Tea Leaf Nation

On 8:02 AM, China time, a 6.9 earthquake hit Ya’an, Sichuan province, a city of 1.5 million not far from Chengdu, the provincial capital. In just an hour, a notice about the earthquake had 84,000 retweets and over 7,000 comments. The tremors woke many in Chengdu, Sichuan, a city of 14 million, and were felt [...]

Xi Jinping, where were you the night of March 1? Yesterday, both domestic and foreign news outlets were reporting that the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping had taken a ride in a taxi cab that night; Hong Kong paper Ta Kung Pao broke the news on April 18, which was then [...]

This article also appears on ChinaFile, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. Xi Jinping, the newly appointed Chinese President, unfolded his presidency with a grand foreign tour to Russia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of the Congo. While this series of state visits unequivocally underscored China’s diplomatic emphasis on its neighboring power and traditional [...]

A poll currently live on Chinese Internet portal Sina.com shows that a majority of over 62,000 respondents favor amending China’s Marriage Law to allow for same sex marriage. The poll allows respondents four choices: “I support it, love does not require a gender difference” has received 50.1% of the vote thus far. “I oppose it, [...]

As the Chinese New Year approaches, so does the Tibetan New Year, known as Losar, but Tibetans will not be celebrating the holiday as widely as their Chinese counterparts. In fact, 2013 is the fifth year that Tibetans have held quiet festivities or none at all, in memory of those like Tibetan writer Gudrup who [...]

Millions of Chinese migrant workers fail to get paid for their work each year, in spite of ongoing government efforts to increase official monitoring of labor relations in the country. For some, however, attracting media attention and sympathy from China’s online community has proven to be an effective method of pressuring errant employers into coughing [...]

This article also appears on The Atlantic, a Tea Leaf Nation partner site. When the National Statistics Bureau announced China’s 2012 GINI coefficient – a measure of income inequality – on January 21, the figure caught everyone by surprise, like a genie out of a bottle. The reaction was as much about the number itself [...]

For the past five days, the air in Beijing has been a toxic, murky haze, but the media discussion around this sensitive topic has been refreshingly open. From official state newspapers to the myriad online portals, Chinese media have reported unflinchingly on the severity of the air pollution – including the presence of PM 2.5, [...]

On December 18 2012, an opinion piece titled “The Internet Is Not Outside the Law” was published on the front page of the People’s Daily, a print media in China considered a mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party. The commentary read in part: “Considering how fast [the Internet] has developed, how simple it is to [...]

Recently, Jian Guangzhou (@简光洲), one of the most reputed investigative journalists in China, quit the Oriental Daily (@东方早报) and announced he was ending his reporting career. Even though the specific reasons for Jian leaving his job remain unclear, one of his tweets on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, revealed frustration and desperation behind the decision. “My [...]