WeChat, a communications app, is suffering some user ire for the first time since it began its explosive growth to dominate the mobile messaging markets in China and many emerging market countries like India and Indonesia. On May 24, WeChat apps installed on the Android operating system was replaced by a gaming app after an [...]
Has the previously inscrutable leader of China, Xi Jinping, begun to show his true colors? A recent editorial on Guangming Daily, one of the Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspapers, revealed that in a January meeting, the new Chinese leader had pointed out: Had Deng Xiaoping completely repudiated Mao Zedong in 1981, would our Party have been [...]
A rare protest in Beijing involving hundreds of people was documented by photos posted on China’s social media (scroll down to see photos). The cause of the protest was the death of a 22-year old migrant worker, who fell several stories from an apparels wholesale market building in Beijing on May 3. The police declared [...]
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments,” advised the Bard. While no one doubts that their minds are true and the potential synergy is great, in the heady, $586 million marriage of Alibaba, the owner of China’s dominant e-commerce site Taobao, and Sina Weibo, China’s favorite microblogging platform, what might [...]
Guerrilla warfare, Mao Zedong’s favorite modus operandi, is being used against the army he created. And the grassroots warriors have just scored a small victory. China’s Internet users began a campaign earlier this year to post photos of luxury cars carrying special military plates on China’s social media, mainly the sites Sina Weibo and Tianya. Vehicles with easily recognizable [...]
A resounding victory has been scored against China’s all-powerful state-owned telecom operators — a victory for innovative, life-changing technology, for private enterprises and entrepreneurs, and for millions of users who came together on China’s social media to make their voices heard. On April 23, about a month after the head of China’s Ministry of Industry [...]
This article also appeared in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. It is ironic yet befitting. “In the past 20 years, every China director faced a great torment,” said director Feng Xiaogang, who was called China’s Spielberg by Newsweek, “and that torment is [beep].” The censored word, as anyone reading Feng’s lips can [...]
The battle lines are drawn in what is shaping up to be an epic duel between China’s all-powerful state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and its millions of Internet users. As Tea Leaf Nation previously reported, the Chinese government is contemplating plans to impose fees on Weixin, also known as WeChat, a mobile messaging app with almost 400 [...]
Almost exactly a decade since the outbreak of SARS, the epidemic originating in Guangdong that killed almost 800 people worldwide, China is again in the grips of fear of a super bug. The H7N9 strain of avian flu has jumped to humans and, as of April 2, killed at least three and sickened about a [...]
[With April 1 now past, Tea Leaf Nation's editors would simply like to caution: please note the date of publication. We hope you had a lively April Fool's Day!] The Chinese government announced that it will allow domestic users to access Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, while also lifting censorship controls on domestic social networks such as [...]
Lin Miaoke, a 13-year old child star, is no stranger to controversy. Lin, then 9, wowed billions of viewers around the world with her sweet face and angelic voice at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the patriotic tune “Ode to Motherland.” Except that the angelic voice did not belong to her. It was later [...]
China’s new leader Xi Jinping has been talking up the idea of the “Chinese dream” since his inauguration. While millions of Chinese may aspire to greater material wealth, what about the “Chinese dreams” of petitioners in Beijing, one of the most disadvantaged groups in China? These petitioners often hail from small towns or rural areas [...]
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