Eye on Shandong
Culture
Glass towers, German villas and the ghosts of empire: This is Qingdao [Eye on Shandong series]
Once a German colony and now a vibrant Chinese coastal city, Qingdao blends red-roofed European villas with gleaming skyscrapers. Despite its rich history, stunning seascapes and iconic beer, it remains curiously overlooked by foreign visitors. Kennie Ting, author of The Great Port Cities of Asia: In History, gives us the highlights.
Kennie Ting
02 Oct 2025
Society
If you grew up by Yantai’s seaside, you would never want to leave [Eye on Shandong series]
For Meilin, a native of Shandong, childhood is filled with salty breezes — days spent exploring the shore and fields, and taking part in ganhai (赶海), where the sea reveals its treasures at low tide.
Wu Meilin
01 Oct 2025
Culture
Tsingtao beer is reinventing itself for a new generation [Eye on Shandong series]
Amid Qingdao’s quaint streets brimming with history and heritage, Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. is taking the city’s proud beverage, Tsingtao beer, to greater heights. Distinguished Professor of Shandong University Edmund Li Sheng tells us more.
Edmund Li Sheng
30 Sep 2025
Economy
How China’s Shandong is fighting involution to win back its youth [Eye on Shandong series]
With quality jobs, lower life-costs and transparent career paths, Shandong could turn its brain drain into a comeback story. The province’s future depends on whether staying becomes the smart career move — not just the sentimental one. Shandong economics professor Yan Song explains.
Yan Song
26 Sep 2025
History
[Photos] The Shandong ‘model’: A trailblazer in China’s history [Eye on Shandong series]
Shandong often played the role of a trailblazer, in more ways than one. The province was a central part of major turning points in Chinese history, and for historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao, the place holds fond memories of his first books published in mainland China.
Hsu Chung-mao
26 Sep 2025
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Eye on Sichuan
Culture
Inside a traditional Sichuan family restaurant [Eye on Sichuan series]
While Sichuan cuisine has always been one of the more well-known cuisines in China, in recent times, fad foods like Zibo barbecue have taken some of the attention away. But one homestyle restaurant in Shanghai seeks to preserve the traditional tastes of Sichuan. As Shanghai-based writer Kyle Muntz finds out, Sichuan cuisine is less about the spice and more about the freshness of ingredients.
Kyle Muntz
02 Jun 2025
Society
[Video] I was 11 when the earth shook: A child’s memory of Wenchuan [Eye on Sichuan series]
The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake is a tragedy etched into China’s collective memory, especially for those from Sichuan. ThinkChina’s Yi Jina was only 11 years old when she experienced this major event, and was too young to grasp the scale of what had happened. It took years before she understood what she had survived — and what so many others hadn’t. Even now, old footage and stories from those days still move her to tears.
Yi Jina
30 May 2025
Culture
Chengdu, where the everyday becomes art [Eye on Sichuan series]
Chengdu is a metropolis interwoven with tradition and modernity, embodying the paradoxical yet balanced relationship between “nature” and “construction”. Sichuan academic Zhang Jinyao takes us on a walk along the picturesque ancient alleys and streets of Chengdu, exploring how the everyday has shaped the city’s life, art and architecture.
Zhang Jinyao
29 May 2025
History
[Photos] How Sichuan rose from a famine unbeknownst to the world to become a ‘Land of Abundance’ [Eye on Sichuan series]
From the Three Kingdoms and Xinhai revolution, to the establishment of communism in China and the Great Famine, Sichuan played significant roles in key parts of China’s history. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao shares photos of those turbulent times.
Hsu Chung-mao
29 May 2025
Culture
The mask speaks: Unmasking the spirit of Sichuan opera [Eye on Sichuan series]
Face-changing or bian lian is commonly seen in Chinese opera, particularly Sichuan opera. A turn of the head or a swirl of a cape is all a performer needs to change their facial appearance in a sleight of hand that happens in the time it takes for the audience to blink. Sichuan academic Yan Pei explains more about this heritage art.
Yan Pei
28 May 2025
Eye on JiangZheHu
Culture
Growing up with red packets: A Shanghai boy remembers [Eye on JiangZheHu series]
Red packets are not just cash; they are tiny bundles of nostalgia, family quirks and cultural pride. From the bustling chaos of childhood to the quiet satisfaction of giving, red packets have shaped his Chinese New Year memories in ways that money alone never could, says ThinkChina’s Lu Lingming.
