Chapter 296: Rubik's Cube Competition and the Changxing Comics Weekly
"Making TVs? You mean black-and-white ones?" Wang Zhiqun asked after a pause.
Yang Wendong laughed. "Of course. I'd love to make color TVs, but we don't have that kind of technology. And Hong Kong, along with the surrounding regions, doesn't yet have the economic conditions to support color television."
Even in the United States, the world's most advanced country at the time, color television only started becoming popular in the early 1960s. In most other places, even black-and-white TVs weren't widespread.
In his past life, Samsung's entry into the electronics industry in the 1970s started with black-and-white TVs, and its main market was non-developed countries. This showed that the black-and-white TV market would continue to exist for quite some time.
Wang Zhiqun said, "Technically, black-and-white TVs are simpler than color ones. But just like with microwave ovens, we lack the core component technologies."
Yang Wendong shook his head. "It's not quite the same. Microwave ovens are new products. There aren't any civilian brands on the market, and miniaturization can only be achieved through independent R&D.
But TVs have been around for decades. The technology has matured. We don't need to do any research for now — just send people to the U.S. to acquire existing technology and production lines."
If microwave ovens were already a mature consumer product, Yang Wendong might not have invested in research. Even if he had, he would've first considered purchasing the technology.
Although independent R&D was the foundation of any great tech company, for a young firm, the priority was having a product on the market and gaining customers. Once revenue and market share were secured, then it made sense to invest in deeper technological capabilities.
"That makes it a lot easier," Wang Zhiqun agreed. "The U.S. is phasing out black-and-white TVs, and Japanese low-cost products have hit their local market hard."
"So in a way, the Japanese are helping us out," Yang Wendong laughed.
After Japanese companies aggressively undercut their American counterparts, many U.S. firms were forced to abandon lower-end markets just to stop the bleeding. That created opportunities for other countries.
In the original timeline, South Korea capitalized on this shift. Thanks to being "more obedient" and "more willing to undercut," the U.S. decided to back Korea to counterbalance Japanese dominance. Eventually, Japanese industry crumbled, and by the 21st century, they only had automobiles left.
"I'll send someone to the U.S. to start talks with these companies and see what opportunities are available," Wang Zhiqun said.
Yang Wendong nodded. "The main target should be RCA. That company was one of the top names in U.S. television manufacturing. They used to make black-and-white TVs."
Given their size and high labor costs in the U.S., RCA would probably have phased out their black-and-white TV line even without Japanese competition.
In the original timeline, RCA would eventually be acquired by General Electric in 1987. But before that, it was the leading brand in color TVs, the owner of NBC, the top radio brand, and the pioneer of LCD technology.
"Got it," Wang Zhiqun said. "When it's daytime in the U.S., I'll call some of my old contacts at RCA."
Yang Wendong added, "Make sure we secure both the patents for CRT tech and the production lines. I want to be able to manufacture everything here in Hong Kong, not just assemble imported parts."
In the original 1970s Hong Kong, there were TV factories — but they were only assembly plants. The core CRT components were imported. That was essentially just doing outsourced labor, which didn't bring real profits, even if they sold hundreds of thousands or millions of units.
In contrast, Samsung and other Korean firms either invested in R&D or outright bought the tech. It was expensive at first, but it gave them long-term control and allowed them to grow into major players.
Of course, it wasn't the fault of Hong Kong's early industrialists. For them, the risk was too high. With that kind of money, it seemed safer to invest in real estate.
"Understood," Wang Zhiqun replied.
The plan to build both a television station and local TV manufacturing had been on Yang Wendong's mind for a long time. Without TVB, you couldn't dominate Hong Kong's media space. And in an era before personal computers, consumer electronics meant the "three whites and one black" — washing machine, refrigerator, electric fan, and black-and-white TV.
By early September:
The drought in Hong Kong dragged on. Thanks to the addition of five large oil tankers from Changxing Shipping, the crisis had eased somewhat. At the very least, drinking water was now available in many areas.
But this was still just the beginning. Over the next six months, southern China would see virtually no rain. The worst of the crisis was still ahead.
