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Society

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Under the microscope

Maverick scientist disappears after gene-editing claim
Dec 14, 2018 (WiC 435)

“I understand my work will be controversial but I believe families need this technology and I am willing to take the criticism for them.” Thus spoke the scientist He Jiankui late last month when he made the shocking claim that he had ...

Lost in translation

Why the much-loved ‘Tolkien of China’ never won the Nobel prize
Nov 9, 2018 (WiC 431)

Comedies rarely get short-listed, much less win, the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Similarly, JRR Tolkien never won a Nobel prize for literature, even though his Lord of the Rings trilogy sold millions of copies worldwide and shaped ...

A fatal bus crash first leads to media errors, then anger
Nov 9, 2018 (WiC 431)

On the morning of October 28 a public bus carrying 15 people plunged off a bridge in Wanzhou, a sub-district of Chongqing, and sank into the Changjiang River. Everyone on board died but for hours the cause of the accident was misreported, with ...

School stabbing

Kindergarten knife attack sparks anger and debate
Nov 2, 2018 (WiC 430)

In 2010 there were a series of violent knife attacks against Chinese school children. In total 27 kids were killed and over 100 were injured. The government was forced to introduce strict security protocols at schools and tried to limit the sale ...

An expensive arrangement

New efforts to curtail ‘bride prices’ in rural areas
Oct 5, 2018 (WiC 427)

China has 34 million more men than women – partly the result of a cultural preference for male children, compounded by the One-Child Policy and gender-selective abortions. When these men were born their families probably believed they were ...

Media storm about a crisis of masculinity in China
Sep 14, 2018 (WiC 424)

When Mao Zedong ruled supreme in China, androgyny wasn’t considered such a bad thing, in fashion terms at least. Men and women wore similar clothes – baggy blue or grey outfits, comprising of loose fitting trousers and boxy jackets. The ...

On a knife edge

Murder or self-defence as gangster Brother Dragon dies?
Sep 7, 2018 (WiC 423)

In 2010, a contestant on a dating show announced she would rather “cry in the back of a BMW than laugh on the back of a bicycle”. It was a phrase that captured a moment in Chinese society. The richer were getting richer, social inequality ...

Why China’s lefties are under pressure to change hands
Aug 24, 2018 (WiC 421)

The English word “sinister” has two meanings – “left-handed” and “evil”. Likewise the Chinese word for left – “zuo” – denotes unorthodox and incorrect. That, in part, explains why there are so many missing lefties in ...

Michelin launches Guangzhou restaurant guide
Jul 13, 2018 (WiC 417)

What’s the next best city for dining out in China after Shanghai? According to vaunted French dining guide, the Michelin Guide, it’s Guangzhou, known to many as the capital of southern Chinese cooking. To make their point, the guide ...

How an online talent show boosted Unilever’s toothpaste sales by 268%
Jul 6, 2018 (WiC 416)

The massively popular reality competition Produce 101 has finished, but the controversy has just begun. The show, which has accumulated about 5 billion views online since launching in April, follows a group of 101 contestants as they ...

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