Culture

Chinese TV producers rewrite the script for global streaming

Chinese TV dramas are shattering Netflix records and demanding record fees, with producers pivoting to high-margin global remakes and direct streaming deals to escape a brutal domestic slump and claim mainstream international dominance.

Caixin Global

25 Sep 2026

In Shanghai, style now arrives before experience

While on the surface, life in China’s urban cities are becoming more shiny, more aestheticised, look closer and one sees that contemporary culture in China everywhere has become a rapid localisation of modernity itself, says Lianhe Zaobao foreign journalist Fio Zhang.

Fio Zhang

18 Sep 2026

When politics divides, can content creators bring China and Japan together?

Chinese and Japanese content creators are crossing the political divide one video at a time — challenging stereotypes and keeping the people of both sides connected, even as their influence can only go so far. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Lee Chan Hui tells us more.

Lee Chan Hui

16 Sep 2026

Who was the most consequential emperor in Chinese history?

Hint: it is someone you have probably never heard of, who might have played a role in China’s AI takeoff, says Professor Yasheng Huang.

Yasheng Huang

15 Sep 2026

[Big read] How Singapore’s boba milk-tea generation is rediscovering traditional tea

A new generation of teahouses is putting a contemporary spin on traditional tea culture, from Teochew gongfu tea and Chinese ceramics to herbal milk teas, giving young Singaporeans new ways to slow down, connect and rediscover age-old traditions. Lianhe Zaobao senior Fukan correspondent Ng Yimin finds out more.

Ng Yimin

11 Sep 2026

15th Shanghai Biennale: Does the flower hear the bee?

In an increasingly AI-centred world, this year’s edition of the Shanghai Biennale themed “Does the Flower Hear the Bee?” asks timely questions in inviting visitors to think about engaging different forms of intelligence beyond ourselves. Curator and writer Tan Hwee Koon walks us through the exhibition.

Tan Hwee Koon

11 Sep 2026

Are Singaporeans disappearing? The identity challenge behind the baby crisis

To confront a historically low total fertility rate, Singapore is re-engineering social frameworks for parenthood. As the nation turns to global immigrants, it needs to ensure that new arrivals successfully forge a rooted national identity. Han Yong May, deputy editor-in-chief of SPH’s Chinese Media Group, considers the issues at stake.

Han Yong May

08 Sep 2026

When humans become demons: China’s viral AI hit

A 26-minute AI-generated animation about people branded as demons has become a viral hit in China. Behind its striking visuals is a creator using new technology to tell an old story about suffering, power and the people history leaves behind. Lianhe Zaobao journalist Miao Zong-Han tells us more.

Miao Zong-Han

03 Sep 2026

[Video] Eye on Guangdong series

Our sixth regional series, Eye on Guangdong, explores the province’s history as China’s gateway to the world, Cantonese culture and cuisine, Guangzhou and Shenzhen’s economic and technological rise, and much more!

02 Sep 2026

[Photos] Guangdong: Where China first looked outward

From an isolated southern frontier to China’s main gateway to the maritime world, Guangdong’s early encounters with foreign traders, armed sea powers and overseas migration laid the foundations for its later role as a cradle of reform. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao traces the early history of Guangdong in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.

Hsu Chung-mao

01 Sep 2026

Rojak roots: What it means to be Singaporean

Cantonese and Hokkien, Malay and English; kampung food, Hong Kong television, Manchester United and the Catholic faith. Tracing the people, languages and cultures that shaped her, ThinkChina’s Candice Chan reflects on a thoroughly mixed — and thoroughly Singaporean — inheritance in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.

Candice Chan

31 Aug 2026

Building for family glory: Guangdong’s architecture of success

The Chen Academy in Guangzhou and Ruishi Lou in Kaiping county were built with sophisticated techniques from wealth earned or migrant funds sent home. Architecture professor Ho Puay Peng takes us on a tour of these fine examples of Lingnan architecture in ThinkChina’s Eye on Guangdong series.

Ho Puay Peng

31 Aug 2026