Tea Leaf Nation

Photos of a Mao temple in Mianyang, Sichuan Province were posted to Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, by Lin Jie (@林洁), chairman of B.A. Consulting, a real estate service group.  The temple was built in 2006, but many users seem to be encountering these photos for the first time, and Lin’s tweet generated more than 4,700 retweets [...]

At least Tony Hayward would sympathize. During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill fiasco, the then-British Petroleum CEO made a career-ending blunder when he proclaimed, “I’d like to have my life back.” Now Guangxi Autonomous Region vice-chairman Lin Nianxiu has followed up with his own gem. Just this week, elevated concentrations of cadmium – five [...]

The equivalent of the Eye of Providence on the American dollar bill has been discovered by Chinese netizens on the RMB100 bank note (worth approximately US$16). Right next to the picture of Mao, the Great Helmsman, there appears to be cartoonish renditions of three cats, two prostrating before the “leader cat” in the center, with [...]

Hong Kong’s fraught relationship with mainland China is not off to an auspicious start in the Year of the Dragon. On social networking site Tianya.cn and Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, netizens have spent days throwing verbal bombs after well-known Maoist Kong Qingdong declared that “many Hong Kongers are dogs” on an online news show. This follows [...]

In a public speech on Constitution Avenue, President Obama has praised the benefits of Chairman Mao’s firm hand in managing China’s domestic politics and foreign relations. Rush Limbaugh should be working up a lather. Only, apparently, he has never heard of this speech, probably because he does not read Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. This curious [...]