On “Strange Stones,” a Discussion with Peter...
THE EDITORSOn May 21st at the Asia Society in New York City, Peter Hessler, author of the recently published Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West, discussed his book and a decade of writing about China and elsewhere with author, Michael Meyer and Susan Jakes, Editor of ChinaFile....
Chinese Anxiety—In Debate About Overwork, a Glimpse...
TEA LEAF NATIONAlmost half of all Chinese report feeling “more anxiety” now than they did five years ago. What, exactly, is driving these concerns, or increasing reports of these concerns? Avid followers of China-related news might immediately think of censorship and other restrictions on...
Truth in Chinese Cinema?
JONATHAN LANDRETHIn 1997, as James Cameron’s Titanic sank box office records around the world—including in China—Sally Berger, assistant film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, worked to bring New York moviegoers a raft of Chinese movies they’d never heard of.The fourteen films in the...
Unrest in Beijing Over Mysterious Death of Young Woman
TEA LEAF NATION, RACHEL LUA rare protest in Beijing involving hundreds of people was documented by photos posted on China’s social media (scroll down to see a sample photo). The cause of the protest was the death of a twenty-two-year-old migrant worker, who fell several stories from an apparels...
Rat Meat Masquerading as Lamb—Yet Another Food Safety...
TEA LEAF NATIONRat meat + gelatin + red food coloring + nitrates = lamb. Have you tried it yet?“This is what a ‘complete’ sheep looks like,” reads a caption under the photoshopped image of a sheep with Jerry, the mouse from Tom and Jerry, as its head. The image was posted by...
The Long Battle Over “White Pollution”
TEA LEAF NATIONIn the past weeks, Chinese citizens have learned that the styrofoam boxes from which they eat their lunches will soon be legal. On February 16, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s highest economic policy-making body, changed the Industrial...
Social Media’s Role in Ya’an Earthquake Aftermath...
TEA LEAF NATIONChina’s social media was in mourning yesterday as users turned their profile photos to grey in remembrance of the victims of the 7.0 earthquake that struck the Ya’an region in Sichuan province on Saturday. As of April 22, the death toll has risen to 192.The Ya’an earthquake...
Why is China Still Messing with the Foreign Press?
ANDREW J. NATHAN, ISABEL HILTON, JONATHAN LANDRETH (& authors)To those raised in the Marxist tradition, nothing in the media happens by accident. In China, the flagship newspapers are still the “throat and tongue” of the ruling party, and their work is directed by the Party’s Propaganda Department. That’s the first...
Leftist Hawks and Conspiracy Theorists: The People’s...
TEA LEAF NATIONIs Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, turning into a new war zone? Dai Xu, a colonel in the Chinese Air Force and military strategist, thinks so.“A month ago, a pseudo-Japanese devil [derogatory term for pro-Japan Chinese] at Shanghai’s Fudan University besieged me and Luo Yuan....
Tencent Lets WeChat’s Rapid Growth Do the Talking
CAIXINTencent Holdings Ltd.’s free messaging service, WeChat, has seen its popularity grow among both individual users and businesses, even amid a dispute with the Big Three telecom operators [China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom].Since launching in January 2011, WeChat, the...
China Concerto
JONATHAN LANDRETHBefore February 2012, when his name exploded onto the front pages of newspapers around the globe, most people outside of China had never heard of Bo Xilai, the now-fallen Communist Party Secretary of the megacity of Chongqing. But in the years leading up to the murder trial that...
Singing a Note of Caution About New First Lady Peng...
TEA LEAF NATIONXi 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...
CNBC Quarrel About China’s Housing Market Bubbles...
OUYANG BIN, LUO XIAOYUANChina’s real estate prices continue to skyrocket despite government efforts to rein them in to prevent a dangerous housing bubble. On March 5, American television network CNBC invited two analysts to debate the state of the sector. But when Peter Navarro, a U.C. Irvine...
The Men Are Louder: A Gender Analysis of Weibo
TEA LEAF NATIONDoes Sina Weibo provide an equal platform for expression for both men and women in China? According to a recent study conducted by Sun Huan, a graduate student in Comparative Media Studies and a research assistant at the Center for Civic Media at MIT, the answer is probably no....
Chavez and Bo Xilai Gone: Death of a Political Model?
TEA LEAF NATIONVenezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s death on March 5, 2013 came in the same week as the “Two Sessions” began in China, when China’s national legislature meets in Beijing. It was also almost exactly a year since the spectacular political demise of Bo Xilai, the former party...
