Yun Sheng

Young people​ in China have never lived in a world without the internet and many have had access to smart devices since childhood. Life offline is difficult for them to imagine. They are the most educated generation in history, but they are living through an economic slump following decades of high-speed growth. The vision of upward mobility has waned, replaced by the rat race (though many...

Since​ Trump’s re-election, worrying rumours have been circulating on Chinese social media: ‘AO3 might be in trouble. Trump wants to shut it down.’ AO3 (Archive of Our Own) is the world’s most popular website inspired by and dedicated to fanfiction – in China we’ve adopted the Japanese term doujin to refer to fan culture – and people from many...

A typical​ Chinese millennial hipster will turn up to see you wearing a snug designer jacket, really saggy jeans or super-tight leggings, and white sneakers. They’ll be carrying an eco bag: not any old cotton tote, but one that’s trending on Instagram – the LRB tote perhaps. Baseball caps and dramatic eyewear are among the most popular accessories. Unlike the urban...

Eileen Chang​ is probably the most talked about, studied and emulated writer in modern China. She made her debut as a prodigy in the 1940s in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. After she emigrated to the US in the 1950s, she was canonised in the 1960s by C.T. Hsia in his History of Modern Chinese Fiction, where he called her the ‘best and most important writer’ in mid-20th-century...

At weekends public parks in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai function as matchmaking venues. Anxious parents put out advertisements for their single children – printed on sheets of paper or hung on boards – noting their age, appearance, height, salary and skills, while scouting around for suitable matches. Men should be equipped with a house or an apartment, a solid job and a decent salary; women should be young, good-looking, healthy, have a sweet/gentle/nice character, and some education but not too much (a BA would be adequate; an MA a bit too much; a PhD absolutely intimidating).