For wealthy families, as long as there wasn't a massive epidemic or earthquake, life went on as usual.
Horse races continued. Nightclubs stayed open.
Real estate, surprisingly, remained unaffected. Those who could afford to speculate or buy homes had no fear of running out of water — a little money would get them a steady supply.
And of course, these wealthy households all had televisions.
To provide content for these viewers, Hong Kong's only broadcaster — Rediffusion — was hard at work producing new programs.
Inside an industrial studio on Hong Kong Island:
Cameras were set up. Dozens of people bustled about. A few young men huddled together.
"Ah Long, you're about to go on. Whether you win that HKD 5,000 prize is all up to you," one of them said.
"Don't worry. I've got this," Ah Long replied confidently. "I've gone through so many Rubik's Cubes getting ready for this."
"Good! Get in there!" his friends encouraged.
Elsewhere, Yang Wendong and Qin Zhiye were seated in the audience.
"Mr. Yang Wendong, the competition is about to start," Qin Zhiye said. "All of the contestants have been pre-screened. They're all top-tier."
"Mm. I've seen footage of people overseas solving them in a few minutes," Yang Wendong said. "So the actual match won't take long, right?"
"That's right," Qin Zhiye nodded. "But once the program airs, Rediffusion will stretch it to two hours with ads, host commentary, and filler content."
"Makes sense," Yang Wendong said.
The actual Rubik's Cube competition wouldn't take very long. Hong Kong's TV stations didn't have much experience with big productions, so expectations were modest.
Still, in this era, people were easily entertained. Even basic programming could attract lots of attention.
And once Yang Wendong had his own TV station, he planned to introduce a host of legendary variety shows — they'd blow people's minds.
Qin Zhiye added, "We heavily promoted the event in Kong Wah Daily and over the radio. Unfortunately, because it's a visual game, we couldn't simulcast it on radio."
"Yeah, Rubik's Cube is a spectator sport. Audio doesn't cut it," Yang Wendong chuckled.
Large-scale news and sports events could be broadcast through radio, but a Rubik's Cube competition simply didn't work that way — it was a purely visual experience.
After a while, the competition officially began.
Two cameras were aimed at the contestants, while two others filmed the audience. The host elegantly introduced the show, occasionally engaging with the crowd and slipping in advertisements.
Ten minutes in, they finally got to the main event. The Rubik's Cube competition began. Yang Wendong noticed that there were eight participants, but they didn't compete all at once — instead, they were paired off and took turns.
Qin Zhiye leaned over and said, "Mr. Yang Wendong, because cameras and film reels are expensive, we couldn't film it like a major sporting event with full-angle coverage. Also, the cubes are small, and if the camera's too far, the audience can't see anything. So we decided to film one contestant at a time."
Yang Wendong nodded. "That's fine. It'll help stretch the runtime. Otherwise, if all eight went at once, the whole thing would be over in a few minutes."
The first contestant stepped up. A large timer sat next to him — the kind you press to start and stop. The camera zoomed in on both contestant and timer to verify the legitimacy of the footage.
Though the broadcast wasn't live, the actual competition had to be real. Even the scrambling of the cubes was done identically for each contestant.
"Come on, come on, let's go!!" A group of spectators began cheering enthusiastically.
For Yang Wendong, who had knowledge from the future, watching such a contest wasn't particularly thrilling. But for the general public of this era, it was genuinely exciting.
Not long after, the first contestant successfully solved his cube. He clocked in at 3 minutes and 26 seconds. His opponent finished later, taking 4 minutes.
"Not bad," Yang Wendong praised.
Their speed couldn't compare to his, but given that solving methods had only recently emerged, and without the internet to teach them, being able to learn it from books and figure it out themselves was already impressive.
Qin Zhiye chuckled. "I also tried learning the solution. Took me half a day and I still didn't get it. After a while, I lost interest."
"Not everyone has the patience for it," Yang Wendong agreed. "Even though a lot of people buy Rubik's Cubes, very few really commit to studying them."
It was like mobile games in his past life — millions bought games each year but never actually played them.
Even game developers often couldn't understand why so many users behaved this way.
