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Population data shows drop of almost three million in 2023
China’s population decline has accelerated, with a second year of record-low birthrates.
The total number of people in China dropped by 2.75 million – or 0.2% – to 1.409 billion in 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The drop – the first time the recorded population had declined since the mass deaths of the Mao-era famines.

HOLLAND, MI - A new cafe specializing in fresh, handpicked ingredients with infused Asian spices is open on Holland’s Northside. Holland native MaryLou Lam opened Up Leaf Café at 1237 James St. Suite ...

For many voters, regardless of stripe, the biggest takeaway from the election is pride in the system itself and carrying out a transparent vote
On Sunday in Taipei, the sun rose.
The city’s parks and morning markets filled with people enjoying the unseasonable warmth, and the smell of the city’s inexplicably expensive coffees drifted through the laneways as scooters buzzed through the crowds of pedestrians and bicycles.

The jig should have been up when the Varsity Blues scandal broke. Oh was it delicious. Hollywood actresses, hedge fund managers, winery owners, real estate developers and other assorted muckety-mucks ...

Worries are growing in Washington that a flood of Chinese products could put new American investments in clean energy and high-tech factories at risk.

His stunning $1bn restoration project in Shanghai is a hit with the city’s influencers. But not everyone is impressed. The revered architect talks about the highs, lows and many risks of building for China
A young woman wearing a short pleated skirt and a white bobble hat is posing for photos on a street corner in Shanghai, telling her friend to ensure that a red brick, colonial-era building features in the background. Nearby, a woman in stilettos and fur coat is being photographed in an arched doorway framed by classical mouldings, while another perches on a windowsill, coffee in hand next to a carved column. The alleyways behind are filled with similar scenes: people posing on steps, next to lampposts or in front of plain brick walls.This surreal swarm of influencers is now a daily sight at Rockbund, a $1bn mixed-use development that includes the restoration of a dozen 1930s buildings, led by the British architect David Chipperfield. It seems an unlikely place to have become a social media sensation: a row of vaguely classical brick frontages now occupied by restaurants, boutiques and coffee shops, with office and apartment blocks rising behind. But a quick look on social media – Douyin (TikTok) and Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book, an Instagram equivalent) – explains the allure of this place for Shanghai’s gen Z.“This is not New York,” says one woman’s post, showing her in one of the alleyways in head-to-toe Chanel, framed by red brick walls. “This is Shanghai! Come here to appreciate the respect for history shown in the protection of buildings #WhereToGoOnTheWeekend.” “A space that blends old and new,” coos another. “Like a back alley, a silent museum. With rich historic heritage and cultural charm, it’s hard not to love it.” Another declares it to be “a holy place for taking photos” with “a luxurious and elegant atmosphere”.
Many posts are hashtagged gaojigan, which means “high-class feeling”, an aspirational trait for China’s young. Here, this feeling is provided by a rare phenomenon in Shanghai: architectural heritage that has been neither demolished nor rebuilt in a Disneyfied style, but instead carefully restored, retaining the patina of age. Unlike most Communist party apparatchiks, who for years have been intent on , twentysomethings in China seem to appreciate the difference.

Study of children in US and China found larger impact when brothers and sisters were closely spaced in age
From Cain and Abel and the Brothers Karamazov to Cinderella, the warmth and support provided by siblings has hardly been taken for granted.
Now, researchers have found that children who moan about their brothers and sisters may have good reason to complain: the more siblings teenagers have, the more it hits their happiness, they claim.

Akshat Rathi argues that around the world economies are switching to clean technology as prices drop
The root of the climate crisis is “not capitalism but the corruption of capitalism”, according to the author of a new book on how people, policy and technology are working to stop the planet from heating.
Akshat Rathi, a climate reporter with financial news outlet Bloomberg, argues that smart policies can harness capitalism to cut carbon pollution without killing markets or competition. “It is now cheaper to save the world than destroy it,” he writes, adding that this holds true even when viewed through a narrow capitalist lens.

The tiny Pacific island of Nauru severed relations with Taiwan, a move that boosts China’s regional sway and was seemingly timed to Taiwan’s contentious recent election.

Nauru become first ally to switch allegiances to Beijing after weekend’s presidential elections in Taiwan
Nauru has switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China less than 48 hours after .
In a statement, the government of the tiny island country in Micronesia, north-east of Australia, said it had decided to recognise the People’s Republic of China and was seeking the resumption of full diplomatic relations “in the best interests of the Republic and people of Nauru”.

The Triangle Area Chinese American Society (TACAS) will present the Chinese New Year Festival celebrating the Year of the Dragon on Saturday, Jan. 27.

Trans and queer people and their supporters suffer ‘systemic persecution’ as country pushes increasingly conservative values
At the end of last summer, Mei* received a message from her friend telling her she was running away from home.
It was the first time that Mei, 29, a transgender woman living in a southern Chinese city, had heard from her friend Ying* in nine months.