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 [...]

Eat your heart out, Jack Kerouac; wanderlust has found its way to modern China. On November 14, a 27-year-old woman from the coastal city of Ningbo made headlines in a local newspaper after coming back from a four-month tour around China. The article describes how she spent 14,000 RMB (about US$2,200) on the whole trip; [...]