên chạy bàn.

Quản lý tại Haidilao được đánh giá bởi mức độ hài lòng của khách hàng và tinh thần của nhân viên thay vì doanh thu của nhà hàng. "Chúng tôi hiếm khi thuê người bên ngoài. Nếu chỉ vì bạn có một tấm bằng của trường Harvard hay ĐH Bắc Kinh, chúng tôi sẽ không trao cho bạn bất cứ một sự chiếu cố nào", ông Zhang nói - người chưa bao giờ từng tốt nghiệp cấp 3 và nay là chủ tịch HĐQT. "Khi tôi quan sát nhân viên chạy bàn làm việc, tôi biết họ đang nghĩ làm cách nào để thay thế tôi", ông nói với một nụ cười.

Ở Haidilao, mức lương bắt đầu từ thấp rồi tăng dần lên cao dựa theo chất lượng công việc. Những phúc lợi và mức lương mà Haidilao đem lại cho nhân viên khiến cho lợi nhuận của công ty thấp đi - một điều hiếm có trong ngành dịch vụ ở Trung Quốc, ông McFarlan nhận định. Bằng cách đối xử tốt với nhân viên, ông Zhang đã khơi dậy được lòng trung thành từ họ.

Những người quản lý tốt có thể được mở nhà hàng nhượng quyền. Wang Bin - một người lao động nhập cư từ tỉnh Shaanxi ban đầu ở vị trí nhân viên lau dọn toilet và từng là quản lý 24h tại một cửa hàng ở Sanlitun - khu phố đêm ở Bắc Kinh - mới đây đã mở nhà hàng nhượng quyền đầu tiên của anh ở thị trấn ven biển Weihai, Shandong.

Với thu nhập 50.000 tệ (7.281 USD) mỗi tháng - gấp 5 lần mức lương trung bình của một quản lý nhà hàng ở Bắc Kinh, anh chia sẻ: "Haidilao quan tâm đến sự công bằng và trao cho tất cả mọi người một cơ hội để phát triển bản thân. Tôi chưa bao giờ từng nghĩ sẽ đổi công ty".

Không chỉ dừng lại ở Trung Quốc, ông Zhang tham vọng đưa Haidilao trở thành thương hiệu lẩu thống trị toàn cầu. Tại cửa hàng duy nhất ở Mỹ, ông Zhang không hài lòng khi hoạt động kinh doanh tại đây vẫn chủ yếu dựa vào khách hàng Trung Quốc.

"McDonald's, Coca-Cola và Starbucks đều phản ánh văn hóa Mỹ", ông Zhang nói. "Khi nền kinh tế Trung Quốc tăng trưởng và thế giới bắt đầu tập trung nhiều hơn vào Trung Quốc, tôi tin có cơ hội cho ngành hàng ăn Trung Quốc phát triển".

Nguồn: CafeF

Coi nguyên bài viết ở : Hành trình từ gã thợ hàn nhà quê đến tỷ phú lẩu cay nổi tiếng nhất Trung Quốc và giá trị của chữ Nhân trong kinh doanh nhà hàng

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sunriseverse · 7 months ago

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okay fixa @fixaidea gave me the one (1) note necessary for this so here we go! apologises because this is going to get long (there’s a lot of homophones in chinese. i’m not even including all of them, only the relevant ones).

okay so quick crash course: “è nǚshī” is the title of my dmbj oc in sunrise, zhang yihai, one of the two founders of the zhang sect in the yuan-adjacent period of sunrise canon. she’s characterised by a passion for hands-on, physical solutions to problems—for herself and her younger twin brother, and for helping others outside of the sect. in my art of the zhang siblings (x) you can see that her brother carries a fan, and she carries a sword—a scholar, and a warrior. the title “è nǚshī” is written as “锷女士”; i render it as either “lady of the blade” or “lady above” depending on the context, since 锷 can be “blade’s edge” (literal) or “high/lofty” (literary/metaphorical). zhang yihai has two character-defining moments—founding the zhang sect with her brother, and killing said brother in an argument, at which point she takes on the title of “zhang qiling” (张起灵—i won’t belabour this post any longer; i assume if you’re reading this you know what the title means in dmbj canon) and essentially becomes a recluse after splitting the sect in half.

what makes this wildly fun (for me), though, is that there are a lot of chinese characters pronounced “è”—and a number of them make some horrible, awful little bits of emotional pain crop up. let’s go through them!

