Society

Currently in China, assisted reproductive technology (ART) can only be applied to married couples with infertility issues. Social egg freezing (SEF) is prohibited in most regions of China, except Jilin province. The case of Xu Zaozao, a single lady who sought to freeze her eggs, has cast more attention on this issue. Chinese academic Lorna Wei points out that even as women advocate for the right to decide if she would like to freeze her eggs, they may be stuck in a continuing patriarchal trap.

​The case of a family of 18 being punished for illegally building a bridge in Jilin province has brought to light the public’s distrust of the courts and grassroots governance and sparked criticism of the local government’s inaction in solving people’s problems. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Yang Danxu looks into the matter.

It has been 12 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami that damaged a nuclear power plant at Fukushima. As plans progress to release treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant into the sea, Lianhe Zaobao journalists Tan Jet Min and Foo Choo Wei explore the challenges in the decision, as well as the difficulties facing related industries, such as fishing.

If languages and cultural practices are disappearing fast in the indigenous communities of Borneo to the Chinese community in Penang and elsewhere, can digital technology and AI play a bigger role to document pieces of our identity that can be preserved beyond time and space?

Wu Guo notes that local governments in the US are rarely intrusive in the lives of residents, often getting involved only in matters of taxation, public environment and public health. But corruption and dereliction of duty does exist too, and Chinese immigrants may miss that if they do not cast off their utopian blinkers.

While local governments in China understandably want to capitalise on natural scenery for tourism, some places of interest can go to ridiculous lengths to earn the tourist dollar. China Desk looks at what the authorities are resorting to, from building walls around natural sights to blocking the view from those passing by, to charging a “transit fee” for those passing through.

Lee Huay Leng, editor-in-chief of SPH’s Chinese Media Group, notes that she seems to have witnessed a shift in focus while attending the recent World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in Bangkok — while earlier editions were targeted at bringing together ethnic Chinese businessmen scattered around the world, a changed world seems to have made the latest edition more China-centric, and it remains to be seen whether this will hold for future editions.

Urban villages are a historical product of Shenzhen’s urbanisation process. Today, local governments may have good intentions in implementing “centralised leasing” (统租) and upgrading work, but existing tenants may feel they are being shortchanged. Daryl Lim looks into the matter.

The current environment in China is far from conducive for university students to find a job, much less one that matches what they studied. Even if their finances allow and they embark on postgraduate studies, their employment prospects may not always improve when they finally enter the job market. It is not even a question of dropping one’s ego and accepting any job that comes along; structural challenges with the employment market may necessitate making hard decisions and exercising a lot of patience.