It’s happened all over the world, and it’s happening in China too. As the country’s middle class swells in number–and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort–there comes the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are the wenyi qingnian (文艺青年), or wenqing for short, literally meaning “cultured [...]
In an interconnected world, it’s perhaps small surprise that many of China’s web users were well aware of hurricane Sandy’s fierce impact on American shores. Over the past 24 hours, thousands of Sandy-related comments have appeared on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. While responses have been all over the proverbial map, a good deal of discussion [...]
It’s a state of lockdown so extreme that it feels like war. With China’s change in leadership at the 18th National Party Congress just nine days away, “stability and security” has become the number-one issue for all levels of Chinese government. Although “stability preservation” (“维稳”) is always a high priority in China, it has now [...]
Due to power outages for a number of participants relating to Hurricane Sandy, we will be forced to reschedule “China-U.S.: A live discussion on elections, energy and climate change” for a date in the near future. Stay tuned for the new timing; we will have an announcement soon!
We’ve seen this movie before, and so has the rest of China. On Saturday, October 27, Tea Leaf Nation reported that protests were heating up in the coastal city of Ningbo as locals expressed opposition to the construction of a chemical refining project they feared would pollute their hometown environment. On that same day, prominent [...]
U.S. President Obama may be known as “Renegade” to his secret service details, but the code word for him on China’s social media is “Sea-Watcher” (观海). Some call him “O-Sea-Watcher” (奥观海), giving a nod to his last name, while others, ever so endearingly, refer to him as Comrade Sea-Watcher (观海同志). For example, concerned citizen @LY_chnis tweeted on [...]
In June of this year, The Juilliard School, an elite performing arts conservatory, announced plans to partner with governmental and educational entities in Tianjin, China, to explore the creation of an educational institute there. With the assistance of the Tianjin Innovative Finance Company, the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, and the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Juilliard [...]
Another month, another NIMBY protest in China. Following the similar protests in Shifang and Qidong earlier this year, people in the coastal city of Ningbo have taken to the streets to urge the local authorities to call off a controversial project that may impact the environment. Protesters object to the proposed capacity expansion by Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company, which [...]
On Thursday Oct 26 The New York Times published a 4,700 word article on corruption among the members of Wen Jiabao’s family, alleging that they amassed a fortune of $2.7 billion through shadowy business dealings. Appearing on the front page of both New York Times’ English and Chinese websites, both sites were completely blocked in China [...]
Dialogue. Understanding. Connecting people from around the world to talk about meaningful subjects. That’s what Tea Leaf Nation is all about, and so we are thrilled to partner with the good folks at ChinaDialogue.net to present “China-U.S.: A live discussion on elections, energy and climate change.” This live, online, interactive discussion will be accessible on this site [...]
Beijing, a city of 20 million, is planning to take harsh measures against its notorious traffic jams. According to The Beijing News (@新京报), a local newspaper, the Beijing transportation bureau is reviving a radical scheme that could keep half of its private cars off the road by 2013 in order to mitigate the capital’s notorious [...]
Beijingers and Shanghai’ers usually have zero love for each other, but lately some natives of China’s two top metropolises have presented a united front — against migrants from other parts of China. Beijingers usually refer to them as “provincials” (外地人), while Shanghai’ers prefer “country folk” (乡下人). Migrants from other provinces in China, who may have [...]
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