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News on Chinese Society

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Sports stars in verbal joust over national team failings
Mar 26, 2021 (WiC 533)

You don’t see superstars from the worlds of professional football and basketball taking each other on everyday. That was the spectacle last month when Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden’s best-ever footballer, criticised NBA star LeBron James. With ...

Marriage numbers fall again in China, worrying officials
Mar 5, 2021 (WiC 530)

Civil marriage ceremonies in China are known for being impersonal, no-frills affairs. But now several provinces have streamlined the process even further with the introduction of self-service terminals. The new machines – similar to ...

No room for debate

New audio app Clubhouse banned within a few days of arriving in China
Feb 11, 2021 (WiC 528)

Remember Google Plus? The search giant debuted its own social network in 2011 and promoted it for years before quietly giving up in 2019. When it launched the service, membership was invitation-only. Initial interest was intense, with people ...

No phones, more exercise

New plan to shake up Chinese school kids
Feb 11, 2021 (WiC 528)

China’s 200 million school children could be in for some changes in the coming months, after the release of two controversial new documents by the Ministry of Education. For a start, school kids will be discouraged from bringing their ...

Scandal over surrogacy

Two celebrity pregnancies set China buzzing with contrasting reactions
Jan 29, 2021 (WiC 526)

On the TV show Scandal, Kerry Washington plays Olivia Pope, an immaculately dressed crisis management expert in Washington, D.C. The spin doctor helps powerful politicians to contain scandals and manage crises – including the drama’s ...

Soccer clubs ordered to drop company owners’ names
Jan 22, 2021 (WiC 525)

A decade ago, the property developer Evergrande spent Rmb100 million ($15.4 million) on the takeover of a football club in Guangzhou that had been disgraced by a match-rigging scandal (see WiC100). The rationale for making the investment was ...

No place like home(s)

Family pressure prompts rise in “two-sided” marriages
Jan 8, 2021 (WiC 523)

Marriage is always a topic that inspires debate in China. It’s not hard to see why: it is a repository of values, a tool of social engineering and a legal contract with major emotional and financial responsibilities. Rapid social and ...

A very Trumpian show

New reality TV series revolves around recruiting an intern at a top law firm
Dec 11, 2020 (WiC 522)

In the reality show The Apprentice – which first aired in 2004 – contestants competed for a chance to head one of Donald Trump’s companies. The show was a huge ratings winner and has a plausible claim as a key contributor to ...

Town versus country

‘Farmer’ livestreamer stokes row with bigger rival in bid to win business
Nov 6, 2020 (WiC 517)

Outside China typing “辛巴” into a Google search will generate hits related to the fictional character Simba from The Lion King. Putting the same characters into a Baidu search will get you links to the livestreaming host Xin ...

Chinese art breaks auction record, second time round
Oct 30, 2020 (WiC 516)

Perspective is a fascinating subsection of art history. Greek artists used the Euclidian perspective – the same system that most realists employ today. But traditional Chinese art used ‘oblique projection’ to give depth – a system which ...

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