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Life Stories

Pang Dong Lai Pays Employees 50,000 Yuan for a 'Zero Bride Price' Wedding

Pang Dong Lai Pays Employees 50,000 Yuan for a 'Zero Bride Price' Wedding

China's cult supermarket chain will pay an employee 50,000 yuan on marrying without betrothal gifts, without parental money for a house or car, and with a modest wedding. More than 120 marriages have qualified since 2025 — and the scheme has landed in the middle of the country's argument over bride prices.

He Sold His House to Open a Franchise Hotpot Buffet — and Lost It All in Four Months

He Sold His House to Open a Franchise Hotpot Buffet — and Lost It All in Four Months

A man surnamed Wang put more than 1.5 million yuan — most of it from selling his home — into a self-serve hotpot franchise whose short-video ads promised he would break even within six months. Four months on, the store was shut and the franchisor's contract had promised nothing at all.

Family Sues Unlicensed Snake Farm After Floodwaters Carried a Venomous Cobra Into Their Home

Family Sues Unlicensed Snake Farm After Floodwaters Carried a Venomous Cobra Into Their Home

In Guangxi, a woman died after floodwaters washed venomous snakes out of an unlicensed farm and into her village; her family is now suing the breeder under a Civil Code clause that makes keepers liable for escaped animals, in a test of disaster accountability for China's loosely regulated wildlife farms.

A teacher's chalkboard lesson arguing that a 10,000-yuan monthly salary leaves six times the disposable income of a 5,000-yuan one went viral, opening China's sharpest argument in weeks about wages, fixed costs, and how little a raise has to be before it changes everything.

Why Chinese Social Media Says a 10,000-Yuan Salary Is Six Times a 5,000-Yuan One

11 Sep 2026

An 18-year-old who fled an arranged marriage financed by a bride price was seized off a Shenzhen street by men her parents hired, freed by police 20 hours away in Lanzhou, and now her parents and the hired men are in custody — a case testing where China's bride-price custom ends and crime begins.

Parents Who Hired Men to Seize Daughter Fleeing a Bride-Price Marriage Face Punishment

11 Sep 2026

A 20-something man in Changsha who failed China's civil-service exam four times over two years has spent 22,000 yuan — about $3,000 — traveling alone through six countries and 17 cities, a journey financed, in his mother's telling, by her own labor: "I'll carry the load while you see the world; you fulfill my dream for me." His story, reported September 10, has struck a nerve among the millions of young Chinese stuck in the country's exam-gauntlet economy — and divided commenters over whether it is an inspiring reset or a form of opting out.

After Failing China's Civil-Service Exam Four Times, He Spent $3,000 Traveling to Six Countries

10 Sep 2026

Woman Riding Horseback Solo Toward Xinjiang Reports Man to Police for Harassment

10 Sep 2026

A sponsor in Gansu cut a student's 1,500-yuan monthly stipend after spotting her iPhone 17 Pro Max, then reinstated it after she threatened to expose him — and China is now arguing over what people on charity are allowed to own.

Her Sponsor Saw Her iPhone 17 Pro Max and Cut the Stipend That Kept Her in College

9 Sep 2026

An 18-year-old in Liaoning died in his sleep after weeks of gaming deep into the night; his twin, who found him at the end of a night shift, quit night work and warned others. The family renamed his account '早些睡' — sleep earlier — and the country's argument about late nights began again.

After an 18-Year-Old's Sudden Death, His Family Renamed His Account 'Sleep Earlier'

9 Sep 2026

A viral video from Huizhou shows a woman asking her ex-boyfriend to take back the flat he down-paid for her: the home is worth 700,000-800,000 yuan against a 1.3 million yuan mortgage. The plea failed to win sympathy, but it captures what China's property downturn means for the households caught inside it.

Unable to Pay the Mortgage, a Woman Asks Her Ex-Boyfriend to Reclaim the Flat He Bought Her

8 Sep 2026

A month after mukbang streamer Ganfan Yingying died at 24 following years of extreme eating and purging, state-affiliated outlet ThePaper has called for China's eating-show genre to be banned outright, turning mourning into a debate about the traffic economy that paid for the spectacle.

State Media Calls for a Full Mukbang Ban After a 24-Year-Old Streamer's Death

8 Sep 2026

A Porsche Saleswoman Says She's the World's No. 1 — and China Is Arguing About Whether to Believe Her

8 Sep 2026

Screenshots of Olympic diving champion Zhang Jiaqi's WeChat exchanges with her mother — lectures, forwarded cautionary videos and criticisms — have become the most-discussed parenting text of the week, reviving the debate over China's tradition of upbringing by criticism.

Olympic Champion Zhang Jiaqi's Chat Records With Her Mother Fuel a Parenting Debate

7 Sep 2026

She Donated Monthly for Years. When She Stopped, the Charity Called to Ask Why.

6 Sep 2026

After tourists' laser pens, shouted greetings and livestream crews drove a 75-year-old Shaoxing man to cut down the seven gourds that made him famous, the story has turned again: he has refused offers to buy them — 'priceless,' he says — visitors are thinning out, and the city's tourism bureau has sided publicly with his quiet.

'Calabash Grandpa' Refuses to Sell His Seven Gourds as the Crowds Recede

6 Sep 2026

A small Zhejiang slipper maker prints missing-children alerts on its supermarket hangtags — portrait, description and a QR code to the Baby Back Home database — and destroys the tag the moment a child is found. Shoppers are buying the slippers deliberately to widen the search.

Why Some Slippers in Chinese Supermarkets Carry a Missing Child's Face

6 Sep 2026

Ten days after an elderly couple in Shaoxing became China's favorite viral neighbors, the man known as 'Calabash Grandpa' cut down the seven gourds that made him famous, saying the crowds on his unrailed riverbank had become unsafe. The farewell — a song, a wave, and 'you can all go home now' — closes a story that began with an open door.

'Calabash Grandpa' Cuts Down His Seven Gourds, Ending the Viral Saga That Overran His Riverbank

5 Sep 2026

He Jiaolong, the Xinjiang official whose red-cloaked snowfield gallop made her the face of local-government tourism promotion, has died months after a January riding accident. A People's Daily memorial revealed her burial in a plain grave — and her mother's refusal to let anyone build a statue.

He Jiaolong, the Red-Cloaked Rider of Xinjiang's Tourism Boom, Dies; Her Mother Asks for No Statue

5 Sep 2026