恶: probably one of the most commonly used character pronounced “è”; means, roughly, “evil”, “wicked”, or “ferocious” (its opposite is 善, shàn, usually “virtue”). 恶女士 would be “mistress of evil”, “mistress of vice”, or “vicious lady”.

饿: also very common; “to be hungry” or “to starve” (causative). 饿女士 would then be “lady who hungers” or “mistress who starves (others)”.

噩: “unlucky”, “upsetting”. 噩女士: “lady of ill omens”, “mistress who upsets”.

愕: “astonishing”, “astounding”, “startling”. 愕女士: “mistress who astounds”, “mistress who shocks”.

扼: “to clutch”, “to control” (figurative), “to choke”. 扼女士: “lady who clutches tightly”, “mistress who controls (others)”, “mistress who chokes” (figurative or literal, also possibly causative).

厄: “strategic” (of a location), “disaster”, “to be in distress”. 厄女士: “mistress of strategy”, “mistress of disaster”, “lady who is distraught”.

遏: “to restrain”, “to hold back”. 遏女士: “lady who restrains”, “lady of lenience”.

轭: “to yoke”, “to restrain”. 轭女士: “lady who burdens”, “mistress who restrains”.

鹗: “osprey”, “fish hawk”. 鹗女士: “keen mistress” (of mind or attention), “lady of discernment”.

咢: “to beat a drum”, “to startle”. 咢女士: “lady of rites”, “mistress who surprises”.

there are a great number more characters also pronounced è—about twice as many as i’ve listed, in fact. some of them are unrelated (they’re exclamations, or types of plants, etc), but a lot of them are synonyms in terms of meaning for characters above. the point of this exercise was to illustrate the number of ways that zyh’s title could be interpreted if one only heard it spoken, not written—and the fact that many of these versions are negative. a lot of them speak to her uncompromising nature, her stubbornness, her decisive force, and, in doing so, hint at the tragedy that would eventually befall her life, and that which she loves.

every day i think about all the “e”s that the “e” in “e nüshi” could be if you were only going by the phonetics

#sunrise verse #my ocs #zhang yihai #thank you fixa for giving me this excuse #c.txt

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sunriseverse · 1 year ago

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problem: i want to work on sunrise but not jeopardise my momentum on distant stars.

solution: draw the zhang siblings who started the zhang sect.

#they are zhang yihai and zhang yishan #and the sister (yihai) kills the brother (yishan)#which is how the title of zql starts!#they have no family besides each other #so she’s the only one who can put his body to rest #lore dump in the tags OOPS #sunrise verse #you will see my sketches of them in a while #c.txt

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sunriseverse · 1 year ago

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soooo about the dmbj sunrise au I read your iron triangle fic about it and the concept has me by the throat I would like to know more about the sunrise verse 👀 anything you feel like sharing

okay, let's see if i can do this in a manner that in any way makes sense, is organised, and is reasonably useful.

for starters, i'll toss over this introductory post, if you want a tl;dr that i made a bit ago (it is very abbreviated, and doesn't cover a majority of the verse beyond the barebones): sunrise at a glance.

i've been attempting to figure out a way to explain sunrise, and i think the best way to do it would probably be chronologically, starting from the effective beginning of history, as it pertains to rosemary and thyme. then i'll go a bit deeper into some world specifics, such as the martial sects, upgrading, and the politics of the zhang sect as it stands prior to the end of the sha hai parallel era. finally, i'll talk about some inspirations, both aesthetically and thematically.

