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. When the state-commissioned film The Beginning of a Great Revival was listed on social network site Douban in 2010, many people rushed to rate the film with one star out of five even though it had not even premiered. An alternative and [...]
It was a study in contrasts. Newly elected Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s recent tour of the United States drew the world’s attention to the ongoing democratic reforms in Burma. Meanwhile, President Thein Sein’s simultaneous trip to the U.S. received much less exposure. But Thein Sein’s role in Burma’s transformation did not go [...]
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