Tea Leaf Nation

Several days ago, the state-run People’s Daily ran a piece entitled “The Post-80′s Generation is Dispirited: Early Decline Cause for Alarm,” arguing that while China’s youth born after 1980 have far and away better material conditions than their forbearers, they face “spiritual confusion and a loss of identity.” The piece concludes by noting that a [...]

Whether or not I deserved the Nobel Prize, I already received it, and now it’s time to get back to my writing desk and produce a good work. I hear that the 2013 list of Nobel Prize nominees has been finalized. I hope that once the new laureate is announced, no one will pay attention [...]

On April 20, the most severe earthquake since 2008 struck China. In the days since, aid organizations have mobilized to provide food and shelter to surviving victims in the disaster area, many of whom lost their homes. Yet in sharp contrast to the outpouring of aid five years ago when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck [...]

Surviving as a journalist under China’s strict censorship regime is no picnic, but recent moves by the Chinese government have made it clear that lives of journalists in China will more likely get harder. Chinese journalists are some of the most active users on China’s social media — not only can they uncover hidden stories [...]

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 [...]

According to the latest figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, about 80% of the country’s more than 250 million migrant workers are between the ages of 21 and 50. More than 73% of them are married, but most live far away from their partners. Yet not many asked themselves beforehand how they would deal [...]

This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. On March 10, the secretary-general of China’s State Council, the executive branch of government, announced its plan for bureau downsizing, which was to be approved by the National People’s Congress. Upon the announcement, the plan became the most eye-catching subject for domestic [...]

This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. For a China still undergoing rapid economic development, a new and divisive character has emerged: the wealthy young scion. Children who come from money in China, colloquially called fu’erdai, are often associated with many negative stereotypes. Fu’erdai literally translates to “rich second [...]

On February 27, People’s Daily posted a long list containing 2,987 names on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. These names are completely unknown to the average Chinese person, yet these are the supposed elected representatives of China’s 1.3 billion people. They will attend the National People’s Congress (NPC), an event of considerable pomp that will be held in [...]

This article also appeared in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. “There is such a bakery in Nanjing: about one third of its employees are people with mental disabilities; it’s called ‘Ai De Bakery’ [Amity Bakery in English]. They are han han”—the character for “han” means simple and naïve, but also straightforward and [...]

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 the level considered safe by the World Health Organization. Air Quality in China — A Snapshot View a larger version [...]

Is China facing a trust deficit? State media seems to be saying “yes.” According to an editorial published yesterday in the print edition of state-run People’s Daily titled “Use Trust to Break the Ice,” a new survey conducted in seven Chinese cities shows that the Chinese social confidence index has fallen below sixty points. As the [...]