From ugly-cute rebellion to a new kind of 'C-pop,' the breakout success of Wakuku sheds light on Chinese consumer culture and ...

Note: In this What’s on Weibo chapter on the story behind China’s designer toys, also read Inside the Labubu Craze and the ...

🔥 A version of this story also appeared in the Weibo Watch newsletter. Subscribe to stay in the loop. O ur Weibo phrase of the week is 结婚化债 jiéhūn huàzhài. Lately, the term “结婚化债” jiéhūn huàzhài, ...

From China’s first soap opera Yearnings to the rise of AI-fueled nostalgia.

I n April 2025, China’s food delivery sector witnessed a somewhat dramatic development, which attracted major attention online, when Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com publicly challenged food delivery ...

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to ...

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to ...

FROM THE WEIBO WATCH PREMIUM NEWSLETTER China’s Xiaohongshu (Rednote) has seen an unprecedented influx of foreign “TikTok refugees” over the past week, giving rise to endless jokes. But behind this ...

Manya is the founder and editor-in-chief of What's on Weibo, offering independent analysis of social trends, online media, and digital culture in China for over a decade. Subscribe to gain access to ...

O ur Weibo phrase of the week is City bu City a (City不City啊), translated as “City or not?”, a phrase that has recently taken the Chinese internet by storm. The phrase first became popular thanks to ...

O ver the past few days, a Chinese song ‘challenge’ has been going viral on TikTok, with various TikTokers from America and beyond mastering the phonetics of a Mandarin song, lip-syncing it and ...