PART ONE: the history

while technically the sunrise canon runs more or less parallel to real-world history up until slightly after the establishment of the mongol empire (565 before zhang reunification, abbreviated henceforth to BZ; real world equivalent somewhat varying depending on when you consider the mongol empire as having conquered china), once it diverges, it diverges rapidly. the yuan dynasty is founded in 448 BZ, and by 458 BZ, the first prototype silk-weaving machine is created, and rapidly thereafter (420 BZ) the first textiles factory is founded in chang'an (modern-day xi'an).

in 425 BZ, a pair of twins named zhang yihai and zhang yishan are born. due to their family's impoverishment, they're left at a daoist nunnery not long afterwards. they were trained in cultivation techniques from a young age, but were not considered remarkable enough to become disciples of any particular local master, and instead became wandering disciples, training sporadically under various independent masters in return for services rendered.

however, while they didn't become remarkable in this period of time, they were educated to a respectable level, both in cultivation techniques and scholarly arts. then, in 400 BZ, while travelling, they discovered a vase that was able to increase the abilities of anyone who held it. realising the potential of this artefact, they rendered it into an ink to create tattoos with, binding its abilities to their own bodies, and shortly after, created the zhang sect, the tattoos becoming the marker of the sect. unbeknownst to either twin, the vase was an artefact that had slipped into their world from a different world, and if they hadn't rendered it into an ink and bound it to themselves, carrying it would have aroused the attention of its original owners, the entity known as the hive. this binding also gave the zhang an innate ability to better resist hive-madness, ie brain damage caused by exposure to a humanly incomprehensible world and

for about five years, the zhang sect slowly rose in prominence, with zhang yihai and zhang yishan acting as co-leaders of the sect, known by a variety of titles (the most character-relevant being zyh's title of 锷女士 [e nvshi, lady of the blade/master above], and zys' title of 馥郁君 [fuyu-jun, lord of fragrant flowers]) . however, as time passed, the two siblings began to differ on what they wanted the role of their sect to be in the world—zhang yihai wanted the sect to be more martially-focused, aiding the people in a more immediate way, while zhang yishan felt the sect should be more scholarly, aiding the people by collecting and preserving knowledge, with the sect splitting roughly in half with which disciples sided with which sibling. In 400 BZ, tensions between the two siblings reached a boiling point, and the two came to blows—a fight which led to zhang yihai killing zhang yishan (partially due to the fact, which she didn't know at the time, that she was qilin-blooded and thus functionally immortal).

after realising what she'd done, zhang yihai took on the title of zhang qiling, as she was the only remaining member of her family, and carried her brother's body and performed his final rites. from that point on, she withdrew into seclusion, excepting for a brief period where she bore a child to continue the family lineage. without firm leadership, the zhang sect stagnated, faltering in its previous rise to prominence, and faded to a mostly unremarkable status, with its members split hereditarily from that point on either into hai or shan subjects, depending on which sibling their ancestors had aligned with.

in 360 BZ, the xie and hong families emerge. in 340 BZ, industrialisation accelerates, and the first steam engines are produced to power factory equipment. in 330 BZ the remaining jiumen families emerge, and align with the zhang sect.

in 300 BZ, wang zanghai compiles research on the zhang, and comes to believe that a hive artefact is responsible for their immortality. he artificially creates a rift in changbaishan in order to steal a hiveside artefact, but is killed in the process, with the artefact becoming lost.

in 200 BZ, the first steam engine train is created to allow for an efficient long-distance means of transporting goods. the first telephone is invented in the same year. in this window of time, the first people to find wang zanghai's notes on the zhang form the wang clan, vowing to bring the hive into the world, as they believe that this will allow immortality to be granted to all who come in contact with it. as the zhang are believed to be the enemy, they begin to infiltrate the jiumen.

in 120 BZ, the first automobile is invented. zhang ruitong, future leader of the zhang sect is born in 100 BZ. in 0 AZ, the ming dynasty is founded, and zhang ruitong succeeds in reuniting the zhang sect, as well as raising its status to that of foremost martial sect. in 85 AZ, xiaoge is born in tibet, and two years later in 87 AZ, hei xiazi is born in the chimkent (şymkent) area, a politically fraught region which will come under the control of the kazakh khanate, founded in 97 AZ.

