Depth of Field

06.28.18

Staying on Point in Rural China

Ye Ming, Yan Cong & more from Yuanjin Photo
In this edition of Depth of Field: aspiring ballerinas, what’s beneath the gilt in a rich Zhejiang town, worn out doctors, disappearing schools, melting snow, data farms, and the powerful appeal of dancing outdoors.

Here’s What Happens to the Athletic Wear Industry When China Starts Going to the Gym

Marc Bain
Quartz
If the world’s big sportswear brands could invent a country with just the right mix of ingredients to fuel their businesses for years to come, it would look a lot like present-day China.

China’s Growing Obesity Problem

Benjamin Shobert
Forbes
A recent study published shows that China can now lay claim to having a greater percentage of obese men and women than in the United States.

Chinese Middle Class in Uproar Over Alleged Police Brutality

Associated Press
New York Times
Thousands are signing online petitions to protest the dropping of a police brutality case, representing a rare display of white-collar outrage with Beijing

Environment

12.13.16

Chinese Consumers Adopt Greener Lifestyle

from chinadialogue
For the last two years, Helen Ni has hosted low-carbon technology workshops for local kids and their parents. The informal gatherings take place at her ground-floor apartment in the Shanghai suburb of Minhang, close to Jiaotong University, one of...

China Has Gained Hugely from Globalization, So Why Are Its Workers So Unhappy?

Economist
Now, more than ever, working-class Chinese fret about rising inequality, the impact of mass migration from the countryside into cities and job losses

589 Million Chinese Tourists Will Spend $72 Billion in Just 7 Days Celebrating “Golden Week”

Echo Huang Yinyin
Quartz
Unexpectedly, the new hot destination is Morocco

Chinese Tourists Encouraged to Behave Ahead of Mass Vacation

Alyssa Abkowitz
WSJ: China Real Time Report
Public urination and defacing monuments are no-nos

China’s Middle Class Vents Over Growing List of Grievances

Te-Ping Chen
Wall Street Journal
A father’s death in custody is the latest incident to fuel urbanites’ sense of unease.

China's Middle-Class Anxieties

Murong Xuecun
New York Times
They get that the cause of their various discontents is the one-party system, but they also appreciate that the system underwrites their comfortable lives.

China's Middle Class Isn't What We Thought It Was

Linette Lopez and Lucinda Shen
Business Insider
For years, multinational companies have been rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the growth of the Chinese middle class.

China’s Middle Class Has Overtaken the U.S.’s to Become the World’s Largest

Zheping Huang
Quartz
China has crossed another economic threshold.

China’s Middle-Class Dreams in Peril

Mark Magnier and Laurie Burkitt
Wall Street Journal
Smaller cities on the cusp of China’s transformation toward consumer-driven growth struggle to overcome ill effects of previous economic model.

Skiing Is the Latest Obsession for China’s Wealthy

Wall Street Journal
Winter sports are catching on as Beijing bids to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

China’s Growing Middle Class Chafes Against Red Tape

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New York Times
As China’s middle class—wired, ambitious and worldly—grows, its members increasingly are intolerant.

Media

03.09.15

China’s Real Inconvenient Truth: Its Class Divide

Rachel Lu
China is talking about its pollution problem, but its equally serious class problem remains obscured behind the haze. Smog leapt to the forefront of Chinese national discourse after the February 28 release of "Under the Dome," a 103-minute...

Sinica Podcast

01.26.15

Inside the Property Revolution

Jeremy Goldkorn & Luigi Tomba from Sinica Podcast
Luigi Tomba, expert on municipal government in China, fellow at the Australian Centre on China and the World, and author of the book The Government Next Door: Neighborhood Politics in Urban China, is this week's Sinica Podcast guest. Since 2005...

Is the American Middle Class Losing Out to China and India?

Thomas B. Edsall
New York Times
CUNY professor Branko Milanovic says the middle class in China and India experienced 60 to 70 percent income growth from 1998 to 2008, while middle class growth stalled in the United States.

‘Chinese Dream’ of a Young Couple in Chengdu [Video]

Linda Yueh
BBC
China’s economy has grown enormously over the past decade and its middle class is now estimated to number 150 million. The BBC’s Linda Yueh has been speaking to one couple from Chengdu on their desire to live the Chinese Dream. 

Will The Middle Class Shake China?

Evan Osnos
New Yorker
A decade after recognizing that the middle class might be a signpost on the way to redemption, the government is failing to enact the will of the people it needs most, and thus it risks losing its greatest bulwark against the change it fears.&...