Earlier this month, millions of Chinese students took the exam for which they had been preparing their entire lives – the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, known colloquially as the gaokao. For some, the process …
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Nearly five weeks ago, Beijing experienced its worst day of air quality on record: Levels of PM2.5 — small particulates that can cause lung, cardiovascular and respiratory disease — soared to more than 30 times …
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In January alone, a stifling and noxious haze twice enveloped the Chinese capital of Beijing, pushing air quality indexes literally off the charts and inciting widespread outrage both on-line and off. Pollution — and the outcry surrounding …
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On Sina Weibo, China’s major Twitter-like platform, a user with the handle “this is America” (@这里是美国) shared the below image on January 23, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama’s second inauguration. The accompanying caption …
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This article was produced in collaboration with ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Are Chinese citizens happy with the direction their country is taking? Do they believe in a market economy? Do they believe that …
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“Foreign forces,” indeed. On the same day that Chinese propaganda authorities issued a warning that widespread online and offline anti-censorship protests were being driven by “foreign forces,” a user with a handle meaning “strange Chinese …
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A user on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter with the handle @醒来的大鸦 has posted this head-scratcher: A sign reading “Breeding Base for [Communist] Party Members.” Commenting on the posted image, some users asked if Party members …
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This article was produced in collaboration with ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. CNPolitics, a Chinese-language news website, recently released this infographic examining the differences between China and America’s wealthiest individuals as reported by Forbes Magazine. As the site notes, China’s relatively …
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This article also appears on Tea Leaf Nation partner sites ChinaFile and The Atlantic. Glad-handing with the locals. Kissing babies. Eating fast food. These are tried and true ways that American politicians seek to advertise their common …
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From the department of massive PR failures comes this image, tweeted November 30 on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, by a user with the handle “soy-sauce-plus-an-egg Ming” (let’s just call him Ming). It’s a congratulatory banner on the …
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China’s late Chairman Mao Zedong has apparently gotten posthumously web-savvy. On December 2, reporter Pu Baoyi (@朴抱一) posted the following image on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. It reads: Yesterday, after a meal at a cafeteria, my …
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This article also appeared on ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. An active Beijing-based micro-blogger named Dongdong Wang (@東東旺) recently tweeted this image on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter: At first glance, it doesn’t look …
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