Tea Leaf Nation

[The following is a Tea Leaf Nation op-ed, and as such, does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editors.] 欲盖弥彰。 Trying to hide it makes it more conspicuous. –From Zuo Zhuan or Chronicle of Zuo, an ancient Chinese narrative  Political campaigns require mastery of propaganda: retouching images, staging impressive venues, and cherry-picking information. On [...]

[Update: Tea Leaf Nation subsequently reported that some Weibo users are accusing others of having been paid to criticize Apple Inc. You can read more here.] Will Apple’s share price take another pounding? March 15 — the Ides of March — is a day that strikes fear into the hearts of many of China’s corporate bosses. [...]

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 reads: “Who really changed America?” Obama’s second inaugural did not capture the same amount of attention on China’s social media [...]

It’s happened all over the world, and it’s happening in China too. As the country’s middle class swells in number–and its people discover the pleasures and disappointments of a life spent pursuing material comfort–there comes the emergence of a distinct counter-culture. In Chinese, they are the wenyi qingnian (文艺青年), or wenqing for short, literally meaning “cultured [...]

Steve Jobs, after all, was also a “tweaker” and “tinkerer.” But does the “tweaking” found throughout China–whereby iPhones can be had for a song, complete with two SIM card ports and a removable battery–savor of true innovation? Does China urgently need to reform the way it enforces its intellectual property laws? What’s fair, and what’s [...]

If you’re the world’s most popular blogger, three words is all it takes. The number one trending post today on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter was a three-word statement by blogger extraordinaire Han Han: “One is all.” Of course, there was also a large image file attached to the post including an announcement from the editorial [...]

Foxconn, Apple’s largest contractor, suffered another blow to its international image on September 24 when more than 2,000 workers at its Taiyuan factory in Shanxi Province got involved in a massive fight. More than 40 were reportedly injured and 10 were killed.  The details of how the fighting began are sketchy, but most accounts point [...]

Not only are foreigners leaving China; those Chinese who are rich enough are emigrating out of their motherland as well. Recently, Charlie Custer, founder and editor of the wonderful Chinageeks.org, announced he was leaving China, but he is by no means unique. Reasons for leaving almost always include food safety and air quality, among many others, [...]

Life ain’t fair. With the Olympics providing a prime opportunity to stack one country’s fate against another’s, we bring you the stark difference between American and Chinese purchasing power. This graphic, courtesy of “A Storyteller,” has been making the rounds on the Chinese Internet. On Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, the infographic has been retweeted over [...]

Xu Weihua (@徐卫华), a mobile Internet analyst, tweets: “I heard that Apple’s CEO Cook was very happy with his trip to China, because he saw a lot of people on the streets using iPhones. There are iPhone3, iPhone4, iPhone4S, as well as iPhone5 and iPhone6. There are [iPhones] with three-inch screens, four-inch screens, five-inch screens, single-screens [...]

The narrative behind some of the world’s most coveted consumer electronics has turned even grimmer. On January 2, over 150 workers in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, threatened to jump en masse from a factory roof, alleging that the manufacturer reneged on promised pay. It took the intermediation of the city mayor, backed by a [...]