Tea Leaf Nation

Shanghai Morning Post (@新闻晨报) reports on Weibo that netizen @-夜莺-May spotted surface cracks in the busiest area of Pudong, Shanghai. Well trained by Hollywood, many netizens’ first thoughts ran to disaster movie-land. @漾漾乐园 tweets, “So scary! Is 2012 really coming?” @china_lidb suggests helpfully, “Apply glue, quickly!” @Sai-SH warns, ”Earth has finally reached its limit.” Shanghai Morning Post interviewed Mr. Ge Qing (@葛清EMBA10SH7), [...]

A democratic election is soon to take place in the Republic of China–not the People’s Republic of China, commonly known as mainland China, but Taiwan. This island sits just east of China and retains the official name “Republic of China” from the days before the bloody Chinese civil war, which ended in 1949 when the [...]

It’s 2012 in China. Many netizens treated New Years’ Eve as a time for reflection, often bittersweet. Most commenters on Weibo, China’s Twitter, welcomed the new year wistfully; one described “a single lonely lantern flying into space…the world has changed around us.” Others took the opportunity to reach out to someone special: “Time can pull [...]

High speed train accident kills more than 30 – it could happen to travelers Real estate prices take bumpy ride – it could happen to owners Wukan villagers protest over land grab – it could happen to peasants Stock market crash wipes out small investors – it could happen to investors School bus accidents pop [...]