In a society increasingly divided between the haves and the have-nots, migrant workers who leave their homes in the countryside for jobs in China’s cities often find themselves right at the bottom of the urban social hierarchy, with limited protection from employer abuses, no right to an education for their children and, perhaps worst of [...]
“Two camper vans, a couple of post-80′s (or near-80′s) kids, over 60 countries, 200,000 kilometers. Departure: 2012 May. If you understand, then, go……”{{1}}[[1]]两辆房车，几个80后，六十多个国家，十二万公里，2012年5月出发，如果你会懂，那么，走吧……[[1]] With these words, the group No Turning Back introduces itself to netizens on Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging platform in China. The group of 12 young travelers sold property including cars and [...]
Though nothing has been confirmed yet, the rumor that Zhang Ziyi, China’s famous actress, is implicated in the case of Bo Xilai, China’s recently collapsed high official, has gone viral online. It started with an article on boxun.com (博讯新闻网), an overseas Chinese website famous for its coverage of political news and human right abuses of [...]
Editor David Wertime joins BBC World News to discuss the likely impact of Sina Weibo’s new user agreement, which was implemented on May 28, 2012. You can read Tea Leaf Nation’s complete analysis of the likely impact of the agreement here.
Forget the marauding aliens, the Men in Black may soon have their hands full with an intellectual property infringement lawsuit…in China. Chinese gizmo website iGeek claims to have found ironclad evidence that MIB stole the idea for its futuristic space wheely car/bike thingamabob from a patented Chinese invention. At least, that’s the technical term; [...]
[Dear readers: After enjoying the below article, we hope you will read contributor Chris Zheng's follow up piece about the cultural challenges that searching for one's birth parents can raise in China. It is available here.] “Hey son, do you know this person?” My dad pointed to his computer screen. In the middle of the [...]
An image of college graduates exulting in their newfound freedom while their alma mater apparently burns has recently been making the rounds on Chinese social media. As the Dalian evening news has tweeted from its official account (@大连晚报) on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, a warehouse just behind the Dalian University of Science and Engineering caught [...]
In an audio interview with Radio Taiwan International, TLN contributor Chieh-Ting Yeh explains why social media provides an unprecedented opportunity for mutual understanding between Taiwan and mainland China. You can listen to additional episodes of the program “Eye on China,” with host Natalie Tso, here.
Netizens are getting younger and younger these days. In China over a quarter of children under 7 are already online, according to a 2011 report on Internet usage by minors. And parents are not happy about it. A tweet by Business Value magazine (商业价值杂志) summarizes the report highlights: “The 2011 Report on Internet & Social [...]
Crackdowns on foreigners have spread to the Birthplace of Humanity. On May 24, China’s Global Times reported that Nigerian police had detained nearly 100 Chinese citizens in the cities of Kano and Lagos. According to Nigerian authorities, this crackdown was aimed at all foreigners who were living or working in the country illegally, and not [...]
He was a successful public official. Not only was he Vice-Secretary of the Communist Party Standing Committee of Yongcheng City, a county-level city in Henan Province, but he moonlighted as a teacher in the language and culture department of Yongcheng Vocational College. He had been commended multiple times as an “outstanding Party worker.” But Li [...]
“On the Internet,” they used to say, “nobody knows if you’re a dog.” In modern Chinese social media, nobody knows if you’re telling the truth either–or if you even exist. What is this image? At top, a China Central Television (CCTV) anchor discusses leukemia sufferer Lu Ruoqing (鲁若晴). Lu Ruoqing, or “little Lu,” is the [...]
Follow Tea Leaf Nation