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And Finally

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Red carpet crackdown

Zhao wins Best Director at the Oscars, but there’s no celebration in China
Apr 30, 2021 (WiC 538)

The 93rd Academy Awards, held last Sunday, were significant for several reasons. This year’s nominations were mainly for films that had been watched via the internet. And in another new departure, nine of the 20 acting nominations went to ...

Suspicious calls

New anti-fraud app gets 100 million downloads
Apr 23, 2021 (WiC 537)

Phone scams are big business in China: in the first three months of this year citizens were said to have lost nearly Rmb19 billion ($2.92 billion) to grifters, according to the government. As part of a campaign to counter the fraudsters, the ...

Best foot forward

Local sneaker brands cash in on patriotic surge
Apr 16, 2021 (WiC 536)

Speculative trading of second-hand sneakers is nothing new in China. The resale market is so extensive that it has turned Dewu, a shoe trading platform, into a tech unicorn (see WiC451; the company was previously called Poizon). But shoe scalpers ...

Mask excavation triggers extra-terrestial talk
Apr 9, 2021 (WiC 535)

Little is known about the Shu civilisation that predominated in the area around Chengdu some 3,000 years ago. They left no written records and very few buildings to study. But what has been discovered is a few of their treasure pits, filled ...

Uniqlo feels effects of an online skinny craze
Apr 1, 2021 (WiC 534)

On March 5 Uniqlo added a new, larger size to its children’s clothing in China. Previously, the largest size on offer was for kids up to 120cm tall. But now, in a select group of cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, some T-shirts are ...

Bridal borrowing

A new form of dowry loan causes a stir
Mar 26, 2021 (WiC 533)

In many parts of China, caili, or the betrothal dowry a man gives to his bride’s family, can sometimes be a heavy financial burden. So it’s no surprise that a bank in Jiangxi province began advertising a “caili loan” last week. The ...

Why is Avatar back on Chinese screens?
Mar 19, 2021 (WiC 532)

In early March one of Hong Kong’s biggest cinema chains, UA Cinemas, abruptly shut down operations. Its closing marked yet another casualty of the pandemic in the movie industry. This week, news surfaced that Wang Jianlin’s Wanda Group is ...

Douyin users told not to flaunt their wealth
Mar 12, 2021 (WiC 531)

When former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping ushered in a new round of economic reforms, he said it was okay if some of the population got rich before others. Deng clearly hadn’t foreseen the social media age or he would have added the caveat ...

Ancient village in flames, after residents depart
Mar 5, 2021 (WiC 530)

For hundreds of years the picturesque village of Wengding nestled on a mountainside in the southwestern province of Yunnan. It was the home of a community of Wa people – one of 56 ethnic minorities officially recognised by the Chinese ...

Trumped by the Tang

A Henan broadcaster steals the spotlight from CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala
Feb 19, 2021 (WiC 529)

The late British historian Arnold Toynbee once said that if he were ever given the chance to travel back in time the period he would choose to visit would be that of the Tang Dynasty (which lasted from 618 to 907). Characterised by prosperity, ...

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