5 hours ago
China's broadcast regulator will phase out the television set-top box, building its functions into 'integrated televisions' with a single universal remote — an admission that startup ads, subscription walls and remote-control clutter have helped push Chinese viewers away from the TV set itself.
The Youku romance 'Zaochun Qinglang' has reached No. 2 on Netflix's global non-English chart with 2.4 million weekly views — the highest rank ever for a Chinese drama — topping daily charts across Southeast Asia as its finale airs. Chinese state media is asking why the country's love stories finally travel.
On iPhone 18 launch day in China, gray-market traders refused to buy the standard Pro and paid just 200-300 yuan over list for the Pro Max, while a repair-shop owner's warning that Apple's iPhone Duo foldable could cost 8,000 yuan to fix set off a fresh argument about whether Apple's priciest phone is worth it.
The week's biggest stories from Chinese social media.
Fenbi, one of China's largest civil-service exam-prep companies, published an open letter admitting it copied a rival's course names, cut prices under competitive duress and profited roughly 510 yuan per student — then the ensuing industry feud played out live, with rival tutors dissecting the text before audiences of tens of thousands.
A Hubei portrait studio's booking page restricted four packages to customers under 60 kilograms, saying it did not want to spend its life 'liquefying' bodies in retouching software. Staff now call it a misunderstanding, but the row has put China's retouching-first beauty economy on trial.
A viral claim that people born between 1992 and 2003 had 'the rarest childhood' has taken over Weibo nostalgia feeds. The cohort was the last to grow up offline and the first to come of age inside China's compressed digital revolution — a transition other countries spread across generations.
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026
17 Sep 2026