Fang Tiantian still recalls the pain she felt as a young child when her mother and father packed their bags and left her in her village in southwestern China. The 30-year-old understands why her parents did it. In the early ’90s, her home region of Guizhou province was bitterly poor, and the only route out of poverty seemed to be moving to find work in … Continue reading China’s Left-Behind Kids Repeat Their Parents’ Tragic Choices
SHANGHAI — When he’s hanging around campus, Zhao Zixun often blends into the background. A pimply 19-year-old with a neat buzz cut, he usually dresses simply in baggy pants and tattered sneakers. But on a Saturday night in early December, Zhao transforms into an exuberant, stiletto-heeled diva. The student has entered Millennium Storm — one of the Chinese mainland’s first voguing balls, hosted in a … Continue reading In China’s Voguing Houses, Queer Millennials Strike a New Pose
Secondary school English teacher Bao Tiantian recalls feeling baffled when her principal asked her to attend a sex education training course. “I’d never heard that sex required education,” the 37-year-old tells Sixth Tone. Bao is from Kang County — a rural region in China’s northwestern Gansu province, where talk about sex remains firmly taboo. When Bao attended school, sex ed consisted of a single biology … Continue reading In Rural China, Schools Tackle a New Subject: Sex Ed
SHANGHAI — Some afternoons, when Liu Xiumei is sitting alone in her daughter’s apartment, idly flicking between TV channels, she wonders what her life would be like if she hadn’t agreed to care for her grandchildren. “Maybe I’d be traveling around China with my husband,” the 55-year-old tells Sixth Tone. “I’d still be running my small domestic help company, earning a few hundred yuan a … Continue reading For China’s Weary Grandparents, Two Kids Mean Double the Trouble
SHANGHAI — Prior to this year’s Double Ninth Festival on Sunday, when China honors its elderly, over 80 seniors moved into Shanghai’s largest community-based elder care center. With an emphasis on integration rather than isolation, the facility is a model for the city’s approach to elder care, local authorities said Tuesday. The Huayang Integrated Elder Care Center, located in Shanghai’s western Changning District, began trial … Continue reading Shanghai Touts Community Integration as Model for Elder Care
When East Meets West 