Crispy college students

The change in the lifestyles of young people is cited as a major cause for the downward trend, including long-term sleep deprivation, unhealthy eating habits, and irregular schedules.

“Involution” (内卷 nèijuǎn) from intense competition among students means that young people are pushed to their limits, causing some to give up, or “lie flat” (躺平 tǎngpíng). The two have been popular buzzwords in recent years, describing the pressures of life for young people in China.

Now, a new buzzword has emerged, and it’s our Phrase of the Week: Crispy college students (脆皮大学生 cuìpí dàxuéshēng).

Chinese history may offer some lessons, writes William Han, a Taiwanese lawyer and writer in this melancholy essay.

The film won a Best Film award at the Pingyao International Film Festival in October, just after its U.S. premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival. On October 21, it was released in Chinese cinemas, and raked in a healthy 146 million yuan ($20 million) on opening weekend.

Not bad for an arthouse film, writes Maja Korbecka.

You can also listen to an audio version of the story here.

During this boom, Dan Washburn wrote The Forbidden Game, which is as much about the momentous changes happening in China at that time as it is about the sport, writes Paul French in the latest installment of the Ultimate China Bookshelf.

China has sent its youngest-ever astronauts to the Tiangong space station, which is about to get even bigger in the coming years.

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, China is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

China has a groundbreaking method for nature conservation, but it could cross lines.

Podcasts:

This week’s Sinica Podcast is a re-run of an interview with Jeffrey Bader from early last year. We learned on Monday morning that Jeff had died, and we dedicate this interview to his memory.

Jeff Bader served as senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the first years of the Obama presidency until 2011, and was a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute. In this conversation, he offers a candid critique of the Biden administration’s China policy, as of mid-February 2022.

More audio on The China Project:

• In the early years of the Chinese republic, progressives looked west for political inspiration. This was how Dèng Xiǎopíng 邓小平 — who would eventually lead China — came to be in France in the 1920s. He and his peers did indeed find inspiration abroad — just not the kind that his bourgeois sponsors anticipated.