Today, I have a question for you. Do you have cherry freedom? Or at least milk tea freedom?This question may seem completely nonsensical at first. Let me briefly explain the meaning of these strange concepts of freedom. It all started in early 2019 around the Spring Festival. At that time, China’s Internet users complained that, […]
Do you feel an insatiable hunger for success, money, fame? Or do you yearn for love, romance and affection? Then make sure you don’t fall for a cookie guy or a pastry brat with your rumbling stomach. Because in China, you will not be promised the moon, but rather a flatbread painted in the air, […]
Please don’t be surprised if brick-dragging frogs and panda bears cross your chat window on WeChat. Make room when cartoon pigs in yellow jackets and construction workers’ helmets push heavy brick wheelbarrows by. And also show understanding when little cat paws frantically hammer on laptops with the please-don’t-disturb notice “搬砖ing” (bānzhuān-ing) – “carrying bricks at […]
A chance encounter with your boss on the train, a standing reception with small talk at the embassy, hours of hiking with complete strangers – these scenarios trigger a thrill of adrenaline in you? Then you are probably a true social cattle, in Chinese 社牛 shèniú, literally “social cow,” also known as “social butterfly”. Social […]
When you hear the word “rolling” in connection with China, do you primarily think of very thin dough patties, crispy Peking duck with strips of onion and cucumber, which are rolled up with spicy sauce into tasty wrap rolls? For Mandarin speakers, the topic of “rolling” (卷 juǎn) has been playing out in their heads […]
Currency swapping, apartment swapping, partner swapping – the list of things that can be swapped linguistically and in real life is long. Recently, another exchange object has joined the list – faces. A case of “face swapping” in the city of Baotou in Inner Mongolia went viral in China a few weeks ago. And with […]
Deep-fried dough strips (油条 yóutiáo), freshly fried spring rolls (春卷 chūnjuǎn), red braised pork rind (红烧肉 hóngshāoròu) and crispy baked Peking duck (北京烤鸭 Běijīng kǎoyā) – Chinese cuisine loves to get greasy, hefty, oily. But did you know that this can also apply to people?China’s women have recently begun to rant about “greasy” and “oily” […]
Saddle bags, flabby bellies, hooked noses – when it comes to our own appearance, we’re hard on ourselves. In our self-confidence body screening, every pore is closely analyzed. That was already the case even before selfies and Instagram. But have you ever thought about the beauty score of your eyelid crease when you look in […]
We don’t like to be shown our cards. After all, it doesn’t necessarily lead to the hoped-for point victory to lay all the cards openly on the table. Especially in matters of love, disappointments lurk here. Because who confesses opposite its secret heart lady (or its heart boy) color, runs the risk to run with […]
Once the temperatures start to climb, the motto in Chinese cities this year is once again: watch out for flat flying plastic discs. This time, we are not talking about the lids of the ubiquitous waimai packaging (外卖 wàimài = takeout), but about Frisbees discs.Since 2022, the frisbee has been gaining momentum in China and, […]