I. Crash Behind the Black Box In the summer of 2024, on the second day of my return to my hometown in Northeast China to research agricultural drones, a machine in the neighbouring village crashed mid-operation, catching on a power line. Crashes are commonplace, affecting not just agricultural drones…
Over the past few years, work commitments have meant I always leave Beijing just as the crabapples are about to bloom, and return by the time the poplar catkins have finished drifting. Though I miss Beijing’s spring, I gain Shangri-La’s in return. Nestled at the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan and…
Foodthink Says This marks the sixth instalment of story submissions for Foodthink’s “Eat Something Good” series, themed around “wet markets”. What has surprised us is that, in an age of relentless acceleration, we continue to receive a wealth of personal accounts from readers about these spaces. Set against earlier themes…
Have you ever fantasised about fleeing the city, returning to the countryside to farm, and embracing rural life? Have you ever harboured romantic notions of a “self-sufficient” existence? Yet real life on the land is far more complex and arduous than we imagine—and infinitely more moving. Wenzizi and Changjiaoling are…
I. Assembling the Culture Room Eight years ago, I created a piece centred on naturally fermented yoghurt, drying yoghurt starter cultures onto fabric. I was never particularly keen on drinking yoghurt; back then, I mainly made it because I saw natural fermentation as a potential medium for artistic expression. Consequently,…
Foodthink Says Today, fresh produce delivery platforms such as Alibaba’s Hema, Meituan’s Xiaoxiang, JD’s Qixian, and Dingdong Maicai are capturing public attention like never before. From the comfort of your home, a few taps on your phone are all it takes to have your daily essentials delivered in as little…
As long as we draw breath, we cannot get by without the everyday essentials of firewood, rice, oil, and salt. Across cultures, whether East or West, the culinary terms ‘rice’, ‘flour’, and ‘oil’ are ancient words, carrying well over a millennium of history. Since humanity entered the agricultural era, their…
In the three months following the disaster, from anxious consumers to government officials at every level, nearly everyone posed the same question to Zhen Rui: “What is the way forward?” In the early hours of 28 July 2025, extreme heavy rainfall battered the mountainous regions of northern Beijing. Flash floods,…
Foodthink Says In China, the Atlantic salmon is better known by a simpler name: salmon. Last week, we published an article on salmon farming titled Is Salmon Truly “Free”?. So, what exactly is the plight of wild salmon today? We may well have forgotten what genuine wild salmon are, and…
Late September in the Greater Khingan Range carries a faint chill. Perhaps owing to warming temperatures, the birch woods around Jagdaqi have yet to turn gold. As recently as a few decades ago, this forest served as hunting ground for the Oroqen people. A gathering of filmmakers has convened in…