in 95 AZ, an earthquake disturbs the hiveside artefact that wang zanghai stole, bringing it to the hive's attention, and the changbaishan rift begins to expand. as part of an agreement between the jiumen and the zhang sect, the xie heir is sent to fight the hive behind the rift. when the xie heir fails to return in the winter of 105 AZ, the jiumen renege on their agreement with the zhang, not wanting to lose any further heirs. the wang, embedded within the jiumen, begin to purposely open rifts, beginning the hive incursion. with zhang ruitong's death, xiaoge becoming sect leader, as well as the first zhang to undergo upgrading to become a ranger, and in spring of 105 AZ, the zhang elders form the first board to govern the sect, arguing that xiaoge is too inexperienced and busy with his responsibilities as a ranger to govern properly.

in 109 AZ, the first non-zhang sect, the gongsun sect, hosts a zhang ranger as the ranger programme expands. in 152 AZ, much of the lao jiumen are killed when qiu dekao trades the names of families with histories of grave-robbing to the government, as well as accusing them of wartime profiteering through the black-market sale of artefacts retrieved from hive-tainted areas. those that survive flee to beijing, where the jiumen become the jiumen association.

in 160 AZ, zhang qishan, better known as fo ye, heads the gutongjing research projects, an attempt to try and find a way to give immunity to hive-madness to zhang rangers through the study of a hive-touched species of snake, the heimaoshe. the project fails, but fo ye becomes aware of the wang, and trades zhang sect secrets in return for a reduction of rifts in the vicinity of his family, the somewhat estranged southern zhang. by 165 AZ, the zhang sect's influence is comparable to our world's mid-level nobility. by 170 AZ, the iron triangle have all been born (pangzi in 161 AZ, and wu xie in 169 AZ). the internet is invented in 169 AZ, and in 170 AZ, conscription of all qilin-blooded zhang sect members begins as the number of volunteers had dropped sharply in recent years. the same year, the zhang main board implements the first "kill switches" in upgrading procedures, allowing them to remotely terminate rangers if they are deemed a danger due to rift-madness. in 186 AZ, conscription is expanded again, this time to any zhang sect members of lower status whose positions are deemed non-essential.

in 190 AZ, the iron triangle meet. between 190 AZ and 195 AZ, the events of rosemary and thyme take place, and in 195 AZ, due to the discovery of anchoring as a method to make rangers' jobs no longer a death sentence, the draft is expanded again to include all adult zhang sect members, excluding those who hold high-level positions. in 197 AZ, xiaoge takes wu xie's place behind the rift in changbaishan. over the next ten years, a parallel to dmbj's ten year plan/sha hai takes place. unlike in dmbj canon, the reason wu xie kidnaps li cu is in order to find the lost wang hive artefact, which is drawn to innocence—something that wu xie, by this point, firmly lacks. in 206 AZ, the sha hai plan comes to a head, with the majority of the wang being destroyed. in the spring of 207 AZ, wu xie returns the artefact wang zanghai stole to the changbaishan rift, after which point the remaining rifts begin to naturally close as the hive is satisfied. in august of 207 AZ, xiaoge returns from hiveside, the iron triangle is reunited, and the hive incursion officially ends, ending zhang conscription, and xiaoge disolves the zhang boards, ending the sect's massive sociopolitical reign.

PART TWO: world specifics

part i: the zhang board, and sunrise as a dystopia

in the era of rosemary and thyme, ie the final years of the hive incursion, the zhang sect is not only incredibly powerful martially, but also politically. since the first hive incursion and the creation of the ranger programme, the zhang have been able to gain an unparalleled control over the martial world specifically, and the general populace more broadly. this is largely due to a number of facts: firstly, the zhang, as the only sect who produce rangers, are viewed as, and actively work to reinforce the view of themselves as, protectors of the empire. secondly, as areas become hive-poisoned after a rift is opened, the common people are encouraged to relocate to zhang-affiliated martial sect territories/compounds, as hive-poisoned areas remain dangerous for a long period after the rift is closed. the zhang-affiliated sects, aside from hosting rangers, also host subsets of the main zhang board, known collectively as "the zhang boards", comprised half of zhang, one quarter of the host sect, and one quarter of scientific and medical specialists, who are in charge of the ranger(s) each affiliated sect hosts.

