“How does one understand China?”
For all the hoo-ha about the challenges and opportunities arising from China’s growing eminence, the paucity of knowledge across the world about the sprawling country remains jarring. It is fair to say the Chinese political system is both opaque and rooted in a centralisation fixation that many may find foreign, even alienating. Yet to equate China the country with the Chinese state, and the state with any particular ideology, is a gross mistake.
If you want to understand *where* the Chinese middle class are spending (or why they aren’t), or why a young female office worker feels concurrently empowered and under immense pressure, hop on Xiaohongshu, browse Kuaishou, and compare notes with the Twitter users who manage to scale the GFW and share their reflections on the extent and limits of state censorship.
If you want to get a good feel of what its society is thinking, hop on a Didi ride or ask a (hyper-curated) Doufu stall owner for their vibes and five-minute hot takes. Between conspiracy theories and surprisingly excellent recitations of the Gettysburg Addresses, you’d gain insights into the tribulations and triumphs, the struggles and excitement of the Chinese people that you can’t – off “reports” or “five-minute hot takes” by a designated group of commentators.
If you want a good sense of what the Chinese government is thinking, start with Qiushi, People’s Daily, and other state-affiliated media. Read between the lines to detect the dialectic between propaganda and forward guidance on policies. Then read provincial and local government documents to see how they frame inter-provincial and inter-municipal competition. The ability to grasp Chinese – its subtext and references – helps, but AI can certainly help level the playing field.
Spend a good week in Guangxi, not just to see the natural beauty of Yangshuo and savour the rustic cuisine of Guilin, but also to hear the plights of casualised workers and locals share their views on how the Nanning vs. Guilin rivalry is playing out. Pay a visit to the Northeast, not only to reimagine the resplendence of what had once been, but also to appreciate how Chinese and Russian influences dance and tussle in delicate tandem.
Jiangxi and Shaanxi offer invaluable insights into how the Party narrates its history and origins, whilst Fujian embodies – in my view – the bona fide origins of Chinese going overseas (Quanzhou, in particular, was once the Venice of the East). If you’re feeling peckish and on the hunt for pigeons, travel to Zhongshan, a stone’s throw away from Hong Kong thanks to the HK-Macau-Zhuhai bridge.
I have not mentioned Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, or Chongqing – not because they do not matter, but because they do not define all there is to China. Some of them are microcosms. Others are beacons of change shedding light on the country’s future – more open, cosmopolitan, yet no less confident. Still, many are where China meets the world.
date: 2026-02-10 04:07:00
Worth a look