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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.
Some Chinese bachelors have turned to international matchmakers, which usually operate in Southeast Asia, Pakistan and former Soviet countries. Photo: Shutterstock
Mainland China

Cross-border matchmaking can lead to financial ruin, Chinese police warn rural men

Police in Hunan province have warned that men who use illegal agencies to find foreign brides could be defrauded.

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China birth rate

Notable demographer calls for 18-fold increase to China’s childcare subsidies

Families in China

Opinion | Young Chinese are choosing healthy relationships over toxic filial piety

China jobs

China proposes first labour regulations to protect 84 million platform workers

The draft requires that payment cycles not exceed one month and holiday work be paid at a higher rate, but it does not specify by how much.

Two food delivery workers walk through an urban plaza while promoting meal discounts for a food delivery platform in Chongqing, China. Photo: Getty Images
China property

Opinion | Why protecting home values is Beijing’s new priority

With resale transactions outpacing new home sales for the first time, stabilising the existing housing stock has become vital.

China's population

As China’s birth rate falls, vacant schools are turned into aged care facilities

Data shows primary and preschool enrolments each fell by 10 per cent last year, leaving classrooms empty while the elderly population grows.

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China consumption

As Chinese retirees boost consumption, some hope for greater respect in society

Age bias is an obstacle to the growth of China’s silver economy, researchers say.

Two elderly Beijing residents stretch at an exercise park. Photo: AFP/File photo
China economy

Opinion | China has a much bigger priority than winning the AI race

China’s pressing economic problem is that ordinary people still have too little money in their pockets.

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China jobs

China’s gig economy

Some 320 million people work in China’s gig economy. The growth in jobs offering few benefits and little security reflects challenges to finding permanent employment, especially for record numbers of new graduates.

Mainland China

Letters | Why a Chinese farmer’s reunion with a US teacher moved me to tears

Readers discuss an American’s return to a part of China he helped transform, and how the country is taking climate change seriously.

Yin Yuzhen, now a ‘national model worker’, and retired American teacher Ronald Sakolsky at an airport in Ordos in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on August 23. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese culture

Being Chinese | The unspoken reason my Chinese friends choose America

When friends say they can just ‘exist’ in the US, they mean they can stop performing to the Confucian expectations that define Chinese life.

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A noodle restaurant along a largely deserted pavement in Arcadia, California. Outside the Confucian system, there is no perpetual appraisal of your earning power, your waistline or your marital status. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
China jobs

Record graduate influx pushes China’s youth unemployment rate to 18.9%

Anxieties over AI’s growing threat to entry-level roles add to existing concerns about economic doldrums caused by weak domestic demand.

Mainland China

Opinion | Why women in China are still at risk of abduction and forced marriage

The latest incident has exposed many failings in local authorities’ work in a country where a mindset of favouring sons over daughters still exists.

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China consumption

End of the supermarket? Why China’s shoppers flock to small ‘community stores’

Young Chinese favour local grocery stores offering low prices and fast delivery, with some saying they haven’t been to a supermarket in years.

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A man shops at a supermarket in Beijing. Photo: EPA
China consumption

Improving migrant workers’ lives key to boosting Chinese consumption: HSBC

Report says reforms aimed at reducing their high precautionary savings rate could unlock US$95 billion a year in spending.

Migrant workers at a construction site in Shanghai. Photo: EPA
China education

China’s youth job crisis drives graduates to German vocational apprenticeships

Facing bleak employment prospects at home, some young Chinese workers are pursuing technical training abroad, but not all make it through.

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China's population

My Take | Why China’s shrinking population may be a blessing, not a curse

Research co-authored by Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu finds labour shortages can spur, rather than slow down, productivity and growth.

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China’s private sector

China bans private tutoring. So why are cram schools still bleeding parents dry?

Five years ago, China imposed a sweeping ban on for-profit academic tutoring. But the sector has quietly made a comeback amid intense parental demand.

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Students attend class at a school in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Photo: Xinhua
China property

Rich Dad, Poor Dad author’s vast debts spark awe – and some anger – in China

Robert Kiyosaki’s claim to be US$1.2 billion in debt has sparked heated debate in China, where property investors have suffered steep losses.

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Artificial intelligence

Not a token effort: beer meets AI at bar in China’s capital

The AGI Bar in Beijing’s Zhongguancun tech hub offers free tokens to customers who order a drink.

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China birth rate

Even in the fertility heartland, China can’t stop its birth rate from falling

Economic pressure is outweighing traditional value of having large families in the Chaoshan area of eastern Guangdong.

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A woman and child at Zhongshan Park in Guangdong province. Photo: Shutterstock Images
China's population

China needs 600% child subsidy rise to prevent deeper birth crisis: scholars

China’s fertility rate could soon fall to world’s lowest unless action is taken, as current subsidies are ‘a drop in the bucket’, scholars warn.

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Children enrolled in a daycare programme learn a cheer routine at an activity centre in Zhaotong city, Yunnan province, earlier this month. Zhaotong has introduced free daycare for working parents needing workday childcare coverage. Under the plan, children are assisted with homework and participate in extracurricular activities. Photo: Xinhua
Mainland China

Opinion | How a Chinese kitchen in the Middle East could stir up global cinema

Upending Hollywood’s ‘saviour-hero’ convention in war films, a tale about a humble chef offers a quiet, distinctly Chinese perspective.

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Women and gender

Opinion | Forcing women to drink at business dinners has no place in modern China

The alleged assault of a female employee in Hangzhou exposes how such unsavoury practices persist amid Beijing’s anti-extravagance campaign.

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Wellness

When the child you raised cuts you off. Why parental estrangement is on the rise

As more adult children in Hong Kong and beyond break contact with their parents, experts talk about causes and how to rebuild relationships.

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Parental estrangement is quietly spreading across Asia, including Hong Kong. Experts explain what causes it, how it can affect our health both emotionally and physically, and the conditions that facilitate reconciliation. Illustration: Henry Wong
Mainland China

Video | Live eels spill out on train floor in China

Viral video shows passengers trying, but failing, to retrieve the slippery eels from the floor of the commuter train.

Viral video shows passengers trying, but failing, to retrieve the slippery eels from the floor of the commuter train
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China economy

Opinion | As China shows, liberal capitalism is not the only path

China has disproved one of the post-Cold War era’s most confident assumptions: that the Western model is the only route to modernity.

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Asian cinema: Chinese films

Opinion | Why Chinese film-goers are flocking to a movie they hate

Niu Lai’s runaway success is not an endorsement of its quality. Audiences are paying for the perverse enjoyment of seeing how bad it gets.

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