Lu Lingming
27 Jan 2025
Culture
Jiangnan cuisine: How the ancient literati wrote about it [Eye on JiangZheHu series]
Jiangnan cuisine shot to literary prominence in the 11th and 12th centuries when Song dynasty elites moved from the capital of Bianliang to Lin’an, today’s Hangzhou. Since then, Jiangnan cuisine has captivated many literati epicures including Qing dynasty poet, Yuan Mei. Academic and food writer Thomas DuBois explores the gastronomical charm of that era.
Thomas DuBois
24 Jan 2025
Culture
Water towns of Jiangnan: An architectural perspective [Eye on JiangZheHu series]
Architecture professor Ho Puay Peng points out the unique charm of water towns in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai — a testament to centuries of creative endeavours as many an artist or writer strolled past their waterways, seeking inspiration.
Ho Puay Peng
24 Jan 2025
History
[Photos] Jiangnan: China’s paradise on earth? [Eye on JiangZheHu series]
The Jiangnan region has long been renowned across China for its picturesque scenery, cultural refinement, and rich history, among many other things. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao tells us more about the history of China’s “paradise on earth”, giving us a glimpse of Jiangnan’s enduring charm and allure.
Hsu Chung-mao
17 Jan 2025
Society
In marriage, do us apart: Changing family forms in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai [Eye on JiangZheHu series]
Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai’s dynamic economy, great social mobility, rising cost of living, exorbitant housing prices, intense competition and costly childcare have prompted a shift towards a wider variety of family forms to cope with these modern challenges. These pragmatic and innovative family and marriage arrangements have enriched the Chinese family system, asserts US academic Xiaoling Shu.
Xiaoling Shu
17 Jan 2025
Eye on Dongbei
Cartoon
[Comic] Eat the fruit of your actions in northeast China [Eye on Dongbei series]
The television drama The Long Season has brought renewed attention to northeast China, or Dongbei. This surge isn’t by chance but the result of persistent efforts. While Dongbei is often associated with cotton-padded jackets, heavy industry and bleak winters, its rich cultural diversity and historical significance are frequently overlooked. As the birthplace of the Qing dynasty, Dongbei holds Manchu culture and a complex colonial past. The industrialisation and modernisation of “new China” have also given it a unique identity and mission. Dongbei differs from the perceived “traditional Chinese heritage”. Each space reveals a profound interplay between human emotions and the environment, sparking deep reflections on realism and romanticism. Cultural confidence, it becomes clear, is not merely superficial scenes from short videos but a deep, enduring strength shaped by years and destiny. — Bai Yi, a Dongbei native
Bai Yi
20 Sep 2024
Culture
Art imitates life: The depressive soundscape of northeast China [Eye on Dongbei series]
Hong Kong academic Dino Ge Zhang explores the regional soundscape shaped by art forms like errenzhuan (二人转) and hanmai (喊麦) in northeast China. He discusses how a sense of ambiguous nostalgia emerged from the tension between declining folk culture and the perceived inertia of a population struggling to adapt to the rise of capitalism since the 1990s.
Dino Ge Zhang
19 Sep 2024
Culture
Northeast China in literature and film: Between suffering and salvation [Eye on Dongbei series]
US academic Weijie Song examines post-1980s Dongbei novelists and avant-garde post-Fifth Generation filmmakers from mainland China. Their works vividly portray the northeast China landscape, focusing on the “son generation” and their experiences, both of their parents and themselves, amid abandoned factories and industrial decay.
Weijie Song
13 Sep 2024
Economy
Bright spots amid northeast China’s economic gloom [Eye on Dongbei series]
Chinese academic Bo Chen explains why it has been especially hard for northeast China, also known as Dongbei, to transition from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy. While Dongbei’s economic growth still lags behind the faster-growing regions, all is not lost.
Bo Chen
12 Sep 2024
History
[Photos] Collapse of the Japanese empire’s ‘Manchu dream’ in northeast China [Eye on Dongbei series]
Northeast China, also known as Dongbei, has always been a crucial region for China’s development, with every move affecting the entire Northeast Asia. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao shares the historical events that impact us even today. This article may contain some visually disturbing images.
Hsu Chung-mao
06 Sep 2024
Society
Can youths transform struggling northeast China? [Eye on Dongbei series]
In China’s northeast, the “transition generation” (those born between 1950 and the 1960s) faced major challenges in the shift from a planned to a market economy, which disrupted their careers and fostered feelings of powerlessness and fatalism. As demographics shift and the needs of young people grow, how will the region adapt? Wen Xie, an academic and Dongbei native, explores this question.
Wen Xie
06 Sep 2024