Vampires or wolfmen, what's your choice?

This question isn't just coming from left field. The Twilight series of novels and films, which have sold 85 million books and banked over US$1.05 billion at the box office worldwide, carved out a new genre of entertainment by playing to the quixotic notions of love among teenage boys and girls.

In Taiwan the four novels in the Twilight series were also the most notable cultural phenomenon of the year in 2009, with 90,000 in sales at the Kingstone brick and mortar bookstore chain and an even higher figure of 125,000 purchased via the on-line bookseller books.com.tw. The series occupied all four of the top positions in the bestseller list for readers under the age of 18, penetrating even further into the 15-and-under bracket, where it claimed a full 40 percent of novel readership.

Like a sweet red apple, epic, taboo romance has tempted young readers in need of dreams into taking a bite. Many adults are at a loss to understand why Twilight, with its plain language and singular theme, could sweep across the entire demographic of young readers ages 8 to 18.

And the sensation goes well beyond Twilight. The entertainment economy and popular culture industries have a great future, and children and teens are no longer bit players with weak consumer power. The term "tweens" has arisen in the West to describe children between the ages of 8 and 14. American marketers have found that this generation's use of technology, brands, money and credit cards goes beyond the imagining of most adults. Marketing consultant Martin Lindstrom estimates that, if influence on parents' purchasing decisions is factored in, tweens comprise a market potential of US$1.88 trillion.

In Taiwan this cohort's spending remains under the strict control of their parents, and the terrain they cover appears on the surface to consist of little more than home and school. Yet the world inhabited by this group of 2.07 million young people remains little known or understood by adults.

They read novels voraciously, but their choice of books is limited to light novels by authors you and I have never heard of. They spend hours playing on-line games, but instead of such heavyweight choices as World of Warcraft, they choose lightweight titles like Maple Story. They stay at home a lot, but immerse themselves in cyberspace, pursuing trends with unbelievable enthusiasm, longing for acceptance among their peers while having a strong drive to express themselves.

Psychologically, they seek satisfaction from light entertainment and popular culture. Physically, adolescence is beginning earlier for them, starting in fourth or fifth grade, compared to junior high school in the past. The "tween generation" is entering adolescence earlier and prolonging its duration.

Taipei, "J" Junior High School

Besides talking about the latest twenty-fifth generation Air Jordans, the boys in this class wear a certain brand of sports cologne for the special fragrance it gives off when mixed with sweat.

Not only do the girls in this class watch the TV program "Queen" to inform their purchasing decisions on new spring fashions and hair accessories, they also wear a particular brand of contact lenses for the way it makes their pupils look bigger and gives their eyes different colors.

The class's teacher borrows Twilight novels from the students, because she wants to know what they're so crazy about. More importantly, the students will think she's hip.

The power of tweenager consumer culture is clear to see on Taiwan's campuses.

Early-onset Adolescence

The conventional dividing line separating adolescents and children at the age of 12 is no longer applicable. Youth counselor Yang Li-rong notes that, while Taiwan has always considered late childhood and early adolescence to be two distinct stages, Western countries have begun to think of children ages 8 to 14 as a single group, because puberty has begun to arrive earlier, and secondary sex characteristics have begun to appear sooner. The internal socialization process among children is also developing at an earlier stage.

The world of children is far less simple than adults imagine it to be. Author Su Weizhen believes that young people actually inhabit an even more complex world than adults. Progressing from station to station in life, from school to career, courting and marriage, through constant screening, adults are placed into different safety zones where one generally relates with individuals with whom one shares much in common. Meanwhile, children live in a more mixed world, where the other people they meet come from different family backgrounds. Added into this mix are globalization and the rapid dissemination of information. Thus, observes Su, "They have to work hard to deal with the complicated world around them."

They are beset with an abundance of emotions, but their intellects are not yet mature. Still in the process of establishing their own sense of self, children identify with their peers more than with their parents. Young people seeking sources of emotional stimulation thus easily become fixated with fantasies, gaming and the Internet, establishing bonds with easily digestible light novels and online games. The adolescent period conventionally viewed as a stage of childhood today offers a unique category of business opportunity.

