Tea Leaf Nation

Beat this, New York Times. This new caption on an Internet oldie has helped thousands of Chinese netizens understand the current saber-rattling between China and the Philippines over a barren rock in the South China Sea. As an example of its popularity, Reporter Peng Yongtang (@彭永棠)’s tweet with this captioned picture has generated more than 1,200 [...]

Mr. Tupac Shakur can rest in peace knowing that his influence has lived on through time and space–to rural China circa 2010, to be exact. This video, circulating on Chinese social media since at least 2010, shows a young man lip-syncing 2Pac’s classic rap song “California Love.” He certainly knows how to party — on [...]

Xu Weihua (@徐卫华), a mobile Internet analyst, tweets: “I heard that Apple’s CEO Cook was very happy with his trip to China, because he saw a lot of people on the streets using iPhones. There are iPhone3, iPhone4, iPhone4S, as well as iPhone5 and iPhone6. There are [iPhones] with three-inch screens, four-inch screens, five-inch screens, single-screens [...]

Maobama is old news, meet Colonel O’Sanders in China. Hey, don’t knock OFC before you try it. Tea Leaf Nation also wonders if President Obama were to start a franchise selling yummy fried chicken, might he have an easier time connecting with Southern voters in November? [Ed: As Charles Dashwood pointed out in the comments [...]

Say cheese and bunny ears! Four young attendants at the National People’s Congress sessions took photos in President Hu Jintao’s throne, with his name plate, after the end of a legislative session. 

The “What People Think I Do” Internet meme tornado has swept through a number of professions, from social media managers to Indian corporate lawyers. Chinese Communist Party members are now in its path. This picture, created by Ernest Lin (see his Google+ account here) with original translations from Tea Leaf Nation, views CCP members through various lenses and makes [...]

For anyone who can read Chinese, this is a delicious treat. Mr. Jack Bauer from 24 makes a guest appearance in Mr. Remon Wang’s (@变态辣椒2012) comics to offer further proof that U.S. intelligence agencies were indeed involved in Mr. Sima Nan’s accident.  The talented Mr. Wang had previously penned international hits such as the Pandaman. To respect the [...]

  The joke below from a netizen has been retweeted by Professor Han Zhiguo (@韩志国) and Professor Yang Jiacong (@王家骢的微博). Capitalists in the Mao era: those who already had their homes raided and those who will soon have their homes raided. Capitalists in the Deng era: those who have gone to jail and those who will [...]

It is no secret that thousands of netizens scale the Great Firewall of China, one of the Eight Wonders of the cyber-world, to obtain information from the outside. But are there others trying to get in? Reporter Li Hai (@北京李海) tweets on January 25, 2012: A netizen from the mainland China is “scaling the wall.” While on top [...]