Tea Leaf Nation
Tea Leaf Nation is a channel on ForeignPolicy.com that decodes Chinese media—mainstream, social, local, special interest—to illuminate the country from within.
Last Updated: February 10, 2016
Media
08.14.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chinajobseekerspic.jpg?itok=_lZfCjkh)
Don’t Dream Big—Four Vignettes on Social Mobility in Modern China
The New York Times recently ran an article that detailed the struggles of three young college women from low-income backgrounds, raising questions about whether education remains the “great equalizer” in America. How does the picture look in China,...
Infographics
08.12.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/3735-has-it-been-efficient_3735-has-it-been-efficient.jpg?itok=CTmlZjfW)
Is China’s Massive Infrastructure Spending Wise or Wasteful?
China leads the world in infrastructure investment. The new roads, new railroads, new skyscrapers, even whole new cities that seem to spring into existence every day leave little doubt that investment has been ambitious. But has it been wise? This...
Media
08.12.13Is Support for Transgender Rights Increasing in China?
In the last few weeks of July, the story of a young transgender couple who transitioned together, which had previously gone viral in the Western media, trended on Sina Weibo, China’s popular microblogging platform. Although some Chinese netizens...
Media
08.08.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/3579663737_1c435323b1_b.jpg?itok=XvZ20qyg)
Chinese State Media: Online Critics “Incite Political Unrest”
While the Internet has become the site of almost constant political arguments in China, few articles have generated as much debate as a recent piece by blogger Wang Xiaoshi. On August 1, Xinhua News Agency, a state-run media outlet, posted Wang’s...
Media
07.17.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/marketusinchina.jpg?itok=Ad50XRoX)
A Minority in the Middle Kingdom: My Experience Being Black in China
In the 1996 China edition of the Lonely Planet guidebook, a text box aside comment from a street interview provided some interesting conversation fodder: “…there is no racism in China because there are no black people,” a Chinese woman was reported...
Media
07.10.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/tam.jpg?itok=RQvhZHUK)
Old Photo of Tiananmen Square Has Netizens Asking “What’s Wrong With This Picture?”
A rare old color photo of Tiananmen Square was posted on Weibo, China’s Twitter, and it was commented on hundreds of times as Internet users mused about the past and present of China’s most recognizable landmark.Here are the three things that stand...
Media
07.10.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/a27edf57gw1e6gdel0q8lj21kw16oami.jpg?itok=326QZgCP)
Australian PM’s Online Musings Have Chinese Wondering: Where Is Xi’s Microblog Account?
On July 9, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd posted on a social media site about a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The twist? The message was written in Chinese on the immensely popular Chinese microblogging platform Sina...
Media
07.02.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/2929001.jpg?itok=K0aDBQj9)
American History, Through Chinese Eyes
White male privilege, genocide against Native Americans, slavery and subsequent racial oppression, exploitation of immigrants and laborers, repression of women and homosexuals, and environmental destruction—teaching American cultural history through...
Media
06.28.13A Character Battle Between China’s Government and its Internet Users
The horse is out of the barn. Now that China’s social Web has given every citizen the ability to publish for a wide audience—a privilege once reserved for the government—state publications and Web users there continue to wrangle over who best grasps...
Media
06.25.13China’s “Urban Enforcers” Caught in a Vicious Cycle
Last week, another anecdote about chengguan— China’s urban enforcers whose main tasks include enforcing urban beautification ordinances and cracking down on unlicensed street vendors— caught the public’s attention. On June 15, a web user called @岔巴子...
Media
06.17.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/162121592_0.jpg?itok=GfkLzwuZ)
Do Quotas in China’s College Admissions System Reinforce Existing Inequalities?
Earlier this month, millions of Chinese students took the exam for which they had been preparing their entire lives—the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, known colloquially as the gaokao. For some, the process was more arduous than for...
Media
06.12.13![](https://www.chinafile.com/sites/default/files/styles/system/public/assets/images/article/system/chinadreams2.jpg?itok=o2Zv4ETo)
In Box Office Hit, American Dream Is Still Alive—In a Maturing China
Over the last two weeks, the movie American Dreams in China (中国合伙人) has been the number one box office hit in China, selling over 400 million tickets to date. The movie is a gritty and at times tongue-in-cheek comedy that tells the true story of...