February 28, 2013 | by David Wertime
In Online Poll, a Majority Support Gay Marriage in China
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, [...]
February 28, 2013 | by Minami Funakoshi
Plans for Taiwanese and Chinese “Common Home”: Stirring Vision, or Political Ploy?
Imagine a city flush with both renminbi and Taiwan dollars, one where Chinese and Taiwanese managers, designers, researchers, and officials work together to create a harmonious “home,” and where children from both sides of the Straits play together at summer camps. Does such a city exist? Not quite yet. But Pingtan—an island located in China’s [...]
February 27, 2013 | by Rachel Lu
Chinese Web Users View List of Their Representatives and Ask: Who Are These People?
On February 27, People’s Daily posted a long list containing 2,987 names on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. These names are completely unknown to the average Chinese person, yet these are the supposed elected representatives of China’s 1.3 billion people. They will attend the National People’s Congress (NPC), an event of considerable pomp that will be held in [...]
February 27, 2013 | by Thomas Stevenson
From ‘Zombies’ to the ‘Reincarnation Party’ — Why It’s So Hard to Take a Census in Weibo Nation
Sina 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-blogging platform blows away Australia in this regard. In any event, [...]
February 27, 2013 | by David Wertime
Bold Calls for China to Ratify U.N. Rights Convention, But Some Ask: Will It Matter?
Yesterday, a group of prominent Chinese citizens issued an open letter to China’s government calling on it to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. While open letters are a venerated form of protest and speech, this group made waves when they chose to share their message on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. As [...]
February 26, 2013 | by Rachel Lu
Will Chinese Hospitals Allow Treatment First and Payment Later? Not So Fast
It was the best piece of news that many Chinese people had heard in years — they may soon be able to receive medical treatment in hospitals without having to pony up a hefty deposit first. This would have marked a major change from the current, much-maligned system that sometimes denies life-saving treatments to those who [...]
February 25, 2013 | by Minami Funakoshi
Chinese General’s Angry Online Rant Has Japanese Laughing, And Many Chinese Cheering
People’s Liberation Army Major General Luo Yuan debuted on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, just as a true military man should—with a big blitz and an ensuing war-in-words. On February 20, Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, published an article headlined: “What Asahi-readers should know: The Truths of China. PLA Major General says ‘Will Bomb Tokyo’.” [...]
February 25, 2013 | by Rachel Wang
Blazing a New Path for China’s Intellectually Disabled: Amity Bakery Heats Up on Weibo
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 [...]
February 21, 2013 | by Yueran Zhang
Citizen Mistrust Grows as China’s Real Estate Ownership Becomes More Opaque
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 [...]
February 21, 2013 | by Minami Funakoshi
In Face of Mainland Censorship, Taiwanese Revisit Reunification Question
This article also appears on Tea Leaf Nation partner sites ChinaFile and The Atlantic. Within twenty-four hours of registration, Sina Weibo (China’s equivalent of Twitter) deleted the microblog account of Frank Hsieh, former premier of Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Ironically, Hsieh’s last tweet before he lost the power to post on Weibo was: [...]
February 20, 2013 | by Liz Carter
‘Gas Explosion’ Kills Chinese Official’s College-Age Daughter
The People’s Daily recently reported that an explosion killed one person in a residential complex in Shanxi province on February 18. Where the official account in state media lacked detail, however, online sources were quick to assert that the incident was more than a simple explosion. Li Xudong, an investigative journalist with China Business Media, [...]
February 20, 2013 | by David Wertime
Chinese College-Student Staple Positioned as “Luxury” Good on Gilt.com
Let’s call it “reverse luxury arbitrage” with a delicious–and throat-searingly spicy–twist. Luxury arbitrage, at least as it commonly relates to China, is the practice of Western brands charging more in China than they do in their home countries. For example, the cost-conscious drinker’s favorite beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, positions itself as a luxury brand in [...]
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