The competition continued. The eight contestants were split into four pairs. The winners advanced to the next round, and so on until the final match determined the champion and runner-up.
In the end, a young man named Han Zilong won the tournament, solving his cube in just 2 minutes and 46 seconds. He walked away with a prize of HKD 5,000.
Yang Wendong turned to Qin Zhiye and said, "Look into his background and tell him to keep practicing. Maybe one day he can represent Hong Kong in overseas competitions."
In the future, once the Rubik's Cube gained more global recognition, TV stations would naturally start hosting similar events, even without his involvement.
Qin Zhiye nodded. "Understood."
Yang Wendong added, "Negotiate with Rediffusion about the re-airing schedule. Do another wave of promotion before it airs again. The higher the ratings in Hong Kong, the better the chances overseas TV stations will pick it up."
"Got it," said Qin Zhiye.
Over the next few days, Kong Wah Daily and Hong Kong Commercial Radio heavily promoted the upcoming Rubik's Cube competition broadcast. Oriental Daily did not, since its target audience was different.
On September 9th, at 7:00 p.m., the Rubik's Cube competition aired on TV. Including commercials, host commentary, and filler segments, the program ran until 9:00 p.m.
The next day, viewership data was compiled quickly.
Qin Zhiye arrived at Changxing Tower to report. "Mr. Yang Wendong, last night's Rubik's Cube competition had around 6,300 viewers, about 79% of all TV households in Hong Kong."
"79%? Is that considered high?" Yang Wendong asked.
At this point, Hong Kong only had one TV station, so the concept of channel competition didn't really apply. There was only one show to watch. Still, Rediffusion measured a program's success by the percentage of total TV-owning households that tuned in.
"It's excellent," Qin Zhiye replied. "It's close to the record for variety shows."
"Good. Summarize what we learned from it, and start looking into launching similar projects overseas — small stations first," said Yang Wendong.
This Hong Kong broadcast was just a warm-up. The real exposure would come through localized programming in more developed countries, where wealthier citizens had televisions and TV stations were hungry for content.
"I'll coordinate with Mr. Wei Zetao on that," Qin Zhiye said.
"Great," Yang Wendong nodded. "Changxing Cultural's first comic series is ready. Come with me later to take a look."
Now that the toy industry layout had begun, two key components were in motion — unique distribution channels starting with the Rubik's Cube, and cultural content creation.
In many countries, copyright protections for intellectual property were even stronger than patent laws. Even in places without formal copyright rules, those protections were likely to be honored once laws were introduced.
"Alright," Qin Zhiye said.
Later that day, they went to the 13th floor of Changxing Tower — home base for Wu Hailin and his illustration team.
"Mr. Yang Wendong," Wu Hailin greeted them warmly. "I've recruited a few new people — locals with some artistic training."
Yang Wendong replied, "That's fine. If you need people, hire them."
As long as the hires weren't for upper management, Yang Wendong rarely interfered. Each company submitted monthly HR reports showing hires and resignations. He only skimmed those to stay informed.
Wu Hailin continued, "The comic version of Calabash Brothers is complete. Mr. Yang Wendong, Mr. Qin Zhiye — would you like to see it?"
"Let's take a look," Yang Wendong said.
Wu Hailin brought out his draft sketches. Yang Wendong glanced through a few pages before handing them over to Qin Zhiye, who took his time reading.
"Well?" Yang Wendong asked.
Qin Zhiye thought for a moment. "It looks good. The calabash brothers' superpowers really spark the imagination."
"Yeah, I always wanted powers like that when I was a kid," Yang Wendong chuckled.
Super strength, x-ray hearing, iron skin, fire breath, water control, invisibility, a sentient calabash — in a world that hadn't yet been flooded with webnovels or superhero media, these abilities were fresh and captivating.
As a child in his past life, Yang Wendong had fantasized about possessing them himself.
"These are just the initial drafts," Wu Hailin explained. "Before they're printed in the paper, we'll do another round of edits."
"Good. Then get it ready for publication," Yang Wendong said. "Qin Zhiye, work with them to get the first issue of the Changxing Comics Weekly printed as fast as possible."
"Yes, sir," both men replied in unison.
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