Underwater hitch - smile please, but hold your breath

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In a suburb of Shanghai, a shabby old textile mill serves as a model of the wider economic
transformation China is trying to achieve. Where once low-wage workers churned out
clothes for export, today a new company has taken up residence that is riding the wave of
China's consumer spending boom. In fact Mr Wedding - a small business employing 16
people - is part of an industry that has been booming like few others anywhere in history. 5
According to state media, China's marriage market - the money spent on ceremonies,
catering, honeymoons and hospitality - has grown from almost nothing a couple of decades
ago to a whopping annual 800bn yuan ($130bn; 78bn). And Mr Wedding, from its old
factory base, is trying to carve out a little slice of that economy by offering Shanghai's
brides-and-grooms-to-be a familiar service with a twist. "People can do a lot of almost 10
impossible postures under water," the founder and owner, Tina Liu, tells me. "The sense of
losing gravity creates the beauty of floating." Two of her customers Lin Enxiao and He Huan
introduce themselves by their English names - Lamea and YY. They're not getting married
until next year, but like many Chinese couples they've decided to get the wedding
photographs out of the way early. "Most of our friends did their photo shoot on dry land," 15
YY tells me. "We wanted something different."
"When people think about wedding photos it's always grassland, white walls and doves,"
Lamea agrees. "It feels good to change that picture." China did not invent the underwater
wedding shoot but it has embraced it like nowhere else. There are dozens of studios
offering the service in Shanghai alone, and it is a crowded, competitive market. "Some 20
talented people have a good concept and good creativity but they don't make it because
they lack persistency," Tina says. Each individual photo shoot is a painstaking, time-
consuming process. Mr Wedding's team of stylists gives Lamea and YY a full makeover,
spending a couple of hours on their hair and make-up. "We suggest that for underwater
wedding pictures brides should wear a white wedding dress with a long trail," Tina says. 25
"And we use waterproof make-up so it doesn't run in the water." Then, Lamea and YY,
dressed for a full white wedding, are walked not down an aisle but up a small set of steps
into the photography tank. Measuring around 12ft by 12 ft (3.6m by 3.6m) - it is full of warm
water with a lifeguard on hand to help them climb in and to accompany them throughout
their time in the water. Tina shouts instructions into a microphone from the other side of 30
the tank's glass window and, taking a deep breath, Lamea and YY slip beneath the water and
their wedding shoot is underway. Tina started her business in 2003, at that point doing only
traditional wedding photography, with an initial investment of 150,000 yuan. She worked
out of a small shop and used Shanghai's picturesque streetscapes as the backdrop for the
photos as she had no studio of her own. The decision to move out of the city centre, 35
although it gave her space to expand and to build the water tank, presented a major
challenge. "Here, we are quite far away from where most people work so we lost a lot of
customers," she says. "People used to fight for a vacancy but suddenly our schedule board
was blank. I felt depressed and even started to doubt the quality of my work. But it was
useless to stay in that mood so we started addressing the internal problems, getting the 40
teamwork right, and slowly the business came back up again." Today, Tina says, the it brings
Underwater hitch - smile please, but hold your breath
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in a revenue of between 400,000 and 500,000 yuan a month. But like small business owners
everywhere she needs to stay constantly on her toes. "The photography industry has
reached a peak," the China Wedding Trade Association's Secretary General, Shi Kangming,
tells me. "Many famous studios have closed," he says, "and fewer young couples want 45
wedding photos nowadays." In 2009, he says, his organisation's figures show that around
90% of marrying couples booked the services of a wedding photographer. Today the figure
is down to just 70% - an extraordinary drop-off that highlights the fast changing pace of the
industry. But with more than 10 million couples tying the knot every year there's still plenty
of opportunity for those who can adapt. "We're launching a new project we call 'air 50
filming'," Tina tells me. She describes how they attach a movie camera to a small remote
control drone so that aerial shots can be taken of the couple, who remain firmly on the
ground. "People will feel the product is beautiful and amazing, and although they might not
be sure about it, they'll want to try when they see other people's results," she says. The
company is also introducing stop-motion animation in the form of a flipbook style 55
photograph album. Lamea and YY have no hesitation in paying the 2,000 yuan ($325; 200)
price tag for their set of 15 underwater wedding photos. They're delighted with the results.
"You only get married once in your life," Lamea says, "so you should spend money on what's
needed.
We started preparing a long time ago," YY adds. "We've been saving half of our income and 60
putting it into our wedding fund for all the necessary things we'll be needing."
Underwater hitch - smile please, but hold your breath
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1. Using an example in each case, state three factors of production which
are required to provide underwater photography services. (6)


1.








2.








3.

Underwater hitch - smile please, but hold your breath
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2. a. Define the term Opportunity Cost (2)






b. Using a Production Possibility Curve illustrate and explain the
opportunity cost described in the case study. (6)



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3. a. Using a demand and supply diagram, show the effects on the demand
for underwater wedding photographs of the growth in the Chinas
marriage market described in lines 6-10 of the case study. (4)













b. State and explain two likely determinants of an increase in demand
for underwater wedding photographs over the last two decades. (6)



Underwater hitch - smile please, but hold your breath
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4. a. Define the term Consumer Surplus. (2)




b. "The photography industry has reached a peak." Mr Wedding decides
to reduce the price of its underwater wedding service in order to attract
more customers. Draw a graph to illustrate the change in consumer
surplus of a fall in price and comment upon the significance of this
change to consumers. (8)
















TOTAL POSSIBLE MARKS: 34