News

Mobike receives Social Enterprise Award, criticism ensues

Mobike, the Chinese bike-sharing company whose bycicles now line the streets of China’s major cities, has been awarded the 2016 Social Enterprise Awards, a prize that goes to the best social enterprises of the year. The awards, which are in…

How I help pull China’s rural poor out of poverty

As an official charged with tackling deprivation, it falls to me to decide who qualifies for relief and who does not. Last April, jaded by my career as a video journalist, I volunteered to join an officially sanctioned nationwide poverty…

App allows users to plant trees in Inner Mongolia

A televised charity show called “Looking at trees in Alashan” has attracted much attention over the last few days. It does not feature a television anchor or a talk show, but rather eight ordinary people who travel to Inner Mongolia…

Paulson Institute awards fourth annual Paulson prize

This article was originally published by the Paulson Institute. You can see the original here. The Paulson Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit “think and do” tank grounded in the principle that today’s most pressing economic and environmental challenges can be…

Li Keqiang’s annual work report touches upon civil society

As every year, premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report to the opening session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on March 5. His report touched on various topics of relevance to civil…

Migrant parents pen letter to government about school quota

With fewer than 90 days to go until primary school registration begins, migrant workers sent a letter earlier this month to the education bureau of Guangzhou, the capital of southern China’s Guangdong province, to request more places for their children…

New survey reveals that China ranks low for charitable behaviour

In 2015, Gallup surveyed 145,000 people in 140 countries with three questions about their charitable behaviour. The survey results, which were released last September, show that 24% of Chinese respondents claimed to have helped a stranger within the last month,…

Why China’s lean in circles are anything but feminist

An exclusive cohort of wealthy urbanites, Sandberg’s Chinese followers represent nothing more than privilege. Recently, I subscribed to the official Lean In Shanghai account on WeChat, China’s ubiquitous messaging platform. As an offshoot of other so-called Lean In Circles around…

Two sessions’ report highlights 2016 child abuse findings

The China Foundation of Culture and Arts for Children and the Girls’ Protection Fund teamed up with Phoenix Charity to hold the 2017 annual forum on girls’ protection for members of the “Two Sessions” (China’s two parliaments which meet every…

Sex ed books for primary schoolers shock Chinese parents

  A series of primary school sex education textbooks that candidly explains the topics of intercourse, sexual orientation, and gender equality has made some Chinese parents question whether 7 years old is too young to learn about the birds and…

Charity Law amendment proposed during China’s “Two Sessions”

Every March Beijing plays host to the so-called “Two Sessions,” the joint plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). During this year’s opening meeting of the NPC, many proposals were put…

Matchmaking events a shot at love for Chinese with disabilities

Li Mengqi was already reliant on screen-reading software — a limitation his girlfriend had come to accept. But in 2014, a vision test found that he had macular degeneration, making him disabled by Chinese standards. His girlfriend was devastated. Just…