in return for protection, those living in zhang-controlled areas must adhere to a number of zhang sect regulations. this includes the restriction of access to media that is labelled by the zhang main board as "anti-cause", including anything that criticises the zhang sect's power. this has led to the highly-lucrative, but also highly-dangerous, black-market for media such as film and literature, periodicals, the creation of pirate radio, and so forth. depending on the severity of what someone is reported as possessing, they can either be demoted and given restrictions, or they are given a hearing to determine a sentence, or, in extreme cases (such as being found to be actively associated with anti-zhang groups), exiled from the sect compound either for a set period of time or indefinitely.

zhang sect members are under stricter watch than the average zhang-affiliated person. rangers specifically are heavily monitored, especially in their access of non-sect created materials, and they are discouraged and punished for possessing any materials that may be interpreted as criticising the zhang main board, its marriage and reproductive policies, and its treatment of potential and active-duty rangers, especially any materials that may suggest the draft should not exist, or that the rangers and their families should be compensated for what is essentially a suicide job. for more "mid-level" crimes, forced confessions, similar to those of the 60s/70s in our world's china, are used as a way to reify the confessors of their position within the social and legal order, reinforce to others within the collective that they will be discovered and punished if they do not comply with zhang sect regulations, and communicate that noncompliance is harmful to the collective, ie the zhang sect as a whole.

in regards to marriage and reproductive policies, the zhang sect is incredibly strict within the sect. all of-age sect members are paired based on a number of factors, such as qilin blood status, place within the sect hierarchy, and history, both personal and familial, with compliance to the main board's policies. the aim of these pairings is to produce as many children as possible in order to maintain the ranger system, and thus the zhang board's power. while non-heterosexuality is not explicitly penalised, any sect member who shows resistance to marrying and producing offspring will face both social and legal pressure, and, in extreme cases, punishment in an effort to continue the zhang bloodlines. the only reason that xiaoge is allowed to maintain his relationship with the iron triangle is due to the fact that he is the first ranger and, at least in name, the leader of the sect, and the main board would risk losing power if they attempted to treat him in such a way, and, in this specific case, they would prefer for his family line to die out, since he survived the upgrading procedure all those decades ago despite their hopes, leaving them no possible rivals for control of the sect—and, even then, he faces unspoken pressure to minimise the nature of their relationship as much as possible.

part ii: upgrading, and the precarious position of living weapons

upgrading is the colloquial term used to describe the process which the zhang undergo in order to become rangers. during the process, the body is torn apart and replaced with an average of 60% tech, or "mechanics", a number which varies depending on the "generation" of rangers (xiaoge, and the first batch, would have been about 70%, while newer rangers hover around 55% as improvements in tech optimise the mechanics). this is all done without anaesthetic, as anaesthetic runs the risk of causing the body to be unable to integrate the mechanics properly. generally*, the zhang are the only ones with the training necessary to survive upgrading.

however, even the zhang are human, and their minds are not meant to be able to comprehend input from non-organic systems, even with a large portion of modern zhang training going towards trying to equip potential rangers to deal with this input. in an attempt to solve this problem, especially that of a ranger potentially risking not being able to interpret a warning from their mechanics of a failure, interfaces were created. this allows the ranger to pull up a number of systems, such as diagnostics and recommended courses of action, and in newer generations of rangers, interfaces even allow rangers to access predictions of results of a course of action based on damage/injury levels, control nanotech particles to disperse them to mitigate any critical injuries until a fight is completed, and so forth. the interface in a proper upgrade is implanted in the cerebral cortex. included within newer generations of interface implants are hard-coded the ability to receive a specific command from the zhang boards that allow them to remotely "put down" a ranger if they're deemed a threat—usually due to rift madness aggression, but there have been a number of times where the reason was more muddy; more than one ranger in only the early stages of rift madness was "put down" not long after they began to question the zhang board.

part iii: the exception to the rule

while generally only zhang are able to survive upgrading, there is one notable exception: that is, hei xiazi. however, as the only official method of upgrading is through procedures administered by the zhang. hei xiazi, though, realised early on that the money was quickly drying up in grave robbing and instead booming in the trade of hiveside artefacts, and, already cursed due to a previous tomb excursion, opted to undergo a black-market upgrade.

