In today’s China, audiences are looking for sincerity, not spectacle. While the economy feels uncertain, a quiet pride — rooted in heritage, empathy, and connection — continues to shape how people express identity. For brands, the new emotional currency of the Chinese New Year (CNY) season is not luxury or aspiration, but culture and comfort.
From Symbolism to Soul
In the past, CNY campaigns were full of visual clichés, red and gold palettes, dragons, lanterns, and celebrity cameos. But recently, brands have begun speaking in a softer, more human tone. Rather than performing “Chinese culture,” they are learning to live it, through storytelling, craft, and emotional truth.Burberry’s 2025 CNY activation is a clear example. The brand collaborated with bamboo craftsman Qian Lihuai to create nine handwoven sculptures — part of its “Us” series celebrating community and shared identity. By incorporating bamboo weaving (竹编), a traditional Chinese technique symbolizing resilience and harmony, Burberry rooted its global image in local craftsmanship. The campaign’s aesthetic — tactile, organic, and quietly luxurious — reflects a deeper connection between material, maker, and meaning.
Burberry’s 2025 CNY Campaign Visual
Bamboo Weaving
Art Installation
Chinese Artist Qian Lihuai
Loewe’s 2025 “Year of the Snake” collection also built upon the same emotional foundation. It celebrated Chinese cloisonné enamelwork (景泰蓝) through a collaboration with artisan Xiong Songtao, transforming the zodiac into a study of form, patience, and artistry. The accompanying short film featuring dance, shadow puppetry, and kite-making, didn’t just showcase heritage, but human warmth. Loewe turned the snake, often seen as mysterious or distant, into a metaphor for rebirth and reflection.
Loewe's Snake-Shaped Kite by Zhang Xiaodong
The Comfort of Connection
Meanwhile, Bottega Veneta’s short film “一路向家” (The Way Home) captured what Chinese audiences cherish most: the emotional ritual of returning home. The film follows individuals on different journeys — train, bus, ferry — weaving together moments of longing, memory, and reunion. There are no loud taglines, no glossy studio shots, just quiet faces and passing landscapes. Its beauty lies in what’s left unsaid: you’re not alone on the way home. In an era where people feel disconnected and pressured, these campaigns offer something essential — comfort. They remind audiences that family, empathy, and shared humanity are still at the center of Chinese life.
From “Curves and Turns” to “Free Wandering”
The 2025 To Summer (观夏) campaign unfolded as an emotional and cultural journey.
It began with the message:
“Life is like a snake — full of curves and turns (都是弯路).”
This idea acknowledged the shared experience of navigating life’s uncertainties, a rare act of vulnerability in modern advertising. It reminded people that detours are normal, and everyone’s path winds in its own rhythm.
To Summer then extended this reflection into a deeper cultural narrative. The brand collaborated with traditional artisans to produce handmade xuan paper (宣纸) and used it to reinterpret the Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经), reimagining the ancient text as a living symbol of exploration and self-discovery. Through this act of craft and storytelling, the brand connected the physical making of paper to the spiritual making of meaning.
The campaign culminated in “逍遥游 (Free and Easy Wandering)”, inspired by Zhuangzi’s Daoist vision of freedom in stillness and peace amid change. If the “snake” represented shared struggle, then 逍遥游 embodied shared ease, a release from pressure, comparison, and control. It resonates with a generation seeking calm over perfection, and meaning beyond success.
To Summer 2025 CNY Campaign
Culture as Comfort, Emotion as Craft
This new emotional direction shows that CNY campaigns are no longer just festive moments, they are cultural mirrors reflecting how people wish to live and feel. Brands that succeed in this space understand that culture is not a costume, but a conversation. They show respect not through spectacle, but through sensitivity, through textures, gestures, and emotional honesty.
In a time of uncertainty, the strongest message is not about status or success.
It’s about connection.
It’s about belonging.
It’s about peace.
In today’s China, the most powerful message isn’t “be better”. It’s “be at peace”.