Society

Dividing housework can be one of the most divisive disagreements in a marriage, and one woman in China managed to get paid for the chores she performed during a 5-year-long marriage.  The legal judgment, the first of its kind in China, has sparked heated debate about putting a monetary value on unpaid work – still mostly done by women – at home.  During a divorce proceeding starting in 2020, the court awarded the ex-wife, surnamed Wang, a US$7,700 one time payment for housework she had done during the marriage.  Wang said her husband, named Chen, had not taken part in housework or childcare when they were together. She also accused Chen of having an affair. Zhong Wen, a divorce lawyer based

There’s a dark side for women seeking employment in China – blatant gender discrimination. During job interviews, many women routinely face questions of whether they are single or married, while others are forced to sign contracts that state they won’t get pregnant for three years. “We’ve come across (job) ads that say ‘women under 30’,” said a women’s rights campaigner who goes by the alias Hepburn. She added that others state bluntly: “men preferred.” Hepburn is a member of the “Inspection Squad for Workplace Gender Discrimination,” a 70-person strong movement taking on China’s corporations in the fight for equality. But, she admits, it’s a difficult battle, particularly as Chinese Presid

China is staring at a looming demographic crisis, but one expert’s proposal to matchmake urban “leftover” women with rural men has been widely mocked for being out of touch. Wu Xiuming, deputy secretary-general of the Shanxi Think Tank Development Association, a non-governmental organization in central China that specializes in social development research, urged women to not to “feel afraid to go and live in rural villages.” In China, sheng nu, or “leftover women”, is a term used to describe unmarried – although usually highly educated and urban – women over the age of 27. But Wu’s proposal is being criticized as being “out of touch” to the huge cultural and lifestyle disparity between the

Pirry Leung, who had previously worked at a food-waste recycling facility, founded FurryGreen – an upcycling startup in 2020, hoping to turn leftover but unspoiled ingredients into pet food. More than 3,600 tons of food waste is discarded every day in Hong Kong, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

The home of China’s terracotta army has once again revealed a treasure trove of archeologically significant artifacts, this time at an airport expansion project and the construction of a new subway line.  Over the past six months, archeologists at the sites in Xian, one of China’s oldest cities and its ancient capital for about 1,100 years, have discovered thousands of artifacts dating back centuries.  A project to expand the Xianyang International Airport has turned into an archeologist’s dream since the project began in July, revealing 4,600 artifacts, including 3,500 tombs.   At the subway, which covered an area with dense tombs dating back to the Sui dynasty (581-605) and Tang dynasty (

China’s minority languages face the threat of extinction, a new study has found. A WordFinder study, based on UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, has found that 25 ethnic minority languages in China are now being pushed to the brink of extinction. One language, known as Fuyu Kyrgyz, can be traced back to central Siberia three centuries ago, but is now only spoken by 10 elderly residents of Fuyu County, in China’s northernmost Heilongjiang province, the study found. Li Jinfang, an ethnic minority language researcher from Beijing’s Minzu University of China, believed China’s urbanization and rapidly developing economy had contributed to the decline, with people finding it more

America calls itself the land of opportunity. China says it will take care of its own. Regardless of the truth behind these ideas, they are fundamental to understanding the mythologies of their respective governments. One of the core documents the Chinese government uses to “take care of everyone” is a social security card that is far more powerful than its American counterpart. While a social security number in the US is a de facto national identification system, the Chinese version is essential to access the welfare system covering health care, maternity leave, pensions, unemployment compensation and worker’s compensation payments.   In late January, China released the latest annual data

An increasing number of Chinese children – some as young as 10 – are being sent to schools abroad by their ambitious parents, new data shows.  More than 700,000 Chinese children were enrolled in schools overseas in 2019, an increase of 6% from the previous year, according to the Ministry of Education. That figure is expected to rise in the coming years, sparking concern from the Chinese government. In January, the Education Ministry said at a national conference that it would build “a mechanism to discourage minors from studying abroad.”  It believes that some children are too young to be sent so far away for their education.  But the parents of twelve-year-old Mingming, from Shanghai, disa

Veronica Kam Pui-ka blends in nicely in a shopping mall in Hong Kong that was transformed into an ancient Chinese street scene. Kam looked the part by dressing in Hanfu, traditional Chinese clothing. She wore a long flowing robe with sweeping sleeves, a heavily embroidered gold and purple silk skirt and ornate pins in her hair.  Kam was attending a Hanfu culture exhibition. But this is not the only time she pulls on the ancient outfit. A Hanfu enthusiast, Kam wears ancient clothing all year round and not just on special occasions. Whether relaxing at home, working, or going out shopping with friends, Kam is in Hanfu. “I’ve loved traditional Chinese clothing since I was a child and have alway

Facial recognition is used to shame jaywalkers, prevent toilet paper theft in public restrooms. Fingerprints are scanned to pay bills or enter buildings while some companies have even developed “smart cushions” to monitor staff’s vital signs and others scan employees’ brain waves for productivity while they work. In China, these are just how some biometric data is used every day and shows no signs of slowing down with artificial intelligence and its many applications, constituting a major component of its national plan to become a world leader in AI innovation by 2030. The state council, China’s cabinet, issued in 2017 the “Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” calling f