however, due to the fact that it was black-market, it was essentially a one-of-a-kind event, and one that was largely done with an understanding of zhang upgrades obtained through extrapolation of zhang abilities, and a small amount of study of rangers' corpses which had not been recovered by the sect in the early days due to physical distance. as such, hei xiazi's systems are......................unique, to put it lightly. his mechanics are exposed to the elements rather than being hidden beneath synthetic skin, and a lot of the more specialised pieces are often not what they should be, but rather the closest substitute—something that is a persistent issue, as demonstrated in whatever was left. especially of issue is his interface system—half the time it doesn't work, and it often displays errors for minor issues, or mislabels critical issues as minor ones, and generally is an annoyance. while zhang rangers' interfaces are designed to seamlessly integrate with their personal usage style, hei xiazi's interface is akin to a video game tutorial pop-up—bright red, and almost impossible to dismiss. an amusing issue hei xiazi deals with is that while zhang rangers' interfaces run on their own, specialised frequency, his runs on a separate one—one that, in some areas, is also used by niche pirate radio broadcasters, meaning he has to manually disable his interface entirely or suffer listening to whatever is being broadcast directly in his head. also, unlike zhang rangers, his systems whirr audibly—not loud enough to not fade into the background, but noticeable enough if you pay attention. he also tends to run hot.

part iv: zhang ranger duties, and power-plays of the boards

zhang rangers are assigned to specific sects, and the area that falls under that sect's control is what they are responsible for. if a rift opens in their host sect's territory, they are the ones dispatched to fight the hive and seal the rift. in some cases where a rift is larger than usual, rangers from nearby areas may be deployed to help in the effort, in which case they will use sense-sharing to synchronise their attacks. i wrote a more in-depth post on sensesharing, and therefore anchoring, here: a beginner's guide to anchoring. once a rift is closed, a ranger is summoned back to their host sect, where they are hooked up to a system that projects a recording of the fight for the sect's board to review their conduct, which also forces them to relive the memories as if they are happening again. while it's justified as searching for early signs of rift madness, it's also a thinly-veiled means of asserting board control over the rangers, and if the rangers are found in error, they can be disciplined or given restrictions. while ostensibly rangers are highly-respected warriors, honoured for their sacrifices for the people, the boards, and the zhang elders, see them as potential threats to their power.

part v: sha hai, the bronze gate, and wu xie's honed ruthlessness

as noted, wu xie chooses li cu specifically because of his innocence. while earlier in the ten year period, wu xie may have been able to find the wang zanghai artefact, due to the events of 205 BZ, this became an impossibility. in 205 BZ, in order to contain the rift in changbaishan, wu xie created the plans for the bronze gate, and contracted a team to construct it. once it was completed, in order to minimise the possibility of anyone discovering a weakness in the gate, and thus its abilities to contain the changbaishan rift and the hive, therefore creating a possibility for xiaoge to have to go behind the rift once more, wu xie not only destroyed the plans he had created for it, but also killed the entire team.

PART THREE: inspirations, acdemic reading i've done, and other mischellanea and closing remarks

it will come as no surprise that sunrise is inspired by the 2013 film pacific rim (dir. gdt). for a long time, i've wanted to create something that gave me the same amount of passion as that film gave me in 2018-2020, and the idea of drifting, in specific, is one that's always fascinated me. sunrise was intended to be a one-off, pacific rim-inspired, fanfic—and, since then, it's grown into something far larger, as evidenced by the fact that my reply to this ask is over 3k. it is no longer merely daomu biji with pacific rim added as a topping, but its own thing, which i spend a not insignificant amount of time thinking about, speculating on, and adding to not only weekly, but even daily. however, aside from pacific rim, there's a number of other pieces of media that have inspired me when it comes to sunrise—his dark materials by phillip pulman, bad and crazy (2021), and the ascendant trilogy by k arsenault rivera are all works that have, in one way or another, shaped me, both as a child and now, as an adult, and impacted my writing. more generally, science fiction as a genre and explorations of dystopian fiction have heavily informed me in creation and in writing sunrise.

my tagline for the verse on ao3 is simple: the blade that cuts your chains still cuts another’s neck. sunrise is meant to be not just one story, but rather a world in which stories exist—stories which impact both the characters, and the others in the world they live in. things that seem like victories at first turn out to be tragedies for others—anchoring saves xiaoge's life, and the lives of other rangers, but also causes the expansion of the ranger's draft, putting countless other, previously-safe, sect members at risk. wu xie's construction of the bronze gate ensures the hive will remain contained—but it costs the lives of the entire team of builders to ensure that safety. the good of the many does not outweigh the good of the few; sunrise is not a world of black and white, but rather shades of grey.

