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News on Chinese Society

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Crisis management

New TV drama on office life is criticised as unrealistic
Mar 20, 2020 (WiC 487)

Traditionally, television drama has been a format-driven business, which explains the enduring appeal of all those series themed around crime, hospitals and law firms. TV producers in China have had some success betting on niche areas too. For ...

Unwelcome comments

Netizens see red at China green card rules
Mar 13, 2020 (WiC 486)

Should the Ministry of Justice have sensed that proposals last month to change the residency rules for foreign nationals would stir up such a furore? Probably not, in WiC’s view. For a start, it’s an unlikely time for foreign nationals to ...

Sun King no more?

Swimmer gets eight-year ban
Mar 5, 2020 (WiC 485)

“You’re a loser. I’m a winner,” scoffed China’s greatest ever swimmer – Sun Yang – to a rival last summer when he’d refused to stand next to him on the medal podium at the world championships in South Korea (see WiC462). But ...

Olivia’s Cambridge Diary

Chinese alumna speak out
Mar 5, 2020 (WiC 485)

The linguistic structure of Chinese Mandarin isn’t exactly favourable for female empowerment. The radical (a component that makes up a character) for a ‘woman’ is a picture of a woman sitting down — nǚ 女. Linguists have ...

Olivia’s Cambridge Diary

Remembering Joseph Needham
Feb 21, 2020 (WiC 483)

It might seem a cliché to include a diary entry on Joseph Needham in my series on China and Cambridge University. But given how much Needham did to address misconceptions about China in the West, the timing feels strangely appropriate. In some ...

Private photo shoot rouses anger about Palace privileges
Jan 31, 2020 (WiC 481)

Before having tea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping during a state visit in 2017, Donald Trump explored the Forbidden City on foot. The last foreign dignitary allowed to tour the former imperial residence in a vehicle was Indian Prime Minister ...

Rat race: winners and losers

The last Year of the Rat in 2008 was disastrous; will this one be any better?
Jan 24, 2020 (WiC 480)

Why does the Rat come first in the Chinese zodiac, a cycle of 12 years, each represented by a different animal? Indeed, why is it part of the zodiac at all, forcing more illustrious animals onto the sidelines? One of the practical explanations ...

No more limits?

China is set to perform a big U-turn in population policy
Jan 24, 2020 (WiC 480)

The year 2021 will see China’s ruling Communist Party celebrate its hundredth birthday. It is also the year that the Party might have to finally undo one of its most intrusive policies – limits on the number of children people can ...

Olivia’s Cambridge Diary

Spanish for beginners
Jan 17, 2020 (WiC 479)

In sociolinguistics, we talk about learning languages as accumulating “linguistic capital” – investments with stable returns both personally and professionally. Today, it is estimated there are 10 million Chinese speakers of English, just ...

Jiangsu wins war on poverty

The province announces only 17 people now live in poverty
Jan 17, 2020 (WiC 479)

In July next year China’s ruling Communist Party will mark 100 years since its founding. Connected to the centenary is a goal to make China a “moderately prosperous society”, or, to put it another way, to bring an end to the worst of the ...

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