In Chinese pop culture, ideas about femininity – and, to be fair, fitness – have long been boxable, tidy pigeon-holes for marketers. Keep’s latest brand film suggests those boxes are starting to feel a little tired. The Sword in Her Hand, the third entry in the platform’s Intangible Cultural Heritage sports series, centres on Zhao Shi (赵诗), a martial arts world champ and founder of New-Style Swordsmanship (新派剑法). Her story uses the sword to push back against assumptions about gender, strength and tradition.
Zhao’s career has unfolded under constant scrutiny. Her short hair, sharp movements, and refusal to perform softness on cue drew all the expected criticism online: unfeminine, excessive, all for show.
For years, that pressure drove her to lean harder into toughness – until injury forced her to stop. The pause led to a reframing. Strength, she realised, doesn’t have to be rigid. A sword can hold softness without losing its edge. Out of that thinking came New-Style Swordsmanship, a hybrid form of blending traditional Chinese martial sword techniques with the fluidity of classical sword dance.
That idea can be mapped onto Keep’s own evolution. Founded in 2015, Keep began life as a utilitarian home-workout app, designed for young urban users who wanted structure without gyms or coaches. As China’s fitness market matured, so did Keep – into hardware, apparel, nutrition, and, increasingly, content. What’s shifted lately is tone. Exercise is no longer framed purely as discipline or optimisation, but as lifestyle.
The Intangible Cultural Heritage series reflects that repositioning. Rather than treating tradition as static or ceremonial, Keep reframes it as something lived and adaptable. Zhao’s story becomes a way to ask bigger questions: does sport have gender boundaries? Who decides what strength looks like? And how can heritage evolve without losing meaning?
Keep doesn’t leave the story onscreen. Alongside The Sword in Her Hand, it has launched follow-along New-Style Swordsmanship courses. The result is a campaign that says as much about the brand as it does the subject. Keep is gunning for a position as a lifestyle brand to rival the best of them.