besides media influences, sunrise has also benefited greatly from my own delving into academic texts. i'm lucky enough to now have access to an almost unmatched library of texts on chinese history, and historical society, culture, and a thousand other things, at least in the united states. while the texts i've read may not have had obvious impacts upon the world of sunrise, they've allowed me to better build the world of sunrise into a living, breathing thing in my mind. of the texts i've read, i've most appreciated food and environment in early and medieval china (e. n. anderson) and sexuality in china: histories of power and pleasure (howard chiang). i'm on break at the moment and also plan on reading the development of chinese martial arts fiction in order to solidify my portrayal of wuxia in sunrise.

sunrise has also allowed me to experiment with narrative in ways i had not done previously—both in terms of linearality, and in terms of perspective. all sunrise instalments so far are told in a non-linear format, and the next instalment i am (very slowly) working on includes both third and second person povs.

there is a large amount of miscellanea included in my lore notes, but it's largely specific to pairings rather than the overall world of sunrise, and so has therefore been committed. hopefully, this has been a decent exploration and explanation of the 'verse. however, i am always open to further questions, so if you have something specific you want to ask, please, feel free! and thank you, once again, @child-of-the-fairy-folk for asking me about sunrise :)

#ask #sunrise verse #this is over 3.8k TT.TT i am so sorry #c.txt

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sunriseverse · 6 months ago

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the thing is that canonically zhang ruitong is like. okay yeah not a good person. but i don't detest him on a personal level. he's whatever. sunrise!zrt though? listen yihai-jie going after him as a snake from beyond the grave was NOT enough—

#sunrise verse #making incomprehensible posts about my au for fun #c.txt

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sunriseverse · 3 months ago

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god i should write more zhang propaganda i wish i could be bothered to read the entirety of the yan clan precepts as a basis for a sect precept compilation for the zhang i just KNOW i could fit so much interesting in there if i did it in the style of like, an original older text by zhang yihai and then with expansions and commentary by zhang ruitong (may he suffer badly)

#which is technically not traditionally how clan precepts are formed #but i think it’s a nice throwback to things like the zhuangzi texts or the yijing #where you have a text (supposedly) by a revered figure and then layers of commentary on it #similar to the tafsir but not exactly the same flavour #i have so many sunrise projects in planning it’s not even funny #sunrise verse #tagging so i don’t lose this #c.txt

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sunriseverse · 1 year ago

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you want sunrise zhang propaganda? no? to bad! have 1.2k of propaganda!

In the final year of Zhiyuan, on the outskirts of Dadu, there were born a pair of twins. On the night of their birth, two stars fell from the sky, striking the young mother, and embedding themselves into the infants. Thereafter, when the two children were born, first the daughter and then the son, they were clear-eyed and able to speak and walk from the moment of their first breath in the world. The parents, seeing their skills, grew frightened, believing that the infants were possessed by spirits, and so they abandoned them on a ledge of rock a day’s walk outside the city, for the heavens to claim as they so wished.

However, unexpectedly, the heavens did not send down lightning or great beasts to claim the lives of the infants. Instead, the girl led the boy down the outcropping, where, at its base, they were found by a pair of Daoist nuns who had come to collect rare herbs that grew there. Laying eyes upon the infants, the nuns were amazed, and grew certain that the children were a blessing. Thereupon, they took the infants, and named them Zhang Yihai and Zhang Yishan, for their skills were sure to be as great as the seas and the mountains.

Until the children grew to adulthood, they lived in the cloister with the nuns, and were trained in the arts of ritual and martial skill. The children surpassed all expectations, and so it was that, in the third year of Zhida, they set out from the cloister to search for a master who would be able to lead them to advance their skills.

