China’s new president Xi Jinping has made the achievement of the “Chinese Dream” the goal of his tenure, but for many among China’s elite, their dream may be emigrating to another country. According to a report by Center for China & Globalization on China’s immigration trends published in 2012, an immigration wave is sweeping up [...]
Modern Chinese literature is flourishing—at least for those who have an Internet connection. A survey by Chinese Internet market research firm iResearch counted a total of 12.2 million daily readers among China’s top ten literary websites. These websites together contain millions of online books, some reaching millions of Chinese characters in length. Qidian.com is the [...]
In recent years, issues about China’s pension system have repeatedly hit a public nerve. Among the hot topics consistently reappearing on the front pages of Chinese papers, the social pension perhaps has the most direct influence on people’s lives. Yet convoluted procedures and a lack of transparency make the institution hard to decipher. From time [...]
“Yesterday I met a Japanese who has lived in China for 13 years, almost a China Hand [i.e. one possessing a deep understanding of China]. He built ten elementary schools in poor mountainous areas in China, but when he visited the kids, some picked up little rocks and threw at him, yelling ‘Get out of [...]
This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Historical narratives lie at the core of national identity. As a result, competing interpretations of the past can come to define international relationships. Nowhere is this more evident than in Northeast Asia, where so-called “history wars,” combined with the destabilizing growth of [...]
This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. A recent viral infographic compiled by Chinese news portal Sina shows that more than 150,000 Chinese citizens emigrated from China in 2011, or about 1/10 of the population of Philadelphia. Top destinations were the United States, followed by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Investment [...]
Fast vehicles and racy women have always been the playthings of the rich. But when a car is too fast to handle, the driver may find himself and his exotic cargo just where he didn’t want to be: the limelight. On the afternoon of April the 5, Yeh Mao-hong (葉茂宏), president of Architecture World (葉財建設), [...]
This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. In Beijing, budget rental housing—especially bunk beds, small apartments and single rooms in the more dilapidated hutong areas — are easy to find after Chinese New Year. This is because many migrant workers who leave the capital for their home regions for [...]
This article also appears on the Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. A newly released survey conducted by the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan reports that the Taiwanese read only two books a year on average. While the well-known Chinese adage “with just one book, a man is never poor” offered some comfort to [...]
[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!] It was bound to happen. Tea Leaf Nation, an e-magazine that focuses on Chinese social media, has decided to do what many of its readers and Twitter followers already [...]
This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Are you a “budget wife”? Despite its name, being a budget wife — or jingji shiyong nv in Chinese — is harder than it seems. According a list published by an anonymous Web user on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular micro-blogging platform, [...]
As they made their debut, China’s new leadership laid out a promising vision of the future for the world’s second largest economy, but may face difficulties making that vision a reality. New Premier Li Keqiang unveiled a plan during a National People’s Congress press conference: 10 million rural residents will move to cities each year, [...]
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