Long queues of happy couples waiting to get married might be a common sight in Las Vegas. But lines of happily married couples waiting to get divorced? Only in China.
In major cities across the country last month, thousands of couples
rushed to their local divorce registry office to dissolve their
marriages in order to benefit from fast-expiring tax breaks on property
investments for unmarried individuals. Local media reported long waits
at registries in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and elsewhere as savvy
investors sought to buy or sell a second home before the government
introduced strict new regulations that would force married homeowners to
pay hefty taxes on the sale of second properties.
The new regulations are designed to cool speculation in China’s
feverish property market and are part of a package of measures that
would require couples to pay up to 20% capital gains tax on the sale of
second homes. But for determined investors, nothing gets in the way of a
good bargain, and some quickly noticed that the 20% impost didn’t apply
if the second home was bought before the couple were married — or after
they got divorced.
(MORE: Inside China’s Black Box of Statistics)
China’s marriage law
allows for divorce if couples simply sign an agreement to divorce,
present themselves at the registry office and pay a fee of just $1.50.
Weighed against the prospect of tens or even hundreds of thousands of
dollars of profit from property investments, many couples are deciding
the $1.50 charge is worth it.
According to media reports, in March the number of couples getting
divorced in Tianjin, a large city on the eastern seaboard, soared to 300
per day — more than triple the normal amount. In Beijing, too, realtors
reported a boom in divorcing couples seeking out new houses. “Half of
the deals I made last month were cases where the couples were getting
divorced,” a Mr. Jin, who works as an agent at one of the biggest
realtors in Beijing, tells TIME. “These were all young couples between
25 and 35 years old, and all of them were looking to buy another house
as an investment.”
As an emerging middle class accumulates wealth, more and more young
families are finding that they have limited options to make good use of
their money. With overseas investment options closed off by complex
regulatory barriers, banks offering measly interest-rate returns on
deposits and the stock markets on a never ending losing streak, there
aren’t many attractive investment choices.
(MORE: Chinese Relatives Pressuring You to Marry? Try a Rent-a-Boyfriend)
Some choose to invest in gold and other precious metals. Indeed, when
gold prices fell sharply last week, shops in mainland China and Hong
Kong quickly reported stock shortages and empty shelves. But China’s
savvy purchasers have long had an affinity for putting their money into
bricks and mortar, not least because property prices in most cities have
soared over the past decade and continue to rise sharply.
With a seemingly endless supply of money flowing into the country’s
property sector, and prices on a constant upward trajectory, regulators
have long been worried about the frothy market giving rise to major
property bubbles, especially in the most populous cities like Beijing
and Shanghai. But it seems that canny investors are quick to spot ways
around the cooling measures, hence the new vogue for divorce.
It’s not only profiteers who are choosing the divorce route. Many
couples who simply want to trade up from their current home have
realized that they can save tens of thousands of dollars by splitting up
before making their next purchase. According to media reports, one
couple in the southern city of Guangzhou, who already owned two
apartments, saved $32,000 by getting divorced and selling one of their
houses before buying another.
(MORE: For Love or Real Estate: The Cost of Getting Divorced in China)
The divorce solution is extreme but it’s the kind of solution to
which China’s put-upon middle classes have become accustomed.
Civil-servant couples, for example, are subject to a particularly strict
version of the one-child policy that would require them to give up
their jobs if they had a second child. Some have decided to circumvent
those rules by getting divorced and having a second child out of
wedlock, registered under either parent’s name as a “first” child.
(PHOTOS: Deadly Earthquake Strikes China’s Sichuan Province)
Of course, the country’s regulators have also taken notice of the
long queues outside divorce registries and have acted to put a stop to
the practice. In recent weeks, the government revised its regulations to
increase the taxes payable by unmarried individuals selling a
secondhand property, effectively cutting the most speculative investors
out of the market.
Others, though, are still happy to break the knot, if only because
they need not stay divorced for long. Realtor Jin advises his clients
who are considering the process that they can be back in happy
matrimonial bliss within as little as three weeks. “If you pay the full
price in cash up front, the whole transaction can be completed in as
little as 10 days — and even if you’re taking out a mortgage, it only
takes about six weeks,” Jin says. “Once that’s done, you can go and get
remarried right away.”
Thứ Tư, 1 tháng 5, 2013
Beauty 2.0: Go Digital, Because You're Worth It
By Lili Barbery-Coulon
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
PARIS – Will the young women
of 2033 laugh when they learn that their mothers chose their foundation
and makeup by themselves? Without a microscope or a telephone?
This is what Givenchy is betting on. The French luxury cosmetics company just launched its first Spectrocolorimeter in three of its Paris stores. Developed by X-Rite, the device is a sort of smartphone-like scanner that analyzes skin tone to assign the ideal pigment for each person’s skin.
Givenchy is not the first company to try the X-Rite Spectrocolorimeter, French cosmetics giant Sephora installed them in some of their U.S. stores in July 2012, and the French stores will follow suit this June. Called Color IQ in the U.S. and Color Profile in France, it matches skin tones to an official Pantone number, which can then assign specific foundations, brands and formulas.
“The evolution of all things digital, the fact that people are always on the go, always needing advice, all the time and everywhere, on smartphones and tablets, has incited brands to offer new propositions,” says Marie Gulin, international director of communications and digital at L’Oréal Paris.
