Tea Leaf Nation

A recent survey of over 35,500 single ladies in China offers some insight into Chinese women’s attitudes towards men and marriage. The survey, which included questions such as “Why are you still single?” and “What kind of man do you hope to marry?”  shed light on the types of men that single Chinese women prefer, [...]

On May 8, the Japanese government announced it would honor the 1995 war apology, a decision widely interpreted as a diplomatic gesture aimed at smoothing ties with China.  Tensions between the two countries have recently escalated due to events such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s suggesting a possible revision of the 1995 apology, key cabinet [...]

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 [...]

Whatever serious political signals that Xi Jinping’s first trip abroad as China’s new leader may have sent, Chinese Web users have recently focused on someone else: their new First Lady. Everything about Peng Liyuan seems to have fascinated users of Chinese social media, from Ms. Peng’s designed-in-China clothes and handbags to her mannerisms to her [...]

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, [...]

This is part of a Tea Leaf Nation series covering gender issues in today’s China. Gender has recently been in China’s social media spotlight. On March 13, a university professor named He Guangshun wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular micro-blogging platform: This morning, I was talking about something important during my class: It’s really [...]

This article also appears on ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Does Sina Weibo, China’s major micro-blogging site, provide an equal platform for expression for both men and women in China? According to a recent study conducted by Sun Huan, a graduate student in Comparative Media Studies and a research assistant at the Center [...]

Earlier this week, China’s leadership announced the merging of the Family Planning Commission, which oversees the implementation of the policy, with the Health Ministry, drawing speculation as to whether the Chinese family planning policy will be relaxed further or dropped completely in the near future. Yet what would an end to the long-standing policy, also [...]

This is a part of a Tea Leaf Nation series covering gender issues in today’s China.  On February 22, a report released by Internet portal Sina made waves among China’s youth. A post on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, attracted heated discussion: “According to relevant regulations, the first marriage of males aged 25 or older and [...]

Before the public shaming begins in court, Zhao Hongxia, whose sex tape led to the downfall of eleven Chinese executives and officials last December, wanted to remind the country that she was also a mother and wife. “Right now I only care about whether pictures of my husband and son have been exposed in public,” [...]

This article also appears in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. To many outside China, it might have seemed like another straightforward heroine-and-villain celebrity divorce story. He is the founder of a hugely popular English learning program known as Crazy English, and is a household name in China. She was his American wife. [...]

When Chinese news agency Xinhua announced the dismissal of Yi Junqing, head of the Communist Party’s Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, the story appeared to fall neatly into a pattern of corruption exposes that followed China’s 18th Party Congress, where the next generation of the country’s leaders was recently chosen. It has the mistress-money-power combination [...]