In April 2024, the Taiwanese drag queen Nymphia Wind became the first East Asian winner of the RuPaul Drag Race.[1] Videos of her in a galactic golden suit went viral, putting Taiwan in the international media spotlight and enshrining her as a sort of queer ambassador for Taiwanese realness to the rest of the world, … more
I was one of the organisers of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement and was sentenced to sixteen months of imprisonment for inciting people to join a seventy-nine-day occupation of some major avenues in Hong Kong. Life in prison was difficult. Food was lousy. The temperature there was unbearably hot summer and chilly in winter. There … more
In March 2024, the shocking murder of a 13-year-old boy in Hebei province, allegedly by three classmates, triggered fierce debates on Chinese social media about juvenile crime and the plight of millions of left-behind children 留守儿童. One consequence of China’s mass rural-to-urban migration since the 1980s is an increase in family separation and a rise … more
On a scorching hot afternoon in July 2023, the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, Manneseh Sogavare, met with President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People for the mandatory grip and grin for the cameras. China’s official media had made much of Sogavare’s visit, and he did not disappoint, remarking upon his arrival … more
Located in the heart of Sydney’s inner west, Burwood Chinatown has branded itself as a modern Asian food paradise that provides the ‘best authentic Asian street food’.[1] Unlike its counterpart in Sydney’s CBD—which centres on a pedestrian laneway that begins and ends with two 50-year-old red ceremonial gates—the younger, vibrant Burwood Chinatown is a two-level … more
In 2020, Yang Li 杨笠, a Chinese female stand-up comedian, rose to national fame with punchlines addressing China’s gender inequality and biting jokes about Chinese men, most famously: ‘How can some men look so ordinary yet be so confident?’ While her piercing humour resonated with many Chinese women, it was not so well received by … more
In 1988, a year of the dragon, China’s Central Television aired a six-part documentary entitled River Elegy 河殤 that caused heated debates among Chinese intellectuals and within the Communist Party. The show’s creators presented a damning critique of Chinese culture, which they saw as agriculture-based and inward-looking compared to the ‘ocean-based’ civilisations of the West. … more
The hidden debt of China’s local governments, which is held by entities called Local Government Financing Vehicles (LGFVs), has rattled financial markets. Now some worry that it could threaten the entire economy. While there is no official data, one estimate of LGFVs debt puts it at 59 trillion yuan (US$8.25 trillion) at the end of … more
Under what conditions does China terminate politically motivated barriers to trade? In August 2023, China announced it would remove tariffs on Australian barley that were imposed amid bilateral tensions in May 2020. The removal was widely celebrated for enabling the resumption of a trade that had been worth up to US$1 billion annually. Barley was one … more
According to World Bank data, only a handful of economies have risen from middle-to high-income status since 1960, when economic catch-up growth in many developing economies took off. Examples include South Korea, Singapore, Israel and Ireland. Some countries that were high income in 1960 remain so today, such as Canada and France. Some that were … more
