Not everyone has the courage to make a quick decision about a purchase at an auction, Hu says.

FORBES: Four Tips On How To Approach China's Art Boom

Heading to work one recent afternoon, she was running late for an unusual appointment: Hu had decided that her top editors needed new clothes, and she had summoned a tailor.

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Hu had an impressive background prior to co-founding Minus.

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While the trend in China parallels that in the U.S., it is "much more rapid, " says Frank Hu, an associate professor in the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, who has conducted his own studies of the phenomenon.

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"Every person's experience is different, but most have less influence than before, " Mr. Hu said in an interview.

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And the most famous dish in the capital is named after it: the Peking roast duck, a dish said to be first written into a recipe book in 1330 by Hu Sihui, an inspector of the imperial kitchens when the capital of China was in the city of Nanjing.

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At a Vanguard supermarket in an unfashionable part of Shenzhen, manager Hu Fan tries to satisfy traditional and modern tastes.

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In the past ten years, Chinese paintings have enjoyed an average 25% increase in value annually, Hu said.

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