China Books & Literature
Best 30 Books to Understand Modern China (Recommended by What’s on Weibo)
The best books to understand modern China – from society and history to gender and (online) language.
China Arts & Entertainment
The Reunification with Taiwan is Hitting Chinese Cinemas This Summer
A new state-backed epic about the Qing conquest of Taiwan is stirring debate. Plus: the Shanxi mine disaster, a controversial prison film, hukou reform, and China’s top 5 rising books.
China Arts & Entertainment
Su Chao Fever, Mo Yan’s “Scrollable” Book, and Why Li Xiaoran is China’s New Office Icon
This week in China: Grassroots football fever, a Nobel laureate writes for the TikTok era, France’s cultural relic bill, and a 19-year-old’s blind box obsession bankrupts her father’s company.
🔥 China Trend Watch (week 16/17 | 2026) Part of Eye on Digital China by Manya Koetse, China Trend Watch is an overview of what’s trending and being discussed on Chinese social media.
Dear reader,
Hope you’re having a good week. Time for an update on what’s been trending.
In this newsletter:
👉Victor Hugo’s day has come
👉China’s grassroots football couldn’t get more viral
👉A scrollable new book by Mo Yan
👉The Chinese office meme of the moment
..and more.
Let’s dive in.
Quick Scroll
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- 📱 China’s National Security Ministry has joined Chinese Tiktok app Douyin. The high-profile Douyin debut is part of a broader trend of Chinese government agencies and security bodies joining the app.
- 🐺 A feel-good wildlife story from Inner Mongolia: a pregnant wild wolf descended from the mountains to give birth at a wildlife conservation station where she had been previously fed. The noteworthy move shows she had apparently developed trust in the station workers, and felt safe there.
- 🐖 Pork prices hit historic lows but spare ribs still cost 20 yuan (US$3) – this became a topic of discussion this week. Despite the drop in pig prices, retail pork still feels expensive because added costs across the supply chain haven’t changed.
- 🍿 Movie alert. The May Day (五一) cinema content explosion is incoming. Seventeen films have already been slotted for the Golden Week holiday window.
- 🚔 A 31-year-old man from Guangzhou has been detained under anti-cyberbullying regulations after repeatedly posting insulting comments targeting Olympic champion diver Quan Hongchan (全红婵) on WeChat.
- 🤖 Unitree’s humanoid robot is almost as fast as Usain Bolt. The company announced that the H1 humanoid robot achieved a peak sprint speed of 10 meters per second during a 100-meter test.
- ⚡️ Another robot, “Lightning” (闪电) by Honor, also went viral because he won the Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon on Sunday, April 19, running a half-marathon distance faster than any human ever has, completing it in 50 minutes and 26 seconds (the human record: 56:42). (See video here).
- 🎁 A 19-year-old woman from Zhengzhou has made headlines for allegedly embezzling around 17 million yuan (nearly $2.5 million) from her father’s company, spending it on blind boxes and livestream tipping (dashang 打赏). Her father, now bankrupt, ended up taking his daughter to the police himself.
What Really Stood Out
The Jiangsu Super League (Su Chao) Fever
The Jiangsu…
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Manya Koetse (@manyapan) and powered by What’s on Weibo.
It offers independent analysis of China’s online culture, media, and social trends.
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Bruce Moon
April 20, 2018 at 2:58 am
I would add Ian Johnson’s Souls of China and Frank Dikotter’s The Cultural Revolution: A People’s Hiatory and The Tragedy of Liberation.
Mike Cairnduff
April 20, 2018 at 11:51 am
Wild Swans is still my favourite! An old classic 🙂
Ed Sander
April 20, 2018 at 10:08 pm
Some more suggestions:
On Chinese young people:
Wish Lanterns – Alec Ash (probably my favourite of the last couple of years)
China’s Millennials – EricFish (I liked this better than Oracle Bones)
Business:
China’s Super Consumers – Michael Zakkour and Savio Chan
All Eyes East: Lessons from the Front Lines of Marketing to China’s Youth – Mary Bergstrom
Alibaba’s World – Porter Erisman
Sex, Corruption etc:
Red Lights – Zheng Tian Tian
Anxious Wealth – John Osburg
Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel – in Ho and Wen’guang Huang (on the Bo Xilai scandal)
Various stories about China:
From The Dragon’s Mouth – Ana Fuentes
China Road – Rob Gifford
Out of Moa’s Shadow – Philip P. Pan
Environment:
When A Billion Chinese Jump – Jonathan Watts
LH
April 22, 2018 at 8:14 am
Adding another vote in favor of Alec Ash’s Wish Lanterns, which along with Evan Osnos’ Age of Ambition is my favorite book on Modern China.
cathy
August 30, 2018 at 9:46 pm
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