“This is why we created free apps like the Hair Color Genius, for home hair coloring, which assigns a color after you take a photo of your hair. There is also Color Genius, which recommends makeup after you take a photo of your outfit,” says Gulin.
Skin temperature
“Asians, especially the Japanese, love these gadgets,” says Florence Bernardin, creator of Information & Inspiration, a company that lists beauty innovations in Asia. “Today, many of them use the Beauty Cam app, which takes photos of their skin, blows it up 30x and then puts it online on a social network so users can compare their skin with other users,” says Bernardin.
Obsessed with skin temperature, something that they believe is crucial to help them anticipate any inflammation of the skin, they also use many apps that suggest the right combination of skin care depending on the weather and their menstrual cycle.
“We are thinking about new ways to map the genetic characteristics of skin types,” says Edouard Mauvais-Jarvis, director of scientific communication at Dior. “Today, a chip that analyzes a genome costs $1000 dollars, but prices will eventually fall. Nevertheless, an ultra sharp diagnostic is only useful if you can get tailored advice.”
Nothing stops connectivity in Japan. “There is a weighing scale that, in addition to measuring body fat, also calculates the type and amount of exercise and diet needed to eliminate weight gain – all of which is connected to the phone or computer. This scale, developed by Tanita, is so successful that the company has opened health-food stores,” says Bernardin.
Amusing or disturbing, tailor-made beauty and wellbeing is still in the stages of infancy. In 2010, Sephora, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary, presented its futuristic concept store, directly inspired by the movie Minority Report. “Today, with a loyalty card and the MySephora app, customers can access a list of products that are targeted according to past purchases,” says Elizabeth Anglès d’Auriac, Sephora’s director of European marketing.
“In the future, if the customer agrees, they will only need to walk past a store with a card in their pocket for a hologram projection of new products to display on the storefront,” says Gulin. There is of course a personal data storage and usage issue. “We are closely monitoring privacy rights issues,” assures Gulin.
Read the article in the original language.
This is what Givenchy is betting on. The French luxury cosmetics company just launched its first Spectrocolorimeter in three of its Paris stores. Developed by X-Rite, the device is a sort of smartphone-like scanner that analyzes skin tone to assign the ideal pigment for each person’s skin.
Givenchy is not the first company to try the X-Rite Spectrocolorimeter, French cosmetics giant Sephora installed them in some of their U.S. stores in July 2012, and the French stores will follow suit this June. Called Color IQ in the U.S. and Color Profile in France, it matches skin tones to an official Pantone number, which can then assign specific foundations, brands and formulas.
Source: BeFlossy
In June, Dior, which like Sephora and Givenchy is owned by the LVMH
group, will also install their own device in department stores. A sort
of “skin tone iPhone” that measures precisely the different degrees of
face pigmentation. The idea is to be able to assign a foundation that
will become one with the skin.
“The evolution of all things digital, the fact that people are always on the go, always needing advice, all the time and everywhere, on smartphones and tablets, has incited brands to offer new propositions,” says Marie Gulin, international director of communications and digital at L’Oréal Paris.
“This is why we created free apps like the Hair Color Genius, for home hair coloring, which assigns a color after you take a photo of your hair. There is also Color Genius, which recommends makeup after you take a photo of your outfit,” says Gulin.
Source: L'Oréal Color Genius
In June, the brand will launch Skin Genius in China, an application
that goes even further. The new concept: taking into account the weather
forecast (UV radiation, humidity, temperature), personal details (mood,
number of cigarettes smoked, hours spent in front of the computer or in
public transportation), and a photograph of the skin in order to assign
the ideal beauty ritual. A “pocket dermatologist,” who can even – if
the user agrees – connect to Chinese microblogging site Weibo to analyze
the user’s profile.Skin temperature
“Asians, especially the Japanese, love these gadgets,” says Florence Bernardin, creator of Information & Inspiration, a company that lists beauty innovations in Asia. “Today, many of them use the Beauty Cam app, which takes photos of their skin, blows it up 30x and then puts it online on a social network so users can compare their skin with other users,” says Bernardin.
Obsessed with skin temperature, something that they believe is crucial to help them anticipate any inflammation of the skin, they also use many apps that suggest the right combination of skin care depending on the weather and their menstrual cycle.
“We are thinking about new ways to map the genetic characteristics of skin types,” says Edouard Mauvais-Jarvis, director of scientific communication at Dior. “Today, a chip that analyzes a genome costs $1000 dollars, but prices will eventually fall. Nevertheless, an ultra sharp diagnostic is only useful if you can get tailored advice.”
Nothing stops connectivity in Japan. “There is a weighing scale that, in addition to measuring body fat, also calculates the type and amount of exercise and diet needed to eliminate weight gain – all of which is connected to the phone or computer. This scale, developed by Tanita, is so successful that the company has opened health-food stores,” says Bernardin.
Amusing or disturbing, tailor-made beauty and wellbeing is still in the stages of infancy. In 2010, Sephora, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary, presented its futuristic concept store, directly inspired by the movie Minority Report. “Today, with a loyalty card and the MySephora app, customers can access a list of products that are targeted according to past purchases,” says Elizabeth Anglès d’Auriac, Sephora’s director of European marketing.
“In the future, if the customer agrees, they will only need to walk past a store with a card in their pocket for a hologram projection of new products to display on the storefront,” says Gulin. There is of course a personal data storage and usage issue. “We are closely monitoring privacy rights issues,” assures Gulin.
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