Tea Leaf Nation

Well-known environmentalist and frequent micro-blogger Liu Shengjun’s (@刘胜军改革) plane just touched down in Hong Kong, and he loves the place. He tweeted the following:  “Today I arrived in Hong Kong. A free city; a hard-working city; a city with very low taxes; a financial center; a city with no controls on speech and therefore with [...]

The Tang and Song dynasties are going digital. With over 8,900 re-posts after its initial appearance, the not-so-ancient image at left is Sina Weibo’s most viral image for May 17, 2012 according to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope. Weiboscope displays the most widely-reposted images among prominent users. What is this image? It is an image of China’s [...]

Chinese parents, some say, need to lighten up. It now appears that thousands of them agree. This story of the joys of mediocrity was reposted approximately 135,000 times during May 16, making it Weibo’s most viral image for that day according to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope. Weiboscope displays the most widely-reposted images among prominent users. What [...]

Weibo user Jason Peng (@赵鹏自媒体) has just posted two hilarious images of Chinese creativity. The first is a clever laborer catching some Z’s. Peng writes of this man, “No matter how rough the circumstances, it cannot limit the light of creativity.” Quick, someone promote him! The second image is a sandwich bag, ingeniously modified so [...]

Cha-ching! With over 20,000 reports, a list of some of the United States’ richest (and poorest) public servants is Sina Weibo’s most viral image of May 15, 2012 according to Hong Kong University’s Weiboscope. Weiboscope displays the most widely-reposted images among prominent users. What is this image? These names may look familiar–it’s a list of [...]

Writing on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, in response to recent discussion of the mainland’s brewing conflict with the Philippines over the Huangyan Islands, user @有子如虎 recently tweeted his summary of military history this way: “I was thinking about recent history: U.S.: We strike whoever we want! England: We strike whoever the U.S. strikes! Russia: We [...]

It’s a classic narrative. Foreigner comes to China; is enchanted; learns fluent Chinese; makes meaningful and lasting connections with host country. makes complete fool of self; terrorizes local population; is beaten and arrested; is then pilloried the world over. What does this image mean? This image is a still from a wildly viral video (viewable here). [...]

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 [...]

Following blind rights lawyer Cheng Guangcheng’s daring recent escape from years of house arrest, observers waited with baited breath to see how China’s media would break its silence on the news. This morning, the relatively pro-party Global Times took the first step with articles in Chinese and English which, the Wall Street Journal reported, tried [...]

There’s been no better time to learn Chinese diplomacy-speak. With fled Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng likely now in United States custody, bystanders (including those at Tea Leaf Nation) have quickly begun to speculate on the incident’s diplomatic impact on U.S.-Sino relations.  But it’s not enough to know what China is saying, if a reader cannot [...]