Pig Carcasses in Shanghai River Spawn Dark Humor on...
TEA LEAF NATIONThe 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 has emerged. As of March 12, almost 6,000 dead pigs have...
Young Family’s Arrest Brings Tension Between Vendors...
TEA LEAF NATIONA one-and-a-half-year-old girl wraps her arms around her mother’s neck, crying. Her mother, handcuffed, cannot hug her back—she can only squat down beside the police car to match her daughter’s height. “I’m sorry, mommy can’t hold you…”On March 6, 2013, one...
“Shanghai Calling” Translates Funny
JONATHAN LANDRETHDirector Daniel Hsia and producer Janet Yang were motivated to make Shanghai Calling, their first feature film together, by the shared feeling that no matter how much more important relations between the United States and China grew, they always seemed fraught with...
What Do You Know About China’s Politics?
OUYANG BIN, ZHANG XIAORANThe Liang Hui or “Two Sessions”—the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—are the most crowded, most covered, and probably most hilarious annual political events in China. Every March, thousands of “...
‘Zombies’ and ‘Reincarnation’
TEA LEAF NATIONSina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, announced on February 20 that it had surpassed half a billion users—more people than live in South America, and approximately the population of North America. Thickly-settled Europe edges out Weibo by about 230,000, but the micro-...
No Closer to the Chinese Dream?
TIMOTHY GARTON ASH2013 began dramatically in China with a standoff between journalists and state propaganda authorities over a drastically rewritten New Year’s editorial at the Southern Weekly newspaper.In the first week of the New Year, the editors of Southern Weekly, a weekly newspaper in...
Flowers of the Motherland
SUN YUNFANSchool uniforms have been a hot topic in the Chinese media since last Thursday. On February 20, 2013, on a new satirical TV news talk show akin to the Colbert Report but with a pre-recorded laugh track instead of a live audience, host Jin Yan of Shanghai’s Dragon TV-produced...
China’s State-Run Media Shares Powerful Map of “...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEIt appears that Chinese environmental activism is going further mainstream. The Sina micro-blogging account of Global Times, a well-known Communist Party mouthpiece, has just shared news about the horrific proliferation of “cancer villages” in China. Earlier today...
On China’s Twitter, Discussion of Hacking Attacks...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEAs The New York Times reported yesterday evening, U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant has just released a deeply troubling report called “Exposing One of China’s Cyber Espionage Units.” The report alleges wide-spread hacking sponsored by the People’s Liberation Army,...
NBA Star Debuts on Chinese Social Media, Fans Clamor: #...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMETea Leaf Nation editor David Wertime spoke on February 15 on Public Radio International’s The World about NBA star Kobe Bryant (@KobeBryant), who has recently opened an account on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. Listen to the full two-minute interview:Bryant has...
Free Coffee for North Korea?
OUYANG BIN, ZHANG XIAORANWhat should China do to persuade its moody ally North Korea to comply with international restrictions on its nuclear ambitions?“Free conference rooms, free coffee, free soft drinks and dessert,” was the surprising and quickly viral Internet-meme-of-an answer from Ruan...
Officer Draws Gun on Drunk Driver—To Overwhelming...
TEA LEAF NATIONA policeman draws his gun to stop a desperately escaping criminal. It may sound sensational, but this is technically what happened in the southern Chinese megalopolis of Guangzhou on January 31. As traffic policemen were manning a drunk driving checkpoint, a driver in a red...
Media Censorship and Its Future
OUYANG BINThe year 2013 has gotten off to an inauspicious start for China’s press, especially for its most outspoken members. At the end of last year, when many of the country’s media were heralding newly installed Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Guangdong province as a modern...
Chinese Beverage Maker Turns Legal Setback Into Viral...
TEA LEAF NATIONThis is no tempest in an herbal tea pot. The JDB Group, maker of China’s most popular herbal tea—one that raked in approximately 20 billion RMB (USD $3.2 billion) in revenues in 2012—lost another legal battle in its epic trademark war with the state-owned Guangzhou...
Joke About Gay Romance on Chinese New Year Gala Lights...
TEA LEAF NATIONIs “bromance” in the air? Not according to state-run China Central Television (CCTV).Thousands of fans yelled “Get together” in unison when piano prodigy Li Yundi made a guest appearance at Chinese-American pop sensation Leehom Wang’s New Year’s...
