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And Finally

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Fund manager favourite Moutai is selling $500 bottles of wine
Jul 9, 2021 (WiC 548)

“I think if we drink enough Moutai, we can solve anything,” Henry Kissinger, the then US Secretary of State, is said to have optimistically told Deng Xiaoping in 1974. Maybe it’s the 53% alcohol content that helps to get the thinking ...

Enter the dragon

Harbin find unearths a new human species
Jul 2, 2021 (WiC 547)

The science of human evolution has just got more complicated. A team of Chinese-led scientists claims to have discovered a previously unknown ‘sister species’ that would have been alive at the same time as the Neanderthals and early Homo ...

‘Our kind of correspondent’

Why is Beijing heaping praise on American journalist Edgar Snow?
Jun 25, 2021 (WiC 546)

In the summer of 1936 the American journalist Edgar Snow sat down with Mao Zedong in the dusty surroundings of Yan’an in northern Shaanxi province. Snow was the first Western journalist to interview Mao and over the course of four months he ...

Hook, line and sinker

Video from Nanjing sparks discussion about pensioner fishing craze
Jun 18, 2021 (WiC 545)

M ost readers of WiC will be familiar with the term dama, referring to typically female retirees who congregate in public spaces and parks to dance each evening. But what of their husbands? How are they passing their time? The ...

Supine subversion

Why Chinese leaders worry about ‘tangping’ types
Jun 11, 2021 (WiC 544)

A few weeks ago Chinese social media saw a marked uptick in the number of cat photos posted online. Only this time these cats weren’t playing with balls of string or balancing on top of bookcases – they were lying flat on their backs, supine, ...

Con me if you can

Desperate job seekers pay Rmb4 million for airport job – only it’s a scam
Jun 4, 2021 (WiC 543)

Would you pay Rmb140,000 ($21,948) for the chance to work at Chengdu’s new international airport? You might be surprised to learn that at least 39 people did just that, thinking they had found a secret way to secure a long-term position at a ...

The place to be

Internet frenzy over liveability of Caoxian
May 28, 2021 (WiC 542)

Caoxian has an unusual claim to fame. As WiC noted last January, the rural county of 1.75 million in eastern Shandong province supplies a huge proportion of Japan’s coffins (see WiC481). And that is still a growth market, given Japan’s aging ...

Panic in Shenzhen as 350-metre building sways
May 21, 2021 (WiC 541)

Skyscrapers are designed to sway on their foundations during earthquakes. But if a tower starts shaking for no apparent reason, is there might be a justification to panic. That was the situation on Tuesday when the 350-metre SEG Plaza in ...

Not a fun day out

Elderly scammed in unwanted cemetery visit
May 14, 2021 (WiC 540)

On April 13 a group of retirees from Chongqing boarded a bus for what they thought was going to be a trip to a scenic spot. They had paid Rmb18 ($2.80) each for the tour and put on their best clothes for their day out. But when they arrived at ...

Loyal Labradors

China needs to train more guide dogs
May 7, 2021 (WiC 539)

April 28 was International Guide Dog Day – an event whose origins are lost in the mists of time, with no organisation claiming it as their own. However, the day does at least guarantee a heartwarming story about an intelligent Labrador – ...

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