China Society

Follow-Up to the Story of the Xuzhou Mother-of-Eight Chained in Hut

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight turns out to be Xiao Huamei from a Yunnan village.

Published

5 years ago

February 7, 2022

The Xuzhou mother-of-eight who was found to be chained inside a small hut next to the family home has already become one of the biggest social stories on Weibo this year. Now, local authorities have provided an update on their ongoing investigation into the woman’s background.

Find the latest update to this story here.

It’s been well over a week since the story of a mother of eight children living in a small…

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Manya Koetse

Manya Koetse is a sinologist, writer, and public speaker specializing in China’s social trends, digital culture, and online media ecosystems. She founded What’s on Weibo in 2013 and now runs the Eye on Digital China newsletter. Learn more at manyakoetse.com or follow her on X, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

4 Comments

Heidi Mahon

February 8, 2022 at 12:03 am

Lol are Chinese netizens ever anything else but outraged ,makes you wonder how some of them ever find the time to get off social media and do anything else ? . Think maybe some of them need to find a job

Reply
Tanya Glover

February 10, 2022 at 12:11 am

Says the person who took the time to make ride and snarky comments about strangers online.

Reply
Jessie

February 14, 2022 at 7:55 pm

Excuse me? You aren’t outraged by domestic abuse and human trafficking? Is something missing in your head up there? Or do you see Chinese people as less than human and think it’s OK that this is happening to the women over there. Shame on you really, because this happens to women around the world, including in western countries.

Reply
B M

March 26, 2022 at 2:52 pm

The woman IS Li Ying, the daughter of Chinese Liberation Army parents. THAT is why they concocted this BS story about some mentally handicapped beggar — this is a total communist lie and you’re just repeating it here, shame on you.

Reply

China Brands, Marketing & Consumers

Starbucks Goes Xinjiang & The Kardashians in China

Starbucks rebrands as “Star-Bazaar” in Urumqi—what does it say about shifting perceptions of Western brands in China? Also: a cheating sports influencer and the souvenirs that became most hated.

Published

1 week ago

October 4, 2026

Manya Koetse

Originally published in the Eye on Digital China newsletter on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Welcome back to China Trend Watch (Week 40 | 2026), my regular tour through the latest trends, memes, and debates driving conversation across Chinese social media. I’m Manya Koetse, a sinologist specializing in Chinese digital culture. Want to receive the next edition in your inbox? Become a paid subscriber here.

In this edition:

Quick scrolls: A Chinese athlete cheated her way to the Berlin Marathon’s finish
Zooming in: When Localization Gets Political: Starbucks Goes Xinjiang
On the Feed: The Kardashians in China
Phrase of the Week: The 3 souvenirs sold everywhere, but nobody wants them

🗞️ QUICK SCROLLS

🇯🇵 The National Day holiday has begun, but nobody’s going to Japan. Although Japan was the number one outbound destination for Chinese travelers during last year’s October holiday, it has now dropped out of the top ten destinations entirely. According to data from Chinese tour operator Tuniu (途牛), Indonesia, Turkey, and South Korea are among this year’s most-booked overseas destinations.

🚲 Chinese fitness influencer “Abeeeer” was caught cheating during the Berlin Marathon after she posted about running her “personal best.” The sport-blogger (530k+ followers on Xiaohongshu) was photographed riding on the back of a bicycle around the 38-kilometer mark. On Saturday, she publicly apologized and admitted that she had broken the rules and that she was “feeling unwell.”

The sports influencer was caught hitching a ride to the finish line.

🏳️‍🌈 Japanese volleyball player Rui Takahashi came out as gay on Tuesday, saying he wanted to help others struggling with their sexuality by coming out publicly. On Douyin, many Chinese fans and commenters praised Rui for his bravery.

🤖 Former Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin (胡锡进) published a National Day essay praising the country’s achievements but forgot to delete the AI chatbot’s closing follow-up question (”Would you like me to read through the whole text again and check it for omissions?”). Hu quickly deleted the AI prompt, but “Hu Xijin’s National Day AI ghostwriting fail” had already gone trending.

⚽ Chinese football produced…

China Society

The Rise of “Shuaqi-ism,” Taking Starbucks to the Fields, and Pretending to Go to Work

Quick scrolls, zooming in, and what’s on the feed: catching up on what’s been trending.

Published

4 weeks ago

September 17, 2026

Manya Koetse

Originally published as the Eye on Digital China newsletter on September 17, 2026.

Welcome back to China Trend Watch (Week 37–38 | 2026), my weekly on trends and topics driving conversation across Chinese social media. Want to receive the next edition in your inbox? Become a paid subscriber here.

In this edition:

Guangzhou Library fills with young people “pretending to work”
How “shuaqi-ism” became the buzzword of China’s new semester
Why office workers are “going rural” at Starbucks
The rise of China’s 24-hour fishbone clinics

It’s been a week full of noteworthy trends. What hasn’t been trending are any baseless rumors you might have encountered speculating about Xi Jinping’s health after he returned from New Delhi.

Although such speculation is common on Western social media platforms, posts about the Chinese leader that deviate from official media reports and state narratives are rarely available on mainland Chinese platforms due to censorship and monitoring. For the same reason, you’ll also see that news reports about Xi Jinping, from his visit to India to domestic messages, often have restricted comment sections, allowing only a select number of comments — or no comments at all.

At the same time, disseminating rumors or false information online is punishable by law in China. Due to the risk of serious legal consequences for posting rumors deemed damaging to the state or society, there is also self-censorship among Chinese netizens who wouldn’t want to risk reposting such content. This is why you see that X, along with other foreign platforms, is the main source of rumors about Xi’s supposed health issue at the BRICS Summit, not Chinese social media.

📌 On a separate but related note, it’s regrettable to see more English-language China-focused projects disappear. WIRED has discontinued Made in China, the newsletter created by Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis. At the same time, the podcast