Taking the long view

Sun Qiming and his colleagues achieved social media success with their uniquely formatted, yet insightful, posts. A book deal - and much more - soon followed, Yang Yang reports.

Sun Qiming was about to graduate from Tsinghua University's Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in textile-and-fashion design in the spring of 2016.

Rather than seek employment, the 26-year-old talked to three of his friends - 25-year-old Zhu Jian, who also was about to graduate, 26-year-old freelancer Mao Tianhua and 30-year-old Zhao Zhe, a PhD candidate studying biology - about starting a designer brand to popularize science in fun ways.