by Sparkle Insights | Jul 27, 2025 | Culture, Travel
By Iris Yim On my visit to Scandinavia this summer, I stopped by a border museum in Kirkenes, in northern Norway, near the Russian border. The exhibits—and the very existence of a museum dedicated to this topic—made me reflect on the meaning of a border. ...
by Sparkle Insights | Jul 27, 2025 | Advertising, Culture, Marketing, Popular Culture, Social Media
By Iris Yim What comes to mind when you hear the words fast food? If you’re in the U.S., chances are the associations aren’t flattering. Over the years, I’ve heard everything from “Supersize Me” and “overly processed” to “not real...
by Sparkle Insights | Jul 27, 2025 | Automotive, China, Culture, Multicultural Marketing, Shopping, Social Media, Technology, Travel
By Iris Yim This summer, I traveled through Scandinavia with my family, reconnecting with my husband’s relatives and exploring some of the northernmost inhabited places on Earth. From tiny fishing villages in Arctic Norway to towns near the Russian...
by Sparkle Insights | May 20, 2025 | Culture, Popular Culture
By Iris Yim What does it take to leave everything behind, arrive in a new country with no English, quit nursing school, and—through grit, creativity, and sheer determination—build a thriving career as a full-time artist? Meet Yu Shu, a Chinese immigrant,...
by Sparkle Insights | May 15, 2025 | China, Chinese, Culture, Gaming, Media and Entertainment
By Brittany Chiu For years, the gaming industry has pigeonholed female players into simplistic match-3 puzzles or basic visual novels. But that’s all changing now. Love and Deepspace, known as 恋与深空 in Chinese and launched by PaperGames in January 2024, is...
by Sparkle Insights | May 14, 2025 | China, Chinese, Culture, Multicultural Marketing, Popular Culture, Shopping
By Brittany Chiu In the competitive landscape of consumer goods, a Chinese phenomenon is reshaping how brands engage with younger audiences globally. POP MART—which recently topped the U.S. App Store’s shopping app rankings—and its signature characters...
