Why Everyone Has a Milk Tea Order
In many Chinese milk-tea shops, an order can sound like a sentence — a small, exact formula of tea, ice, sweetness and toppings.
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Life Today
Contemporary China as it is lived: inventive, ordinary, surprising and always connected to what came before.
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Why Mahjong Is Never Just a Game
In China, mahjong is less a game you play to win than a social ritual: it is why a family that has run out of small talk still sits in the same room until midnight, played a little different
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Why People Dance in China’s Public Squares After Dinner
The music begins after dinner, when a paved square changes from a route into a room.
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What Hunan’s City Football League Is Really Playing For
When Changsha plays Yongzhou, the names on the scoreboard mean more than two teams. They invite people to argue about hometowns, accents, food and who gets to speak for a city.
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A Bowl of Rice Noodles Before the City Wakes Up
In Changsha, the day can begin with a bowl that does not ask you to slow down. Rice noodles arrive hot; the person eating them has somewhere to be. Yet breakfast offers a few minutes in whic
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Fenghuang Beyond the Riverside Lights
Fenghuang is easy to remember at night. Lights draw a golden line along the Tuo River, reflecting timber houses in the water. But if you can give the town a second look in daylight, the rive
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Why People Climb High on the Double Ninth Festival
The custom sounds simple: on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, climb somewhere high.
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