“Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments,” advised the Bard. While no one doubts that their minds are true and the potential synergy is great, in the heady, $586 million marriage of Alibaba, the owner of China’s dominant e-commerce site Taobao, and Sina Weibo, China’s favorite microblogging platform, what might [...]
As they made their debut, China’s new leadership laid out a promising vision of the future for the world’s second largest economy, but may face difficulties making that vision a reality. New Premier Li Keqiang unveiled a plan during a National People’s Congress press conference: 10 million rural residents will move to cities each year, [...]
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 [...]
This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. It’s a bit like China’s Oscar for business types. Over the past 13 years, state-run China Central Television has awarded its “Economic Figures of the Year” to prominent economic and social achievers, usually entrepreneurs. Past honorees have included Hong Kong tycoon LI [...]
A conventional calendar won’t tell you this, but November 11 is Singles Day in China. The new “holiday” was supposedly invented by a few college students in China about 20 years ago as an inside joke; there are four 1′s in 11/11. It has since evolved into a national phenomenon. No doubt the theme has resonated with [...]
Chinese politics and macroeconomics may be front-page news abroad, but China’s netizens have a slew of more pressing personal concerns that don’t occupy international headlines. Did their Taobao (online shopping website) account get hacked? Is their mobile phone real or fake? Which charities can they trust after netizen Guo Meimei, who claimed to be working [...]
Chinese politics and macroeconomics may be front-page news abroad, but China’s netizens have a slew of more pressing personal concerns that don’t occupy international headlines. Did their Taobao (online shopping website) account get hacked? Is their mobile phone real or fake? Which charities can they trust after netizen Guo Meimei, who claimed to be working [...]
Do you want to confess your love but feel too shy to do it? Are you a graduate student and in need of a research assistant for your coming paper? A new online service is coming into vogue on taobao.com, China’s eBay. As the number of Chinese netizens increases, and as they spend more time [...]
Do you want to confess your love but feel too shy to do it? Are you a graduate student and in need of a research assistant for your coming paper? A new online service is coming into vogue on taobao.com, China’s eBay. As the number of Chinese netizens increases, and as they spend more time [...]
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