How viral AI videos turn racialized outsiders into threats and violent Chinese heroes into defenders of social order, China’s first nationally broadcast AI drama, and why a newspaper is being sold for 50 times its original price.
Also: the Hong Kong bookstore arrests that did not go trending, AI bank cards, Haaland becoming China’s summer meme king, and a delivery rider winning the Lu Xun Literature Prize.
As Europe struggles through record heat, Chinese social media is turning the story into something much bigger than the weather. Plus: the graduation speech everyone is talking about & more.
How information surrounding the CITIC Tower crash was managed, from a five-day media blackout to a sixth-day official narrative.
After the first complaints surfaced, Auntie Goose Legs admitted the truth about her business: she ha been selling duck legs all along.
Why has Adidas regained cultural relevance in China while Nike is struggling despite its global strength?
From top trends to platform scandals, these were the biggest online topics of the year.
Hasan Piker's controversial China tour, a Chinese school uniform resurfaces in Africa, a new winter hotspot, why Chinese elites 'run' to Tokyo, and more.
Female comedians are taking center stage in a new era of Chinese stand-up, challenging stereotypes and turning jokes into real-life impact.
If it walks like a duck, it might just be Auntie Goose Legs. A wrap-up of noteworthy trending stories in China. From the real Rolex recruiting fake crowds to diaper scares & a funny Deepseek moment.
How Adidas won and Nike lost, Japan's lost decades as a mirror for China, and why a possum is the new workplace spirit animal.
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.
How a niche online debate was amplified into a global “racism” story, and why the real discussion runs deeper
Russian recruitment ads, China's censorship, and how Western media sometimes guess Beijing's stance by reading between the wrong lines.
Weibo, Wechat, Douyin, or Xiaohongshu? Understanding China’s top 10 social media platforms.
Behind the hashtag about Nanjing's cross-dressing ‘Sister Hong’: from legal implications to viral spectacle.
Labubu is not ‘Chinese’ at all—and at the same time, it is very much a product of present-day China.
As American 'TikTok Refugees' flock to China's Xiaohongshu (Rednote), their encounter with 'Li Hua' strikes a chord in divided times.
From a tragic “wild child” case in Yunnan to the farewell of Nobel laureate Yang Chen-Ning, here’s what’s trending on Weibo and beyond this week across...
Did tents defeat China's hotel industry during the National Day holiday?
In the year following her father's death, Zong Fuli dealt with controversy after controversy as the head of Chinese food & beverage giant Wahaha.
From the Dutch invoking a Cold War–era law to Chinese narratives about Europe, this is what gives the Sino-Dutch “Nexperia incident” its extra weight.
“We have plenty of cattle and horses in China now — just not enough donkeys” (“目前我国牛马都不缺，就缺驴”).
An unfortunate misunderstanding led to one innocent man being the only person injured in a crowd of thousands.
Whenever reports surfaced about the harsh conditions on Wong Kar-wai’s sets, mainstream media and fans often brushed off his tyrannical habits as the quirks of a...
From viral street food vendors to China’s donkey crisis and new eldercare services, here’s this week’s Weibo highlights in What’s on Weibo’s China Trend Watch.
731 was China’s most anticipated war movie of the year — how could it fail so miserably to live up to public expectations?
A big debate over yùzhìcài — pre-made food — has boiled over on Chinese social media after a Xibei food review by Luo Yonghao pushed the...
Stay updated on China’s top social media trends this week (Sept 2025): “731” film record, Mukden anniversary, actor scandal, PKU probe & more.
From Putin’s 'happiness in China' to sunburn “medals”: this is China’s post-parade social buzz.
From mockery of his pro-gun stance to posts over America’s deepening divisions, Chinese social media responds to the Charlie Kirk shooting.
Chinese netizens embraced a supposed “demonizing” Western gaze in AFP photos and made it their own.
The social media storylines behind China’s Victory Day parade.
