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WiC 395 (Jan 26, 2018)

Wanda’s Waterloo

Property, Talking Point Why is Wang Jianlin not happy despite a bullish start to…

There are many slang terms for money but their etymology are often uncertain. For instance, the word “bucks” became a substitute for “dollars” ...

The biggest spender?

Economy When will China become the world’s biggest retail market?

“It blows my mind,” was the verdict of one Canadian ‘old China hand’ that WiC approached last week with the news that the growth in Chinese GDP ...

Internet & Tech JD.com creates its own brand of household goods

Why did the chicken cross the road? It is one of the best-known jokes in the English language and even small children can readily provide the answer: ...

Ma’s big appetite

Banking & Finance Why Alibaba bought a stake in OpenRice

For thousands of years, Chongqing proved to be the toughest territory for any external power to seize. Surrounded by steep mountains, and located at ...

China Consumer Are unmanned stores the retail market’s future?

A little more than a year ago, Amazon announced with some fanfare that it would unveil a revolutionary unmanned grocery store. It envisaged customers ...

Back to college

Entertainment Delayed by five years, Zhang Ziyi movie has become a box…

Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal and James Brolin starred and David O Russell directed. Yet in spite of a bankable cast and an experienced director it ...

Till debt us do part

Society Are wives in China liable for their husband's debts?

There’s more than Terracotta Warriors in the massive mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (which was built in 246 BC). The man who unified the ...

China Consumer M&S exits; Carrefour inks Tencent investment deal

“Here we are very confident… You don’t need to look much further than the queue [at these doors],” said Carl Leaver, then international ...

Society The #MeToo movement struggles to take off in China

In 2004 Luo Xixi was studying for her PhD at a prestigious aeronautics institute in Beijing. She was happy and excited by her academic pursuit. She ...

Fast Food Is it a pine cone?

Four major cuisines Huaiyang cuisine from eastern Jiangsu province is considered one of the four traditional gastronomic schools of ...

Chinese passports gain value

Ask Mei How far have Chinese passports travelled since 1985?

When Jack Ma of e-commerce giant Alibaba was growing up in the picturesque city of Hangzhou, he dreamed about having a passport and travelling ...

Planet China When some WiC readers cast their minds back to their student…

When some WiC readers cast their minds back to their student days, they may remember the odd early morning where they looked at the alarm clock and ...

Intelligent design

Sino-File “Now that AI has become mature enough to have some use…

Baidu’s CEO Robin Li speaks to the GeekPark forum in Beijing about his firm’s large investments in artificial intelligence which began seven years ...

The sky is not the limit

Cartoons The sky is not the limit

Tencent’s social media platform WeChat has become a ubiquitous part of most people’s lives in China, numbering almost a billion subscribers – ...

Take a big breath

And Finally China’s 330-feet air purifier seems to be working (and it can…

At first glance, the new, white tower on the edge of Xi’an looks like it could be a source of pollution. It’s tall, cylindrical and resembles a ...