Tea Leaf Nation

This article also appeared in ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. The Huangpu River usually appears in glamor shots of Shanghai, serving as scenic backdrop to the colonial splendor of the Bund or the modern marvel of the Pudong skyline. But of late, a more grim and distasteful association emerged. As of March 12, [...]

This article also appears in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Over the last few days, new regulations on China’s real estate information system have provoked another wave of anti-corruption sentiment. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily (@南方都市报), the government of Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province instituted a regulation on February 16 restricting access [...]

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 [...]

In June, I found myself placing a call to the Shanghai police. My twenty-year old friend, Lily , slumped on a nearby couch with her face in her hands. She would not call herself, she said, because “The police will not do anything.” Given her ex-boyfriend’s abusive past, and his incessant calling, texting, and stalking, I [...]

It has been billed as the answer to rampant property speculation, local government reliance on revenue raising through land sales, and even income inequality. But a recent announcement from Finance Minister Xie Xuren, giving further details on China’s property tax reform, has been greeted with contempt by some observers in China’s blogosphere. The reforms would [...]

This article also appears in The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. In March of 2008, the New York Times announced that marathoner Haile Gebrselassie would skip his signature event in the Beijing Olympics. After the news leaked, the world-record holder told reporters bluntly, “The pollution in China is a threat to my health.” The [...]

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 [...]

Beijingers and Shanghai’ers usually have zero love for each other, but lately some natives of China’s two top metropolises have presented a united front — against migrants from other parts of China. Beijingers usually refer to them as “provincials” (外地人), while Shanghai’ers prefer “country folk” (乡下人). Migrants from other provinces in China, who may have [...]

Recent demonstrations in Shifang, Sichuan over a planned molybdenum copper plant and Qidong, Jiangsu over a proposed wastewater pipeline have taught us about the violent side of social unrest in China. In Shifang, the protest turned into a bloody fight between police and protestors which resulted in serious injuries to both sides. In Qidong, protestors broke into [...]

The following is a translation of a post shared via Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, by Shanghai blogger @桔子树小窝  on the recent large-scale protests in Qidong, China.  According to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope, which tracks Weibo posts popular with influential users, the text was the most-retweeted image of July 29. It was reposted over 25,000 times and [...]

The following is a translation of a post shared via Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, by Shanghai blogger @桔子树小窝  on the recent large-scale protests in Qidong, China.  According to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope, which tracks Weibo posts popular with influential users, the text was the most-retweeted image of July 29. It was reposted over 25,000 times and [...]

An infographic circulating on Chinese social media provides some background information on the planned oceanic wastewater pipeline and a compelling call-to-action for local residents in Qidong, a small city north of Shanghai. Fierce mass protest forced local government to abandon the project on July 28, the second successful mass NIMBY protest in China in a [...]