Four Consumer Traits of Tweens

Trait 1: Demand for Stronger Socializing Functions

"The young age group under 14 chiefly plays online games that are free, do not demand too much time, and are largely focused on socializing," relates Li Hao, deputy director of R&D at Game Flier International.

Li Hao offers that most members of this age group haven't begun using such social media sites as Facebook, so online gaming is their favored channel for making friends and finding peers over the Internet, expanding their virtual peer group beyond what they can experience outside cyberspace.

"Just as youths go nuts posting to Facebook and observing others, the lower-aged tween peer group uses online gaming chat rooms to talk about what just happened to them with classmates and friends. Nothing scares them more than not having something to chat about, but they don't necessarily like to talk about school and schoolwork, so gaming readily becomes a topic in common for both boys and girls to talk about."

Trait 2: Direct Consumption Autonomy

"You need to treat them like adults and hold events just for them to make them feel important. Whatever you do, don't treat them like an accessory to their parents' decision-making on buying," cautions Spencer Chang, vice president and chief operation officer of the Taiwan-based children's apparel chain Les Enphants, who is also in charge of the sub-brand Open for Kids.

Children are maturing earlier these days than before, and their brand awareness has risen accordingly. With this in mind, Les Enphants modified its business model in 2004 to spin off the independent Open for Kids fashionable active wear brand specifically for children ages 6 to 12. "Otherwise, given the word ‘infant' present in our brand name alone, those little adults in a hurry to grow up and chase after their role models would never look to us," exclaims Chang.

Trait 3: Earlier Brand Consciousness

Boys care about whether the sneakers on their feet have a swish or three lines on them, while girls are concerned about how "in" the color of their lip gloss or mascara is this summer. At a time when US news stand sales of periodicals continues to slide, the Vogue publishing group unleashed Teen Vogue aimed at teen girls, emerging from the pack to become the top-selling fashion magazine. Brands are now starting to target younger age demographics as part of their business strategy.

"These days 12-year-old girls buy lip gloss and mascara, and bright pink, gold and blue nail polish retailing for NT$100 is popular. They like the effects of sparkles and glitter, and influence each other's tastes in beauty over the Internet," relates Chen Ya-wen, a marketing manager at the online cosmetics retailer Sasa.

Even though young girls do not pack robust consumption power, Sasa offers inexpensive cosmetics to bring them within their orbit and get this demographic group accustomed to shopping with them.

Gamania, a world leader in online gaming, founded and run in Taiwan, is launching a 52-part animated series titled Hero 108 on the worldwide Cartoon Network this month (March), an original production that pools resources and creative input from seven countries around the globe. Albert Liu, chairman and CEO of Gamania Digital Entertainment, has lofty ambitions for Hero 108, seeking to turn the series based on the classic Chinese epic novel Outlaws of the Marsh into a Taiwanese version of Mickey Mouse on the international market. "Market cultivation has to start 20 years sooner these days to become embedded in users' memories," he says.

Trait 4: Sort of, but Not Too, Advanced

Another unique aspect of the tween market potential is that since these users straddle childhood and adolescence, both language and images must be a little advanced yet not too difficult.

Maple Story, a game that brings Gamania a billion NT dollars in revenue each year, is seen by the gaming community as a lightweight offering for its simplicity. The same applies to novels, which must be easy to read and approachable. "The challenges faced by the protagonist must be Herculean, but the plot development and twists cannot be too difficult," shares Yu Wo, a popular novelist with over a million books sold to date.

For children who have little sense of accomplishment in the real world, reading novels provides an escape and the means to project themselves onto the successes of the main characters, "maybe in love, adventure, or conquering the world," the author adds. In essence, light novels represent the popularity of escapist literature.

Tweens' preferences present a market for the business community. However, perhaps it should be asked whether the force driving the popularity of light fashion and light culture is the unbearable heaviness of being.

Translated from the Chinese by David Toman