474 Archives | Week In China

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WiC 474 (Nov 15, 2019)

Reach for the stars

China Consumer, Talking Point Streaming celebrities help Alibaba set another Singles’ Day record

China’s princess of livestreaming is called Viya. Real name Huang Wei, she goes into overdrive during the run-up to Singles’ Day. Starting her ...

Third time unlucky

M&A Shi Yuzhu drops bid for Israeli gaming firm

Circle of Friends (or COF) is one of the many attractions on WeChat, Tencent’s social media app. Its primary function, as the name suggests, is ...

Troubled relaunch

Internet & Tech Why Didi faced a backlash from female users

A survey in the China Youth Daily found that over 50% of women had experienced some kind of inappropriate touching while using buses and trains. The ...

Tobacco Why a ban on online sales of e-cigarettes is only partly…

More than two months ago Donald Trump promised a crackdown on vaping. He said that e-cigarettes that weren’t formulated to taste like tobacco were ...

The bull is back

Banking & Finance China’s A-shares have had a much better year

Bulls are auspicious in the financial world. But the animal at the Shanghai stock exchange – a copper sculpture – wasn’t regarded as much of an ...

Energy & Resources Jingye swoops for struggling British steelmaker

When Mao Zedong launched the Great Leap Forward in 1957, the goal was to overtake the UK in steel output within 15 years. More than 60 years later a ...

Don’t be a cry baby

Entertainment Angelababy lambasted by netizens over her latest reality TV outing

Back in 2015, Angelababy, one of China’s most prominent actresses and showbiz celebrities, sued a hospital in Beijing for defamation after it claimed ...

Is seaweed the answer?

Healthcare Shanghai drugs firm claims a breakthrough in Alzheimer’s treatment

Seaweed has been a long-term favourite as an ingredient in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The marine algae is trusted to treat skin disorders, ...

Survive and thrive

Auto Industry Electric car pioneers keep sight of the longer term

The old joke about why the chicken crossed the road is taking on new meaning in China. Within a decade, the main obstacle to getting from one side to ...

Olivia’s Cambridge Diary

Education Month one: my Chinese cohort

I’m hunched over my laptop punching in the key words and concepts that my professor is spewing at an unholy speed. Then he leaps up mid-sentence to ...

The market sends a message

Economy Signs of strain in Shenzhen’s economy, despite solid foundations

‘Shenzhen speed’ is normally a positive expression, describing how the southern Chinese city gets things done at a rapid rate (the term was coined ...

Confusion, then chickens

Planet China Minor mistakes with medical records can have major consequences. For a…

Minor mistakes with medical records can have major consequences. For a luckless woman living in Nanjing, a faulty report nearly brought an end to her ...

Courting more controversy

Cartoons Courting more controversy

The NBA’s troubles continue in China. The latest kerfuffle for the basketball giant happened during a game streamed live by Tencent Sports, featuring ...

Pompidou on the Bund

Sino-File “We have to have a dialogue. It doesn’t mean we could…

Serge Lasvignes, president of Centre Pompidou, discusses the opening last week of a sister venue in Shanghai. The 22,000 square metre museum features ...

A new headmaster

And Finally A school in Zhejiang tests ‘brainwave’ monitors

Focus 1 is a wireless headband that claims to offer “real-time brain wave visualisation”. According to its website, the brand employs an ...