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China society

China society
Latest news, features and opinion on all aspects of society in China, including crime, education, health, culture, technology and tourism, and the impact of the one-child policy, an ageing population and mass internal migration on the country and its people.
Lan Hongchun’s story about love, loyalty and immigrant struggles has struck a chord with the overseas Chinese diaspora, topping the box office with US$290 million
Mainland China

Video | How a Chinese indie film conquered the box office

Lan Hongchun’s story about love, loyalty and immigrant struggles has struck a chord with the overseas Chinese diaspora, topping the box office with US$290 million.

Science

Why China’s technical schools offer both hope and despair for jobless college grads

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Mainland China

Opinion | China’s ethnic unity law aims to rejuvenate and defend, not repress

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Social media

Opinion | Why middle-class life in China is drawing young Westerners’ gaze

China appears to offer something that many young people in the West struggle to find: a functioning middle-class lifestyle.

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Tourists pose for a group photo at Shanghai Disneyland on June 16. Photo: Xinhua
Mainland China

Chinese farmer’s forest of cameras fails to bear fruit in compensation bid

Man in Hubei province raised eyebrows after covering a hillside with surveillance cameras in the hope of increasing a land purchase payout.

Artificial intelligence

Opinion | Young Americans feel more threatened by AI than young Chinese. Why?

It starts with the fundamentally different economic outlooks and job prospects for young people in China and the US.

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The Future of Marketing in Asia

Sports marketing ditches billboards for culture

From NBA x K-pop collaborations to interactive experiences, brands are moving past simple sponsorships to embed themselves in sports culture.

Local Arsenal fans at the friendly between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur held at Kai Tak Stadium in July 2025. The prestige of marketing at major sporting events has skyrocketed in recent years. Photos: Elson Li
China economy

Opinion | The gaokao scramble and how China engineers its political economy

Individuals choose the university and course but the state sets the collective outcome, steering human capital towards development goals.

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China travel

A phone away from home: China urged to provide rental handsets to aid tourists

A think tank says low-end handsets, rentable at border checkpoints and pre-installed with local apps, could narrow ‘digital divide’ for visitors.

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China jobs

China’s youth unemployment rate edges down in May as economic strains persist

Those aged 16 to 24 are still struggling to catch a break in the job hunt, a trend worsened by external wars and geopolitical strife.

People line up at career-guidance booths during a job fair in Beijing on March 14. Photo: Reuters
China consumption

Why are cash-strapped Chinese cities spending millions to host TV shows?

Jiangshan spent heavily to host the Chinese version of ‘Running Man’, but the project has provoked backlash amid China’s economic slowdown.

Cast members from the Chinese reality television show Keep Running pose for a photograph. Photo: Handout
Communist Party politics

How ‘lying flat’ went from a niche subculture to mainstream phenomenon

Spy agency says foreign forces are ‘brainwashing’ people, but critics call lying flat a rational response to a broken system.

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TV shows and streaming video

Who is Zhang Linghe, the Pursuit of Jade star and Gucci ambassador?

A recent public appearance sparked riots while his Netflix drama trends around the world – but why did this superstar almost choose a career in STEM?

Trending in China

China Gen Z male midwife goes viral for skills, looks, ‘powerful tenderness’

25-year-old overcomes ‘shameful’ taunts from relatives about career choice, says witnessing births makes him respect ‘strength’ of women.

A male midwife in China has gone viral for his skills and good looks. He challenges the stigma against midwives who are men. Photo: Weixin
Tourism

Opinion | China’s ‘check-in culture’ tourists need a reality check

Superficial ‘check-in tourism’ focused on garnering likes on social media is adversely affecting the lives of locals and the facilities they use.

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Tourists take photos at the Mong Kok MTR Station on October 6, 2025. Photo: Sun Yeung
Food delivery apps

China proposes ban on ‘irrational’ food-delivery subsidies to end price wars

Regulators target predatory pricing and merchant coercion, with new rules requiring that tech giants disclose subsidy data and not disrupt the market.

China jobs

China’s universities cut 12,000 ‘obsolete’ degrees amid race to embrace AI era

The sweeping overhaul has affected over 30 per cent of China’s degree programmes, with arts and languages ditched in favour of tech-focused fields.

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China economy

Opinion | How China can curb neijuan before the next generation burns out

Driven by structural forces, neijuan is experienced as market crowding and a narrowing of everyday life. The costs aren’t only economic.

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Students queue to sit exams on the first day of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao, in Datong, in northern Shanxi province, on June 7. Photo: AFP
China education

Video | Students and families celebrate end of China’s gaokao exam

Many parents waited with flowers, gifts and even cash prizes as students rushed out of exam centres.

Mainland China

Video | Man in China buys 34th-floor flat in 32-storey building

Despite no legal protections on illegally developed housing compounds, some Chinese internet users say it is the only way they can afford to own property.

China jobs

China’s gig economy is an employment reservoir – but is the well drying up?

More than 200 million people in China are flexibly employed, but AI adoption, unstable income and poor social security make positions precarious.

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
China jobs

As millions graduate, China urges SOEs, internet firms to offer more jobs

A record cohort of university graduates is entering a relatively weak Chinese job market.

A job fair in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on March 15. Photo: Xinhua
China travel

China, South Korea agree to more flights per week as tourism to Japan dwindles

The additional flights are the first increase between the two countries since before the Covid pandemic.

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China jobs

China’s gaokao exam gets less competitive as more teens opt to skip university

The number of students sitting China’s university entrance exams is on the decline, as teens decide not to pursue a degree amid a graduate job crunch.

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China economy

‘Distorted views’: why China is clamping down on ‘lowbrow’ micro dramas

China has launched a two-month campaign to clean up its massive micro drama industry, targeting violent, sexual and ‘wealth-flaunting’ content.

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Actors rehearse on the set of a micro drama during filming in central China’s Henan province. Photo: Reuters
Chinese culture

How China’s ‘Excalibur of the East’ souvenir swords sparked airport warning

Tourists with replicas of the ancient Sword of Goujian, from the Hubei Provincial Museum, were told not to hand-carry them onto planes.

Visitors take photos of the ancient Sword of Goujian at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, in central China’s Hubei Province, on May 17, 2026. An airport notice at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport warning not to hand-carry replicas of the sword on board planes has gone viral on Chinese social media. Photo: Xinhua
History

As I see it | How adversity has guided the path of Chinese civilisation through the ages

Recent findings by archaeologists suggest the push for innovative solutions is often borne out of the struggle to overcome severe challenges.

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Shenzhen

Being Chinese | Once, I was proud of the Shenzhen miracle. Now I’m not so sure

The Taiwanese-influenced accent my voice carries is a relic of the 2000s and hints at how differently my generation understands modernity.

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