Lil Buck Goes to China
JONATHAN LANDRETHIn November 2011, The Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, headed by Orville Schell, hosted the inaugural U.S.-China Forum on the Arts and Culture.Schell's son, Ole, a filmmaker, tagged along with his video camera and captured the first trip abroad—and the first...
Former China State TV Director Bemoans Anti-Japanese...
TEA LEAF NATIONAre Chinese audiences growing weary of anti-Japanese propaganda? It would seem that some, at least, are growing sick of the pathetic villains, superhuman heroes, and lame endings that many Chinese movies and television series about World War II, or what Chinese refer to as the...
A Map of Two Chinas
TEA LEAF NATIONOn Friday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that income inequality in the country exceeds a warning level set by the United Nations.China’s publication of its Gini coefficient—a widely used measure of economic equity—drew attention for a number of reasons....
Their Horizons Widening, China’s Web Users Look...
TEA LEAF NATIONLast week, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt urged North Korean leaders to embrace the Internet. Only a small proportion of that country’s 24 million people can access the World Wide Web, and the majority of the 1.5 million mobile phones there belong to political and...
Why is a Mediocre, Low-Budget Comedy Taking China’s...
TEA LEAF NATIONDecember 2012 saw hot competition in Chinese cinema. It began with Life of Pi, which was directed by Ang Li, an Oscar-winning director, followed by 1942, a historical movie by director Feng Xiaogang, and The Last Supper, by up-and-coming director Lu Chuan. The film market seemed...
“Help Me Pay This Bill”: A Short But Incisive Send-...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEIt is a social media classic, a send-up of the corruption and profligacy that so often enrage Web users in China. A very short story variously titled “I Did Not Eat For Free” and “Help Me Pay This Bill” has been making the rounds for months on Sina Weibo, China’s...
The Most Popular Chinese Web Searches of 2012
TEA LEAF NATIONWhat did China search for in 2012? It wasn’t the hotly disputed Diaoyu Islands or the widely-watched London Olympics.On Baidu.com, China’s homegrown search engine commanding about eighty-three percent of the Chinese search market, the most popular searches focus on stories...
“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” Hits the Road
JONATHAN LANDRETHDebut filmmaker Alison Klayman has been on a global tour with her documentary—Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry—a film about one of China’s most provocative artists and activists, which this week, was named one of fifteen films put on a short list to be considered for a...
How a Run-Down Government Building Became the Hottest...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEIt is perhaps a sign of the times in China that an image of nothing more than a ramshackle county government building could echo so widely. Since its posting on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, hours before New Year’s Eve, the image (see below) has been shared nearly 70,000 times...
What Microblogs Aren’t Telling You About China
AMY QINIn China, where notions of freedom of speech and freedom of expression are seen by the government as secondary to the all-important ideal of social stability, there is little space, if any, for truly open and unmediated public conversation. Elections, the media, and protests,...
On Weibo: Cultural Revolution Suicides
AMY QINAs people across China took part in the June 1 Children’s Day campaigns to, among other things, remember the millions of “left-behind” children in the countryside, some netizens on Weibo spent the time reflecting on another, seemingly bygone, era. Trending on Weibo right...
Godwin’s Law with Chinese Characteristics
HU YONGThis winter writer-blogger-race car-driver Han Han found himself facing charges of plagiarism from celebrated fraud-buster Fang Zhouzi. Both Han and Fang have huge followings among China’s microbloggers. And their personal disagreement soon exploded into a chaotic on-line...
Viral Videos
Food Paradise or Hell: A New Documentary Sparks Debate
SUN YUNFAN, QIAOYI ZHUANGA seven-part documentary on China’s food culture, “A Bite of China” (which translated literally means “China on the Tip of the Tongue”) premiered on the main channel of China Central Television (CCTV-1) on May 14, 2012 and became an instant sensation. The series gives a...
Zuckerberg’s CCTV Cameo
BO WANG, KENNETT WERNERChinese social media outlets lit up after sharp-eyed viewers caught Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg making a cameo appearance on Chinese Police, a documentary series produced by China Central Television (CCTV). Just a few second long, the footage shows Zuckerberg and his new wife...
TV Show Catches Flak for its Criticism of Contestants...
BO WANGThe gameshow Fei Ni Mo Shu (Only You) has a pretty straightforward premise: a contestant steps onto a stage next to the host and introduces him/herself to a panel of twelve bosses of major companies who sit in highly extravagant throne-like chairs. Much along the same lines as...