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As young Chinese leave their hometowns to work and live in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, single living vlogs are gaining popularity. Whether they are toughing it out or living it up, the Chinese youths of today seem to be rejecting their parents' lifestyles and yearning to chart a life of their own. Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong speaks to some Chinese youths about the rise of single living vlogs.

China’s youth today are turning to Mao Zedong for inspiration amid a crushing sense of social immobility and injustice. But Wang Qingmin recalls the Mao era to be one of violent political struggles, anti-intellectualism, and cult of personality. Is a return to Mao really the answer?

Technology specialist Yin Ruizhi looks at the vast amounts of money tutoring agencies in China have been spending on advertising to generate quick wins. In the long run, students enrolled at such institutions suffer as they end up memorising material rather than truly learning. Seen in that light, the government’s recent intervention was a long time coming.

Caixin journalists take a look at China's after-school tutoring industry following a government clampdown that bans all tutoring related to the core school syllabus during vacations and weekends for students in elementary and middle school while barring private tutoring companies from going public or raising foreign capital. What is the industry doing to survive? Will they find new opportunities for themselves amid this major change?

The trend of single women buying property in China’s top-tier cities is on the rise. They do it for many reasons — as insurance for the future, to have more choices, or for good old investment. While it seems on the surface that they are gaining financial freedom and moving away from depending on marriage as a security blanket, it also means they are laden with housing loans or tied down by their parents who often foot the down payments or even the whole cost of the house. Are they swapping one handcuff for another?

With the recent severe rainfall and flooding in Zhengzhou, Zaobao correspondent Wong Siew Fong speaks to academics, who warn that China’s water infrastructure and weather drainage systems may not be suitable for the advent of extreme weather, and the authorities need to act quickly to bridge the gap.

The Chinese government’s recent crackdown on the tutoring industry is not a random act, says Chinese technology specialist Yin Ruizhi. If one has paid attention to media reports and government work reports, education has been an area of concern since 2013. Hence the "double reduction" policy is necessary and should not be a surprise if you have done your homework.

NUS academic Lu Xi notes the recent actions of the Chinese government in regulating the private tutoring industry, and how it has damaged market confidence, leading to an exodus of funds in China concept stocks. He asks if this seemingly ill-considered policy is again the result of extreme rigidity in the Chinese bureaucratic system, allowing no communication between those above and those on the ground. Is the government prepared for its consequences?

In the wake of floods in Henan and the case of a hotel that raised its prices sky-high, Henan native and economics professor Li Jingkui gives a rejoinder to purists who swear by market-based resource allocation. He says sometimes, special circumstances warrant intervention to ensure an orderly distribution of resources. Profiting from the misfortune of others is certainly not a virtue according to Confucius or any good economist.