Unexpectedly, however, they travelled a great many years, and were unable to find a teacher who could surpass them in skill. Therefore, having travelled for nine years, in the sixth year of Yanyou, they were in the mountains in the northern region of Goryeo, having sought a sage who had been said to have the powers of heaven. In the seventh month of the year, with the moon being full, a great storm came upon them, and the two young people, knowing that to try and fight the will of the heavens would be folly, therefore sought a cave within which to shelter until the storm passed. They had with them a number of cured and dried foods, and a number of small prey they had been able to capture previously on their way through the mountains, and so they built a fire and broke fast, and thereupon fell into a sleep as deep as the great seas.

Upon waking, they found that the storm had passed, and their fire had been extinguished, and upon the walls were written the following: to the righteous, before whom the people bow, upon you bestows the heavens a gift. Follow this path within the mountain, and choose of the treasures what you will. And so, knowing it to be the words of the heavens, our founders ventured deeper into the mountain, and thereupon were greeted with a sight that awed them: before them lay mountains of jades, gold and bronzewares, pearls, and many other treasures of the six colours, stretching high above and disappearing into the cavernous ceiling that lay above, unreachable to human means.

However, they had been raised to abstain of excess, and practice the art of the balanced Way, and so it came to pass that, rather than availing themselves of the many wonders of the mountains, they wandered for a great many hours until they came upon a small alcove hidden at the rear of the chamber, and sitting in that alcove, a plain earthen vase, neither its colours nor its designs remarkable, but they, being knowledgeable of the world, could sense this was the truest object within the trove of treasures. And so, taking this vase, they ventured out of the cavern and into the clear world.

They had come to search for a sage, but instead, they discovered in the following days, they had found something far more valuable. When they held on their person this vase, their bounds would be enough to clear an ancient pine with ease, and their gazes would be as sharp as a hunting eagle’s, and their blows strong enough to cleave in two a tumbling boulder. Zhang Yishan wished to trade the vase between them when necessary, but Zhang Yihai, knowing that such a solution could not be sustained, instead devised of a plan. Upon their return from the mountains, they therefore retreated to the countryside, and there built a humble single-court home, and ground the vase to dust, combining it with the blood of the qilin, which, when combined, formed an ink that, when painted, would change in shape to reflect that which it was painted upon. Thereupon, they took a sharpened bone and, in the practice of the Southern peoples, made upon themselves a great burst of ink, whereafter this transformed into the qilin which our sect now bears as its emblem.

For five years, the two grew in ability until they rivalled the ancients, who had consorted with dragons and lived in the heavens, attracting disciples, and the one-court home was steadily built into the many-winged manor befitting of a great sect. Naming themselves the Zhang of the Sword and the Flower Manor, they grew in fame. However, in the fourth year of Taiding, there came about a rift between the masters of the Zhang, the siblings Zhang Yihai and Zhang Yishan. The venerated elder Zhang Yihai believed the Zhang must make their mark through action, while the younger Zhang Yishan felt the Zhang would best serve the people as a reposit of knowledge. Thereupon, the sect was divided, and the masters grew distant, until in the second week of the fourth month of the fourth year of Taiding, the younger, forgetting his duty to unity they had once sworn, provoked the venerable elder, and thereupon the two came to blows.

Both siblings were masters under the heavens, but only one of them was judged as righteous beneath the heavens. Therefore, after only seven blows, the venerated elder bested the foolish younger, and the floors were washed with blood. Thereupon, the great venerated master, in accordance with the familial edicts, despite the shame her brother had brought, took upon the title of Zhang Qiling, and, being generous and great, did not banish those who had followed him, instead declaring that, until such a time as a worthy heir took the title, the sect was to be divided into North and South, of whom the North would devote itself to martial skills, and the South to knowledge.

Now, after many years, our great sect has once more been united by the great Zhang Qiling, and the division between North and South is no longer necessary. Rejoice, for the venerable master has found her heir! And so, in the first year of Hongwu, with the blessing of the great Son of Heaven, begins the new era of our great sect, and before us, a prosperous future.

- On the origins of the Zhang Sect, as related by Zhang Qianhai of the Former Northern Zhang, per the orders of the great Zhang Qiling in the first year of Hongwu, at the Zhang Ancestral Hall in Beiping, as collected in Zhangjiashi, or, The Collected Histories of the Great Zhang.

#sunrise verse #c.txt

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